Protecting Crystal reports 1

[Jpln]

Is it possible to protect a Crystal report in some way so that it cannot be edited by another user?

 

[IdoMillet]

In 8.5 & earlier, you could compile a report into an exe, but if the user has Crystal Reports, they still have access to the rpt file.

In current versions, you can place in a read only directory, but the user would be able to export to an rpt file (using the Crystal report export format) in a different directory. In other words, this is not a complete solution.

If you wish to completely protect, have a look at the 3rd-party Crystal tools listed at:

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

A button in my DataLink Viewer allows you to select an rpt file for conversion into an encrypted rpz file. Developers who wish to protect and hide their report designs (either as an intellectual property issue or as a tech support issue) simply keep the rpt files and distribute only the rpz files to their users.

The rpz files can be used in DataLink Viewer just like rpt files, except that (in order to protect the report design) exporting to "rpt" format or to "report definition" format is blocked by DataLink Viewer for rpz files.

Cheers,
- Ido

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

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[Jpln]

Many thanks for your comprehensive response. I will take a look at the 3rd-party Crystal tools.

Cheers