Crystal Reports XI Released

Business Objects has just released the next version of Crystal Reports 11 and Crystal Enterprise 11. Unlike the upgrade to version 10, the upgrade to version 11 has some significant improvements for report designers. Here are the ones I feel are most significant (follow this link to see all new features):

Dynamic Parameters:
Crystal parameters can finally generate the list of default values at runtime. The 'pick list' is no longer static.

Crystal Reports allows you to generate the 'pick list' directly from your data. You can specify a field in the report and Crystal will query the database at runtime for current values. You can even create a command (SQL statement) to generate the list.

Cascading Parameters:
You can now have one parameter prompt determine the list in another prompt. For instance, when trying to select an employee you could first select a department. Then Crystal would show you a list that only included employees from that department.

I think Business Objects was finally feeling the pressure from Microsoft's SQL Server Reporting Services. I expect this new rivalry to really benefit developers as the business intelligence tools gain more and more features.