Exporting from the Viewer - 8.5 / .Net / 9

[aBill]

Ok. I have a question here regarding exporting reports from the crystal viewer control.

I wrote an application in VB6 that used the Crystal Viewer from 8.5. Everything works smooth. When you export from the viewer you have a ton of export type options and then additional formatting options.

I have re-written the application using VB.Net and the CR.Net components. The new Crystal Viewer Control does not appear to have anywhere near the export capabilities of the older version. I am specifically looking for the ability to distingiuish save to disk or send to application or send to mail, and then the ability to format the exported report. Example... using the cr8.5 control I can export to an RPT or XLS... if I choose XLS I can then pick all these great column formating options.

My question is... Are these functions just not avavilbe in CR.Net or am I doing something wrong. If they are absent, then are they included in new controls that come with CR9?

I appreaciate any help on this one.

Thanks.

 

[mbutch]

These options are available, just not through the Crystal Viewer. You can do it using the CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine Namespace and CrystalDecisions.Shared Namespace.

 

[aBill]

Yup. Noticed that too. The only formating options I am truley interested in are the ones allowing me to specifiy what columns to use and sort and all that good stuff when exporting to an XLS file. The 8.5 viewer would bring up a second dialog allowing my to pick these options when exporting from the 8.5 viewer. The .Net one just allows a blankety plain export to XLS. The options exposed through the engine do not seem to cover the everything allowed in the previous version.

Point me in the right direction if i am getting it wrong.

 

[mbutch]

You would have to create your own interface if you wanted the options to be available to your users, but if you are exporting with the same options every time, you probably just need a textbox for the exported file name. You are correct that there are less options for excel export.

 

[aBill]

Hmm. Yeah, I was thinking I was going to have to built the dialogs myself.

Do you know if those options are restored in a CR9 version of the Viewer control (or is there even a different cr9v viewer) or is this just the way it's going to be from now on?

I do not have much info on CR9 as yet, but if it will save me some development time on mikeymouse requests from the higher-ups (I am envisioning more changes), then it would be worth the upgrades.