ODBC driver's for XIR2 (Oracle)

[ScottWebb]

I hope you don't mind a couple of questions:

1. I don't yet have XIR2, current v9. But was wondering does XRR2 install it's own ODBC for Oracle (as it did with v9)
2. Is the XIR2 driver, the recommended ODBC driver to use (as compared to Oracles own driver)?

3. Assuming the above is true, if I'm distributing a runtime version of XIR2, how do I distribute the Oracle ODBC driver for XIR2? (BO did have an article for distributing v9 drivers but I don't see equivalent for XIR2)

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If at all possible, avoid the ODBC method of connecting
to Oracle, use the Oracle Server ( native ) connection instead..

ODBC introduces additional overhead and can cause hard to debug errors..

If you MUST ( for some reason) use ODBC, then use the latest Wire Protocol versions
( from the Business Objects site :

http://www.businessobjects.com/products/downloadcenter/crystalreportsxi.asp

)
since they do not impose much overhead and can be used even if no Oracle client software is installed on the workstation..Be sure to use the correct version based on your CR version



To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[ScottWebb]

Hi,

Thanks for the response,I've not used the native connection before but correct me if I'm wrong.

If I use the native oracle connection, then the database details are hardcoded into the report. Such that if I'm releasing from DEV>TEST>LIVE then each time I must modify the report.

If the above is true, looks like I'm best using the Wire Protocol versions.

Scott

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
The same thing applies to whatever method you use..The report saves the database information and, unless you change it when run, will use it.

Changing the database ( actually, the instance) used is the same for either method..







To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[ScottWebb]

Hi,

Sorry to disagree but that's not what's happening for me at the moment. For example:-

I create a report, say report1.rpt against an Oracle ODBC named DATABASE1 - within the DSN setup I tell it to use a database called Oracle-Test.

I run the report and get the data. I now close Crystal.

I then change the DSN to use a database called Oracle-Live (identical structure as Oracle-Test), I now reopen report1.rpt and run report, data returned is for Oracle-Live.

As I see it, I've been able to rerun my report against live without making changes to my Crystal Report.

Scott

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Constantly changing the same DSN to 'point' to different
instances is a lot of work ; when using the Oracle Server method all you need do is change the 'Service' entry when prompted to log in to the database..

I have many reports that can be directed to any of 3 instances ( like yours, Dev/Test/Prod ) with just that one step - and since I have to enter the password anyway, adding the service is no real burden)





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[hilfy]

Turkbear,
I believe there are problems with that if the schema owners are different between the environments because Crystal includes the schema owner for each table it its SQL.

We've run into that problem in the past. In Crystal 8.5, we just modified the SQL and took the schema owner out of it but that meant that we had problems converting our reports to XI as all of the links between the tables disappeared from the SQL - we actually had to recreate all of them except those that had only one table. Since then we've had our DBA's set things up so that the schema owners are the same across all four of our environments, so it's not an issue.

-Dell

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Agreed. My advice was for those reports whose data structures were identical across all instances ( schema and table ) -
Where schemas are different, the user would need to use the 'set location' database option when running against other instances..





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."