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Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional – Now Available!

Last week Business Objects officially launched Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional. This release builds on the Crystal Reports for Eclipse Basic edition, which has been available as a free download from http://www.businessobjects.com/eclipse since August. The Professional edition, geared towards developers that require a more robust runtime engine, introduces the most powerful version of Business Objects’ Java runtime engine to date. At a price point of $495 US per server Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional provides Java developers with the following benefits:

• Up to 5X more throughput than the Basic runtime engine
• 2 technical support incidents
• Licensing for multi-server deployments

The Eclipse integration itself is exactly the same as what you get with Crystal Reports for Eclipse Basic edition. At Business Objects we felt that it was important to give everyone the opportunity to benefit from the extensive bundle of tools we provide for Crystal Report developers working in Eclipse. Your upgrade decision should be based entirely on your runtime requirements and/or support needs, and not based on the list of tools included in the bundle.

With the Professional launch, we have introduced an easy interface to allow users to add their Professional keycodes to existing installs of Crystal Reports for Eclipse Basic. This means that all of your existing applications built using the Basic edition can be upgraded to use the Professional engine with a single mouse click.

Note: If you have downloaded the Basic version of Crystal Reports for Eclipse prior to the launch of the Professional edition you will need to update your existing install. You can use Eclipse’s built-in Update Manager utility to easily do this. However, if you need further information you can check out the Eclipse section of Business Objects Diamond site (http://diamond.businessobjects.com/eclipse) for step-by-step instructions on how to update your existing installs of Crystal Reports for Eclipse.

To purchase Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional visit our online store at:
http://store.businessobjects.com/store/bobjects/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.52068100/pgm.3937100

For more information about Crystal Reports for Eclipse, check out the Business Objects Diamond site at http://diamond.businessobjects.com/eclipse

SPECIAL!! Register for Business Objects’ inaugural Developer Conference (Nov.5-6, San Francisco, CA) by Oct.20 and receive a free copy of Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional. The 2 day conference, priced at $495, offers more than 50 sessions on Business Objects’ developer solutions. For more information on the Developer’s conference check out: http://www.businessobjectsevents.com/americas2006/controller.cfm?view=devday.dhome&source=303

Can’t make it to San Francisco…check out the Developer Roadshow visiting Chicago, New York, Washington DC and Boston during the week of Oct. 30^th:
http://www.businessobjects.com/jump/xi/roadshow.asp

Who wants more power?!

Like Tim Allen's tool guy, most people always seem to want "more power". Well, if you have ever wanted more power with your Business Objects' software then fear not, because I have just the answer. We have just announced our Developer Road Show, which will take a number of Business Objects' "domain experts" on the road to spend a day with you. During this 1/2 day session attendees will have an opportunity to learn best practices, advanced techniques and some helpful tips and tricks for getting the most out of our product line. On top of this, there will be an opportunity for Q&A to get answers to your specific questions. Add on a top-notch lunch and there really is no reason why any Business Objects' user would not want to attend.

So, if you live near Boston, NYC, DC, Chicago or San Fran I would highly recommend that you check out the dates that we will be passing through your city. Hopefully, I will see you there.

For more info on the Developer Road Show (as well as a list of the sessions) check out the following link: http://www.businessobjects.com/jump/xi/roadshow.asp

Until next time.

Sean

Busy, busy, busy

As most people in the software industry know it is always a little hectic around launch time. Now that the product has been out for a few weeks, I finally have a chance to catch my breath. Lately I have been spending most of my time doing one of the following:

• monitoring the forums on our Developer Community site (http://diamond.businessobjects.com),
• shamelessly flaunting the launch on any site that will listen
• scoping out the next release.

Throw in a few customer calls and training sessions and that has pretty much been my life for the past 2 weeks

We also had an official press release this past Monday. If you haven't read the press release yet you can do so here . I wanted to thank Jessica (I know she visits here now and then) for the great quote. I am interested to hear what you, or anyone else for that matter, thinks of the official release. I am really proud of what the team has accomplished and honestly believe that it is by far the best reporting tool for Java developers on the market today. I truly believe I would say this even if Business Objects wasn't paying my salary. That being said I still believe there are still a few things that I think we can do with this product to make it even better. No really, there is still some room for more features As I mentioned above I am in the process of scoping out the next few updates to this release. If you have some feedback or suggestions that you would like to pass on to me feel free to add your post to the following forum:http://diamond.businessobjects.com/forum/195

Based on the current state of this forum (right now it is empty) it truly must be a great product! Seriously though, I would love to hear what you think so let me know. Good or bad I am sure the team here would love to hear what you have to say.

Additionally, our plugin is available on Eclipse Plugin Central. If you feel the urge to rate our plugin (between 1 and 10) you can do so at http://www.eclipseplugincentral.com/Web_Links-index-req-viewlink-cid-670.html

Until next time...

Sean

P.S. You can also use that forum to let me know what tutorials, samples, video walkthorughs you would like to see

What a beautiful day for a launch!

I am writing this post a few hours early because I am finding it difficult sitting here in anticipation...waiting to spread the news. Tomorrow, Monday July 31 2006, marks the official release date of Crystal Reports for Eclipse. I will be working like a busy little beaver tomorrow to ensure that all of the pieces are in place so that everyone of you has access to this great piece of software. We plan to make this product available on a number of different sites, so I wanted to take the time to explain what the end-user can expect when they download the product from the different sites:

1. If you choose to download the product from a non-Business Object's site (e.g. www.eclipseplugincentral.com) your reports will appear in the designer with a small report footer watermark saying "Register for free at www.businessobjects.com/eclipse to remove this message". Users who receive this message can go to the URL mentioned in the message and register for free. They will then be able to download a small plugin (8KB) which can be added to their Eclipse install to remove the message.
2. If you use Eclipse's built-in Update Manager to install Crystal Reports for Eclipse you will need to follow the same steps outlined in #1 to remove the watermark
3. If you download the all-in-one build or plug-in zip package available on the Business Object's site (http://diamond.businessobjects.com/eclipse) these will already have the watermark removed

So, you may be asking yourself, what does this allow me to do? What do I get when I remove the watermark? Well, in short...pretty much anything. You can build web-based or rich-client applications which can be used for internal corporate consumption, extranet sites, or even your own personal projects. Whatever you want to do the choice is up to you?

So what about the limitations you ask...well, in web-based applications your application will be limited to a single-server deployment with the free license. As well, you cannot bundle the runtime files in an application which is intended to be sold or distributed outside your organization. Finally, there will be no free technical support included with product. You will still have access to our forums and developer content on the Diamond site, however if you wish to speak with a support representative you will likely want to upgrade to our Professional version. That's right...I said Professional version..."What the heck is the Professional version?" you may be wondering. This is likely the first time you have ever heard me mention that there will be 2 versions of this product. So let me take a step back and give you the low-down of what we will be offering with our Crystal Reports for Eclipse product line. Tomorrow, we will actually be launching our Crystal Reports for Eclipse Basic edition. A few weeks later we will follow this up with a Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional edition. What does this mean for you, the end user? Well, here's the breakdown of what you get:

1) Crystal Reports for Eclipse Basic edition - includes embedded Report Designer, IDE tooling, license to deploy on a single server within your organization
Cost to the End User:FREE!

2) Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional edition - includes embedded Report Designer, IDE tooling, ability to deploy in a multi-server deployment, more powerful engine (up to 5 times more throughput than Basic) and 2 Customer Support incidents.
Cost to the End User:$495/server

That's right. You read correctly. Everyone can now create their Java applications using the most powerful reporting engine on the planet, and deploy them into production...without ever paying a dime!

We hope that you are as excited with this news as we are. With these two editions of Crystal Reports for Eclipse we provide the developer with all the tools they need to quickly and easily integrate a presentation layer within their applications. Additionally, we provide them with the flexibility to choose the best engine for their solution. Even to move up to our Crystal Reports Server or BusinessObjects Enterprise platforms, without having to change the reports.

So, please keep an eye out for the release announcements tomorrow and give it a try. You have nothing to lose.

Talk with you later,
Sean

Anyways...or should I say Anyway...the Beta is a hit!

The title of today's blog requires a little background knowledge to fully understand it. Not so much on the Beta release being a hit, as that is pretty self-explanatory (over 1400 downloads in the last 2 weeks!), but rather the use of Anyways vs. Anyway. I happened to be at a cocktail party this past Saturday with the likes of Tim Lang (actually it was his place) and James Thomas, both fellow contributors to the Crystal Reports for Eclipse blog. At one point during the night the topic of conversation found its way to my blog posts. Apparently, my use of the word "anyways" has been slowly driving JT to the brink of insanity. This in itself, however very amusing (and somewhat enjoyable), is not that entertaining if it wasn't for the fact that my wife chastised me on my use of "anyways" only a few months back. I began to realize that maybe this was a serious thing. Maybe other people found it extremely irritating whenever I used this term (8 times on the current posts alone).

Now, I am the first to admit that the use of "anyways" may be considered slang or non-standard, however it's not like I am confusing my use of there (or their, or they're). I would imagine that JT would have a coronary if I started throwing in a few misuses of these words (or perhaps mispell definitely now and then). Such is the plight of a Marketing person who is forced to read a blog which allows Product Managers to post! However, doesn't the entire nature of blogs present itself as a forum to communicate on a less formal platform? The use of slang should not be shunned but instead encouraged as we open ourselves up to our readers. So in essence, every time I use "anyways" in my blog posts, it is my way of inviting everyone of my blog readers into my inner circle...my circle of trust so to speak.

Regardless, I still understand that their (yes this was on purpose...sorry JT) are Directors of Marketing or people with English Lit. degrees (aka "my wife") who feel a large amount of discomfort when reading incorrect English grammar. Unfortunately, my search for support groups in the Vancouver area which cater to the misuse of English slang in the written word proved fruitless. So, instead I thought I would do my bit to help alleviate some additional stress these people may encounter by reading the word "anyways" in a sentence. I have compiled a list of classic literature which includes the word "anyways" (thanks to www.thefreelibrary.com for the search engine). I would suggest that James, my wife, and anyone else who is easily offended by the use of "anyways" not read the following classics:

Charles Dickens

1. Hard Times
2. Great Expectations
3. Bleak House
4. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
5. A Tale of Two Cities
6. Barnaby Rudge - A Tale Of The Riots Of 'Eighty
   
7. Little Dorrit
8. Our Mutual Friend
9. David Copperfield

Mark Twain

1. Pudd'n'head Wilson
2. Tom Sawyer
3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Herman Melville

1. Moby Dick

Anne Bronte

1. Agnes Grey

Rudyard Kipling

1. Captains Courageous
2. The Mutiny of the Mavericks

Joseph Conrad

1. Heart of Darkness

George Eliot

1. Silas Marner
2. Adam Bede
   

By the way, for those of you keeping count, aside from the references I never used "anyways" once in the body of my blog entry....yet!

Anyways, until next time... :)

Sean

The Beta Release is now available!

Hello everyone,
I apologize for the lack of communication over the past few months, but it has been extremely hectic here. With all the conferences I have been to (EclipseCon, MySQL UC, JavaONE and the Rational Software Development Conference) plus the required work finishing off the loose ends around the Beta release I began to feel like I post to this blog almost as often as I talk to my mother (which is not really a good thing on both accounts). I expected to start receiving flame posts talking about how I never call, or bring the kids around anymore, etc., etc., etc.

Thankfully, hopefully this post will buy me some more time, especially with the great news I have. We have officially released the Beta build of Crystal Reports for Eclipse. The process to download it is the same as the process to download the Tech Preview...just go here to register and you will be sent an email with the required instructions. I apologize ahead of time if you have already filled out the survey, however we want to do some tracking on our end to see how many of the Preview users are coming back to try out the Beta...hopefully all of you!

You should note that the Beta will not upgrade over top of the Tech Preview release. The Beta is actually built on an RC build of Eclipse 3.2 and has a number of the 3.2 plugin dependencies. However, once again we have provided an all-in-one build to make the process of downloading and using the beta as easy as possible.

What can users expect from the Beta, well there are a number of new features (too many to list here) but I will do my best to highlight the top ones:

1. Set Datasource location is now a menu item - users can easily convert datasources stored in a report to a new connection using a menu driven wizard (e.g. ODBC to JDBC)
2. Guideline indicators are now available - the guidelines will provide an indicator when fields are aligned, both horizontally and vertically, making the report layout process extremely easy and powerful
3. POJO support is now available - Drag and drop a Java class from your project workspace onto a report to begin using your class as a datasource
4. Custom SQL is now supported - create your own SQL text using Eclipse's built in SQL editor to write your own queries
5. Browse Data - users can browse data from the Field Explorer off a specific field object or even a table object - this is very useful when using the graphical UI to create your database links
6. Deployment wizard - new wizards extend the project's build event in an attempt to ensure that all of the required drivers are present. Users will alerted if specific libraries (e.g. database JAR files) are not present when the application is deployed
7. New JSP page wizard - Drag and drop a report onto a JSP page and users will be prompted with a new wizard which will offer the ability to add customized code, such as passing in database credentials, populating parameter values, etc. all specific to the report that was added to the page

Anyways, there are a number of other features that have also been added, but unfortunately I am running out of time. I have to get back to the conference floor :)

I am planning on doing a webinar soon so keep your eye out for an invite, as well as updating the content on our EclipseZone to include a number of video presentations demonstrating some of the key features in the Beta release.

I look forward to talking with you again soon,
Sean

P.S.
Mom, I will call you when I get back in town. :)