software configuration management of crystal reports 3

[SteveCulshaw]

Is there anyway to store Crystal Reports in Visual Source Safe?
Alternatively is there a SCM that Crystal works with ?

 

[chris777]

Crystal Reports can be stored in Source Safe. I work at a development company so it is a requirement. They store like any other document would. Is there a specific problem you are encountering? Chris
DFW Crystal User Group

http://www.dfwcug.com

 

[SteveCulshaw]

Are they stored as binary, or is there some mechanism to produce a text file ?
- I'm used to Access, and that has an add-in which creates a text copy of the reports. This is what goes into VSS.
I'd had a quick look at a rpt file but it appears to be binary, so I was wondering if Crystal had a similar functionality. Cheers,
Steve C.

 

[chris777]

I can't answer the binary question, except to say that you simply add the RPT file to the Source Safe folder (no add-ins or other prep is necessary), then if it needs to be modified, you check it out, make your changes and check it back in. We use a labeling system to control our report builds as well as version releases of the same reports. Chris
DFW Crystal User Group

http://www.dfwcug.com

 

[kenhamady]

Crystal RPT files will be stored binary. 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

 

[SteveCulshaw]

Chris et al,

sorry to keep quizing on this topic, I've not got a copy of Crystal, rather I'm trying to get some answers together to see if we should switch to using it (currently we use MS Access)
- is this checkin to VSS a standard part of Crystal Reports Developer Ed ?
- just got a copy of VS.Net and found the copy of CR that comes with it. Can't see a way to check in, but it is a lot to learn. Can anyone point me at the right spot. Cheers,
Steve C.

 

[synapsevampire]

I always manually check in CR files, I haven't seen a means for doing so from within CR.

As Ken mentioned, CR files are binary, and they can get very large if you forget to turn off the save data with report.

Otherwise VSS works fine with Crystal, you'll just have to use the VSS interface for checking them in and out of your working folder.

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com

 

[rcman]

If you are looking for full VSS capabilities, including comparing difference between versions, you must store your file as text, which is not possible.

There are several ways to get the report details to a text file which you could then check in which would allow comparisons. (Export as a report definition from CR developer edition or use a third party tool like Report Miner Extract.) However, this does take care to drop the file to text and check it in.

We actually check in the .rpt file (in binary) and when we need to track differences, get the copy from VSS, we run Extract on both, and compare the resulting Extract files.

Wish it were easier, but still better than opening up both copies in CR designer....