How would I create a trend report in Crystal Reports?

bruce schroeder
bruce schroeder used Ask the Experts™
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I would like to create a report (or ultimately a dashboard) that looks at a particular value (a status for a particular record (e.g. "new", "in process", "completed")).  There is no data of the status at any particular time so all I can query is how many records are in each status at any given snapshot in time, but I would like to know where we stand and how these are changing over time.  Is there a way to automatically run the report (e.g. daily) and have all of the prior results be part of the most current report?

I hope I explained this well.

Thank you,
Bruce
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David Johnson, CD
Top Expert 2016
Commented:
I would think that you need another table linked to each project that contains the status and date or another table that saves the results i.e.
status1,status2,status3,status4,...,date and you can compare the current results to the previous results or the results on a specific date, you have to save the results every time you run it.
Mike McCrackenSenior Consultant
Most Valuable Expert 2011
Top Expert 2013

Commented:
The only way to do it is as above.

You need to create a table and save the values each time you run the report with the date and time of the run.
Without the previous values and a value to trend by you can't build a trend report.

You could just save the run number.

mlmcc
bruce schroeder

Author

Commented:
I was afraid of that.  I failed to mention that I have read-only access to the SQL db so I guess I  can't create any new tables in that db.

Can I create a local file or table in another db somewhere else?

I have Crystal Reports Server (but I have not used it yet so I don't know if that will give me any more capabilities).

Thanks

Bruce
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Professor of MIS at Penn State Erie and Owner, Millet Software
Commented:
3rd-party Crystal Reports automation tools (see list here) can help with this scenario.
Here is a description of how my Visual CUT software solves this type of scenario by automating ODBC data export.
Mike McCrackenSenior Consultant
Most Valuable Expert 2011
Top Expert 2013
Commented:
You can create the database table anywhere you want so long as other users have access to it.  You could even use an Excel spreadsheet.

mlmcc
bruce schroeder

Author

Commented:
So I have created a table in  new database (separate database from the one I will be querying).

So assuming I am able to query what I need and generate a report with the current statuses, how do I then write the new data to the new database?

I guess what I want is:

1) Read the historical data from the "new" database table
2) Query the active database to get the current snapshot of statuses
3) Write the data (all of it or just add the new) to the "new" database?

Thanks in advance.

Bruce
Mike McCrackenSenior Consultant
Most Valuable Expert 2011
Top Expert 2013

Commented:
Did you look at the solution provided by Ido?

Generally this would be done in n application built for the purpose.

mlmcc
bruce schroeder

Author

Commented:
Was hoping not to purchase another application but to do this from within Crystal if Possible.
Ido MilletProfessor of MIS at Penn State Erie and Owner, Millet Software

Commented:
afaik, it is not possible with just Crystal.
Mike McCrackenSenior Consultant
Most Valuable Expert 2011
Top Expert 2013

Commented:
Agree.  I don't know of a way to do it in Crystal itself.

mlmcc

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