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Changing reports without buying full version of Chrystal Reports

I had the last weeks the problem that I needed to create a special report for our colleagues from auditing in SEM. The report should show some SQL Server specific things. The problem was that I didn't want to buy a full version of Chrystal Reports. What I did was: I installed the free version of Visual Studio and installed the free Chrystal Reports plugin.

Chrystal Reports plugin download site: Crystal Reports for Visual Studio download

First you need to install Visual Studio and second the Crystal Reports plugin.

The downside: You cannot change the SQL query which is used and you can test the report only in the SEM Report Manager not inside Visual Studio. Also the plugin is a little bit buggy. From time to time the Visual Studio GUI does not react anymore but you can close it and it asked if you like to save the changes you have made. After that you can start VS again and continue working.

Now I am able to change an existing report for my needs. I've taken the "Inferred Alerts by Inferred Rules" report and changed it a little bit. I've taken Database Server, Database Name and User from the "Extraneousinfo" field and added them. I also removed the "Extraneousinfo" field from the list.

Report_VisualStudio .png

And of course you can change the Title emoticons_happy.png :

Open the Summary Info:

Report_VisualStudio_summary_info.png

And you can change the title:

Report_VisualStudio_summary_info_dialog.png

You can directly change the Report in the "CustomerReports" folder but don't forget always to press "F5" in the SEM Report Manager to make the changes visible.

As soon as I know more I will update the article.