Crystal Viewer 1

[goolawah]

I have been using Crystal V7 for years because I had users who preferred the free run-time distribution it provided.

Have now (finally) upgraded to Crystal XI and, so far, it looks pretty simple to convert my knowledge, and reports, to this version.

Some users will now purchase Crystal XI but some may resist. I believe there is a report viewer available that would allow me to distribute reports to users who don't have Crystal XI.

Any recommendations?

Cheers,

 

[synapsevampire]

There are numerous:

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

Depends upon what features you seek.

I typically suggest VisualCut or one of Ido's products beause I have experience with it.

-k

 

[IdoMillet]

Actually, my "Visual CUT" software is an overkill if all you need is a viewer. In such a case, you can consider my "DataLink Viewer" or any of the other viewers listed at

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

- Ido

view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[DBean]

Ido,

After looking at your products online I started to wonder something. Do your products use RDC, the ActiveX viewer, or do they use something completely different to view/export ?

I have similar tools that are locked in because they use RDC and BO's licensing is pretty harsh. I wondered if there was another 'developer' tool that could be used to preview and export ?
[It looks like you use the AX viewer, but I was not certain]

I am building a burst reporter, but it is tied to a CRM system because it also feeds results/progress back into a database... Otherwise it is somewhat similar to Visual CUT. I would like to share it with other users of the CRM, but RDC makes that impossible.

 

[AndrewBaines]

The licensing keeps changing. The RDC was only limited if you used the bits that changed reports. Viewing was free for windows apps.
In XI R2, runtime is still free for client applications. Where you need a license is for server based (including Citrix/RDC) applications. In that situation, each site needs 1 copy of CR Developer.
If all you want is a simple report viewer, take a look at my web site. rptView lets you view reports FOC. If you need to refresh, there's a single charge per site (less than a copy of CR Dev!).


Andrew Baines

http://www.pursuittechnology.co.uk

 

[DBean]

Andrew

That is interesting. Is there anywhere where I can find the specifics of the actual license terms? Every time I talk to Crystal they (of course) tell me that every user would need to purchase a copy of developer to use any RDC app.

My app specifically does these things: 1. load a report, 2. set the datasource authentication-host-catalog, 3. set parameter values, 4. export the report in a user selected format, 5. export the report in HTML and alter the HTML to use it as a message body. 6. attach the exported form to the email.

I am not sure what constitutes changing the report, but the Crystal folks seemed to think that changing anything about the datasource did...

I do include the TLB for RDC, but I'm not completely certain that I need to.

 

[AndrewBaines]

There's a license doc on the CD. Only 3 iffy bits:
1) Can't sell something that competes with their products (not defined!)
2) Can't translate to other report formats (though there are products that do!)
3) Definition of server apps to include Citrix.

Here's the relevant part of the license for free client stuff:

4.2.4 Distribution of Client Applications. Business Objects grants you a personal, nonexclusive, limited license to Distribute Client Applications to end users, if you comply with all of the terms herein, including without limitation section 4.2.6. If you Distribute Client Applications utilizing the RCAPI (“RCAPI Applications”), you must also acquire a licensed copy of Crystal Reports Developer for each customer to whom you distribute that Client Application.


So you only need a copy of Crystal if you use the RCAPI (fair enough really). The RCAPI used to be pretty obvious as it through up a text-box while you were debugging in VB6. That doesn't happen any more, and there's no mention of the limited methods in the license. However, the parameters definitely not part of RCAPI.

Andrew Baines

http://www.pursuittechnology.co.uk

 

[DBean]

Andrew, thanks for your help...

I just trolled around a bit on the BO site and found an article that defined the RCAPI calls for Crystal 9.0 Assuming they have not changed the definition of which API calls are RCAPI it sounds like I am in the clear.

The V9 RCAPI calls listed in this article:

http://technicalsupport.businessobj...sliceId=&dialogID=3756252&stateId=1 0 3752768

all relate to adding sections, fields, databases, etc. They do really aim more at changing the report itself. I did not see any of the objects/methods I use listed so I suspect I can distribute this app after all.

The app requires RDC to operate though. Is it 'legal' to distribute an MSI built using the merge modules ? I did not modify the MSI to include licensing, the app does that with setlicense but is redistribution of those components allowed ? (wow they sure are big !)

Dave Bean

 

[AndrewBaines]

Yes, BO include all the MSM that you need on the CD, but it's better to download the latest.

There did used to be one strange method that triggered the RCAPI licensing, though I can't remember the exact details. Something to do with picking up the properties of a cross-tab. I always assumed it was a mistake!

Andrew Baines

http://www.pursuittechnology.co.uk