Hi all,

I just started working on custom reports for CRM. I followed a useful
post here and set up Visual Studio to view the CRM original reports. I
am a little lost on how to start so if anyone could answer me these
questions, it would help:

- Am I supposed to use Visual Studio to edit reports and create new
ones? Or maybe Crystal?
- Can I customize the filter? How about those Include/Exclude drop-
down boxes--can I default them?
- Where should I setup the connection? Do I use Windows or MS SQL
authentification?

Any starter help or link would be appreciated. Thank you.

Mohamed

Re: Modifying and creating custom reports by John

John
Tue Jan 22 12:43:32 CST 2008

Hi:

Visual Studio or SQL Business Intelligence Development Studio (which is
really just visual studio but installs with SQL) should be used to create
reports since MSCRM uses SQL Reporting Services. I am sure you could use
Crystal but I think SRS is more economical and makes more sense to stick
with the platform.

By "customize the filter" do you mean in existing reports?

I have done most of my work in a lab environment and usually hack the
security, so I do not want to answer what the best authentication method
would be. :)

John.

"msandid" <msandid@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f37e35b1-1d1a-411a-8883-2e15cc65d26d@1g2000hsl.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I just started working on custom reports for CRM. I followed a useful
> post here and set up Visual Studio to view the CRM original reports. I
> am a little lost on how to start so if anyone could answer me these
> questions, it would help:
>
> - Am I supposed to use Visual Studio to edit reports and create new
> ones? Or maybe Crystal?
> - Can I customize the filter? How about those Include/Exclude drop-
> down boxes--can I default them?
> - Where should I setup the connection? Do I use Windows or MS SQL
> authentification?
>
> Any starter help or link would be appreciated. Thank you.
>
> Mohamed


Re: Modifying and creating custom reports by msandid

msandid
Tue Jan 22 13:11:24 CST 2008

On Jan 22, 12:43=A0pm, "John Straumann" <jstraum...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi:
>
> Visual Studio or SQL Business Intelligence Development Studio (which is
> really just visual studio but installs with SQL) should be used to create
> reports since MSCRM uses SQL Reporting Services. I am sure you could use
> Crystal but I think SRS is more economical and makes more sense to stick
> with the platform.
>
> By "customize the filter" do you mean in existing reports?
>
> I have done most of my work in a lab environment and usually hack the
> security, so I do not want to answer what the best authentication method
> would be. :)
>
> John.
>
> "msandid" <msan...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:f37e35b1-1d1a-411a-8883-2e15cc65d26d@1g2000hsl.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > I just started working on custom reports for CRM. I followed a useful
> > post here and set up Visual Studio to view the CRM original reports. I
> > am a little lost on how to start so if anyone could answer me these
> > questions, it would help:
>
> > - Am I supposed to use Visual Studio to edit reports and create new
> > ones? Or maybe Crystal?
> > - Can I customize the filter? How about those Include/Exclude drop-
> > down boxes--can I default them?
> > - Where should I setup the connection? Do I use Windows or MS SQL
> > authentification?
>
> > Any starter help or link would be appreciated. Thank you.
>
> > Mohamed- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Hi,

Thanks John. By customizing the filter, I mean for existing reports
but it would also help when building new reports. I'm also interested
in how to modify or default the drop down box--the one which allows to
include/exclude sub-accounts and other entities. Is that part of the
report?

Thanks,
Mohamed

Re: Modifying and creating custom reports by ChrisC

ChrisC
Wed Jan 23 03:49:50 CST 2008

Yes, the parameter choice selections are part of the report, and used
to filter the records for it. In Visual Studio there is a WYSIWYG way
to set up your parameter options and defaults, but this snippet from
the xml conformant [Account Summary.rdl] file might help, as
ultimately this is where everything is stored.
-Chris
http://mscrm4u.blogspot.com


<ReportParameter Name="SubAcct">
<DataType>String</DataType>
<DefaultValue>
<Values>
<Value>0</Value>
</Values>
</DefaultValue>
<Prompt>Sub-Accounts</Prompt>
<ValidValues>
<ParameterValues>
<ParameterValue>
<Value>1</Value>
<Label>Include</Label>
</ParameterValue>
<ParameterValue>
<Value>0</Value>
<Label>Exclude</Label>
</ParameterValue>
</ParameterValues>
</ValidValues>
</ReportParameter>

Re: Modifying and creating custom reports by MattWittemann

MattWittemann
Wed Jan 23 22:02:00 CST 2008

A good place to start is by using the Report Wizard in Visual Studio. Open VS
up and go to File > New Project and under the Business Intelligence project
types, select Report project. Once the project is created, right-click on the
report project folder in the Solution explorer pane of VS, and select 'New
Report' - this will launch a wizard that walks you through creating a SQL RS
report. You can use windows authentication, and the query builder will be
helpful. You should also have a look at the CRM SDK's reports section as it
details how to build your queries using Filtered Views instead of directly
querying tables.
--
Matt Wittemann, CRM MVP
http://icu-mscrm.blogspot.com


"msandid" wrote:

> On Jan 22, 12:43 pm, "John Straumann" <jstraum...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi:
> >
> > Visual Studio or SQL Business Intelligence Development Studio (which is
> > really just visual studio but installs with SQL) should be used to create
> > reports since MSCRM uses SQL Reporting Services. I am sure you could use
> > Crystal but I think SRS is more economical and makes more sense to stick
> > with the platform.
> >
> > By "customize the filter" do you mean in existing reports?
> >
> > I have done most of my work in a lab environment and usually hack the
> > security, so I do not want to answer what the best authentication method
> > would be. :)
> >
> > John.
> >
> > "msandid" <msan...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >
> > news:f37e35b1-1d1a-411a-8883-2e15cc65d26d@1g2000hsl.googlegroups.com...
> >
> >
> >
> > > Hi all,
> >
> > > I just started working on custom reports for CRM. I followed a useful
> > > post here and set up Visual Studio to view the CRM original reports. I
> > > am a little lost on how to start so if anyone could answer me these
> > > questions, it would help:
> >
> > > - Am I supposed to use Visual Studio to edit reports and create new
> > > ones? Or maybe Crystal?
> > > - Can I customize the filter? How about those Include/Exclude drop-
> > > down boxes--can I default them?
> > > - Where should I setup the connection? Do I use Windows or MS SQL
> > > authentification?
> >
> > > Any starter help or link would be appreciated. Thank you.
> >
> > > Mohamed- Hide quoted text -
> >
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Hi,
>
> Thanks John. By customizing the filter, I mean for existing reports
> but it would also help when building new reports. I'm also interested
> in how to modify or default the drop down box--the one which allows to
> include/exclude sub-accounts and other entities. Is that part of the
> report?
>
> Thanks,
> Mohamed
>