Creating an Intranet web site to display Crystal Reports

[Former Member]

I'm trying to create a Web site to view our Crystal Reports but am coming up with some issues during development. I discovered online that Release 2, not Release 1, is compatible with VS 2005.

When I attempt to download Crystal Reports XI Release 2 via the Business Objects search results, I'm redirected from www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/compatibility_vs2005.asp to http://www.businessobjects.com/product/catalog/crystalreports/

Is my only solution is upgrading to Crystal Reports 2008?

The Crystal Report node doesn't appear in the VS Toolbox for adding the CrystalReportViewer to a simple Web form. I'm currently using VS 2005 Standard edition. Is this why the CR node isn't appearing in the toolbox?

Do I need to upgrade Visual Studio 2008 Professional?

I currently am using the following...

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Version 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)

Microsoft .NET Framework

Version 2.0.50727 SP1

Installed Edition: Standard

Crystal Reports Professional Type; Full

Product Version: 11.0.0.2495

Utilizing Crystal Reports Server is too expensive for our needs

Case Id: 2496962

thanks

Jim.

[former_member184995 · Accepted solution]

Hi James,

In order to use Crystal XI R2 and have it integrate with Visual Studio you must have the Developer edition.

From your post you seem to only have professional which does not integrate or have the .NET runtimes.

You will need to purchase the Developer edition if you want to use Crystal XI R2.

Crystal Reports 2008 is our latest version and it does not have different editions like previous releases.

If you purchase it, it comes with the SDKs by default and will integrate with VS.NET 2005 as well.

Best Regards,

Jason

[Former Member]

Hi James,

Few more points-

CR XI R1 is compatible with VS 2003.

CR XI R2 is compatible with VS 2003 and VS2005.

CR 2008 SP0 is compatible with VS 2005 and VS 2008.

If you want to use VS 2005 than you can use CR XI R2 or CR 2008.

If you want to use VS 2008 than you can use CR 2008 SP0 only.

Hope this helps

Regards,

Amit

[Former Member]

Thanks for clarifying the differences

My concern for upgrading to CR 2008 is if it's compatible with Great Plains and more importantly Dynamic Report Manager. We have a lot of reports created in CR XI that may need editing and wouldn't want to upgrade if it'll put viewing these reports in jeopardy.

Or should I stick with getting the CR 2005 Developer Upgrade instead?

Is it possible to have CR 2005 and CR 2008 as separate installs on the same pc?

[Former Member]

Hi James,

Could you explain more about the Dynamic report manager and CR 2005??

and you can have CR XI R2 and CR 2008 on a same machine but you ned to be very careful while developing applications that to which references your app is pointing.

Regards

Amit

[Former Member]

Sorry, I meant CR XI where it says CR 2005

More on Dynamics Report Manager

http://www.rocktonsoftware.com/products.aspx?p=3

Dynamics Report Manager

Now you can harness the power of Crystal and SQL Reporting Services Reports in your Great Plains solution! Dynamics Report Manager takes the headaches out of launching Crystal and SQL Reports by giving you fully customizable control to launch any report from within Great Plains, including 3rd party products.

I found on their FAQ that Dynamics Report Manager will support CR 9 and above

[former_member183750]

I would confirm with Great Plains that Dynamics Report Manager will support CR 2008. Saying that they support CR 9 and above is a pretty wide ranging statement. Personally, I would not trust that statement until confirmed with GP.

Ludek

[Former Member]

Thanks for the suggestion. I contacted Rockton, the company for Dynamics Report Manager about using CR 2008 where they haven't tested this version yet. I'm going to have conduct my own testing.

How backward compatible is CR 2008 in regard to versioning? Does it give the ability to save .rpt files in different versions or is this a moot point to even ponder.

When viewing Crystal Reports via a web site as I plan to do, does anything need to be installed or configured on each pc to view these reports? I'm assuming the .rpt files will reside on the server that will be viewed via a web page in the same manner a .pdf file is viewed via a website but obviously without the ability to save said .rpt.

We want to minimize any changes or configurations to each pc when viewing these reports due to other applications running on them

[former_member183750]

How backward compatible is CR 2008 in regard to versioning? Does it give the ability to save .rpt files in different versions or is this a moot point to even ponder.

- There is no way to do save as version Y. Once you save, it is in version 2008. However, the report formats have not changed since version 9 of CR. So CR 2008 should be able to run any report from CR 9 up and really for the most part all the way to about CR 6 should be fine (there is always the one odd report that misbehaves, but that is rare (course it's usually the most important report...)). You can even view CR 2008 reports in CR 9 - as long as they don't use any of the new features implemented after CR 9; for example, parameter prompting.

When viewing Crystal Reports via a web site as I plan to do, does anything need to be installed or configured on each pc to view these reports? I'm assuming the .rpt files will reside on the server that will be viewed via a web page in the same manner a .pdf file is viewed via a website but obviously without the ability to save said .rpt.

- for a web app, nothing needs to be saved or configured on the workstations. Everything is done on the server and only images are sent to the web browser. Of course, you will need the CR runtime on the server, but that should be it.

Ludek

[former_member11696]

One more point. Great Plains is an OEM Partner of ours and you should also contact them to verify CR 2008 will integrate into their product. We cannot guarantee your app will intrgrate into their back end software or how ever they manage reports etc. YOu must comfirm with them their back end supports CR 2008.

In a Web application depending on the viewer you are using each work station will/may download an ActiveX viewer control which will need permissions to be installed on each work station.

[Former Member]

I contacted support at Rockton and this is their response...

Currently DRM is compatible with Crystal Reports created on versions 9, 10 and 11. We have not tested DRM with Crystal Reports 2008. So we are unaware if there are issues with Crystal Reports 2008 at this time. If you have a simple report which was created on Crystal Reports 2008 you can send it to me and I would be happy to do some testing for you. Otherwise at this time you would want to test the reports you have, which were created on 2008, with DRM.

So I downloaded the trial CR2008 as a separate install and will see if they'll work on our setup

[Former Member]

A further reply from Rockton on using CR 2008

Microsoft has not yet announced support CR 2008, therefore we have not either. We typically try to keep in sync with them on supported environments. However, we do still have this on our to do list and will possibly take a look at it next week. Check back with us in a couple of weeks and we might have an idea one way or another. Again though, we wonu2019t make any u201Cofficial announcementu201D until MS does.