Run Reports over web without Enterprise 1

[ciscowiz]

I developed a Web app using VB.NET and ASP.NET. I wanted to be able to display reports over the web without using Crystal Enterprise and I thought I had that accomplished until I shut down the services in the Crystal Configuration Manager (CCM) and my pages wouldnt display. The only references I have added to my project are CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine, CrystalDecisions.Shared, and CrystalDecisions.Web.

I didnt think any of these were dependent on the Services running in the CCM, which I am almost positive is a Crystal Enterprise thing. Maybe I am mistaken here, obviously something is wrong somewhere. The only service that needs to be started in the CCM is the "World Wide Web Publishing" service. Any help on how to run my reports over the web without using any services in the CCM or from Enterprise period would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ciscowiz]

Nevermind I figured it out. I still don't see how I am getting "Operation Not yet Implemented. crystal Page/Cache server errors" if I am not going through Enterprise but I have had that same problem for a long time.

 

[ramkumar1910]

Could you share the sample code on how you renderded a report on enterprise using .net?

 

[ciscowiz]

I didn't render the report through Enterprise, the goal was to bypass Enterprise completely.

 

[SCantoria]

Would you share the codes for your app? I am working on CE10 and I am not crazy of the huge dependency to the CE server. I have written a front end app for CR8.5 before and it enabled the users to generate a report without opening CR. I want to do the same thing for CR10 but I am not sure how to handle the BV's yet. Maybe I can get some ideas from you app.

Thanks,

Steve C.

 

[ciscowiz]

I am using CR9 and Visual Studio .NET 2003 with VB.NET. I have never used CR 10 so I am not sure how much the object model has changed, however the app I created used a lot of the ideas from an article I found online. This is a 3 part article that includes a working sample to download. It was kinda rough getting the thing to build but it works. Let me know if you have any trouble etc.

http://aspalliance.com/456

 

[eyeswideclosed]

this is pretty amazing if true, but is it simply running the reports through ce in unmanaged mode? ce is not at all installed on this server? if you're getting page/cache server errors then ce is installed. are the reports displayed in the vb app on a form or in a crystal viewer? if it is a crystal viewer then it is ce doing the rendering. if this is true i will worship you, as i dislike ce intensely.

 

[ciscowiz]

No, the reports are not being run through CE. Yes, CE9 is installed on our servers - we have not put all of our clients onto the new app yet. The page/chache server errors are CE errors and we get that about once a month and have to restart the server to view reports. This was another reason we wanted to get rid of CE. Having said that, CE is NOT installed on my machine, where I did the development and initial testing. On my machine I had no issues - I could dynamically call, login, supply params, and view the report with a browser using my local XP webserver. That error only showed up once and it was after I moved my code to the servers with CE.
The reports are displayed on a webform with the 'crystalreportviewer' control from Visual Studio. This is NOT a VB app, it is a web app. I only reference 3 Crystal DLLs in my project: CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine, CrystalDecisions.Web, and CrystalDecisions.Shared -- no CrystalDecisions.CrystalEnterprise DLLs were used so I am fairly confident CE has been completely bypassed. Maybe someone else out there can prove me wrong? Hope this helped.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
If your reports fail when the CCM is used to stop the Crystal Page and Cache servers, then the reports are using them in some way.
Try uninstalling CE9 and installing just the components needed to use Crystal in a NET environment..

To check which components are needed try

http://support.businessobjects.com

and do a search for this file:

cr_net_sdk_additional_en.zip or this one for some example code ( if needed)
cr_net_sdk_tutorial_samples_en.zip

There is also one for the runtime components:

cr10_Runtime_en.zip

Maybe it will help..











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

 

[eyeswideclosed]

what is the container that is displaying the reports? it's not one of the viewers? it's in an asp page somehow? what is the url to call the report?

 

[eyeswideclosed]

dlls call other dlls, you call 3 but they are calling others, and those call others...etc.

 

[ciscowiz]

The container that displays the report is an ASP page with the "crystalreportviewer" control from the VS.NET toolbox dropped onto it. Yes, that is one of the viewers but it is only available with VS.NET. However, you don't even need to use that, in the link I supplied previously, that guy's project just displays the reports as a PDF in the browser. The URL to call the report is the name of the ASP page so,

http://localhost/myapp/whatever.aspx

You don't even need a query string, that page can load any report I want.

 

[eyeswideclosed]

yeah, we use the pdf export option too sometimes, but it's cr/ce that dumps it out, an app is its dlls.

 

[ciscowiz]

TurkBear, that was some good info on the SDK. This is from TurkBear's link:
"When you plan an application to build with the Crystal Reports SDK, one of your most important considerations is which object model to work with. Learning the SDK fundamentals that affect object model selection helps you choose the best structure for your Crystal Reports for Visual Studio project.
The Crystal Reports SDK contains four object models for coding reports:
1)CrystalReportViewer object model
2)ReportDocument object model
Object models available by upgrade:
3)ReportClientDocument object model (Report Application Server)
4)InfoObject object model (supplied with Crystal Enterprise)"

I used the ReportDocument Object Model. According to the Documentation:
"ReportDocument is a more powerful and more extensive object model than CrystalReportViewer. It ships as part of the Crystal Reports for Visual Studio SDK and provides extensive ability to manipulate reports in the code. It works with the ICachedReport interface to implement a caching framework that makes efficient use of the ASP.NET Cache."

Also, "If you are not currently upgrading to Report Application Server or Crystal Enterprise, the ReportDocument object model is the recommended object model for your development work with the Crystal Reports SDK."

I never used the InfoObject so I think this is further proof CE has been bypassed.

 

[NipperP]

Question: Are there any licensing implications running these reports outside of CE

Nipper

 

[ciscowiz]

Nipper,

I am not really too savvy on the crystal licensing but we have not had any issues - yet. From what I read it is "unlimited" but performance based. This is from the license agreement:

"While you may allow Access to the Runtime Software by an unlimited number of users, the version of the Runtime Software provided with Visual Studio .NET is a performance limited edition intended for development purposes and use with Server/Web Applications accessed by small groups. If multiple users are simultaneously accessing the Runtime Software, performance will be affected and users may be unable to access the Runtime Software. If you want to deploy the Runtime Software in a production environment or extend the performance of the version of the Runtime Software provided with Visual Studio .NET, you may purchase additional licensing from Crystal Decisions as a stand-alone offering. For more information, please visit the Crystal Decisions' web site at

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/net/licensing."

We don't really have too many users accessing the system at once which is probably why we haven't seen any issues.