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Simon Thorpe
Newbie
Joined: 31 Oct 2007
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Posts: 6
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   Topic: Showing changes to data
Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 4:43am |
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Hi im new to crystal and i am wanting to create a report that flags any changes to data between refresh intervals, basically it is to show wether an advert has been cancelled or if it is live, but i want it to flag any changes since it was last run. is this possible?
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jkwrpc
Senior Member
Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Location: United States
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Posts: 432
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Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 10:26am |
To do what you want requires some method of comparing the data and then the logic to know which of the data items is new. I am not aware of a way this can be done in CR.
Generally data is not stored with the report. Even with a report marked to save data it seems to me there is not a place for the saved data to be compared to the data being refreshed, and then setting/applying some conditional formatting. Perhaps others have been able to work with the data stored with a report in doing comparisons to new data.
Your best bet I believe will be use the database information then present the data as new through some conditional formatting. This could be done if there something in the database the tells you it is new.
Sorry I cant be of more help. Perhaps others on the forum will have a solution different than this.
Regards,
John W.
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hilfy
Admin Group
Joined: 20 Nov 2006
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Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 3:57pm |
As John said, you can't do this type of comparison without having some sort of history in your database that shows what the value was before the change was made.
BTW, John, Save Data With Report does store all of the data except, perhaps, view on demand subreport data. When a report "instance" is stored in Crystal Server/CE/BOE, it is an rpt file that is the report with the data saved. I've done a lot of work with these files from version 8.5 and XI as we store them for historical purposes and sometimes have to go back to find something.
-Dell
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jkwrpc
Senior Member
Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Location: United States
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Posts: 432
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Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 4:18pm |
Dell:
What I am curious about is using a report marked 'Save Data with Report' (for lack of a better description) as a datasource. I did understand the data is there with the report, but I did not believe anyone could access the data and use it for a comparison or other purposes. If it could be used I would see a host of possible uses, including the one the original poster was trying to resolve. Hmmm... maybe its time for me to go look more closely at those .rpt files. Any recommendations where to start?
I would be most interested if you have schemed out a way to get to that data.
If not then perhaps in CR 2009....
Thanks for all your work on the forum. You are a great resource.
Regards,
John W.
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hilfy
Admin Group
Joined: 20 Nov 2006
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Posted: 31 Oct 2007 at 4:22pm |
BusinessObjects Data Integrator will supposedly let you access that data, but I don't know of any other way to get to it. There may be third party tools available....
I haven't had time to try to parse out the files myself....(one more thing for the "copious spare time to-do list"!)
Thanks for all the help you're giving too! I haven't had as much time to get out here as I'd like and I know that Brian is also very busy so you're help is much appreciated.
-Dell
Edited by hilfy - 31 Oct 2007 at 4:23pm
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Simon Thorpe
Newbie
Joined: 31 Oct 2007
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Posted: 07 Nov 2007 at 5:35am |
HI guys,
i managed to find a way around by getting the user to inputt he time and date of last refresh then use a => or greater than last mod date of the add, then with font formatting marked it as ITalics
Simon
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mrarmstrong
Newbie
Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Location: United States
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Posts: 4
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Posted: 07 Nov 2007 at 8:08am |
I don't mean to tag on here, but I am having a similar problem. I have a report that carries prices of items purchased by my company. The field of uniot price could go up or down with each update. is there any way to create something that will give me the difference in the price. I have tried the previous command but it only uses the line above.
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Mr Armstrong, A Network Guru slowly being formed. Thanks to the Experts!!
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hilfy
Admin Group
Joined: 20 Nov 2006
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Posted: 07 Nov 2007 at 10:04am |
Do you have the price before the update stored anywhere in your database? If not, there's no way to get the information.
-Dell
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mrarmstrong
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Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Location: United States
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Posted: 07 Nov 2007 at 10:48am |
Well I think I've got, with a combination of Excel. I went to Excel and pulled the same tables and data in to an Excel report. Then I came back to Crystal and made that report a separate database and table with a link on like data.
I pulled the same price field into the report and checked for a price update. Amazingly this worked. If I update Crystal and don't go back and update the Excel file then I keep the old data.
Then I created a formula to subtract the Excel Subtotal field from the Database Subtotal and I have what I need. Thanks for your help, anyway.
P.S. The only thing I haven't figured out is that the report is hold my excel file, if I try to go open it , I get a message saying that it is read only. How do I get Crystal to release it in case i want to Update my Excel file.
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Mr Armstrong, A Network Guru slowly being formed. Thanks to the Experts!!
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hilfy
Admin Group
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Posted: 08 Nov 2007 at 8:15am |
To get it to release your file, you'll have to close the connection to the file in Crystal. Go to the Database Menu and select "Log On or Off Server". Select the connection to the Excel file and click on "Log Off."
-Dell
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