Crystal Report Viewer Slow Performance on refreshing data

[Former Member]

Hi, We are now developing new system by "Crystal Report for Visual Studio" in our ASP.Net 2013 application. When we trigger the report generation and the report viewer pop-up, it is always refreshing the data again during page up/down or after choosing print options. Users will take longer process time. As we are not using Crystal report server, there is no place e.g. Central Management Console (CMC) to set any caching option/parameter. Is there any other possible way to control its behavior to not refresh/retrieve the data after the first report generation? As our data is not changed so frequent, we want to bypass this data refreshing function. Thank you for any advice in advance.

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hi David

In a web app. you can place the report into a session and then the report wil nto refresh on page up / down, etc.

See the following KBAs:

1664415 - Why store a report object in Session

1985571 - How to use sessions in web applications using the Crystal Reports viewer (the complete cod...

Also, note that any report takes longer to process on 1st load, but subsequent loads / refresh should be substantially faster.

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

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[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Ludek,

Thank you for your quick response.  We try your suggestion and it works properly on page navigation.  The performance is faster.  However,  we concern about the workload of the IIS server when using the Session method.  It is because we have many large reports (more than 50 pages) for many users using at the same time.  The Session method may deteriorate the server performance.  Do you have another solution for our issue?  Does the Crystal Report Viewer having any options for not refreshing data after loaded in client PC?  We know that there is Crystal Report Source object in Visual Studio.  Cache can be enabled for Crystal Report Source object.  Does it useful for us? Thank you for your advice in advance.     

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hi David

Only other solution is SAP Crystal Reports Server or BI Platform. Substantially more pricey, but scalable to the point where your concerns should be easily addressed.

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Ludek,

For the session solution, I have another problem about page navigation.  There are several pages in the report.  When I click the next page button, it can successfully go to page 2.  I click the next page button again, it cannot go to page 3 and still keep on page 2.  I can go to another page when I input the page number directly.  When I click the previous page button at the last page.  It directly go to the first page.  Do you have any idea for this problem? Thanks you for your advice in advance.    

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Make sure your code in in Page Init, not Page Load.

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Ludek,

Thank you very much for your advice, the page navigation problem has been solved.  I have another question about the crystal report viewer 2013.  We try to export the rpt file from ASP.NET to client PC by following command.

cr.exporttohttpresponse(exportformattype.crystalreport, response, true, report_name)

The client PC will then start the Crystal Report Viewer 2013 to open the rpt file.  The Crystal Report Viewer can open most of the reports successfully.  However, it cannot view some reports as following error.

Unable to Continue Viewing Report

More data is required to continue viewing this report.

This report does contain saved data, but it is not complete.  This verion of the Crystal Reports viewer does not support fetching further data; viewing cannot continue.

Do you have any idea for this problem?  Thank you for your advice in advance.

David

Best regards

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

I will provide what may be an answer, but if that does not help, I will ask you to create a new post.   ask that there be one query per post.

So. In the 1st place I wonder why you'd want to stream a report? Why not just view it? But that's my own musings...

The error indicates that there is an unfinished business to be done in the report - perhaps subreports need to be completed, etc. Best way to ensure that a report has been processed from page one to page N, is to place the special field M of N on the report. This forces the report to do everything. Without the special field, for the sake of appearing fast, the report actually renders only the page that is needed.

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Ludek,

Thank you for your advice.  We add the Page M of N field in the report but the problem still exists.  Do you have any idea on it?

David

Best Regards

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Why are you using

cr.exporttohttpresponse(exportformattype.crystalreport, response, true, report_name)

Why not

CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = <the report object>

??

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Ludek,

Yes, we will use CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = <the report object> in session as our primary solution.  However, we still concern about the server workload and performance when using the session method.  Once the server is overloaded, we will apply for the second choice of "cr.exporttohttpresponse(exportformattype.crystalreport,response,true,report_name)" solution.  Users can then using the Crystal Report Viewer to open the exported RPT file at client side.  That's why we study for it.

We got the error details for the Crystal Report Viewer 2013.  Attached please find the error details.

Best Regards

David Lau

crviewer_error_7254824970082416917.txt.zip

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Well, there is something not completed in that report. Only one way to find out what; Start stripping out objects out of the report until you don't get the error. Let me know how that goes and I might have a suggestion then

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Ludek,

For the session solution of Crystal Report viewer, I have put the code in page init instead of page load.  After that, I found the problem as follows.

1. I click the report button and the report successfully loaded.

2. I change and save the report details

3. I click the report button again, the report loaded with old data.

Even though I didn't use of session in the program, the problem still exist. Do you know what is the problem?

Best regards

David Lau

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Nope. Please see my suggestion from June 24...

- Ludek