Crystal Reports addin not working anymore with newer CR version

[tobias_weller]

Hi all,

I developed a Crystal Reports addin about one year ago, which was working fine. Now I need this addin again to make some enhancements, so I installed Crystal Reports 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 again, but the addin functionality doesn't work anymore.

When I start Crystal Reports and open a report there is no "add-in" menu anymore. I also tried to use the cscFindSubreports sample addin, but it doesn't work either.

When I imported my addin project into Visual Studio I got a message that there is a newer version of Crystal Reports on this pc and that the project will be converted. Afterwards I saw that the ICommand interface has a new method "getMenuType", which needs to be implemented. This method should return an integer, so I tried different values (0,1,...) but nothing changes: still there is no "add-in" menu in Crystal Reports available.

I searched for information within the Crystal Reports Developer Guide and "creating custom addins" document, but there is no information available concerning this method.

Does anyone know about the return values of this method? Can this be the issue, why the "add-in" isn't appearing anymore in Crystal Reports?

I use Crystal Reports 2008 version: 12.4.0.609. The addins are correctly loaded, as they appear in the loaded modules dialog of Crystal Reports, but there is no menu appearing.

Thanks a lot for your help,

Tobias

[tobias_weller · Accepted solution]

I've now installed SP2 but the issue still exists.

I also had a look at the links you provided. But unfortunately these examples seem to be too old. At the time these examples were last updated, my addin was also still working. The Visual Studio project included in the example doesn't even compile on my pc as the implementation of the method "GetMenuType" is missing. This method isn't covered in any of those examples. Thus I think there were changes made to the addin functionality, which are not documented in those files.

So do you know anything about changes there and about working addins for the current version of Crystal Reports 2008?

Thanks a lot and best regards,

Tobias

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure whay it will not compile. But the original compiled dll should work if you create an addin folder under c:\program files\business objects\businessobjects enterprise 12.0\win32_x86 and copy the dll there.

Ludek

[tobias_weller · Accepted solution]

They seem to work somehow, as CR displays the addin dlls in the loaded modules (help->About Crystal Reports->More Info).

However there is no addin menu, hence I cannot use the addins.

As I described in my first post my assumption is that there were changes in the addin functionality as the ICommand interface has a new method "getMenuType", which is not implemented or documented in any of those examples.

Do you have any addins running with this version of CR? Or do you know any newer examples?

Thanks and best regards,

Tobias

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Prepare:

Copy the "DotNetExternalCommandAdatper.dll" from the "Add-ins" working environment.

Step:

1) Go to "C:\window\assembly" uninstall the "DotNetExternalCommandAdatper"

2) Replace the "DotNetExternalCommandAdatper.dll" with the working one @ %Installed_BusinessObject_Directory%

2) Open the "cmd"

3) "cd" the .Net Framework directory

3) use "RegAsm.exe "%BusinessObject%\win32_x86\DotNetExternalCommandAdatper.dll" to reg the dll.

WORK FOR ME.

[tobias_weller]

Hi Ludek,

Thanks for your reply. That's the version I get displayed when I press Help->About Crystal Reports. I got it from some internal folder.

I now deinstalled this version and tried it with an older version (12.1.0.892), but I still have the problem that there is no addin menu displayed.

I also checked the version of the DotNotExternalCommandAdapter.dll, which is 1.0.1.0. Perhaps this also has an influence.

Best regards,

Tobias

[former_member183750]

That version is much better. It's SP1 and we should get to SP2:

https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100009038092009E/cr2008win_sp2.exe

Then, have a look at the following re CR addins:

Blogs

/people/blair.wheadon/blog/2009/07/06/crystal-reports-2008-custom-addin

/people/crystalreports.team/blog/2008/04/15/crystal-reports-2008-add-in--automatic-report-exporter

Kbase

[1368306 - How to programmatically add or remove options from the exisiting menus in Crystal Reports 2008|http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/oss_notes_boj/sdn_oss_boj_dev/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/bc/bsp/spn/scn_bosap/notes.do]

Ludek

[former_member183750]

Can you check the version of CR you are using? 12.4.0.609 does not sound right. I've been tracking versions of all CR SPs and FPs and that version just does not look right. See [this|https://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/CrystalReports2008-VersionandDownloadinformationforSPsand+FPs] wiki for details.

Ludek

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/SAPCRNetSup

[tobias_weller]

Now I found the class CRMenuType, which contains the three constants:

        public const int CRCAddInsMenu = 8;
        public const int CRCFileMenu = 0;
        public const int CRCFileNewMenu = 9;

I tried all of them, but still there is no addin menu and no new entry in the file or file new menu.