We need to develop a application for end-user to edit the report template (.rpt) file.
Because the database used by our application is special and we have developed our own protocol based on TCP/IP to access the database server, the data expert of Crystal Reports 2008 and the CR designer in VS2008 does support our data source.
Maintenance the report template
Firstly, we need develop a maintenance application that allow end user to drag a data field fetch by our storage procedure to the report as place holder. The type of place holder include text, image etc. And then save the .rpt file, and a file that has the corresponding relationship between the data field and place holder name on report.
Display the report.
First, application get data from database, and change the content of the report at run-time by the data corresponding with the name of place holders.