Crystal Reports with Visual Studio and SQL Express

[stroyer74]

I'm running into a problem with Crystal Reports that users view from within our application created with Visual Studio. I've been able to narrow it down to MS SQL Express vs. MS SQL Standard.

For testing purposes,

Database: I have a test table with two columns: rowid (int) and data (varchar(50)). There are 10 rows in the test table.
Report: The report is showing the 10 rows, no criteria ... just display all.
Program: Visual Studio vb.net 2010 app, using Crystal Report viewer control.

When SQL 2012 Express is installed, it is installed with the default instance option, so it is running similar to how SQL 2012 Standard does - I am able to connect to it from my development workstation using SQL Manager, just as I would any other SQL server.

When I run the app on my development workstation, it shows the report without any issues. It pops up the Crystal login screen:
Server Name: garfield
Database: Test
Login ID: sa
Password: {blank}
I enter my password, and it displays the report.


When I run the app from any client workstation and the database is MS SQL 2012 Standard, it functions exactly as it does on my development workstation. But if the database is MS SQL 2012 Express, the Crystal login screen pops up like this:
Server Name: garfield
Database: {blank} {greyed out, cannot type in it}
Login ID: sa
Password: {blank}
I enter my password, and it gives me "Login Failed. Please try again."

I've tried SQL 2008 Standard and SQL 2008 Express, with the same results.
I've tried Visual Studio 2008, with the same results.

I've searched online over and over, but am coming up with nothing that seems to help. Anyone else have experience with this?

Thanks,
Sheldon

 

[LyleU]

Sheldon,

The Express Editions of MS SQL Server install by default with the ability to accept remote connections turned off. Sounds like this is what you are running into.


Lyle
----
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." - Arthur C. Clarke.

 

[stroyer74]

Sounds like a good place to start. I know I had to enable the TCP/IP protocol, but don't recall ever messing with remote connections. I see that I will have to restart the services before the change takes affect, so I'll give it a try after users go home for the day.

 

[stroyer74]

Gave that a try, but I guess I should have realized I already had Remote Connections enabled, otherwise I wouldn't be able to access the SQL Server from my development workstaion, right? I've gone through several online walkthroughs to make sure I wasn't missing something when enabling Remote Connections, and I'm pretty sure I've got it covered.

Yet, still getting the same results. Any other ideas I could test?

 

[stroyer74]

Interesting update on my problem. If a user has SQL Server Management Studio installed on their workstation, the reports will display without a problem. Obviously there is something within the Management Studio install package that gets me what I need. Now it is just a matter of narrowing down what that is.

 

[LyleU]

Sheldon,

It almost sounds like your users do not have permissions to access the database. Are you using Mixed Authentication or Windows Authentication for access.


Lyle
----
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." - Arthur C. Clarke.

 

[stroyer74]

Mixed Authentication: My program that they run to report through passes the connection information. That's what is so weird - before installing the SQL Server Management Studio, it won't work, but after installing SQL Server Management Studio, it does work.

 

[hilfy]

Do you have the SQL Client installed on the workstations? Reports can't access the database if the client software is not installed. This would also explain why it works if SQL Server Management Studio is installed - those workstations had the client software installed with SSMS.

-Dell

DecisionFirst Technologies - Six-time SAP BusinessObjects Solution Partner of the Year

http://www.decisionfirst.com

 

[stroyer74]

That's the ticket right there! Thanks hilfy! A simple SQL Server 2008 Client download and install, and everything works fine. Thanks again for the help.