How to set ActiveX as the default viewer in CE10

[mdwyer]

I have gone into the CMC as administrator, to Preferences, and set Viewer: to ActiveX.

I have also gone into the CMC with my personal logon and set Preferences / Viewer: to ActiveX.

But whenever I try to view a report I get the DHTML viewer. I have put code in rptviewer.csp to tell me what the cookie (GetSubCookie("ePortfolio_prefs", "vwr")) is returning, and it is the value 6. This is identifed as Advanced DHTML Viewer and is mapped to the string "html_interactive". The "actx" string is mapped from vwr value 0.

I have looked in C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\Cookies for cookies from the CE server. There are 2, mike@devstar[2].txt and mike@devstar2002[2].txt. Neither file contains the string "ePortfolio_prefs".

I really don't understand cookies well enough to troubleshoot this, but I may also be missing something on the CE admin side.

Any help? Thanks!

 

[mdwyer]

Followup:
Yes I am using IE. Firefox does cause the csp code to default to the DHTML viewer. But if I force the code to set actx, the ActiveX viewer is successfully used.

(The activex control had to be re-installed, even though it is my default viewer for CE9. I found that interesting - and aggravating.)

 

[mdwyer]

<unprintable remark>!

Did Crystal Decisions outsource development of CE? They deserve to be bought by a company named BO.

Log on to ePortfolio, select Preferences. Just below the standard are the words "General Preferences | Crystal Report Preferences". Look closely, because the two terms are different colors. "Crystal Report Preferences" is a LINK!

And guess what's on the rptsettings page. Yup!

View my reports using the ... [b]()[/b] ActiveX viewer.

I found this, not by looking closely at the Prefs page but in resolving code differences between v9 and v10 customizations.

Is there a setting somewhere that lets the admin turn off the "Crystal Report Preferences" link to keep users away from those options? That's the only reason I can think of for putting the 4 report preferences on their own page.

 

[cutiger93]

mdyer,
I had this same issue and I was able to resolve it by deleting my cookies. This allowed the proper viewer to be show. I do not think there is a way to turn off the Crystal Report Preferences link. I had to modify the code.

 

[KingfisherINC]

I agree that the UI is very bad, they should have made these tabs much easier to see. Look on the bright side, it’s probably all going to change again in 11

The reason for the "tabs", AFAIK, is that when you have CE Premium you get yet another tab for Crystal Analysis and can control that default viewer too.

The only none code option you have is to remove all preference options for all users.

Kingfisher [CECP]

 

[mdwyer]

Would removing ALL preference options eliminate the ability to change passwords too?

I did modify the csp code to display the "tabs" more clearly, using [brackets and underlines] and moving the current "tab" name into the black bar on the header. I think it will be much clearer to the users now, short of a truly tabbed appearance. I did toy with submit-buttons, but the code change was more involved than the benefit.

 

[bvroadrunner]

The other problem you have with the DHTML vs. the ActiveX Viewer is security:

We are accessing a SQL Server Analysis cube that has security on set by user on a specific dimension (location in this case). The security is applied in the database (cube). Logging into ePortfolio using the Active-X viewer correctly uses the security. Using the DHTML OLAP viewer the end user can see everything! Crystal help desk acknowledges that this is working correctly. The Active X viewer connects to the cube directly. The DHTML viewer connects through the RAS Server and uses a "generic" id to connect to the cube.

Their solution is to make Active X the default AND don't allow users to change their preferences. The problems with that is that the main control to change all users' viewers to Active X does not work (this too was acknowledged by Crystal), users can no longer change their password or change the other preferences

 

[MJRBIM]

APOS has a 3rd party freeware tool for setting the preferences including Viewer.

It's an OK tool --- for freeware -- nothing fancy.

I use it to force everyone to the ActiveX Viewer.

 

[mdwyer]

It's a lousy tool, even for freeware. Not something that gives me good feelings about APOS. I think I may have posted more specific criticisms in another thread after actually trying it out. But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

[jraheja]

I changed the 'Crystal Report Preferences' to 'Activex viewer. However when I call my reports using URL href="/MBRSVCDEV/crystal/enterprise10/admin/en/viewrpt.cwr?id=489". I still get the default viewer and it keeps prompting. When will my application work!

 

[jraheja]

Hey guys,

If you are using URL and you add 'init=actx' in your URL for each report called, you will definitely get the Activex viewer...e.g
href="/yourserver/crystal/enterprise10/admin/en/viewrpt.cwr?id=488&user0=pjurado&password0=pjurado&init=actx