Crystal Data Source Object Models

Seagate Crystal Reports includes two ActiveX based data source models to allow on-the-fly reporting when a true data source does not exist at design time, and the data at runtime does not exist in a relational or OLAP database. The Crystal Data Sources allow you to dynamically produce data at runtime inside your code, then pass the data to an existing report file. Both data source models are designed primarily for Visual Basic programmers, but they can be used within other development environments that support ActiveX components and interfaces.

Crystal Data Objects

Crystal Data Objects allow you to quickly design a set of relational data at runtime using standard Visual Basic arrays. For more information on using Crystal Data Objects in Visual Basic, see Crystal Data Object, Volume 1, Chapter 5. To add a reference to the Crystal Data Objects component to your Visual Basic application, select the Crystal Data Object item in the Available References list box of the References dialog box.

CrystalComObject

The CDO component provides a single object named CrystalComObject. This object works much like a Recordset or Rowset that you might use in ADO, DAO, or RDO. Rather than connecting to an existing database, though, CDO allows you to fill it with data stored in a standard Visual Basic array. Once filled with data, the entire object can be passed to the Active Data Driver, Volume 1, Chapter 5 at runtime, producing a dynamic report filled with data only available at runtime.

To create an instance of the CrystalComObject in Visual Basic, use the following code as an example:

Dim cdoRowset As Object

Set cdoRowset = CreateObject("CrystalComObject.CrystalDataObject")

The following topics are discussed in this section.

CrystalComObject Properties, Page 128

CrystalComObject Methods, Page 129

CrystalComObject Properties

The CrystalComObject provides a single property:

RowCount

Use this property to obtain the number of rows in the rowset once data has been assigned. This is especially useful if data is added to the Rowset in several steps, each step adding more to the size of the Rowset. This value can be used to find out how many rows have been added.