A report object is an object that is created using a Crystal designer component (such as Crystal Reports or Crystal Analysis). Report objects contain report information (such as database fields). When you schedule a report, Crystal Enterprise generates an instance or instances of the object. A report object can be made available to everyone or to individuals in selected user groups.
Note: When you publish a report object to Crystal Enterprise, only the structure of the report (the template information) is saved; that is, the published report object contains no saved data.
Crystal Enterprise creates report instances from report objects—that is, an instance is created when a report object is processed by the Report Job Server. Essentially, an instance is a report object that contains report data that is retrieved from one or more databases. Each instance contains data that is current at the time the report or query is processed.
Typically, report objects are designed such that you can create several instances with varying characteristics. You can schedule a report object to have several instances. For example, if you run a report object with parameters, you can schedule one instance that contains report data that is specific to one department and schedule another instance that contains information that is specific to another department, even though both instances originate from the same report object. For more information about scheduling, see Scheduling objects overview.
Changes that are made to the report object affect future scheduled instances. These changes also affect instances that users schedule through a Crystal Enterprise application, such as the Crystal Enterprise web desktop or a custom web application.
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