Comments on: Crystal Reports Suck

By: Kooper

Kooper — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:01:22 +0000

“Despite my past affair with Crystal Reports, I have to report that I’ve thrown over my loyalty to Stonefield Query. The simplicity and depth of the program make it easy for me to recommend. “ – Doug Wolf, Author Crystal Reports for Dummies

“In our experience, many of our SBE clients don’t want the limitations of static reports. They prefer to create and adapt reports in response to evolving business requirements. We recommend Stonefield Query for businesses who require more advanced reports because, unlike Crystal Reports, even a novice can create sophisticated reports with very little training (often less than an hour).” – Lindsay Garrison, On the verge Inc.

By: cumquott

cumquott — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:08:56 +0000

What, that all you found to hate about CR? Gawd my list is huge. Granted I’m using 8.5 (as little as possible) but XI looks no better. Try these:

+ Search the formulas for the variable “Count”.
+ Search all your reports for the variable “Count” or the function “SetCount”.
+ Search the report for all its subreports.
+ Find all your reports that use fully-qualified table names (Hint: use the Unix command line and “strings”).
+ Now within those reports (assuming they have subreports), find the fully-qualified names to fix them.
+ Get a code list.
+ Debug a Crystal report.
+ Ever get random data from a Crystal Report?
+ Did you ever export, and examine a “Report Definition”? Laughable, though it’s got a little info in it.
+ Oh boy – what about SQL Designer?
+ Ever try to debug formulas coded with the “shortcut” syntax, where parentheses are not used? Sorry, I can’t read non-structured code like that, and it shouldn’t be allowed.
+ Ever try to debug the jumbalaya SQL that Crystal generates for a complex report? better format that beast first.

I’ve fired Crystal twice: first for Delphi, and second for PHP. It seems like 8.5 is still around plenty, and it f&&cking blows. Like I said XI looks no better.

Have a nice day, have fun…

By: mogadis

mogadis — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:25:31 +0000

damn, can’t get rid of perl thoughts, programming .net sucks so much

By: josh

josh — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:49:49 +0000

@Report Writer

My objects ARE object oriented. I want to report based off of my objects, not necessarily off of SQL tables. That’s my major beef with CR.

It’s not even code friendly, let alone drag and drop!

By: Report Writer

Report Writer — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:43:47 +0000

First of all, SQL isn’t object oriented. The formulas have an isnull function. The syntax is dead simple. And, it does have templates and style sheets, though the style sheets are no easier to use, than applying them to your own static html pages.

That being said, the software is kind of buggy and I’d rather just build an application to display reports. The problem with Crystal Reports is, to do anything complex, you have to write your own SQL, and many formulas. Managers usually think it’s just a drag an drop solution, but it’s really a clumsy pain in the ass, and I’d much rather just write code.