Putting your own geographical maps into Crystal 2

[-cush-]

From what I've read in this forum, it looks like the maps that come with Crystal are created with a third party product by MapInfo. I've also read that you can make your own maps and use them in Crystal. We use ESRI products for all of our GIS (Geographical Information Systems). It looks like both ESRI and MapInfo use shape files. So what I am hoping is that I can take the maps we keep up to date with our ESRI products and integrate them into crystal even if I have to use a MapInfo product to do it. Does anyone know if this is possible???

 

[-cush-]

Here is a link that explains how to take maps from mapinfo and register theim in Crystal Reports.

http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2004474.asp

Everyone I know that is into GIS uses ESRI products. I have a call in to MapInfo to see if I could load my ESRI maps into MapInfo and then use them in Crystal. I'll post here when I find anything out.

 

[-cush-]

I've been told that it is possible, and that a copy of MapInfo Pro is $1,300. I will post if I end up going ahead with this and have a good final product.

 

[MJRBIM]

Depending on your timeline, you may want to wait - I saw some stuff at the recent BOBJ conference that leads me to think that BOBJ and ESRI will be creating a formal bi-directional toolkit in the first-half of 2006.

 

[paulmarr]

kcushing,

I thought I would add my experiences with this subject for you - we have some custom maps created with MapInfo - but cannot register them in Crystal.

I have been round and round with both BO and MapInfo - each telling me the other is responsible for supporting the functionality.

Six months on - I am now showing static maps held in a database.

Knowing what I know now - I would not attempt a project that had that requirement and wanted to serve it up via Crystal.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers
paulmarr

 

[socalvelo]

I've been in contact with MapInfo and they don't seem to know much. I asked them if I could buy the MapInfo .tab files for Los Angeles County in a product called StreetPro. The idea is to plot points based on addresses. This may be a lot to ask for as it seems the mapping does not work well in CR.

I loaded some sample .tab files into the MapX directory buy was unable to register them.

If anyone has tried this please comment. I will post the progress if I get this to work.

StreetPro costs $250 to $650 per county depending on how may layers you need. MapInfo people think this is all I need and not a full blown copy of MapInfo. In theory this should work. All you should need to do is load the layers as CR sort of acts like a GIS reader.

 

[paulmarr]

socalvelo,

You have reached the same road block that we all have reached.

Using the Geodictionary Manager that comes with Crystal Reports - you are supposed to be able to register maps and overlays - but I could never get it to work properly.

I would be very interested to hear of any successful attempts to do this!

cheers
paulmarr