Crystal RAS Connection Info

[marcusw]

Hi,

I'm about to develop an ASP application that executes a Crystal report. There are two things I need to establish:-

1. How can I pass the connection and DB login information to the report.

2. What does it mean to run the report 'managed' or 'unmanaged'?

I'm using Crystal Reports Developer 9 and the version of RAS/Enterprise that comes with it. Ideally, I'd like to be able to run the report and monitor it's status (Pending, Failed or Success etc).

If anybody could give me some information or even post up some simple code to get me started I'd be grateful.

Regards,

Marcus

 

[Packya]

Look for the web developer guide that comes with the installation. The link is available on the "Launch Pad".

 

[chelseatech]

Here is my interpretation of Managed vs UnManaged web delivered reports.

In the Beginning was Seagate Info which kept a database of reports and when to run them. Info let you schedule and distribute reports. This became the grandfather of all "managed" reports.

Then CR7 introduced the Web Component Server and Web Page Server. Create a Web Folder, put your rpt in there and access it via a URL

http://server/webfolder/this.rpt

- This is the origin of "Unmanaged Reports"

CR8.0 used the Web Component Server. So reports were all "unmanaged"

CR8.5 introduced Crystal Enterprise Std Edition. Which used the DB from Seagate Info. So suddenly web reports could be managed.

CR9.0 is back to a Service component (although it is now called RAS). However, if you've bought Crystal Enterprise, you have the Db of reports to use.

From what I can see, "Unmanaged" reports are called via a URL and all the stuff you want to control it are in the URL, or asked by the web server.

"Managed" reports can do some useful things like automatically schedule, rememebr the DB connection information, or preload parameters. Because all that sort of stuff is stored in the database.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

http://www.chelseatech.co.nz/pubs.htm