App coded in Crystal XI need to be compatiable with Crystal 2008. Options?

[Former Member]

Dear All,

The product I am working on, works fine with Crystal XI. But now task is to make it work for clients that have just Crystal 2008 (not Crystal XI). (Even assuming there is no new feature that Crystal 2008 offer is planned in this existing application.)

I was wondering what would be the best bet to make that application compatiable? Certainly we do not want to have two seperate application coded separatly for Crystal XI and Crystal 2008.

I will appreciate any information, feedback, guidance that you can provide on this.

Thanks

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello, Prashant;

What SDK are you using to call Crystal Reports XI R1 (11.0)?

Are you using Visual Studio .NET - which version?

Once I understand what you are using now, I will be better able to suggest an upgrade strategy.

Elaine

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Elaine,

I am on "XI R2' and is using "Visual Studio 2008". It's an ASP.NET/C# based application that I am working on.

Thanks - Prashant

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Prashant,

VS 2003 is only compatible with CR 9.1 (Bundle version which comes with VS), CR XI R1 and CR10.

VS 2005 is only compatible with CR 10.2 (Bundle version which comes with VS), CR XI R2 and CR 2008.

VS 2008 is only compatible with CR 10.5 (Bundle version which comes with VS) and CR 2008 SP0.

You can download platform supported guide from the following link which will help you to create compatible environment:

[https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/bosap-support]

Regards,

Shweta

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Shweta,

The link you provided is asking for login/password. I tried this forum's login/password, but seems like it need some different access rights. Do you know what could be this access info that I should look for?

Thanks.

[Former Member]

Hello, Prashant;

The application you currently have written with Crystal Reports XI R2 I assume was Visual Studio .NET 2005 or 2003?

Crystal Reports XI R2 is not supported with Visual Studio 2008 and the 3.0 framework.

You can use Crystal Reports 2008 Basic (version 10.5) that ships with Visual Studio 2008 or you can upgrade to full version Crystal Reports 2008 SP1 (version 12.0).

An application you created in an earlier version of Visual Studio .NET and Crystal Reports should automatically upgrade when opened on a development system with Crystal Reports 2008 (version 12.0) integrated into Visual Studio 2008.

Once you have tested the upgraded version of your application, you can recompile it and deploy as with the new Crystal Reports 2008 (12.0) runtime files.

Elaine

[Former Member]

Elaine,

I am actually using Visual Studio .NET 2008 only with Crystal Reports XI R2. I was not aware of the fact that Crystal Reports XI R2 does not work with Visual Studio 2008. It could be that since I have both Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 in my machine, and this could be referring to old one.

I beleive Visual Stuiod 2008 came with .NET framework 3.5 and in theory 3.5 does all that 2.0 used to do. So I am not sure what would be the reason of .NET 2008 not supporting it. May be I am missing something, please help me clarify?

The application that I currently have is working based on "Crystal XI R2". That means if the XI-R2 run-time libraries are installed at client app server, this application will work fine. Note that in our application we have all kind CrystalDecision dll references used in project.

Option-1) Now my worry is can same application; when installed on a client who has just crystal report 2008 (not upgrade from XI-R2) run-time installed, will work OK?

-OR-

Option-2) Is there any change in existing code, I need to do so that irrespective of what run-time environment client has (XI R2 or, Crystal 2008), my application runs fine without any issue?

-OR-

Any other option...

Note that at this point I am not trying to use any new feature that Crystal 2008 may have come with. Also note that I use Crystal Report Viewer control on my aspx page to display crystal report.

Thanks for your help.

[former_member183750]

am actually using Visual Studio .NET 2008 only with Crystal Reports XI R2. I was not aware of the fact that Crystal Reports XI R2 does not work with Visual Studio 2008. It could be that since I have both Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 in my machine, and this could be referring to old one.

I believe Visual Studio 2008 came with .NET framework 3.5 and in theory 3.5 does all that 2.0 used to do. So I am not sure what would be the reason of .NET 2008 not supporting it. May be I am missing something, please help me clarify?

- See the supported platforms doc here:

https://websmp106.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01100035870000712240&_SCENARIO=011000358700000002...

(choose Business Objects XI release2 / crystal reports -> crystal reports -> crystal reports XI r2 -sp2 - supported platforms.

.NET 2008 is not listed. That is as far as this discussion should need to go. E.g.; do not use CR XI r2 with .NET 2008, or .NET 2010 when it comes out - if you do, you're on your own.

Option-1) Now my worry is can same application; when installed on a client who has just crystal report 2008 (not upgrade from XI-R2) run-time installed, will work OK?

As long as you run CR XI r2 with the supported version of .NET (e.g.; in your case .NET 2005) there will be no issues after installing CR 2008 as CR 2008 and CR XI r2 are side by side compatible. One thing I would highly discourage is running reports created in CR 2008 with CR XI r2.

Option-2) Is there any change in existing code, I need to do so that irrespective of what run-time environment client has (XI R2 or, Crystal 2008), my application runs fine without any issue?

If you install CR 2008 SP0 after installing .NET 2008, you should not need any code modification to an already working app. All that will happen is that the CR assemblies will get upgraded to version 12.x. Of course, you then need to distribute the CR 2008 runtime to your client / server computers.

Any other option...

Not sure where the confusion is, but I am not sure why we'd want to look for other options(?).

Ludek

[Former Member]

Thanks for reply Ludek. I am yet to be able to see the supported platforms doc link you provided; since I do not have the required details to create userid/password available to me. Hopefully in next 1 or 2 days I should be able to see that info.

https://websmp106.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01100035870000712240&_SCENARIO=011000358700000002...

But based on your reply, I guess I may not need to do any code change as such as far as X1 R2 and Crystal 2008 code compatiablity goes. The same complied application that works fine in XI R2 environment, should pretty much work in a machine with Crystal 2008 run-time environment.

I will hopefully do that test in next some time and will seek help for any issue I may encounter.

Thanks for your help.