Changed field size not picked up

[mthompso]

I have had to resize an Access97 text field from 8 characters to 10 characters. It's a key field and used extensively in reports.

Crystal Reports 8.5 is stuck on the old size (string,8) and I've had no success in coercing this field to the new size. Needless to say the reports using this field show no data. Am I missing something obvious?

The field is contained in a .dsr file; I don't want to drop and reattach the table. It's big and most of its fields are used in the report.

Any guidance will be appreciated - Miles Thompson

 

[Roadkill150]

Try going to Database|verify database in crystal and see if this resolves it..
Cheers,
-Bruce Seagate Certified RCAD Specialist.
-Bruce Thuel-Chassaigne
roadkill150@hotmail.com

 

[mthompso]

Bruce,

Thanks for the suggestion. I should have mentioned that I tried:

1. Relocating the database, to force a new location

2. Verifying the database after the move.


The move was successful, and the database verification reported that the database was up to date. (Verified using the right-click pop-up.) Needless to say, that did not pick up the changed field size.

/mt

 

[Roadkill150]

I would check and see if this is a dbconn issue, can you browse the field from crystal, and if you can does the browse window populate? What happens if you try and create a test report off this table? does it show the 10 char field correctly?
-Bruce Seagate Certified RCAD Specialist.
-Bruce Thuel-Chassaigne
roadkill150@hotmail.com

 

[mthompso]

Bruce,

Tks for reply - when you say dbconn issue, do you mean that although I changed the location and set it anew, Crystal still connects to the old database?

I can browse the data, the window populates, but the summary info at the top displays Type: string, Length: 8, rather than string, 10. Records changed to the new format do not display, even in truncated form.

What I'll do is remove the database from the old location and see if that force CR to recognize the new one. (Strangely, the "set location" dialogue shows the new location, not the old one.) ... made the change ... No, that did not make any difference, it's as if the designer is "stuck".

Do you know of any way to manipulate the .dsr file? (I used to regularly manipulate the Visual FoxPro table which contained report definitions if wholesale changes had to be made.)

Any further thoughts/suggestions will be welcome.

Sorry for the delay in replying, but we had a big, unseasonably early snow storm and the power was out for about 8 hr.

Cheers - Miles

 

[Roadkill150]

Hello Miles,
Have you tried throwing together a test report and seeing if the string length still reports incorrectly? That is definitely the next step i would recommend.

If the length still reports incorrect on a freshly built report, I would say the issue lies either in the dbconnector or in the db itself.

-Bruce Seagate Certified RCAD Specialist.
-Bruce Thuel-Chassaigne
roadkill150@hotmail.com

 

[mthompso]

Yes, I did a test report and the correct string length is picked up.

I'm wondering where the info is hidden in the .dsx (I assume) file. I've looked at it with a hex editor, but can't discern patterns to indicate field lengths, etc. The strings which name the fields are there, as is location information.

I also saved the report as a regular .rpt, re-ran set location and verify database to see if that would make a difference. It didn't, still reports the field as an 8 char string.

If the report is embedded in my VB Project, how is the dbconnector involved? It would have to load data from one of the report files, would it not?

Regards - Miles (As usual, learning much more when things DON'T work. <g>)