# Viewer Functionality

The Viewer Java SDK allows you to create web applications that can both display Crystal reports and export them to other formats.

This section first provides a brief description of the individual features available to the viewer. The section then provides information about the various formats to which the SDK can programmatically export Crystal reports.

Click the appropriate link to jump to that section:

- Viewer features
- Export formats
- Additional viewer features

## Viewer features

Crystal Reports provides a wealth of features for data analysis and presentation. Ideally, these features should be preserved when a report is viewed through a web browser. The viewer included with Crystal Reports for BEA WebLogic Workshop allows you to view reports through the web, while maintaining core report features and functionality. The viewer provides thin-client report viewing capabilities, allowing you to view graphs, drill down, perform text searches, and even export reports to other formats. These features can be selectively enabled or disabled using the Viewer Java SDK, allowing report viewing to be tailored to numerous applications.

The viewers included with Crystal Enterprise and Report Application Server provide additional support for the more advanced features provided by Crystal Reports. For more information on the features supported by these viewers, see Additional viewer features.

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- Viewer feature descriptions
- Viewer uses
- Locale-specific viewing

### Viewer feature descriptions

The following tables describe both the basic and advanced features of the viewer. These features can be enabled or disabled through the SDK, allowing you to customize the viewer to meet your specific needs.

#### Basic features

Basic Features | Description
--- | ---
Graphs | Allows graphs to be viewed and drilled down upon.
Drill Down | Allows drilling down on fields or summarized data.
Page Navigation | Navigates to different pages in the report.
Text Search | Searches report fields for the specified string.
Toggle Group Tree | Shows or hides the group tree.
Zoom | Zooms to the desired magnification.
Highlight | Highlights the drill-down object or the first occurrence of the search text.
Logon Prompt | Prompts for log on.
Can Change View | Allows web application users to change the view of a report by picking from the view list.

#### Advanced features

Advanced Features | Description
--- | ---
Subreports | Allows on-demand subreports, or subreports with saved data, to be viewed. Also allows drilling down on these subreports.
Parameter Prompt | Prompts for parameters.
Export Button | Provides a button to export a report. Supported export formats are PDF and RTF. See Export formats for more information.
Print Button | Provides a button that enables a report to be printed.
Navigation via Hyperlink | Allows hyperlink navigation to another page in the same report, or to a page in another report.

### Viewer uses

The following list presents several common usage scenarios for the viewer.

- View a basic report from a web page.
- View a report from a web page and search for a text string.
- View a report from a web page and drill down for further detail.
- Prompt users for authentication information or parameters and pass the information to the report viewer.
- Pass a selection formula or report source to the viewer.
- Capture an event and display information accordingly.

### Locale-specific viewing

The Viewer Java SDK can be used to enable locale-specific viewing for other languages when Microsoft Internet Explorer is used to access the viewer. Locale-specific viewing enables reports to be viewed with settings that are specifically tailored to the user's geographic location. This allows date and time formatting, special font sets, and currency symbols to be preserved. To use the Viewer Java SDK to display reports in other languages, the international fonts must be installed on the following machines:

- The Java Application Server.
- The machine on which Internet Explorer is running.
- The RAS or Page Server.

  This is only required when these components are used as report sources.

Although some of the report contents (such as currency symbols and DateTime formatting) also rely on a locale setting, this setting does not need to be the same as the locale setting on the RAS server or Page Server. In other words, client locale settings are used when locale-specific viewing is enabled with Page Server or RAS report sources.

Tip: It is possible for the web browser's default language setting to be different from the system regional setting. For example, the system regional setting may be Chinese, but if the browser default language setting is English, the viewer is displayed in English.

To set the proper locale for the browser, select Internet Options from the Tools menu of Microsoft Internet Explorer, and click the Languages button. Move the language you want to use to the top of the list. To set the system regional setting, consult the documentation for your operating system.

## Export formats

A powerful feature that the viewer provides is the ability to export Crystal report files to a variety of different formats. Reports can be viewed before being exported to a different format for either viewing on a local machine or for distributing. The SDK provides the ability to programmatically export a report in addition to the ability to export the report through the HTML viewer.

This table shows the export formats that are supported by the SDK.

Format Type | Export Format
--- | ---
RTF | Rich Text Format
PDF | Adobe PDF

While you can export a Crystal report to another format, you cannot do the reverse. For example, you cannot use the viewers SDK to transform an RTF file into a Crystal report.

## Additional viewer features

The viewer provided with Crystal Reports for BEA WebLogic Workshop is complimented by other feature-rich viewers available as part of Crystal Enterprise and the Report Application Server. These viewers provide thin-client support for additional features in Crystal reports. Some of these additional features include:

- Boolean Search

  Searches report fields using Boolean and comparison operators.

- Maps

  Allows embedded maps to be viewed, and drilled down upon. This feature requires the mapping DLLs to be installed on the RAS server.

- Mobile Output

  Produces output for mobile devices.

- PDA Output

  Produces output for PDA devices.

- Report Parts

  Allows individual report parts, such as charts, text, and fields, to be viewed.

The viewers included with Crystal Enterprise and the Report Application Server also provide support for additional report export formats, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, plain text, and character separated values.

Finally, these viewers support a special feature—smart tag parsing. Crystal Reports smart tags allow you to integrate Crystal reporting technology into Microsoft Office XP documents. Users can embed a link to a report from Office XP programs by copying and pasting a report part into an Office XP document.

Click the appropriate link to jump to that section:

- Additional functionality
- More information

### Additional functionality

The following table provides a look at the additional functionality available with the Crystal Enterprise and the Report Application Server viewers.

Additional Functionality | Required Component
--- | ---
View a report from a web page and search report fields using Boolean and comparison operators. | Java Interactive Viewer
View a report from a web page and drill down for further detail. | Java Report Page Viewer
View a chart from a web page and drill down for further detail. | Java Report Part Viewer
View a chart from a mobile device and drill down for further detail. | Java Report Part Viewer
View a chart from a Microsoft XP document and drill down for further detail. | Java Report Part Viewer (via smart tags)

### More information

For more information on Crystal Enterprise, the Report Application Server, and their respective viewers, please visit http://www.crystaldecisions.com/products/

Crystal Decisions http://www.crystaldecisions.com/ Support services http://support.crystaldecisions.com/