Defining multiple Crystal Report Data Consumer connections?

Question

I am creating a Xcelsius object that uses data from Crystal Reports.
To do that, I define Crystal Report Data Consumer connection. With this I can use Crystal to connect to the data source, create table of data (crosstab) and pass it to the flash object.
But I can only define one such connection. Why can't I define more that one?
I would like to pass two different sets of data and use them in different parts of the dashboard. Trying to get all the data into a single crosstab may not be possible.
Is there another way to do this?
Thanks.
Tim

Answer 1

I have found that I can pass any number of tables of data from CR to XC using flashvars, either XML or CSV.
XML is easy, but you chew up 17 chars (64 bytes) in XML chars per column marker. And with a 64KB string max, you're left with at most 1K data points, and that's with no data!
CSV is old school XC 4.5, converting an array in to a row-order string, not nearly as convenient as a Crystal Report Data Consumers, but it works and you have only a 4 byte overhead per column (the comma.)
Converting cross-tabs to strings, though, can be a bear because cross-tabs are evaluated column-order and you may not know how many columns you are going to have.
So use the Crystal Reports Data Consumer for the intricate cross-tab and CSV flashvars for the other tables.
And then hope it all loads in less than 7 seconds.
Tim