Upgrading Crystal Reports 2008 to 2013 - Impact analysis & considerations

[former_member297636]

Hello Everyone,

We just upgraded our BO environment and are in the process of distributing the upgraded Crystal Reports 2013 to the end users. Most of these users use CR outside of BO for connecting to different data sources and report development is ongoing all the time on this software. I'm finding it hard to decide how to deploy upgraded version of CR with the least impact on any development or existing reports.

During my little research on this, I was not able to find many changes in the software from CR 2008 - CR 2013, does that mean post deployment the users are not likely to notice any changes in the way they pull up their reports right now ? or the developers can continue their work on the new version without a hiccup or glitch ?

What should one keep in mind when deciding to roll out an upgraded version of such application, any best practices around this would be really helpful.

Thanks

Gaurav

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

There really are very few changes from 2008 to 2013 - it should not pose much risk rolling it out to your users.   You need to make sure that you're installing the same SP of Crystal as the SP of BO 4.1 that you're on.

-Dell

[former_member297636 · Accepted solution]

I appreciate your response Dell.

What happens to the reports that were developed in CR2008 and were saved locally(user's desktop). After CR2013 replaces CR2008 on user's machine, and the user pulls up a report initially developed in CR2008, does he experiences any wizard for conversion or it just opens up normally as it would in CR2008.

I'm asking this so I make my users aware in advance and set proper expectations.

Thanks

Gaurav

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

The reports just open normally. Only on report save the user will be asked if he wants to save to the version of CR 2013. They will have to accept as there is no way to "save as v. 2008). But reports saved in CR 2013 will open fine in CR 2008.

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

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[former_member297636 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Ludek ! That's wonderful information.

Gaurav