Hands On: Importing Reports

Many companies rely on several existing computer systems to help manage critical business operations. Most of these legacy systems produce some kind of report which is needed to make important decisions. The investment in designing and producing these reports often makes it difficult, expensive or time consuming to modify these reports, distribute them or migrate them to newer computer systems. Seagate Crystal Reports ahs a powerful tool that can help convert these reports into the Seagate Crystal Reports format. The Document Import Tool is designed to convert existing ASCII-based reports to make transitioning between systems or distributing legacy reports, as simple as possible.

In this exercise, you'll start with an existing simple legacy sales report, and use the Document Import Tool to convert it to a Crystal Report.

Step by step

1 Open Seagate Crystal Reports 7, if it is not already running.
2 To create a new report, select  New... from the  File menu. The Report Gallery window will appear.
3 Click on the Document Import Tool button. The Document Import Tool window will appear. The blank document window is used for viewing the legacy text report and the buttons to the right are used to specify the various areas of the report.
4 To create a new report, select  New... from the  File menu. You will be prompted to locate a legacy report file. Use the browse button to navigate to one of the included sample files. The default directory is "Program Files\Seagate Software\Crystal Reports\Reports\Import" and the file name is "import1". Select this file and click Open and OK to load the file.

The legacy text report will appear in the document window.

5 Now you will use your mouse to highlight and define various sections and fields in the report. This process involves clicking on one of the selection buttons to the right of the document window and highlighting the corresponding portion of the report. Follow the steps listed below to begin this selection process:
  • Click on the Page button and use your mouse to completely select the first four lines of the report. This defines the report header.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the report and completely select the last two lines of the report. This defines the report footer.
  • Return to the top of the report and click on the Text button. Select the "Customer Name" column heading including the underline.
  • Click on the Group 1 button and completely select the next two lines. This will define the first group header.
  • Click on the Field Value button and select the first "Psycho Cycle" entry. Make sure that you select the full field width as you did with the "Customer Name" column heading.

Your results should look similar to the following:


Normally, you would follow a similar procedure in selecting the remain column headers (text), the first line of the reports details (as individual field values) and the dates and page numbers (special fields). You can continue this process, but in order to quickly see the finished results, we'll open an existing format definition for this legacy report file.
6 Select Open...   from the  File menu. The Open dialog will appear with the existing legacy file name already populated.
7 You will need to select the appropriate format file. This file is located in the same directory as the legacy report and is called "import1.cif". Select this file and click Open and OK to load the file. Seagate Crystal Reports will now use this file to separate the report data from the structure of the report. When it is finished, you will see the same legacy report with more fields and sections highlighted. You can view some of the properties for these areas by clicking on them. Once the report format has been fully defined, the Document Import Tool can convert it to a Seagate Crystal Report.
8 Select Generate Report...  from the Compile menu. A dialog will appear which will allow you to specify file names and locations for the resulting report file and database file. Accept the defaults by clicking on the OK button. The Document Import Tool will then create a Seagate Crystal Report file based on the report structure defined by the highlighted areas. It will also extract the data form the legacy report and store it in a separate Access database file. Once the report format definition has been created, it can be used to process any other legacy reports that have the same structure. This could be used to convert recurring instances of the same report without having to redefine the report structure.
9 When prompted, select Yes to view the converted report in Seagate Crystal Reports. This completes the conversion process.

import_03.jpg (102206 bytes)

The finished report can then be modified, formatted or redistributed, including via the Web. You could also use the Field Mapping expert to "point" the report to the original legacy database, if accessible. This can be used for migrating reports from one system or reporting package to Seagate Crystal Reports.

Now that you have converted a simple legacy report, feel free to go back and complete the formatting process on you own. Or try importing one of your own ASCII reports using this powerful tool.


For the latest information about this product, please visit the web site at www.seagatesoftware.com/crystalreports.

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