Support to Crystal Reports 8.5

[Former Member]

Hi,

We were using Crystal Reports 8.5. During our upgration, we have

converted to Crystal Reports XI. We are Licenced customers to Crystal

Reports 8.5 and XI. We are using the Delphi application to View/Export

the reports.

We are facing a problems with Crystal Reports XI converted reports

during the Excel Export. The Exported output of Crystal Reports XI Rpt

is not matching with output of Crystal Reports 8.5 Rpt. We have a

customer who wrote lot of macros to validating the Excel exported

output in their system. We tried all the possible combinations but

failed to get exact output format.

We are planning to revert to Crystal 8.5 (which is working fine). Is

there any chance/possibility to remove the support to Crystal reports

8.5 in near feature. Or is there is way to get the Crystal Reports XI

output exactly matching with Crystal Reports 8.5

Quick repossible much appreciated.

Thanks for advance.

Regards

K. Sriphani

Team Leader

J&B software (I) Pvt Ltd.,

Chennai

[kyle_mcadam · Accepted solution]

The problem began when CR built version 9. The code base of CR would change dramatically, in regards to exporting the excel format. The new demand in the market was WYSIWYG. This new format required that all future reports would need to be alligned exactly, in order for things to line up exactly, when exported.

When these changes took place, Crystal Reports' documentation was available, explaining 'how to' format all reports that would use the export to excel option.

Many companies, like yours in this case, wanted to be able to maintain the old export dll. This was allowed by CR, when a patch called "Rubik's Patch" was released. It was a patch that could be installed on any later version, and the export to excel would remain as it was in 8.5. The only problem is, there cannot be both. It is one or the other.

Now, you can use the "Rubik's Patch" in XI, but you might be better off to change the reports, by following the best practice guidelines for the 9+ dll. The reason I say this is that when the Rubik's Patch was created, it was created with the entent to be used for a short time, until companies could make any necessary changes in their 8.5 reports, to make them work properly with the new dll. So, that means, it might not be supported in later versions. One of which, I haven't tested, but believe it is not, in 2008.

Hope this helps.