Invalid TLS Index with AppVerifier -- CR8.5 CRPE

[Former Member]

We are using the old CRPE engine, utilizing the 8.5 version of Crystal Reports. We've used this for a number of years, and hoping not to have to rewrite everything for the latest .NET versions.

We are attempting to have our software Certified for Windows Vista. This requires that the Microsoft AppVerifier runs against the application to detect various problems, including issues with Threads and Handles. It appears that the use of PEOpenEngine() in the application is causing this Invalid TLS Index error to occur. We have tried various versions of the crpe32.dll, from 7 to 10.2, and all of them seem to have the same trouble. I've also found a few other documented cases online with users having the same problem.

Does anyone know anything about this problem, if a fix has been issued, or if there are any workarounds for it? Microsoft will not issue a waiver, so it is impossible to have an application pass certification while using the CRPE engine.

Links with more info:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1459040&SiteID=1

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1131227&SiteID=1

Thanks for any ideas.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Don,

Crystal Reports 8.5 was retired long before Vista was released. Mixing in other CRPE versions wouldn't be supported to work in your application. Business Objects SAP won't go back and update earlier versions of Crystal Reports (like CR8.5) for Vista support.

CR XI R2 with later service packs is supported on Vista, however using direct API calls (e.g. PEOpenEngine) was retired after CR9. It is unlikely that you'll be able to upgrade your application to CRXIR2 without a major rewrite to move to the Report Designer Component (RDC).

Note that CR2008 doesn't ship with the RDC. The recommended upgrade path is to move to the .NET platform.

Sincerely,

Dan Kelleher

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks, that's what I was afraid of =/

Though the problem isn't really specific to Vista -- the DLL has had this bug in Windows 2000 or XP as well, for as long as its been released. Vista just happens to be the latest OS the certification is labeled for, but the same tests were required for XP certification, and presumably Win2000 before that.

What sort of work is required to upgrade from CR8.5 to the new .NET implementation? Obviously all the code would have to be redone, but what about the report files (*.rpt) themselves? We have about 1,000 report files distributed with our application, so even a minor change like opening & saving them in a new format will require a significant time investment. Some of them contain a lot of logic with formulas / running totals / etc as well.

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Original question was answered. closing this post. please submit a new question regrading upgrading to .NET assemblies.