Enterprise V8.5 vs. V9.0 - worth the upgrade? 1

[jfcox]

Hi,

We're running Enterprise V 8.5 in a web environment. It's okay but can be really clunky some times. Is Version 9 any better and is there enough added features to warrant an upgrade (like $1600 worth)? I'd appreciate some opinions if anyone has done this.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[synapsevampire]

What aspect is clunky now?

9 represents a leap forward, and requires real iron to run on now.

There are numerous advantages to CR 9 over CR 8.5, the most telling might be the object repository and the ability to use real SQL.

-k

 

[MJRBIM]

If you aren't planning on doing the upgrade until early 2004, Crystal Enterprise 10 should be in general release...so you might consider the jump from 8.5 to 10 skipping 9 all together.

 

[leonbutler]

I upgraded to V9 shortly after receiving my upgrade pack from Crystal.

Was it worth it? In some respects it was and others not.

The new reporting engine built into CR9/CE9 actually slowed down a lot of my reports. For example one report which ran from my Progress DB took around 5mins to complete - with CR9/CE9 it now takes 3hrs. Not very good at all. This appears to be the same for a number of reports constructed in the same manner. Crystal stated that as I was using ODBC to connect to my DB that performance wouldn't be great. They weren't wrong. This should be sorted for CE10, so I'm told.

Some areas have improved - some of the reports I run are now quicker. The look and feel of CR9 is better, and it also seems more stable (CR8.5 crashed repeatedly - usually when saving to APS and using Select statements in formulae).

Rather than splashing out for the upgrade you should consider purchasing a support pack which entitles you to free upgrades. The cost of support is worth the peace of mind alone - I find that CD have great tech support. The upgrade side of things is great also - means you keep up to date and allows you to get all the latest support info.

 

[gashandler]

Unless you're planning on using the Crystal Repository and/or Crystal Reports 9 I would hold off on upgrading to CE9. I upgraded a couple months ago and I would have just waited for CE10 if I had known it was coming out this soon. I moved my installation to better hardware running CE9 and it actually ran reports slower (in some cases considerably slower). If I had to do it over again I would have stayed with CE85 because I'm not even using the CE9 enhancements. Live and learn.

 

[synapsevampire]

If your report slowed down that much I'd suggest that it's a design issue, not CE 9.

Perhaps you'd be better served posting a request for help rather than offering exception processing as the rule, it sped up the 3 contracts worth of reports I've ran it on, and the server is much more stable.

Check your SQL pass through, this may be your culprit.

-k