Crystal Reports® 2008 For Dummies®

Chapter 17. Interactivity Features

In This Chapter

• Performing What-If analyses with Crystal Xcelsius

• Embedding an Adobe Flash animation within a report

• Setting parameters with the Parameter panel

Crystal Reports 2008 makes a major leap forward in interactivity. To an extent never before possible, users can interact with Crystal Reports, using new dynamic capabilities. These new capabilities aren't provided by Crystal Reports alone, but rather are the result of Crystal Reports collaborating with other software programs. One of these programs, Crystal Xcelsius, is a Business Objects product, but others come from Adobe and Microsoft.

Crystal Xcelsius Overview

Crystal Xcelsius is a data-visualization design tool that serves as a decision support tool, providing users with a visually rich presentation, enabling them to interact with and more easily analyze their data. The result can be better business decisions, arrived at more quickly. Figure 17-1 shows an example of a Crystal Xcelsius visualization, which is also sometimes called a dashboard presentation.

What you see in Figure 17-1 is only part of the story because it's but a snapshot of a dynamic visualization. When you move the sliders at the lower left of the display, the bars on the bar chart change in length, the pie segments in the pie chart change in relative size, and the needle on the gauge changes position, as does the number displayed within the gauge. With these controls, a person can easily create What-If scenarios. Say, the ...