7.6.200/CR 8.5 update - Report Changed?

[JillofAllTrades]

We just applied the 7.6.200.2 update and the barcode update. We ran into a few problems, but that's life.

One bothersome problem though, has so far stumped my VAR.

We have several modified versions of the Crystal invoice form (We did NOT use the ICR). When we try to run it now, the fonts have changed and the solid-colored boxes are not as tall. The reports just don't look the same, yet they should not have changed, right? Even the modified date is still old. Oddly, they look okay in Crystal in design view. Once you print preview them or print them, yuck.

I have reinitialized the printdft and retpass.
I have tried changing to different printers.

Any suggestions besides "Go back and fix all the reports manually!"?

Christine

 

[JillofAllTrades]

Just to clarify my comment about the ICR - I meant to say that we did not just modify the default ICR - I know that the report would have been overwritten. We renamed all of our versions.

Christine

 

[JillofAllTrades]

We are now finding more reports that don't work. Even a built-in Macola report that comes up with no data.

We were pressured to apply this 7.6.200.5 update and now I am spending all day and night trying to fix the problems that are constantly coming up.

Christine

 

[kscheeler]

I have both 7.6.200.5 and Crystal 8.5 running and have worked with the ICR's and haven't seen this issue. I would first test sending it to a different printer and also running it from a different workstation just to see if it's consistent. On your last post though, you mention built in Macola reports that come up with no data. I would be concerned if something like the AR aging didn't print anything.

However, Exact rewrote the whole printing functionality with 7.6.200 and added additional code to correct issues with the .5 update. I have seen an issue on a workstation where the fonts in Windows XP were corrupt and I had to delete all but the basic ones like Ariel, Times New Roman and Courier New. Something like that will definetly change how Macola and Crystal print things.

The ICR's are forward compatable so the ones that were written in Crystal 7 will work fine in Crystal 8.5, even through the viewer.

One question; when you updated to 7.6.200, there was a question that asks what version of the ICR's you want. 7 or 8.5. How did you answer it.

Kevin Scheeler

 

[dgillz]

Are oyu taling about Crystal Reports or the standard Macola reports? Kevin's question about the version if you are using the crystal reports is very important.

Also, regardless of what you are doing, I strongly recommend that you apply the 7.6.200.5 patch.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.trianglepartners.com

 

[JillofAllTrades]

We are using the 7.6.200.5 patch.
We did select to upgrade to the 8.5 ICR during the setup.
I have tried sending this to three different printers and printing it on various workstations.

The first problem we noticed was with ICR that we had modified (not the originals, but made from the originals and renamed, for example OEINVFRM_SQL_TKS.rpt). These are just formatting changes, but troublesome nonetheless.

The second problem we noticed was that a report in MRP comes up blank - no data. We then ran the Macola version of the report and it is also blank. This is scaring me! Waiting on a call back from my VAR, who is stumped.

Christine

 

[MacolaHelp]

Christine: I've been through crystal report trial by fire using macola ICRs as a starting point for quotes, acknowledgements, etc starting in v7 crystal on 7.6.100a macola. Lots of things to check. Do you have 8.5 installed somewhere if you chose that format during the upgrade to 7.6.200? I am in the process of testing/creating a report distribution package to get my modified ICRs & compiled reports out to my users in crystal 8.5. There are some challenges, including the necessity of registering some dlls on the local workstation even after the distribution package is installed, particularly if you want to export to pdf or MAPI. I still haven't gotten it to work for the ICRs (pdf, MAPI, all else works fine), but have a few more ideas. I've used lots of macola infomines & crystal articles to help resolve. I've also seen the thing with the boxes, the fonts, even logos disappearing by creating on a particular workstation with one default printer & running on another without that printer installed. I now install all printers for all users. I got some info from macola about the size of those boxes, but it didn't really help me fix the sizing, and I've tabled it for now. I kind of wish I'd just started my own report from scratch instead of using the ICR to begin with after all this. In fact, I just use the ICRs now as reference rather than the base of the reports. I'm sure you and you VAR will solve it eventually, just be patient.

The vanilla macola cobol reports without data is very scary, though. Initializing the reptpass & printdft files worked for all my vanilla macola printing problems in 7.6.200. Have you initialized all your mrp files except for the setup & tried to regen? I also had errors when regenning that were caused by a particular version of one of the sy files. Once I copied it from data_00 (tutorial) to the live company, it worked. If you need the name of the file, I'll try to go through my notes & find it. It took weeks to figure it out, but I was only doing an upgrade conversion test, so it didn't affect day to day activities.

 

[kscheeler]

If you upgraded Crystal from 7 to 8.5 at the same time that you upgraded Macola then the original customized reports that you are using are in a Crystal 7 format. I can't say I've tested this specificially but it's possible the Crystal 8.5 printing components are handling those reports differently than a report saved in an 8.5 format. One thing you could do is simply open the report and save it. If it's a v7 report, Crystal will mention that it will save it in the new format. You could then try to print it again.

On the MRP report issue, you could query the MRP tables to see if there's data in there or not. I know the MRP process takes some time but I would then rerun that process anyway.

Kevin Scheeler

 

[JillofAllTrades]

Good news - we did another regeneration in MRP and that resolved the blank report issue.

On the other one - I figured out that the "can grow" option had been turned on and set to 1. Before the upgrade, it was not set, so the fields were able to grow, thus the larger solid boxes. So, why did this happen to all my reports? If you check in Crystal, the default is that "can grow" is unchecked. I am awaiting a response from my VAR on this.

Christine

 

[JillofAllTrades]

I am so aggravated!
The MRP report is NOT fixed after all. The format has changed just enough that it won't import into our vendor's system anymore. This is an ICR. I guess it changed, huh?

Christine

 

[kscheeler]

From what I can tell, the Macola ICR's have always had the field settings with the 'Can Grow' box checked and the setting of 1 on the text fields.

By default, the setting on the workstation is to have the box unchecked.


Kevin Scheeler

 

[JillofAllTrades]

Not sure about the ICR's before because I never checked.
Regardless, our customized reports had this unchecked, and yet after the upgrade it is checked and limited to 1, which messes up our formatting.

Christine

 

[kscheeler]

If it's a customized ICR then the 'Can Grow' box was checked from the beginning.


Kevin Scheeler

 

[JillofAllTrades]

Kevin - then was this a crystal 7 bug that it ignored that setting? Because a few days ago when we were using Macola 7.6.100a and Crystal 7, the report looked fine - meaning that the solid colored boxes "grew" taller than 1 line. Now that we have applied the 7.6.200.5 Macola and 8.5 Crystal upgrades, they aren't growing.

I don't have a Crystal 7 environment to test this.

Christine

 

[dgillz]

If you have crystal 8.5, you also have crystal 7. Just perform a "save as" a version 7 report.

This is the only version of Crystal that has ever had this backwards compatibility.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.trianglepartners.com

 

[JillofAllTrades]

Well, if it is a Crystal 8.5 bug, then Crystal is still going to process things the 8.5 way if I open a report with it, even if the report is saved as 7, right?

Christine

 

[abaldwin]

Here is a simple test.

Check the margins on your MRP report. I would suggest that if the report has been run on multiple printers that the margins have been changed each eand every time the report is opened.

This is a crystal "feature" of adapting to the current printer abilities over what you stored in the report. This could account for the slight changes in the formatting.


I ran into this just last week with two different printer drivers for the same printer. The differnece was the paper grag on the left margin being larger on one machine than the other.

Andy

Andy Baldwin