Introduction to Using Crystal Reports with ClearSCADA

This driver is a stand-alone driver. It provides additional functionality to enable ClearSCADA to interface with specific supported systems or devices. To interact successfully with such systems or devices, you need to:

• Install and run the driver
• Ensure that the driver is licensed
  
• Configure the required database items and settings on the driver
• Ensure that the database items (and any database items on which they depend) have valid, saved, configuration and are 'In Service'.

 

Crystal ReportsTM is a third-party application that can be used in conjunction with ClearSCADA to produce professional reports that contain information obtained from the ClearSCADA database.

Crystal Reports is a powerful application that allows you to structure reports to your requirements. You can then generate and display your reports, print your reports out, or export your reports to a variety of formats and destinations. For instance, you might want to transfer your reports to disk, or export reports in Adobe AcrobatTM format and send them via e-mail to a system engineer or manager.

Use Crystal Reports to produce a ‘snap-shot’ of the data on your system. Use ClearSCADA displays such as Lists, Mimics, and Trends to access up-to-date ‘live’ data on your system.

Much of the structure and layout of a report is performed using the Crystal Reports application. As such, we advise that any reports or report templates are produced by engineers that have the appropriate experience or knowledge of the Crystal Reports application.

The ClearSCADA Guide to the Crystal Reports Driver explains the ClearSCADA interface to the Crystal Reports application and the ClearSCADA specific features related to producing reports. You can use the ClearSCADA Crystal Reports driver to interface with either Crystal Reports 2013, Crystal Reports 2011 or Crystal Reports 2008 (also known as SAP Crystal Reports). For more information on each version of Crystal Reports and the editions that ClearSCADA supports, see Installation on ViewX Clients on Which You Want to Edit Reports.

This document explains how to:

• Install Crystal Reports
• Plan Your Reports
• Configure Your Reports (taking into account the Important Guidelines on Configuring and Generating Reports)
• Trigger Your Reports Automatically (see Activating a Report Action Automatically).

It also explains:

• Driver-specific aspects that are of interest to operators, including:
• Using Actions Associated with Crystal Reports
• Using the Crystal Reports Viewer
• Working with the Reports List.
• Driver-specific aspects that may be of interest to system administrators and engineers when investigating unexpected behavior relating to the Crystal Reports driver. The driver-specific aspects include:
• Crystal Reports Specific Status Display Attributes
• Crystal Reports Specific Colors
• Crystal Reports Specific Driver Log File Options
• Troubleshooting.

For information on using the Crystal Reports software or writing formulae to produce the reports you require, see the documentation supplied with the Crystal Reports application.