Crystal Report version compatibility

[Iwillhandleit888]

Our company has an old application software using VB5 and Crystal Report 4 for creating reports. We need to up-grade to the current version. I tried Crystal Report XI, it will open the report but after I have saved the file and try to run the report, has trouble in Loading the file.

What version of higher version of crystal report can I use? If it is too old, where can I find it? Thanks.

 

[chelseatech]

Crystal reports and VB have a long History of working together closely. VB 5 and CR 4 is going back a long while and brings back memories of .... (pause for reflection)

VB5 and CR 4 used the OCX object to connect the pieces together. The OCX was dropped in CR 8/8.5 and replaced by the RDC object (which first appeared in CR 7).

So if you only go up a couple of versions you will need a rewrite of the VB code to use a new object.

VB6 was replaced by Visual Basic.Net and it's now in Visual Studio.Net 2008. The free Express edition of VS doesn't include any CR. You will need to buy a copy of a Developer edition.

VS.Net uses the RAS object. It no longer supports the RDC and CR 2008 is RAS only. No OCX or RDC. There would be more of a task to migrate the other code to .Net. Thats a major change in your application architecture.

There might be another approach. Our 3rd party viewers and schedulers already use these objects, and can be called via a command line in your existing VB 5 app. Contact me via our web site below.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

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

 

[MJRBIM]

When you say "I tried Crystal Report XI, it will open the report but after I have saved the file and try to run the report, has trouble in Loading the file" - do you mean that the upgraded RPT had problems running within the stand-alone Crystal Reports XI application on the desktop, or just when running from your VB application...?