I asked this question in the context of using the Crystal Reports features ("Custom Functions" and "Repository Functions") in the "Web Intelligence" forum. However, in this forum I would like to ask a similar question in the context of using something in the SDK such as "Java User Function Libraries" to achieve a similar goal.
In my case, I don't actually care about the details too much, as long as the custom function is introduced in a way that we can use it in both the Java and HTML modes of a WebI report. So whether it's an odd way to be able to access a custom function that is stored in the repository (that would seem like the best approach), or using the SDK, or something else, feel free to make any suggestions.
For reference:
(1) I could swear I saw an "advanced" tutorial or forum that explained how to use a custom function in a WebI report by exporting to the repository in Crystal and then using it directly in WebI although it would not show up in the function list. I cannot find that article any longer, so maybe it is outdated, or maybe I misunderstood.
(2) In the aforementioned previous thread, Alan McClean suggested an interesting way to acheive something like this by using a custom JSP or ASP and marking the cell as "read as html." At a first glance that sounded like a creative alternative, but after thinking about it a bit, it's really too limited a solution (very sensitive to specifics). Some of the problems that come to mind are: (a) html cells do not get rendered at all in the Java mode; (b) I need to reference the function in a variable or contexts and cannot be sure that the end result would be used in an "html" cell anyways.
Thanks in advance for any discussion!