Exporting Crystal Report to XML

Saving a Crystal Report in XML format, based upon the default Crystal Report schema, along with an xsl transformation, is a great way to  create web-ready content.

Below is a snippet of xml generated by Crystal Reports. While in Crystal, go to Format Field to set a custom Name attribute as shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<CrystalReport xmlns="urn:crystal-reports:schemas:report-detail"  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="urn:crystal-reports:schemas:report-detail http://www.businessobjects.com/products/xml/CR2008Schema.xsd">
<Group Level="1">
<GroupHeader>
<Section SectionNumber="0">
<Field Name="TERM" FieldName="GroupName ({Command.CLASS_TERM_CD})"><FormattedValue>Spring 2015</FormattedValue><Value>Spring 2015</Value></Field>
<Field Name="TERMCODE" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_TERM_CD}"><FormattedValue>4152</FormattedValue><Value>4152</Value></Field>
</Section>
</GroupHeader>
<Details Level="2">
<Section SectionNumber="0">
<Field Name="CLASSNAME" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_CLASS_NAME}"><FormattedValue>ENG102</FormattedValue><Value>ENG102</Value></Field>
<Field Name="CLASSNBR" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_CLASS_NBR}"><FormattedValue>38090</FormattedValue><Value>38090</Value></Field>
<Field Name="TITLE" FieldName="{Command.CRSE_COURSE_TITLE_LONG}"><FormattedValue>First-Year Composition</FormattedValue><Value>First-Year Composition</Value></Field>
<Field Name="STARTTIME" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_START_TIME1}"><FormattedValue> 4:00PM</FormattedValue><Value> 4:00PM</Value></Field>
<Field Name="ENDTIME" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_END_TIME1}"><FormattedValue> 6:40PM</FormattedValue><Value> 6:40PM</Value></Field>
<Field Name="STARTDATE" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_START_DATE}"><FormattedValue>3/24</FormattedValue><Value>2015-03-24T00:00:00</Value></Field>
<Field Name="ENDDATE" FieldName="{Command.CLASS_END_DATE}"><FormattedValue>5/15</FormattedValue><Value>2015-05-15T00:00:00</Value></Field>
<Field Name="DAYS" FieldName="{@FormattedDays}"><FormattedValue>Tu,Tr</FormattedValue><Value>Tu,Tr</Value></Field>
</Section>
</Details>
...

On the XSL side, make sure you setup your Crystal Reports namespace. In the example below I'm using a 'cr' prefix.

<?xml version="1.0"?><xsl:stylesheet xmlns:cr="urn:crystal-reports:schemas:report-detail" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">

<xsl:template match="/">

<xsl:for-each select="cr:CrystalReport/cr:Group">

<h2 class="ms-rteElement-H2Custom"><xsl:value-of select="cr:GroupHeader/cr:Section/cr:Field[@Name='TERM']/cr:FormattedValue"/></h2><table width="100%" class="courseTableWP">
<xsl:for-each select="cr:Details/cr:Section">

<tr class="courseTableRow"></tr></xsl:for-each></table>
<th width="10%">Course</th><th width="15%">Class Number</th><th width="35%">Title</th><th width="10%">Days</th><th width="15%">Times</th><th width="15%">Dates</th><td><xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='CLASSNAME']/cr:FormattedValue"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='CLASSNBR']/cr:FormattedValue"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='TITLE']/cr:FormattedValue"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='DAYS']/cr:FormattedValue"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='STARTTIME']/cr:FormattedValue"/>- <xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='ENDTIME']/cr:FormattedValue"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='STARTDATE']/cr:FormattedValue"/> - <xsl:value-of select="cr:Field[@Name='ENDDATE']/cr:FormattedValue"/></td>

</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>