Error in Formula: "This field name is not known" error on CR.com

[Former Member]

Hi. I've created a parameter-based report that prompts the user to enter one or more countries and a date range. The report works fine locally in Crystal Reports XI -- it prompts the user to enter one or more countries and a date range, and then returns all the records that match those criteria.

But when I upload the report to CR.com and attempt to run it, I get the following error message after entering the country and date range parameters:

"Error in File [report name]: Error in formula . '({@CreateDate} = {?DateRange} or ' This field name is not known. Details: errorKind"

I can't find anything that explains what the errorKind msg means. Everything else seems to check out (in terms of data types matching up, etc). Any thoughts or explanations on what's going on and how to straighten it out would be very much appreciated!

Frank

[marioquintana]

Hi Frank,

In reviewing the error message, I would check the following:

1. Confirm that all data source objects are correctly mapped and verified within Crystal Reports. It is possible that a database field within one of the tables has changed or been modified on the DB side of the house. If a report was to refresh against the existing structure and not find the object (name mismatch or object has been deleted) you would see a similar error message.

2. From the initial syntax you have two objects; one object is a formula and the other a parameter. The formula object concerns me more because there could have been modification made within the formula syntax due to database changes or there are table objects referenced that no longer exist or the formula references other formulas which may be incorrect or there are misspelled or incorrect syntax within the formula which is failing to compile during the formula check but it is failing to compile when the report is run in CRDC and not the report designer.

3. If the formula is failing to compile correctly, then this would leave me to review my patch version of Crystal Reports (the report designer). For CR XI / CR XI R1, this product no longer has any patch support which means that the latest and last patch fix for the product is available for download. If you haven't updated the product, please download the latest service pack. You'll need to visit the support site for crystal reports which can be found at "http://service.sap.com". Once the service pack has been installed please perform a set database location and verify database operation with the product, check the formula, resave the report and republish the report to CRDC. For Crystal Reports XI R2 or Crystal 2008, please update as well, the only difference for these products now (besides new features and functionality) is the support lifecycle for them, they still have patch support until 2009 and 2010 respectively for XI R2 & 2008.

4. The last item would be to review the design and source of the parameter in question. There may be an issue depending on how the parameter was created against the data source being used and the use of the parameter data type against the data type of the formula and how Crystal Reports is acknowledging the data type of each field from the data source. Please review the data types between the formula, the database object and the parameter and review the data format of each of these objects, there could be an issue of incorrect date formatting (assuming this is a date parameter).

I hope this helps,

Thanks & Kind Regards,

Mario

[Former Member]

Thanks for the thorough reply Mario. I'm in the process of checking these things out and upgrading to SP 4 and will post again once I've got something to post.

Frank

[Former Member]

hi, did you get this to work?

[marioquintana]

Hi Michelle,

Yes, it turns out that Frank was using an Excel workbook as the data source in with crytalreports.com (CRDC) but he had two versions of the file, a local file and a file saved to CRDC. Frank had modified the Excel file on his local machine, he was able to refresh and run the report without error, but when using the report on CRDC, it would receive an error message because the Excel file was not updated to reflect the changes made and saved to the local Excel file. Once the Excel file was updated on CRDC, the issue was fixed.

Thanks & Kind Regards,

Mario Quintana