Blank Report on Client PC aaaarrrrhhh !!

[blinder]

We have a problem - an intermittant problem
After looking at other threads - we see some similarities - but most other similar issues relate to the Web - our problem does NOT involve the web...

Firstly the environment - CR8.5, PC's running Winnt 2000 , plus one running XP Pro

Crystal accesses a mySQL database via ODBC directly, and through SQL Designer

Our application runs a crystal report - exports the report to an rpt format, and we save the report in binary storage.

A user gets sent a message saying that there report has been run - do they want to see it now? - Yes - Great so far.

On PC's that have the full Crystal 8.5 loaded, Our application fires up the Crystal OCX and the report is there, ready for the user to export, print, drill into it, etc etc - Excellent - All that we want and more..

Now for the problem...
On Pc's that do not have the full Crystal installed, we get a display problem - Report labels are displayed (This is usually just the Report Header, Page header type stuff - NO DATA. The user can goto another PC where the full Crystal is loaded and the report will display perfectly.

We know the data is there - the size of binary tells us this (original rpt 88k - run report with data saved 685k) - also the fact that the report displays on the other PC

This problem has come up on PCs with XP, Win98, and Win2000.

A cruel twist to this problem is that if we run similar crystal reports off a Foxpro DBF data source - NO PROBLEM - All PCs can see the report

Why do we save the report in a binary form (in our database) - we can keep a version of the report that was run many months earlier - very useful. Does the binary storage get big - we compress the file before storing it..

We are pulling our hair out on this one, and I do not have much hair to go...

Thanking you in advance..

blinder

p.s. While proof reading this post we were talking about the crpe32.dep file - how does this file play a role in Crystal Running? - Do we need it on our client PCs? - Is the data not displaying because a particular dll is not registered? Obvioulsy we don't want to install a full copy of Crystal on every PC on the network - We just just want to register the OCX, and load in the other runtime dlls that allow the OCX to operate...

 

[IdoMillet]

Good chance the problem has nothing to do with the BLOB storage and retrieval. To confirm this, try to save the report (with Data) to a file rather than to the database. Then, take that file to a "BAD" PC and see if you can open that file using your applications' Viewer (OCX).

If you see the same report load problem you know you simply have a problem with required dlls.

By the way, Crystal has moved away from the OCX in favor of the RDC; You may want to consider following the same path...

hth,
- Ido CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[blinder]

To Ido,

Thank you for your quick reply.

As is often the way - we did find out the solution: The dlls, and the registering of some of them.

We downloaded the "Report Distribution Expert" from the the Crystal support web site, and installed this - then created a distribution of a report - one of the rports we were having problems with. On a clean machine - we ran the Distribution setup and the report ran. Ah ha !!

We found that the distribution has registered some extra dlls that we were not including in our own "managed" client install of the Crystal runtime. The dlls have to be registered, not "just in the \system32\ directory etc.

We are now isolating the exact dlls that need registering versus those that just need to be copied to the client pc. We know copied dlls work as the reports run perfectly with a dbf data source, but a report with a sql data source required the registered dll. Any help with this would be appreciated. We are looking at the distribution experts "setup.ini" file which includes a section [Self-Registering Files]. There are 50 files listed, many of which are operating system dlls - not all of these need to be registered surely.... We are also investigating the "setup.log" that is creted when the distribution is installed.

Again, thanks for your help

Blinder

No such thing as try, only do or do not : yoda

 

[IdoMillet]

Assuming you have Crystal Developer, have a look at the Runtime requirements online help. It describes all the dlls you need (depending on various contingencies such as database types, exporting requirements, etc.)

May the force be with you,
- Ido CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[blinder]

Yes we have the list of royalty free files

Our Distribution Setup Log file shows that a dll COMCAT.dll gets registered. This file is not listed on the royalty free file list - Its a Microsoft DLL !! - Why does it get included? -

Well - I'm sure we can find the answer to that one - Thanks for your help.

I get alot of use out of Tek-Tips - not always an exact match to questions I have, but enough similarities to give me a clue as to where I should be looking.

Bye for now - from sunny New Zealand

Blinder