Deploying an application with... 2

[benlinkknilneb]

Hey all,

I've got an app that I've created in VB.net, using an Access Database and Crystal Reports. The thing is, I can't find the files I need to install this app on another computer. I've got the whole program working up to the point where it calls the report... then I get a strange error. I could accept that... I didn't include Crystal in my Setup program, so I'm not surprised at all. However, then I start reading about "How to install Crystal Runtime"... in the help files. They send me to a directory that does not exist on my machine (C:\...\Crystal\redist) to get a merge module file. Obviously, I'm stuck because I don't have it. Can anyone help me sort this out? Maybe it would be easiest to start from scratch... what's the easiest way to get crystal reports to display? I'm not using anything fancy; this is a single-tier application, I'm not reporting anything off a server. The data comes into the program, gets processed, and gets passed to CR to create the report. That's all. Please help!

Ben

 

[RiverGuy]

See if they are in c:\program files\common files\merge modules. You must also register your copy of crystal and include the registration number in the setup project.

 

[benlinkknilneb]

Thanks for the tip, RiverGuy... it got me started. It's been a *REALLY* ugly couple of days now, and this is where I am:

I registered Crystal today. Our corporate office gave us the runaround, so I finally used the web-registration. I got my numbers, punched them in, everything went normally; I got the "Registration Complete" message. Then, I opened up one of the reports... but the registration window came back! I found the .msm files, right where you suggested, and added the 2 files that the help info talks about (database_enu and Managed). They added themselves into the program and it compiles fine. When I install this on another machine, the program runs to the point where I'm opening the report (all the database access & calculation works fine, this is just when I open the report) the program hangs and says something like this:

Cannot find keycodeV2.dll or invalid keycode. I know that keycodev2.dll is packaged into the app... so what should I do?

 

[RiverGuy]

Yeah, keycode is for registration. If I remember right, there are two registration numbers. Go to help, then Microsofot Visual Basic.Net. It should have your reg. number under Crystal Reports. You have to key that into the merge module property.

 

[benlinkknilneb]

Where do i put it in the merge module?

 

[RiverGuy]

There should be a space in the property pane. Its for regwiz.msm. Open up merge module properties, then there is a space for "License Key".

 

[benlinkknilneb]

Thanks so much... that fixed it; but I've run into another problem. Any time I try to run a report on another machine, it says that there was a "Query Engine Error" and gives a path in my C:\TEMP directory for a report whose filename starts with "temp". What's that? It seems like it's trying to create a report but can't find a template... but I thought my reports were included in the build. Did I miss something?

 

[RiverGuy]

It does make other .rpt files. I'll have to see if I can duplicate it. I've never received that error. Most the errors I've had have been with the report iteself, on formulas or summaries that appear on any machine I use.

 

[benlinkknilneb]

Never mind, RiverGuy...

I contacted Crystal's support site... within an hour of their response, I got the whole thing working perfectly.

I didn't have all the merge modules I needed to be able to deploy my program... needed VC_STL and one other one. Once I added these, the program installed on another computer and ran like a dream.

By the way, if you ever get stuck on a Crystal Reports problem, their support is actually helpful. Compared to some places I've been (cough, cough, Microsoft) it was easy to get the information I needed and their response was really quick.

 

[RiverGuy]

Cool. Its too bad its so much to get a CR report to work in a .Net.

 

[NipsMG]

Another cute little tidbit you guys might want to know about when deploying to a win98 system:

I was getting the same errors at first. After adding all of the required packages and putting the serial number into the properties window, I got a "unable to load report" error. Crystal's report site said it could be that crqe.dll wasn't registered because I didn't have the atl.dll on the local system.

I added the required packages and reinstalled, to no avail. I tried everything possible, exhausted all support options, called them, nothing worked. crqe.dll WOULD NOT register. Then I got the bright idea to get a dependency walker (

http://www.dependencywalker.com/),

which immediately notified me that dbghlp.dll was a required dependency, and was not present on the system.

This is/was not documented anywhere as a problem... and it appears (since this was a clean install of win98) that dbghelp is only present on win2k and up, not on 9x systems.

--NipsMG

 

[agrif98]

benlinkknilneb - What was the other merge module besides VC_STL that you had to add?

 

[benlinkknilneb]

My current list is as follows:

Database_Access_enu.msm
regwiz.msm
VC_CRT.msm
VC_STL.msm

I'm not sure if I need all of these... but I'm half-afraid to delete one and find out

regwiz is the one where you put the CR registration code to get the reports to display on someone else's machine, and the two VC ones were suggested by the tech-support guy. I forget where I read about the Database_Access one.

 

[agrif98]

Now I get this error..."The ordinal 58 could not be located in the dynamic link library atl.dll

 

[agrif98]

Now I am getting an error "Invalid Report File Path." I am compiling the .rpt file in with the application. If I have it set to be an Embedded Resource, does it matter if the Report Source property of the CrystalReportViewer is set to a location that the user doesn't have access to?

 

[NipsMG]

Agrif98:

What OS are you installing this on? If it's 98, it's the SAME EXACT PROBLEM I was just talking about.

Try this:

Manually register crqe.dll.
drop to command prompt

Type:

cd \Program Files\Common Files\Crystal Decisions\1.0\bin
regsvr32 crqe.dll

(if that doesn't work, try c:\winnt\system32\regsvr32 crqe.dll)

if yout get a loadlibrary failed message, you are missing dbghelp.dll. Put that file in the same directory as crqe.dll (or in system32), register it, then register crqe.dll. I was chasing this problem for EVER. :-/

--NipsMG