Running a Crystal Report without Crystal, or the .dll Files

[dgillz]

I have a customer that says he was able to run a crystal report from client workstation without having crystal installed, AND without having any the .dlls, including .dlls for User defined functions, on the client workstation. He was using CR V6.

He is now attempting to do this in V7 and he cannot get it to run.

Is this possible? Personally I have trouble believing this but I want to make sure I know what I am talking about before I tell a client that he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Any insight would be appreciated. Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[heisen]

I don´t think this is working without any dll´s. I am using the Report Viewer for client machines, too, but they need a lot of dll´s.

Why don´t you just search for some major dll´s on the client machines. In CR 8 they are called:
craxdrt.dll
crviewer.dll

Nadine

 

[nanado]

Are you saying you want all of the .dlls to stay on the network and not be moved to a client machine?

I believe this is possible but you will have to register the .dlls at each workstation. The Crystal install at the workstation does this for you.

 

[dgillz]

OK, let me go into more detail. I have a Macola client that has dozens of compiled reports, and about 75 workstations. He does not want to go around and install the .dlls on EVERY workstation. He wants each workstation to read the .dlls on a single location on the server.

Nanado is correct that the crystal install on the workstation takes care of most of this, but it defeats the purpose of what he is trying to accomplish, mainly reducing his admin time on new workstations.

This begs a new question: If I simply wrote a batch file that registered all the .dlls (to replace what the crystal install does automatically) for example, from the C:\windows directory:

Regsvr32 \\servername\sharename\path\filename.dll

Would this not register the .dll on the server and the client machine would know where to look for it?

Any help is much appreciated.

Software Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[kenhamady]

I had this working in V6 for a customer, and when we updated them to v8.5 it wouldn't work the same anymore. I didn' want to muck around with it so I just installed the distribution on each client. It appears that there was a change. Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Guide to using Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

tek@kenhamady.com