web reporting /crystal enterprise/CE professional tooo expensive 1

[dreman]

We purchased CR 8.5 and along came Crystal Enterprise.
REport tools works fine but CE has some limitation.
We are trying to find a way to allow certain users to access certain reports. (Ie: Sales for sales reports, Manager for Manager reports...) Crystal told us we need to purchase CE professional (Yeah righ for $20,000 or so)
I am trying to find a simpler way, Any advice, Thank you.
dré

 

[dgillz]

Sure, check out:

http://www.hammerman.com/save.html

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

 

[dreman]

Yes but I do not know ASP's.
I am calling hammerman to find out about it and may be will register for their classes.
Geeeeeeeeeee Wiz everything in consulting is like an endless learning curve. $$$$$$$ to learn evreyday.
I 've been a consultant for 10 years. Learned Assembly, Unix, Foxpro, Coldfusion, SQL... now got to learn VB and ASP which are a must for the new milestone.
dgilz, I am not taking out on you it is just my frustration that nothing is easy.
Thanks anyways,
dré

 

[synapsevampire]

Crystal has licensing gotchas, such as the $10K broadcast license when exposing an automated report on a WEB to 50+ users.

Contact Crystal Decisions to verify whatever you believe to be the licensing costs for whatever approach you take.

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com

 

[kcorrigan]

As long as you own a copy of Developer version, you can run Crystal Reports through an ASP application and the Broadcast License does not apply to you. (Broadcast license has to do with placing exported reports on a server/website...you'll have to contact them for more info. regarding)
But the catch is that with the ASP application (as well as Enterprise), you are only allowed a 5 concurrent user license to begin with. To get more than 5 users on the application at a time, you have to purchase additional licenses from Crystal.
As far as ASP goes, it's a great tool for running reports but I haven't gotten far enough into it to know whether you could set security.

 

[synapsevampire]

I meant if you generate HTML or some such, and then post the output to a WEB.

The point being that you have per user license issues, and exporting issues.

I recall Howard Hammerman offering advice on using .net to resolve some of the licensing concerns, there's a thread on TEK-Tips.

-k

http://www.informeddatadecisions.com

kai@informeddatadecisions.com

 

[HowardHammerman]

There is an advantage to .NET
It has to do with HOW the licenses are used, not how to get more licenses.
If you install Enterprise and accept all the defaults, a license is 'used' whenever a person runs a report and the report is displayed on the screen. The license stays 'used' until the person leaves the screen OR when the timeout is reached. The default timeout is 20 minutes. So if someone decides to check a report before going to lunch and leaves it on the screen the license is 'tied up' for that amount of time.

You can go into the Admin screens, open the cache server and change the timeout to as little as 1 minute. That should allow you to better utilize your existing licenses. However, you may run into other problems during heavy usage periods: User #1 is happily running reports when others come on and then he loses his license.

If you develop an application using .NET you have the same number of licenses and the cost of additional licenses is the same. However, .NET only uses a license for as long as it take to generate an HTML pageand then releases the license. This uses your licensed most efficiently, but
a heavy-used application will still hit the wall with the number of licenses.

The cost of licenses was discussed at the Crystal users' conference in Orlando in May and the management team from Crystal was very clear that they have no intention of lowering the price. Their point of view is that the price is cheap compared to Cognos, Acuate, Brio, etc.

They have suggested a 'rule of thumb' ratio of one license for every 10 users. I believe the minimum number of licenses you can buy is 10. Since the price per license for the Standard edition is $2,495 and the price per license for the Professional edition is $3,495.... Well you do the math. Also Crystal Decisions adds 25% for support and maintainence.

Howard Hammerman,

Crystal Reports training, consulting, books, training material, software, and support. Scheduled training in 8 cities.
howard@hammerman.com

http://www.hammerman.com

800-783-2269

 

[dreman]

See I told you nothing is easy and
'THERE IS ALWSAYS A CATCH', gotta learn this, this and this....
and the saga continues...
dré
End of thread

 

[chelseatech]

Despite what CD may say, you can run secure reports on CE standard edition. They are correct to say CE std has no security, but there is nothing stopping you from putting the security into the report itself.

1) you need a DB table that has an ID and Security code,
2) you have to link this table somehow to the other tables in your report
3) Create a parameter to ask for ID and Code. Select for the fields in your security table equal to these paramaters.
If both are not correct then no records appear in the report.
4) Place the report on your CE server, and set up the Db logins etc.
5) Discover the Report ID of this report inside the CE database.
6) Use an ASP page to ask user for their ID and Code.
7) Call the report directly via it's ID and pass the parameters via the URL. Okay you might be able to guess the ID, but the code should be difficult to guess. Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

http://www.chelseatech.co.nz/pubs.htm

 

[HowardHammerman]

Bruce, Excelent contribution!!!

I will publish it (with correct attiribution) in my
next newsletter.

Thank you!! Howard Hammerman,

Crystal Reports training, consulting, books, training material, software, and support. Scheduled training in 8 cities.
howard@hammerman.com

http://www.hammerman.com

800-783-2269

 

[kenhamady]

If you don't know ASP you can use ReCrystalize to generate the ASP. There is a link to the company that sells it on my LINKS page. 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

 

[HowardHammerman]

Yes Ken, but using ReCrystalize does not eliminate the licensing problem. It simply provides another (and sometimes better) way to present the selecton screens to the user and then CALL Crystal's web-oriented components. The licensing limitation stil holds. We have links to it on our page as well. Howard Hammerman,

Crystal Reports training, consulting, books, training material, software, and support. Scheduled training in 8 cities.
howard@hammerman.com

http://www.hammerman.com

800-783-2269

 

[JabbaTheNut]

My customers fill out a credit application on my website. The data is stored in SQL Server. When the customer submits the data, I want to create a report in CR and export the results to PDF strictly in code behind. The PDF file will be saved internally and a copy will be sent to the customer via email or otherwise. My customers will not be using the CR Viewer. My intention is to use CR strictly as a conduit to obtain a PDF file in code behind.

Under this scenario can I use the CR licensing that comes bundled with Visual Studio.Net, or am I required to obtain additional licensing?

Game Over, Man!

 

[Guest_imported]

Generate a CGI application (your personal flavor is fine) and have it grab crystal report, open and run it, and immediately export the results to html or xml and serve it to the browser. Then have it close the report.

Really easy to do in vbs.

 

[HowardHammerman]

You should be able to do this using the licensing that comes with Visual Studio.net. There is probably little chance that more than five people will be using Crytal to generate the PDF at the same time. You might want to look into rePORTAL a utitlity that monitors the license utilitzation and then simply queues the 'extra' reports to run when a license is available. There is a link to it on my site.

But, in reality, unless you are managing a site with the traffic of Amazon, it is not likely that you will hit the limit. Howard Hammerman,
Crystal Reports training, consulting, books, training material,support. HammerLauch program runs reports without Crystal
howard@hammerman.com

http://www.hammerman.com

800-783-2269

 

[JabbaTheNut]

Thank you! I will check out your site. Additionally, I called Crystal Decisions to present the scenario. They indicated that the VS.Net license should suffice as long as I was exporting to PDF. Game Over, Man!

 

[NeoR]

Hello:

I do not have all the details on how you would do it but I know that if you purchase or (already have) Crystal Reports 8.5 Developer version, it comes with CE and 5 concurrent licenses. This means that if you can publish the Crystal Reports via the a browser based application (using ColdFusion via activeX Crystal Report viewer), your users will be able to view/print reports. The 5 licenses might sound low but these are used for seconds. This means you can support various users with the 5 concurrent licenses. And lastly, the price for is just $619. Please do not allow Crystal Decisions to talk you into purchasing one license for each user. You should not needed.
Hope this helps.

Neo