Seamlessly integrated with ePortfolio out-of-the-box or can be integrated with your custom frontend using our SPL™ SmartAPI™.

Parameters can be dynamic and/or dynamic with cascades (i.e. Country, Region, City are your parameters. Available values for Region change based on value(s) selected for Country. Available values for City change based on value(s) selected for Region)

Descriptions and screen shots of various components (including our new web styles feature) are below.

Path 1 - SPL integrates out-of-the-box with Crystal Enterprise™ 9 (SPL 2) / Crystal Enterprise™ 10 (SPL 2.5)

Path 2 - SPL integrates out-of-the-box with Crystal Enterprise™ 9 (SPL 2) / Crystal Enterprise™ 10 (SPL 2.5) ePortfolio and you can change the look and feel without any code (by toggling a value) to display parameters in one of six different web styles

Path 3 - SPL integrates out-of-the-box with Crystal Enterprise™ 9 (SPL 2) / Crystal Enterprise™ 10 (SPL 2.5) ePortfolio and you can change the look and feel without any code (by toggling a value) to display parameters in one of six different web styles and you can change the look and feel of the web controls by using our patent pending XML Control Factory API to build SPL XML Custom Controls

Path 4 - SPL can integrate with your existing custom frontend (web or desktop application) or SPL can be used to develop a custom frontend (web or desktop application) -- using our patent pending XML Control Factory API to build SPL XML Custom Controls and SmartAPI™ COM component

SPL was designed from the ground-up to be fast, powerful, and most importantly, easy to use for all audiences:

• End User
• Administrator
• Developer / Report Designer

Q: How is SPL different from other solutions?
A: SPL is unique. It is designed to be independent and abstracted from Crystal Enterprise™ (CE) and ePortfolio, while still working very seamlessly and tightly with it. At the same time we improved on the client/server experience by reducing the network bandwidth, reducing the work the web connector and web server need to perform, improved on the user experience (click here for more details), and improved on the developer and report designer experience (click here for more details).

Rather than replacing or modifying the ePortfolio .csp and .js pages to integrate SPL with ePortfolio (like some of the custom solutions or so called commercial products do), we instead intercept your ePortfolio calls to either View-On-Demand or Schedule a report. Then based on your request, using our set of SPL .csp and .js pages that communicate with our backend COM component running on a Web Component Server (WCS) we display the parameter selection page (screen shots of the parameter selection pages, including examples of web styles -- are below).

This abstraction approach allows you to easily install patches and service packs to both CE and ePortfolio (as long the APIs we use to them do not change, and if they do, it allows us to introduce updates quickly). This approach also allows us to continue to evolve SPL and add support for newer version of CE much faster and easier.

But our abstraction does not end there. Using our patent pending XML Control Factory and XML Custom Control API, you can change the look and feel of the various web controls (edit box, list box, drop-down box, etc.) that are displayed on the parameter selection page -- without writing your own custom web frontend.

SPL has also been designed to work smarter by caching the data on the backend and by both reducing and compressing the data that is sent the to CE web connector, and web server -- as well as to/from the client (web browser). One example of this, is by making the web component server do less work, using our SmartAPI™ HTML Snippet design. The SPL backend component can pre-build the available values and current values (including the web controls used using our XML Control Factory, and the data they contain -- pulled dynamically from the databases you've defined), and send to the server .csp script, a ready to use HTML Snippet.

The benefit is that the .csp script has less work to do, the script is easier to write and maintain, and will run faster since it has less looping to do. Should you wish to build your own frontend and wish to build the HTML on your own, or do not need HTML or the XML Controls, our SmartAPI™ has been designed to support this via its methods and properties.

There are four (4) main components to the SPL architecture:

• SPL backend
• SPL MMC snap-in
• ePortfolio with SPL integrated frontend
• SPL repository

The SPL backend is a COM component with an extensive and SmartAPI™, it is the "brain" of the SPL architecture. Through this SmartAPI™, both the SPL MMC snap-in and ePortfolio with SPL integrated frontend communicate with the SPL backend. We used this same SmartAPI™ to build our ePortfolio integration.

The SPL MMC snap-in is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) version 1.1 (or higher) compliant snap-in. It is used by a report designer or appropriate administrator to

• create and manage connections to databases (click here for a screen shot);
• select reports directly from CE to be managed by SPL (click here for a screen shot);
• configure parameters of selected reports to define which connection is used to retrieve dynamic values (click here for a screen shot);
• configure parameters of selected reports to defined cascading hierarchy (click here for a screen shot);
• configure the look and feel presented in ePortfolio (click here for a screen shot 1 and click here for screen shot 2);
• configure XML custom controls.

Click here for more information and screen shots of the SPL MMC snap-in.

The ePortfolio with SPL integrated frontend takes over when a user requests to do a View-On-Demand or a Schedule of a report. If this report was added to SPL, to be managed, then SPL will retrieve dynamic and/or dynamic cascade values for parameters. The parameter selection page is rendered to the user dynamically based on various settings you've defined for both SPL globally (click here for a screen shot) as well those you may have defined for the report (click here for a screen shot), and each parameter (click here for a screen shot). Some of the settings you can define are whether to:

• use iFrames or Pop-up dialogs for cascading parameters
• automatically populate the parameter with a * (select all) as one of the available values (SPL is smart enough to know that if you select * as a current value on the client, not to send back to the web server all values that represent * from the client)
• display null values that are retrieved from the database
• override our web controls with your specified custom controls
• display the parameter selection page as standard ePortfolio look and feel or one of six (6) different web styles (including several wizard) (click here a sampling of web styles)

If this report was not added to SPL, to be managed (depending on the option you selected -- click here for a screen shot), your report will either be displayed using the standard ePortfolio method, or can take advantage of our performance enhancing features and web styles without the dynamic / dynamic cascading parameters part.

The SPL repository is a set of tables residing in a database (of your choice), that the SPL backend, in conjunction with the SPL MMC snap-in, use to store connections; reports and parameter definitions; options and custom controls.

To ease the ePortfolio integration and easily support your custom frontends, SPL 2 does not replace any existing ePortfolio files. Instead, you modify 3 existing ePortfolio files with redirect code to SPL 2 files. This allows you to easily install CE and ePortfolio updates and service packs without worrying about how SPL 2 will be affected. The redirect code is only a few lines long, takes only a few minutes to implement and is fully documented in a step-by-step guide.

This means that you continue to use the standard ePortfolio (or even your own frontend) for everything else. The two redirects are when parameter selection is requested:

• for View-On-Demand - when you click on the report and select View
• for Schedule - when you click on the report, select Schedule, and then select Parameters

The first screen shot displays a standard ePortfolio screen with an SPL managed report, where Schedule is about to be clicked.
The second screen displays the standard ePortfolio screen with an SPL managed report, where from the drop-down, Parameters is about to be clicked and then will cause a redirection to SPL.
The third screen shot displays a standard ePortfolio screen with an SPL managed report, where View (View-On-Demand) is about to be clicked and then will cause a redirection to SPL.

But do not mistake these redirects for lack of solid integration. We automatically recognize the logged in user's settings. The SPL redirected parameter selection screens look very much like standard ePortfolio (although now with service pack 2, you can choose a different web style, to change the look and feel -- click here for screen shots), including use of color scheme and viewer preferences.

Depending on the performance of your database(s), and the number of values that are retrieved for your parameter(s), and whether or not your parameters are dynamic or dynamic with cascades -- it can take a little while for the parameter selection screen to be loaded. For this reason you can enable / disable a splash screen to notify the user that not everything has finished loading.

Of course, as with a lot of features in SPL, if this is not something you wish to use, you can easily turn it off (in the SPL MMC snap-in, via the TOOLS|OPTIONS|GENERAL TAB area -- click here for screen shot)

Once a user has selected a report in ePortfolio, and specified View-On-Demand or Schedule, a redirection is done to SPL. SPL automatically determines if this report has been added to SPL for management. If it has, then a SPL parameter selection screen will be displayed. If it has not, depending on your options (in SPL MMC snap-in, via the TOOLS|OPTIONS|GENERAL TAB area -- click here for a screen shot) SPL will either redirect back to the original ePortfolio parameter selection screen or use the features of an enhanced SPL parameter selection screen, without the benefit of dynamic parameters.

The screen shots to the right display a SPL managed report (schedule was selected) parameter selection screen using the ePortfolio look and feel (additional styles are now possible with the web styles feature, added to service pack 2 -- click here for screen shots). The report's parameters Country and Region have been configured to be dynamic with cascade, while City has been configured to be dynamic without cascade, and Product has not been configured at all. In some cases the * (select all) as been turned on for the managed parameters.

The first screen shot displays the values for Country, which have been dynamically retrieved from a database (for the available values). The user has selected * (for the current values). The second screen shot is a continuation of the same parameter selection page (the page was scrolled down). This second screen shot displays current values that were selected for Region, and these current values are now the constraint for retrieval of available values for City.

Notice that unlike Country and Region (in the screen shots) which are built using listbox web controls, City is a drop-down web control. These web controls were built dynamically (driven by the parameter settings in the report -- string, multi-select, discrete, range, editable, etc.) by the SPL backend with the help of the SPL XML Control Factory. The controls displayed are the pre-defined set of standard SPL XML Controls. Using our XML Custom Control API, you can override one or more of these controls with your own look and feel, without ever modifying a single of frontend code.

In this example, Country, Region, and City are dynamic parameters and they have also been configured to be part of a cascade (we call this a dynamic cascade). Country is the main parent of the cascade (because it is the top most parameter in this case), its child is Region. Region's parent is Country and Region's child is City. City's parent is Region and there is no child. Product (which is the last parameter) has not been configured (which means it will continue to work as it would have without SPL).

With Country at the top of the cascade, when the current values are selected for Country, the values for Region that are dynamically retrieved, will be displayed based on the constraint of the current value(s) set in Country. In this example, all Regions were dynamically retrieved because * was selected for Country.

Also to note is performance has been greatly optimized and enhanced. Standard ePortfolio without SPL -- refreshes and reloads the parameter selection page for each value you add per parameter. This results in a lot of unnecessary communications between the web browser, web server, and other CE components. ePortfolio with SPL only sends back to the web server minimal necessary information (i.e. when * was selected for Country, SPL sent back * and then the SPL backend figured out what the values for * in Country should represent, before SPL sent back the values for Region). For values that are cascades, SPL only refreshes the portion of the screen that changed (using iFrames or Pop-ups).

The same report with the same parameters is displayed for View-On-Demand in screen shots three and four. As you can see, there is not much difference for ease of use.

Introduced in service pack 2 for SPL are Web Styles. Not everyone likes the ePortfolio parameter selection look and feel. Many have complained that it wastes a lot of space and requires a lot of scrolling -- especially if you have a lot of parameters.

This is where web styles come in. Web Styles change the look and feel of the parameter selection screen. Using our SPL MMC snap-in, you can specify either globally (click here for screen shot) or override per report (click here for screen shot), by selecting one of six web styles to use for the parameter selection screen.

You can choose from web styles that place available values for parameters on the right and current values on the right; to styles that are wizard like, including a back and next button and quick links to move between the parameters -- there is a style to please most. Best of all, as a lot of things in SPL, it too is dynamic and there is no coding involved.

Three of the highlighted styles are displayed as screen shots to the right. The first is a screen real estate saving style. The second is one of the wizard styles. The third is another wizard style.

Report designers / administrators use the SPL MMC snap-in to add, remove, and manage reports, parameters, connections, and XML Custom Controls.

The first screen shot displays the overall SPL MMC snap-in. The left pane displays a tree divided in to Drivers, Connections, and Reports. You start by creating a Connection to a database (as displayed in the second screen shot), this connection will later be associated to parameter(s) in report(s). Once a connection has been created, it can be associated to multiple parameters and has a global overview that displays all parameters across all reports that use each connection.

Then you are ready to add a report, directly from CE (by authenticating to CE and then navigating the virtual folders) as displayed in the third screen shot. SPL only maintains a minimum amount of information about the report, so you can continue to work with the report and make changes to it, even after adding it to SPL for management. If you add, remove, or modify the parameters of a managed report, you can have SPL refresh its information.

Once a report has been added to SPL for management, opening its property page (as displayed in the fourth screen shot), allows you to specify a web style to use every time this report's parameter selection screen is displayed.

SPL automatically reads parameter information when a report is added for management. When the report node is expanded, there are two sub-nodes. One is parameters and the other is cascades. The parameters node contains the report's parameters. The cascades node contains any cascades that have been defined.

Screen shot five displays the property page for a parameter. On this page you associate a connection, specify the table/view and field to use to retrieve values for this parameter. You are then displayed the SQL statement (and you can customize this statement) that will be used to retrieve the values. You can also specify the next child in the cascade. And finally you can go to the Preview tab that will display a sampling of data based on the values you defined -- this allows you to test your settings and display to you what will be retrieved on the frontend.

As displayed in the screen shot, the TOOLS|OPTIONS area in the SPL MMC snap-in allows you to define how SPL will behave. Here you can specify:

• whether to use iFrames or Pop-ups for cascades
• whether to display a Splash Screen
• the default Web Style to use when adding new reports, or apply a default web style to existing
• whether to use a custom css (on the General Tab)
• whether to use your custom XML controls (on the General Tab)

SPL™ quickly and easily plugs in to any existing Crystal Enterprise™ web frontend -- whether it be ePortfolio or a custom frontend. Extensive database support via ODBC & DB2, Informix, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase --  allows data to be retrieved from virtually any source. Configuration and administration is a snap with our MMC based snap-in. No need to ever modify a report to make its parameter pick list values dynamic.

Web controls are dynamically built using our patent pending XML Control Factory. Using our XML Custom Control API, you can add your own web controls or override the default.