The version of Crystal Reports you are using with this book is probably the original version that was released in 2005. However, Business Objects actually updated this version of Crystal Reports and released a new edition called ‘R2′. This update was to make Crystal Reports compatible with the Microsoft development tools called Visual Studio 2005 and with Business Objects Enterprise XI R2.
In the R2 edition, Business Objects quietly hid inside the installation folders a new version of the Xtreme.mdb database. This update to the database includes new accounting tables that give you realistic accounting data to learn from. The sample financial reports were also updated to use these new accounting tables. The sample database and financial reports that came with previous versions of Crystal Reports were ridiculously simplistic and had no real value for training purposes. Business Objects recognized this problem and made the new Xtreme.mdb database much more realistic.
The R2 software download is available to anyone with a licensed version of Crystal Reports XI. You can get more information about this free update in this book’s Prefix.
After downloading the files, install them to your computer. You will find the new financial database here:
Figure A-1 shows the tables in the Xreme.mdb database file.
Figure A-1. Crystal Reports XI R2 Extreme.mdb database tables.
