You can customize the
Crystal Reports designer by
adding or removing plug-ins from the Eclipse
plugins
directory. The Crystal Reports
designer provides extension points that enable you to expand the existing
Crystal Reports functionality
and create customized versions of features. By using extension points, your
customized features integrate seamlessly with the
Crystal Reports designer.
You can use extension points to customize the
designer in the following ways:
Create new report wizards that produce
customized reports.
For example, a wizard that creates a report
that contains the company logo.
Drag and drop custom objects on to a report.
For example, drag a custom object on to a
report automatically convert it to the corresponding report objects.
Add new pages to the report designer.
For example, display a view of the custom
objects in the report.
Open reports from a custom location, or save
reports to a custom location.
For example, an online repository.
Intercept the page change event.
For example, update a custom page when the user
switches to it.
Intercept the browse data event.
For example, populate a datasource when the
user browses data.
You should be familiar with creating Eclipse
plug-ins and using extension points to follow the instructions in this lesson.
Refer to the Eclipse documentation on plug-ins and extension points for more
information.