Crystal to drop RDC support in 10?

[CrystalUserSince4]

I've heard a rumour that Crystal are going to drop support for the RDC in Crystal 10. I guess that would force everyone to go down the RAS route ($25K for more than 3 concurrent!).
Has anybody heard anything more definite?

 

[IdoMillet]

Doesn't sound plausible.

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[synapsevampire]

I doubt it.

They dropped the OCX in CR 9 for obvious reasons, but they have a very large Windows development community that cannot switch to pure browser, so I thin k this very unlikely.

Where did you hear/read this?

-k

 

[CrystalUserSince4]

You can still use RAS in windows development.
I heard it from a Crystal Partner in the US.
Don't forget Automation Server was CR5-7, my first thoughts were that by dropping the RDC it would sort out their current nonsensical licensing.

 

[craigber]

This doesn't make sense. The RDC is the currently recommended way to integrate CR with custom applications. The CRPE is very limited compared to the RDC.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[CrystalUserSince4]

Crystal 9 has documentation explaining how to migrate from the RDC to RAS.
RAS has the ability to modify reports without needing to pay for additional licenses.
Forget RAS8 - RAS9 has everything the RDC has.

I heard the rumour - I'm just seeing if anyone else had heard anything similar. The more you think about it, the more sense it makes. Crystal don't want to support to multiple programming interfaces - hence 2 were dropped in 9 and 1 was put on the backburner.

In the .Net world, COM is just a nuisance - hence RAS.

 

[craigber]

Huh? RAS uses COM. It uses CRPE, which is a COM Automation server.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[CrystalUserSince4]

Sorry, my mistake but don't shoot the messenger!
The RDC has been around since CR6 (as a late add on). It became useful round about CR8 (CR7 version was limited)
The presence of the free runtime used to be a marketing USP for Crystal, now they never mention it. They've recently changed their licensing (again).
RAS9 is very good and makes it easier to develop scalable apps than having the component.
Who knows? Perhaps the RDC is due to be dropped - the more you think about it the more sense it makes

 

[craigber]

Actually, it doesn't make sense to me. The RDC is full featured and exposes more capabilities than the CRPE, which is simply a wrapper around the old C++ API.

Also, the RDC and the .NET libraries are closely related in terms of capabilities, objects, methods, properties and events.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[CrystalUserSince4]

We're not talking about CRPE - we're talking about RAS.

 

[craigber]

RAS uses the CRPE.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[chelseatech]

As for .NET not using COM - it still supports it, and several of the Windows Forms controls are still the COM controls.

.NET has broken away from COM and has a better technology, but COM is still available.

I don't see CD taking the RDC away. We would need at least three versions of a working alternative that was better before they remvoed the RDC.

Use the OCX as an example. They produced the first working example in CR7, and it wasnt' until CR9, that the OCX is no longer available.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

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

 

[CrystalUserSince4]

Sorry guys - I've had this confirmed by a contact at Crystal. The RDC will stop being developed further in 10 and will be phased out at some time in a future release. Using the example of the old OCX and CRPEAUTO, we can probably expect to say farewell around CR12.

 

[synapsevampire]

Who is this contact at Crystal?

Please provide a name.

-k

 

[CrystalUserSince4]

I can't provide that. I'd never get information again.
You'll just have to wait until October to see for sure.

 

[synapsevampire]

Do you work for Dubuya?

Well given the BO merger forthcoming, R&D $ will probably go away anyway, so we may all be retired by the time ver. 12 hits...

-k