Choosing between live and saved data

When reporting over the Web, the choice to use live or saved data is one of the most important decisions you'll make. Whichever choice you make, however, Crystal Enterprise displays the first page as quickly as possible, so you can see your report while the rest of the data is being processed.

Live data

On-demand reporting gives users real-time access to live data, straight from the database server. Use live data to keep users up-to-date on constantly changing data, so they can access information that's accurate to the second. For instance, if the managers of a large distribution center need to keep track of inventory shipped on a continual basis, then live reporting is the way to give them the information they need.

Before providing live data for all your reports, however, consider whether or not you want all of your users hitting the database server on a continual basis. If the data isn't rapidly or constantly changing, then all those requests to the database do little more than increase network traffic and consume server resources. In such cases, you may prefer to schedule reports on a recurrent basis so that users can always view recent data (report instances) without hitting the database server.

For more information about optimizing the performance of reports that are viewed on demand, see the "Designing Optimized Web Reports" section in the Crystal Reports User's Guide (version 8.5 and later).

Tip: Users require View On Demand access to refresh reports against the database.

Saved data

Report instances are useful for dealing with data that isn't continually updated. When users navigate through report instances, and drill down for details on columns or charts, they don't access the database server directly; instead, they access the saved data. Consequently, reports with saved data not only minimize data transfer over the network, but also lighten the database server's workload.

You can schedule these reports within Crystal Enterprise so that they automatically refresh from the database on a predetermined basis. For example, if your sales database is only updated once a day, or once a week, then you can run the report on a similar schedule. Sales representatives then always have access to current sales data, but they aren't hitting the database every time they open a report.

Tip: Users require only View access to display report instances.