HP Intelligent Management Center Standard Software Platform - Manual (Page 719)

Crystal Reports can then use a native method of communication to talk to
the translation files.
Data translation
Data is translated through a set of DLLs specific to Crystal Reports. The
program uses the DLLs specific to a certain data type to understand how
data is organized for that type and to present it correctly when your report
is printed, previewed, or exported.
Note:
Crystal Reports comes with all the data translation files for each of the direct
access database types that it supports.
Database
The database file consists of one or more tables. Different DBMS applications
store database information differently. For example, dBASE stores each
database table as a separate file. Access, on the other hand, can store
several tables, along with queries, macros, and other database elements,
all in a single file.
When Crystal Reports accesses a database file directly, it automatically
retrieves information about all of the tables and fields in that file. You may
not use all of the tables or fields, but the program will make them available
to you. In other words, when a dBASE file is opened, only one table in the
dBASE file is available. However, when an Access file is opened, every table
in that file is available, even if you never use them all.
Note:
Crystal Reports will also open queries in an Access database through the
DAO engine or ODBC and will allow you to report on query fields, as with
table fields. See
DAO and Access .
Common database formats
Although Crystal Reports uses the same three-tiered system for obtaining
data from all direct access database file formats, each format requires a
Crystal Reports 2008 SP3 User's Guide 719
26 Accessing Data Sources
Direct access database files