Crystal Reports 8.5 Vs 10 6

[omesh620]

Hi! My company is considering upgrading from CR 8.5 to CR 10 and I am trying to see if there is a whole lot of difference as far as practical uses between these two versions. Anyone have some experience to be able to tell what the major differences are that make CR 10 more useful than CR 8.5 (Practically)?

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Check the Business Objects site to see what's new.

Lots of new stuff, but it may not be better, depending on what you use it for.

 

[Johnsf]

Do reports written in 8.5 run seamlessly without any changes in Crystal 10?

Cheers, John

 

[omesh620]

I guess the confusion I have here is that I am supposed to advise on whether we should do this upgrade or not. I do recall that the sales rep said that we will be able to integrate Business objects with Crystal reports if we get the upgrade. I am also considering going through the certification process and I am not sure if I should insist on CR10 or just go through whichever version 8.5 or higher. one of the things we will like to be able to do with V10 is create some of the formulas that are clumsy with 8.5. Is 10 more user friendly as far as the formulas?

 

[Madawc]

We use Crystal 8.5 and it does the job well enough. I'd like the extras that you get with higher versions, but not if I had to pay for it.

Things I know about are:
a) Strings more the 255 characters
b) Blank subreports can be easily suppressed
c) A central repository that allows you to reuse formulae
d) Unicode supported (which means non-European scripts)

Madawc Williams (East Anglia)

 

[pgtek]

Hi

We have version 8.5 here and also version 10
We only used version 10 for we had a problem with dot net in the xml import.
We still used ver 8.5 and it does the work just fine.
any report done in version 8.5 can be imported in version 10
but if the report is save in version 10 you can't run them in version 8.5 and lots of our customer are using 8.5
Version 11 will be oput this fall.
whit the new features in version 10 is fine, but to my opion not worth the extra $$$$$.
8.5 does the job real good but have to make formula to compensated for version 10 features.
but i get paid for that LOL LOL

cheers

pgtek

 

[kenhamady]

I teach and work with versions 6 to 10 and still use v8.5 for 95% of my internal reporting. I have a few reports I have to run in v9 or v10 because they need to parse memo fields. I have a review of the improvements going from v8.5 to v9 and going to v10. Note that the report designer in v9 and v10 are almost indistinguishable:

Review of v9:

http://www.kenhamady.com/news0209.html

Review of v10:

http://www.kenhamady.com/news0401.html

The formula editor is pretty much the same, but you now have access to ALL formulas in one window, not just formula fields.

Most v8.5 reports can be run in the newer versions with no changes, however I have found that reports using SQL Server native client now interpret outer joins differently. There might be a few other minor differences.



Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Expert's Guide to Formulas / Tips and Tricks / Guide to Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

- TEK2(AT)kenhamady.com

 

[crystalreporting]

I agree with Ken - the differences between 6 and 7 were minor, the differences between 7 and 8.5 were huge, and of great benefit when developing reports (notice I left 8 out altogether). The differences between 8.5 and 9 or 8.5 and 10 are minor, and not worth the upgrade in my opinion. Sure the repository (introduced in 9) is slick, but they took it away in 10, so there's little point in using it. In summary, 8.5 seems to have the 'robustness' of the earlier versions, with 90% of the features of the latest versions - I'm sticking with 8.5 until I need to do otherwise.

Peter Shirley

http://www.linkcorp.com

 

[mychal]

Wait! There is no repository in 10? Can we get a second confirmation on that? Why would they take it away? That seems like the best difference in the world between 8.5 and 9. Ugh.

 

[rhinok]

Reasons to upgrade from 8.5 to 10:

SQL Commands
Performance Information Analysis

The repository was moved into CE10 because of business views. It also makes sense from a security standpoint. Since Enterprise is included with the media for CR10 Pro, Dev and Advanced, all you need to do is install CE (Express, Pro and Premium all have the Object Repository) and you can use the repository.


~Kurt

 

[mychal]

Good answer. Here's a follow-up question.

I remember CE 8 and 8.5 on my workstation was a bear. And getting it off the machine was nearly impossible. So, for example, when I needed the publishing wizard, I would install ONLY the publishing wizard from CE, because CE 8/8.5 allowed me the ability to pick and choose.

How much free choice do I have when installing CE? I don't want that whole monstrosity on my laptop! I'm just kidding about the monstrosity comment (sort of). I actually love CE, but the several times I placed it onto a non-server machine, it was rough on my processor and ability to do other things.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Hi,

If you select the "custom installation" you can pick and choose which componets will be installed.

Nuffsaid.

 

[kenhamady]

There is a repository in 10, but ONLY if you are running Crystal Enterprise. I had a customer who 'upgraded' from 9 to 10 and lost the ability to use their repository. They decided not to spend the money to run CE just for the repository. They wanted a refund for the upgrade but they got the upgrade for 'free' under maintenance and so they could not. They could not get a refund on maintenance even though the upgrade from 9 to 10 actually downgraded their software.

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Expert's Guide to Formulas / Tips and Tricks / Guide to Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

- TEK2(AT)kenhamady.com

 

[kenhamady]

As Kurt said, CE Express IS free and comes with a Repository. However the free version is limited to 5 specific people (named users). Each user above that is about $450 and Express doesn't support concurrent users.

My customer was happy with a non-web based repository. The only reason that I can think of for making the new config the ONLY option is revenue enhancement.

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Expert's Guide to Formulas / Tips and Tricks / Guide to Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

- TEK2(AT)kenhamady.com

 

[rhinok]

That's a good point Ken. I participated in a focus group during CDUGNA this year and recommended that they continue to offer the .mdb-based repository for developers that choose not to implement CE.

The Business Objects staff was surprised that this was an issue. I likened it to installing CE. You can house the System Database in Sql Server, Oracle, etc..., but CE will attempt to install the MSDE by default. My recommendation for CR products was that it install the local repository by default, but allow you to migrate to CE if desired (for integrated security and Business Views support, for example).

Hopefully, somebody listened...


~Kurt

 

[mychal]

I suppose we'll have to wait until v.11 comes out. But if Ken is right, then we won't be getting good news along the lines of the repository.

 

[gtwood]

Another thing to watch out for in moving up from version 8.5 is the export formats. If you have users that export reports to MS Word or MS Excel they probably will be disappointed with the new formats. For instance the export to MS Word used to give you a standard Word document. Now all the objects are exported to Text Frames! The export to Excel is equally frustrating, with more formatting issues.

Hope this helps in your decision.

 

[MP3GOD]

Im a consultant in West MI and am loking at doing conversion from CR8 or CR8.5 (not sure yet which they have)to CR10. What can I expect problem wise if they are using CR8 in bringing the reports over? Also, any one have a good link for some solid info on CE as that will part of the upgrade.

TIA, this thread has already been a great help!

DwD

 

[phersh]

Hi,

This is a great thread. Thanks Ken and all.

Would someone be able to point me to a discussion of the differences between CR Professional and Developer - perhaps for both 8.5 and 10?

Thanks,
Phil

 

[kenhamady]

There is no difference in the report design environment.
Developer gives you tools needed to embed CR in an application. The following article might help:

http://www.kenhamady.com/news0402.html

Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Expert's Guide to Formulas / Tips and Tricks / Guide to Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

- TEK2(AT)kenhamady.com