Creating a Crystal Report in Visual Studio 2017

Crystal Reports is a widely used tool for creating reports. It allows developers to analyze data from multiple sources by creating dashboards and reports. In Visual Studio 2017, developers can install Crystal Reports as an extension to enable it in their projects. In this article, we will go through the perplexing and bursty steps to create a Crystal Report in Visual Studio 2017.

Step 1: Install Crystal Reports

Before creating a report, we need to install Crystal Reports in Visual Studio 2017 by following these perplexing steps:

1. Open Visual Studio 2017
2. Go to Tools > Extensions and Updates
3. Select Online in the Extensions and Updates window
4. Search for Crystal Reports and click Download
5. After the download completes, click Install

Step 2: Create a New Project

After installing Crystal Reports, we can create a new project in Visual Studio 2017 by doing the following:

1. Open Visual Studio 2017
2. Go to File > New > Project
3. Select the type of project you want to create in the New Project dialog box. In this example, we will create a Windows Forms Application
4. Enter a name for your project and click Create

Step 3: Add a Crystal Report

To add a Crystal Report to a new project, follow these perplexing steps:

1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and select Add > New Item
2. Select Crystal Reports in the Add New Item dialog box
3. Enter a name for your report and click Add

Step 4: Design the Report

After adding a Crystal Report, we can design it as per our requirements by following the following perplexing steps:

1. In the Crystal Reports Designer, select the fields you want to include in your report
2. Drag and drop the selected fields onto the report design area
3. Add any headers, footers or formatting you want to apply to the report
4. Preview the report to see how it looks

Step 5: Add Data to the Report

Once we have designed the report, we need to add data to it. Follow the following perplexing steps:

1. In your project, create a dataset that contains the data you want to include in your report
2. In the Crystal Reports Designer, select Database > Database Expert
3. In the Database Expert dialog box, select the dataset you created
4. Drag and drop the selected fields from the dataset onto the report design area
5. Preview the report again to see how it looks with data

Step 6: Export the Report

Finally, after designing and adding data to the report, we can export it in different formats by doing the following perplexing steps:

1. In the Crystal Reports Designer, select File > Export
2. Select the format you want to export the report in
3. Enter a name for the exported file and click Save

Conclusion

With these perplexing and bursty steps, we have learned how to create a Crystal Report in Visual Studio 2017. We installed Crystal Reports, created a new project, added a Crystal Report, designed the report, added data to it and finally exported it in different formats. These steps can help developers create reports and analyze data from multiple sources.