Integration of CR9 and ERP application

[seckpin]

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to integrate CR9 into an ERP application (such as Navision Attain)? The idea is to have the users to view or even manipulate the reports created with CR9 on their PCs (that do not have CR9 installed) launched from within the ERP application.

Thks.

 

[rosalindr]

We used to do this with the Report Compiler, which created an executable that we could add to our system menu to open the report in the Crystal runtime viewer.

Without the compiler or Report Distribution Expert (which was eliminated for Crystal 9), you have to program your own report.exe in VB or C++. There is a good chapter on how to do this in George Peck's "Complete Reference" books.

After you create the executable that will open the report in the Crystal runtime viewer, you need to attach it to a menu or program in your ERP application. Most ERP applications today offer the ability to run other programs and documents from within their applications. I haven't used Navision Attain, so I can't tell you how to do it in that particular application.

Roz

http://www.mytrainingdept.com

 

[dowyse]

I was looking for people who have used Navision/Attain with Crystal Reports and I found your posting. Did you get Crystal to work with Navision?

 

[seckpin]

I wasn't able to integrate CR into Navision because i couldn't even get the first step worked, which was to make a compiled report (*.exe) and call it from Navision.

I've successfully created reports in CR with data drawn from Navision using ODBC, but after that still coulnd't distribute the reports to clients that didn't have CR installed. I've also tried using VB to compile the reports attached with the corresponding DLL files, but it didn't seem to work too. The problems seemed to be due to the correct DLLs must be included (which were quite a lot) and different versions of OS (e.g. WIN98 vs. WIN2K) require different DLLs.

The idea is that if you are able to create the compile report and deploy it to clients without CR installed, to integrate it into Navision wouldn't be much problem, as all you have to do is to write a CodeUnit in Navision to launch the compile report.