Setting data source location progamatically

[jbhsuman]

CR 9 Enterprise

I have a series of reports that are used for various clients and would like to be able to create a central report repository and progamatically set the data source location based on the user logon information.

Is this possible with CR9?

Your help is appreciated.

Joe

 

[synapsevampire]

Using external code (CSP, ASP, etc.) you might do this, but it isn't part of out of the box solution.

This would mean that at the report launch time you would run through some code and set the data source, not extremely efficient.

I'd probably just use shortcuts and parameters for differing clients. If you truly have a different data source, as in a different database, I'd use different reports or names of datasources (ODBC or OLE DB) which pointed at the appropriate data source.

-k

 

[jbhsuman]

Thanks K. I am doing that now but it becomes a nightmare each time I make a change to a report. I then have to copy the report for each different client and manually set the data source location for each. As my client base grows, this will become increasingly cumbersome. I understand that it is not an out of the box solution and I am planning to create a .NET front end for my clients for a more elegant interface, rather than use the ePortfolio interface. What I need to know is how do I pass a parameter with the data source location into the report.

Thanks

Joe

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Are there actually different locations for the data sources ( separate databases?) or just different subsets of a common data store?

What database are you using? There are solutions that are Database specific.

 

[jbhsuman]

Yes, the databases are identical with exception of the actual data and it will reside in different directories.

The database I am linking to is a product called Advantage database backend that I believe can be accessed with .net.

I was hoping that I can pass the data source location as a parameter to CR9.

 

[FVTrainer]

Ok, this may be a little bit of a stretch, but doens't CE 9 support Crystal's use of a COM object as a datasource? If it does, you could write a COM object that takes parameters, one of which (or as many as necessary) could provide the connectivity info for the COM object to use to collect it's data. Just a thought.