Migrating reports generated with Crystal Reports XI SP6 to Crystal Reports 2016 or 2020

[former_member700123]

Could someone please explain if there is a migration path from legacy .RPT file generated using CR XI R2 to one of the newest versions either 2016 or 2020?

I need to gaige the complexity of transitioning, and if SAP Crystal provides a migration tool available in order to help facilitate the process.

Or worst case, would it be a total rewrite of the the reports (.RPT) and SDK handling the reports.

[former_member1152775]

I have exactly the same scenario. Jamy, did you find a solution to this? Or anyone else have any suggestions? I have been searching online for a few days and can't find a way forward with this.

[former_member11696 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jamy and Alex,

I've supported our SDK's since 1997, CR 5 was just released and have been support our SDK's since then.

First, the old legacy craxdrt.dll ActiveX report designer was deprecated as of CR XI R2, that was because Microsoft announced they were dropping COM for .NET Framework so we dropped our COM Report designer. Due to industry pressure MS then retracted the no-support and continued to support COM.

Too late though, CR Developers were fully committed to moving to .NET and drop the COM Designer.

We still use COM components but they are all in the various layers...

The only version is the Embedded Report Designer used only in the Visual Studio IDE for editing reports, not allow to distribute it.

Unfortunately there is no one to one conversion from RDC API's to .NET API's so that part of your project will require a rewrite, no we don't provide paid consulting to convert it for you, you've had 15 years to convert...

Ido and Dell are on this forum a lot and well aware of the .NET SDK's and they may be able to help you converting but they are not free and I believe they may do consulting.

The reason the new MS OLE Client is not working is because Microsoft changed the name of the client dll, CR uses the name of the to generate the appropriate SQL, since it's not detected in CR XI it defaults to a different SQL Syntax, which is why your reports are not working.

Search for this KBA to enable TLS 1.2 - 2269180 - Disabling TLS 1.0 may cause Crystal Reports Designer and .NET application to fail to connect to your MS SQL Server Database 2012/2014

It explains how to and various MS patches required.

As noted the only way to get TLS 1.2 to work properly is to manually open each report and use the Set Location function in CR Designer to update the database client saved in the RPT file. I've tried multiple ways to use the SDK to do this and it's not capable of updating the RPT file.

So at this time your only option is to upgrade to CR for VS SP 30 and replace the RDC with the .NET Assemblies:

https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/Crystal+Reports%2C+Developer+for+Visual+Studio+Downloads

On that page is a few sample app's, one to have database log on and another for printing, you can combine then into one...

Using RAS you can create your own Report Designer, or give the users the ability to add Design type features in your app.

Steps to move forward:

Using CR 2016 (32bit) or if you want to jump to CR 2020 (64bit) to edit the reports and use Set Location to update your connection properties to the new MS SQL Client to support TLS 1.2 and run the report to verify they do work and save then in a new folder.

Install the CR for VS SP 30 EXE to integrate into VS 2010 -> 2019

Open your existing project in Visual Studio 2010 -> 2019

See my Blog to assist you to upgrade and the CR Assemblies to add:

https://blogs.sap.com/2020/10/30/upgrading-a-visual-studio-2008-2019-.net-project-with-the-latest-cr...

Have a look at the Parameter test app, it has DB log on code to use as well as a bunch of other functionality that you can use, the other printer test app to use Printing API's:

how-to-parameters-in-crystal-reports-for-visual-studio-net

Printing Crystal Reports in .NET

Don

FYI - use this tag to post CR for VS .NET questions - https://answers.sap.com/tags/01200615320800001270

[former_member11696]

Hi Jamy,

First question is what SDK did you using in CR XI?

For the version of the report it should not have any issues.

Mostly the DB Client could cause some issues, changes in their Clients may have introduced SQL issues but mostly the reports should be fine.

If your app is written in .NET then get CR for VS SP 28 from here:

https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/Crystal+Reports%2C+Developer+for+Visual+Studio+Downloads

Read all of the info about SP 21, important updates required etc.

Note: Cr for VS is the only source for .NET now, we no longer install with Visual Studio nor is it shipped with CR Designer.

PS - if you are upgrading from the legacy RDC engine there is no migration path for that, it will be a complete rewrite of the CR parts in your app. Samples on the WIKI page for Parameters and Printing.

Don

[former_member700123]

Hi Don,

Our reports are produced from within a legacy VB6 application. The custom component responsible for report handling references the following libraries.

And this is the components

The reports are generated and edited using the following designer product.

This is the programming library being used

Have I provided you enough information for you to understand our environment?

If not please let me know what else I can gather.

I have spent 2 days going thru the community posts trying to find an answer to a problem which many posts have been written on and you have responded to. We are one of the unfortunate companies who are now faced with the trials and tribulations of customers requiring tighter security, sending us down the path searching for a data provider that supports our TLS needs. Having a legacy app dependent on SQLOLEDB like others we replaced it with MSOLEDBSQL. After running a couple of reports we ran into a issue mentioned in another post where it was thought that CR generated invalid SQL statements while Converting DateTime values using our version of CR XI R2 in combination with MSOLEDBSQL. That is where we are stuck at right now.

During my search in this Community site I came across links to a patch that claimed it would resolve the issue, but following the link resulted in a not found page. Not sure if it was false information or not. I may be able to dig it up if you have an interest.

I have followed your posts and you seem to be very knowledgeable on the subject I am speaking about. So I would like to ask, Is our ONLY option to upgrade? Are there only certain known errors while using the new provider and is it possible there are workarounds that could be made by changing the report or stored procedure design?

If the answer is still no, would SAP provide any paid consultation/instructional services to so as to expedite the migration/upgrade process?

Any and all help you can provide us with is honestly appreciated. Thanks Don.