Windows Development
Each of the integration options presented in the previous section have a specific way that they must be implemented to work properly. This section discusses the details of each option and walks you through the steps to implement them in a Windows application.
Previewing Reports with the CrystalReportViewer
Most applications give the user the ability to preview a report before printing it. With Crystal Reports, this is controlled by the CrystalReportViewer control. In fact, using the viewer is the only way to preview a report in your application. The viewer is found in the Toolbox at the bottom of the other components. Double-click on it to add it to your form.
Figure 3-1. The CrystalReportViewer previewing a report.
Figure 3-1 shows the viewer previewing a report. Along the top of the viewer is a toolbar with a variety of navigational buttons. In the center is the report preview window with a Group Tree window to the left of it. Along the bottom is a status bar that shows the page number information and the current zoom factor.
By default, the toolbar buttons and Group Tree window are all enabled. Each of these features has a corresponding property that can be set in design mode and during runtime so that can turn them on or off. For example, a report that doesn’t have any groups certainly doesn’t need to show the Grouping Tree window. You may also want to turn off all these features so that you can create a customized preview form using your own buttons. Having a customized preview form lets you control the user interface by using your own style of buttons. This insures that your application has a consistent look and feel across all forms.
Table 3-3 lists the properties of the CrystalReportViewer. The properties let you enable or disable the features of the viewer. Table 3-4 lists its methods. The methods let you implement the viewer’s functionality by calling them from your own buttons. Most of these are self-explanatory, but the tables make good reference material.
