Make a Report a .exe file

[LisaAH]

Hi

In Crystal 8.5 and Crystal 9, how do you make a report into a .exe file, the reason I want to do this is to place it on a toolbar in some 3rd party software.

Thanks

Lisa

 

[PatrickIRL]

Previous versions of Crystal came with the option to allow you to do that but it's not in 8.5 It's no longer supported but there is an add-in that you can download from crystal (

http://www.businessobjects.com)

that will do the job. Can't remember the name offhand, sorry

Regards,

Patrick

 

[PatrickIRL]

Found this link on Thread 146-641843, might want to look it up

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/communityCS/FilesAndUpdates/scr8_distr_expert.exe.asp

Regards,

Patrick

 

[MrTBC]

I am looking into this at the moment as well. Does the Report Application Server only work with Crystal Reports v9 and above? If I want to distribute reports using 8.5 is this add-in to compile report my only option.

Thanks very much.

 

[Mike Lewis]

MrTBCC,

The link that Patrick posted was for an add-on that lets you compile a report into a self-contained EXE file. It's not really a Report Application Server issue. The idea is that the you put a shortcut to the EXE on the user's desktop, so that the user will be able to view and print the report (but not change the design) just by double-clicking.

The add-on apprarently only works with 8.x, but I believe there is another version for 9.0.

MrTBC and LisaAH,

If you have suitable programming skills, an alternative approach would be to write a small program (in the language of your choice) to print or display the report. If you have the CR 8.x or 9.0 Developer Edition, you can do that by means of the RDC.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[LisaAH]

Thanks very much, what is RDC? (sorry to be thick)

 

[MrTBC]

Thank you Mike. I am trying to look at different options for distribution of reports at the moment. I would prefer to avoid the exe file route if there are other alternatives for 8.5.

Many Thanks.

 

[mrmovie]

sorry to drop in on this thread,
surely it is possible to start the crystal.exe with command line parameters

crystal.exe "path to rpt file" /print

if not then who knows about the object model exposed to vbscript for instance?

 

[Mike Lewis]

LisaAH,

what is RDC? (sorry to be thick)

Not thick. I should have been more explicit.

The RDC (report design component) is a COM library that comes with CR Developer Edition. Programmers use it to develop applications that can interact with CR reports (print them, preview them, refresh them, export them, and change their desgn under program control). They can then install their programs, along with certain DLLs, on a user's system. The users can thereby interact with the reports even if they don't have CR installed.

My original point was that you can use the RDC, in effect, to write your own CR viewer, so that users can print or preview a report, even if they don't have CR. But you need to be a programmer to set that up.


Mike



Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

Nrmovie,

surely it is possible to start the crystal.exe with command line parameters

Yes, but only if the user has CR installed. The other options under discussion here don't have that requirement.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[IdoMillet]

Another alternative is to use one of the 3rd-party report viewers listed at:

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com