Publish Crystal Reports on AlloyDB Data

The CData ADO.NET Provider for AlloyDB is fully integrated into the SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio development environment. You can employ standard ADO.NET components to construct reports, much like you would with SQL Server, but with the added advantage of real-time connectivity to AlloyDB. This article will guide you through the essential three steps to incorporate AlloyDB data into a report that refreshes upon opening.

Note: You will need to install SAP Crystal Reports, developer version for Visual Studio to follow this tutorial.

Create a Crystal Reports Application

To follow this article, you will also need a Visual Studio Crystal Reports project. This article will add a report to a WPF application. You can create one by clicking File -> New Project and then selecting the Crystal Reports WPF Application template. In the resulting wizard, select the option to create a blank report.

Connect to AlloyDB

Creating an ADO.NET data source for AlloyDB from Server Explorer makes it easy to create a DataSet that can be used in Crystal Reports wizards and the Crystal Reports Designer. You can find a guide to working with AlloyDB data in Server Explorer in the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation.

The following connection properties are usually required in order to connect to AlloyDB.

• Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the AlloyDB database.
• User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.
• Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.

You can also optionally set the following:

• Database: The database to connect to when connecting to the AlloyDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
• Port: The port of the server hosting the AlloyDB database. This property is set to 5432 by default.

Authenticating with Standard Authentication

Standard authentication (using the user/password combination supplied earlier) is the default form of authentication.

No further action is required to leverage Standard Authentication to connect.

Authenticating with pg_hba.conf Auth Schemes

There are additional methods of authentication available which must be enabled in the pg_hba.conf file on the AlloyDB server.

Find instructions about authentication setup on the AlloyDB Server here.

Authenticating with MD5 Authentication

This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to md5.

Authenticating with SASL Authentication

This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to scram-sha-256.

Authenticating with Kerberos

The authentication with Kerberos is initiated by AlloyDB Server when the ∏ is trying to connect to it. You should set up Kerberos on the AlloyDB Server to activate this authentication method. Once you have Kerberos authentication set up on the AlloyDB Server, see the Kerberos section of the help documentation for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.

When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Create a DataSet

Follow the steps below to use the Visual Studio ADO.NET DataSet Designer to create an ADO.NET DataSet object. Crystal Reports will bind to the DataSet object, which contains AlloyDB table metadata. Note that this approach also adds a connection string to App.config; you will use this connection string later to load data into the report.

1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click your project and then click Add -> New Item.
2. Select DataSet. The DataSet Designer is then displayed.
3. Drag and drop tables from Server Explorer onto the DataSet Designer. This article uses the Orders table.

Add AlloyDB Fields to the Report

Follow the steps below to add columns from the DataSet to the report:

1. Double-click the .rpt file in the Solution Explorer to open the Crystal Reports Designer.
2. Right-click the designer and click Database -> Database Expert.
3. Expand the Project Folder and ADO.NET DataSets nodes and drag the DataSet you created into the Selected Tables box. The fields are now accessible from the Field Explorer.
4. Drag and drop fields from the Field Explorer to the Details section or another section of your report.

Load Data into the Report

Having created the DataSet, which will only contain the metadata, you will now need to create the DataTable containing the actual data. You can use the AlloyDBDataAdapter to fill a DataTable with the results of an SQL query.

1. Add a reference to System.Configuration.dll to your project to be able to use the connection string from App.config.
2. In App.config, add the following code to the configuration node for compatibility with Crystal Reports when working with .NET 4.0:

   
     <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
       <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
     </startup>
   

3. Add the following references in your Window.xaml.cs file:

   using System.Configuration;
   using CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine;
   using CrystalDecisions.Shared;
   using System.Data.CData.AlloyDB;
   using System.Data;
   

4. Add the following Window_Loaded method in your Window.xaml.cs to execute the SQL query that will return the DataTable. Note that your query needs to select at least the same columns used in your report.

   private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {
     ReportDocument report = new ReportDocument();
     report.Load("../../CrystalReport1.rpt"); 
    var connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyAppConfigConnectionStringName"].ConnectionString;
     using (AlloyDBConnection connection = new AlloyDBConnection(connectionString)) {
       AlloyDBDataAdapter dataAdapter = new AlloyDBDataAdapter(
       "SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = 'USA'", connection);
        DataSet set = new DataSet("_set");
        DataTable table = set.Tables.Add("_table");
        dataAdapter.Fill(table);
        report.SetDataSource(table);
     }
     reportViewer.ViewerCore.ReportSource = report;
   }
   

5. In the Window.xaml file, add the Loaded event so that your Window tag resembles the following:

   
   <Window x:Class="CrystalReportWpfApplication4.Window1"
           xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
           xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
           xmlns:cr="clr-namespace:SAPBusinessObjects.WPF.Viewer;assembly=SAPBusinessObjects.WPF.Viewer"
           Title="WPF Crystal Report Viewer" Height="600" Width="800" Loaded="Window_Loaded">
           ...
   </Window>
   

6. Run the report. When the report is loaded, the provider executes the query to retrieve the current data.

Chart AlloyDB Data

You can also use the DataSet with experts like the Chart Expert:

1. Right-click in the Crystal Reports Designer and click Insert -> Chart.
2. Select the Report Header or Report Footer section. The Chart Expert is then displayed.
3. On the Type tab, select the chart type. This article uses a side-by-side bar chart.
4. On the Data tab, select the column and conditions for the x-axis. For example, drag the ShipName column in the DataSet node onto the box under the On Change Of menu.
5. Select the x-axis column and click the TopN and Order buttons to configure sorting and limiting.
6. Select the columns and summary operations for the y-axis. For example, drag the ShipCity column in the DataSet node into the Show Values box.
7. Run the report.

Note that Crystal Reports performs the aggregation on the data already loaded into DataTable, instead of, for example, executing a GROUP BY to the AlloyDB API. This will also be true for the report creation wizards.

You could gain more control over the queries executed to AlloyDB by creating another DataSet and populating it with a different query. See the help documentation for more information on the driver's SQL engine.