Visual Studio Express Editions and Crystal Reports 2008

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am using Visual Studio Express editions (Visual Web Developer) since few years now and I have always strived to use Crystal Reports 2008 with these free versions of Visual Studio.

I think that a lot of people is using Visual Web developer, being free, and get a lot of support from Microsoft and dedicated forums in the net.

What I can't understand is why Crystal Reports is not supporting these free versions of Visual Studio with its Crystal Reports 2008 product, notwistanding we pay a fortune for it!

I bougth Crystal Reports 2008 and managed somehow to use it with VWD 2005, VWD 2008 and now with VWD2010, but I am always having lot of problems to integrate its assemblies within a .Net application. I can't find any documentaion, posts, etc.. that clearly explains how to view a report created with CR 2008 in a web form of an ASP.NET application created with Visual Web Developer.

I think that if SAP will continue not to support all the developers using VWD and CR2008, the obvious solution for all of them will be using SQL Server Reporting Services, being free too!

Personally I would like to keep using Cr2008, but without any support from SAP I thing I have to choose the other way.

Having said that, is there any documented info or tutorial on how to connect somehow a CR 2008 report to a web form created with Visual Web Developer 2010?

Thanks

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

is there any documented info or tutorial on how to connect somehow a CR 2008 report to a web form created with Visual Web Developer 2010?

- No there is not. CR 2008 is not supported in any version of VS 2010

However, CRVS2010 is supported in VS 2010 and you will be pleased to know that this version can be downloaded for free from here:

http://downloads.businessobjects.com/akdlm/cr4vs2010/CRforVS_13_0.exe

This version is just as fully featured as CR 2008 and then some...

One thing to note. CRVS2010 was only tested with full version of VS 2010, not Visual Web Developer 2010. I have no idea if CRVS2010 will work in VWD2010, but only one way for you to find out. Noting your experience with incorporating CR into VWD 2005, VWD 2008, you will possibly have more of a chance of success of incorporating CRVS2010 into VWD2010 than any one else. If you do have success there (and actually irrespective), it would be great if you'd share your findings with the rest of the community.

Note that since CRVS2010 was not tested with VWD2010, there is no support or escalation path for any fixes. E.g.; any suspected bugs will have to be reproduced by you in full version of VS2010 before we will be able to escalate the issue for a fix.

Addtional resources for CRVS2010:

[Report Application Server .NET API Guide|http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sapCRVS2010/en/xi4_rassdk_net_api_en.zip]

[Report Application Server .NET SDK Developer Guide|http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sapCRVS2010/en/xi4_rassdk_net_dg_en.zip]

[SAP Crystal Reports .NET API Guide|http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sapCRVS2010/en/crnet_api_2010_en.zip]

[SAP Crystal Reports .NET SDK Developer Guide|http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sapCRVS2010/en/crnet_dg_2010_en.zip]

[SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio Installation Guide|http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sapCRVS2010/en/crnet_install_guide_2010_en.pdf]

[SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio Release Notes|http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sapCRVS2010/en/CR_Release_Notes_en.pdf]

[MSM|http://downloads.businessobjects.com/akdlm/cr4vs2010/CRforVS_mergemodules_13_0.zip]

[MSI 32 bit|http://downloads.businessobjects.com/akdlm/cr4vs2010/CRforVS_redist_install_32bit_13_0.zip]

[MSI 64 bit|http://downloads.businessobjects.com/akdlm/cr4vs2010/CRforVS_redist_install_64bit_13_0.zip]

Ludek

Edited by: Ludek Uher on Dec 30, 2010 9:27 AM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I tryed to install Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 but the installation aborted because I don't have Visual Studio 2010 Installed on my machine, instead I have Visual Web Developer 2010 installed.

So the question remains the same. Why Crystal Reports doesn't support its product CR 2008 that I have bought to work with a development tool like Visual Web Developer? VWD 2010 is free, not CR 2008!

Anyway, in VWD 2010 somehow I am able to call a report created with CR 2008 doing the following:

Copy all you find in the directory c:\ProgramFiles\Business Objects\Common\4.0 and paste it under the directory C:\Inetput\wwwroot\aspnet_client\system_web\4_0_3019.

Create a report in CR 2008;

Create a web site with VWD 2010 under IIS or in the c:\Intepub\wwwroot path;

add the following lines in web.config of the web site:

<configSections>

<sectionGroup name="businessObjects">

<sectionGroup name="crystalReports">

<section name="reportMappings" type="CrystalDecisions.Shared.ReportMappingHandler, CrystalDecisions.Shared, Version=12.0.2000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304, Custom=null"/>

</sectionGroup>

</sectionGroup>

</configSections>

<appSettings>

<add key="CrystalImageCleaner-AutoStart" value="true"/>

<add key="CrystalImageCleaner-Sleep" value="60000"/>

<add key="CrystalImageCleaner-Age" value="120000"/>

</appSettings>

<system.webServer>

<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>

<handlers>

<add name="CrystalImageHandler.aspx_GET" verb="GET" path="CrystalImageHandler.aspx" type="CrystalDecisions.Web.CrystalImageHandler, CrystalDecisions.Web, Version=12.0.2000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304" preCondition="integratedMode"/>

</handlers>

</system.webServer>

Add the following references in the solution explorer:

CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Design;

CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine;

CrystalDecisions.Data.AdoDotNetInterop;

CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.Framework;

CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.InfoStore;

CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc;

CrystalDecisions.ReportSource;

CrystalDecisions.Shared;

CrystalDecisions.Web;

Most of these references can be found in C:\Windows\GAC, otherwise you can search in c:\ProgramFiles\Business Objects\Common\4.0\Managed.

in a new web form insert the following lines:

<%@ Register assembly="CrystalDecisions.Web, Version=12.0.2000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304" namespace="CrystalDecisions.Web" tagprefix="CR" %>

..............

<CR:CrystalReportViewer ID="CrystalReportViewer1" runat="server"

AutoDataBind="true" EnableParameterPrompt="True" PageZoomFactor="80"

ReportSourceID="CrystalReportSource1" ToolPanelView="None" />

<CR:CrystalReportSource ID="CrystalReportSource1" runat="server">

<Report FileName="~\YourReport.rpt">

</Report>

</CR:CrystalReportSource>

In the design view of the web form you will notice that VWD is not able to create the control CrystalReportSource, so you wont see the report in design time.

Open IIS and move to the website created. In the content view of the site right click on the web form with the report and click browse. If you are lucky you should be able to see the report in the web form in your browser!

[former_member184995 · Accepted solution]

Again, CR 2008 is not supported with any version of VS 2010..period.

Also in general Crystal is not supported with the express or free versions of VS and never has been as far as I know. It is only supported in the previous versions of Visual Studio that came packaged with the free version of Crystal (and with 2010 the full version of VS).

Jason

[Former Member]

I wish to evaluate Crystal reports for a Visual Studio - VB ASP.NET development. I therefore loaded Visual Studio Express 2010, followed by Crystal Reports.

The installation of Crystal reports does not work - It says there is an error, after telling me to install Visual Studio. However, Visual Studio is installed correctly.

What have I done wrong, and how can I evaluate Crystal reports in this context?

[former_member183750]

No version of Visual Studio Express is supported by any version of CR...

For any new queries, please always create a new thread.

- Ludek