Crystal Reports Parameter Caching

[JStandard]

Greetings,

Crystal Reports Professional 9.2.3.1256 on a SQL Server 2000 Database.

I have a report with several Crystal Parameters, some text, some numbers, and when I run the report on my machine, via Crystal Developer, enter some parameters, run the report, close down Crystal, reopen it and run the report again, the parameters I entered in the intial run are still populated when I select "Prompt for New Parameters".

When a user with a third-party viewer runs the report and goes through the exact same process, the previous parameter values are not cached and they must be entered in every iteration of running the report.

I am attempting to nail down whether it is some setting or report configuration or variable way I can cache them on my end or if this is more likely a deficiency in the third-party Crystal Viewer.

The only related piece I could find on this from the Crystal KBase is this article, but it claims this issue only applies to Crystal 10 and has a hotfix for it.

http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2016000.asp

Any input is appreciated as I'm a bit stuck at this point.

Thanks kindly,

Jeff.

 

[smcnulty2000]

I would ask the vendor of the third-party viewer. Which viewer, BTW?

But consider: when you have developer open, you have the ability to save changes to a report. When you open a report with a viewer, you usually don't.

Crystal treats a parameter value as something saved with the report, as I recall. Part of 'save data with report'. It doesn't dump a value to the registry or to an ini file (as far as I've ever seen anyway).

If the 3rd party viewer vendor had a way to save it it would be with another file somewhere on the machine, or they'd be altering the original file.

If you use a web-based viewer, there are ways to strip previous values out of a cookie or out of a URL, but the location of the parameter values is still outside of the report itself. If that's what you are doing, try a trick like that. If User A uses your web interface to get to the report with the parameters used previously, you'd want a cookie. If User B needs to have the values that User A put in as the default, you have to store it in a different way somewhere on the application side.

Good luck.

scottm.

 

[JStandard]

Scott,

The viewer, and why I didn't mention it, is actually some very light-weight viewer built by a company called Financial Technologies, released with their Investran Accounting product. I would actually be a bit surprised if anyone on here has used Investran, and even more if they used the custom Crystal Reports viewer (If so, definitely drop me a line on here, I'm looking for fellow Investran Report Writers to exchange reporting hacks with! )

It is a desktop viewer and not web-based. I've been considering purchasing another, more robust 3rd-party viewer for the company to use, but it would be a hard sell for quite a few reasons.

Your answer is in-line with everything I've observed and found thus far, so I'm fairly certain at this point I'm limited to the capabilities (and incapabilities) of the viewer.

I appreciate the response, thanks Scott,

Jeff.

 

[smcnulty2000]

You're welcome,

I asked about the viewer for two reasons:

1. I might want to know about another viewer.

2. I might be able to do a web search for something that you may have missed when you looked.

You never know, too. Someone here may have known something specific about it. Then you'd be sorry you didn't mention it. (Although I don't know it, so there you go. But you never know who will read the question.)

scottm.

 

[chelseatech]

See if the report file is saved with data (on the File Menu). Untick "Save data with Report", save the file and see if the parameter values are still there.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

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