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Crystal 2013 crashes consistently when importing Stored Procedures for a report

Former Member
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This happens fairly regularly with Crystal Reports 2013...create new report, add a new sql provider data source, and then try and add a few stored procedures to the report to supply the data needed. While this is a fairly mundane task it has become so cumbersome of a process that our company will more than likely bail on ever procuring this product again unless the folks at SAP can correct the product flaw. From what we find, when adding a stored procedure to a report to supply the data, Crystal want to parse and actually run the stored proc. While it should not be a big deal we find it takes Crystal, and its clunky processing engine, upwards of 30-45 minutes to get through the parse process and finally add the procedure to the report datasource, and thats even before we can start to design the report. The other problem is that any time you change the data source (i.e. server name ~ because you are testing the reports in a sandbox and then moving to production) Crystal like to wipe out the entire report design. This in turn costs our company time and money to recreate the report. Why is it that Microsoft's SSRS product allows for a data connection change and will not affect the report, yet Crystal does? What gives? Also, the IDE for Crystal 2013 is so clunky. Nothing is easy to find and the online help is scattered. We run our reports currently on local development machines with Window 2008, and .Net 4.5+. This is a widespread issue with Crystal and the development staff at SAP need to fix it or lose a customer. I have posed this question numerous times and always get a vague answer, but inevitably its not SAP's issue.

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Answers (2)

former_member292966
Active Contributor
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Hi,

I can offer a couple of reasons as to why you are running into some of these problems. You've pretty much hit the nail on the head already but I'll try to explain it in a bit more detail.

Working with Stored Procedures is different than working with a table or view. With tables and views you can link them, add or remove them from the report with usually no problems. Stored Procedures are different in that they were not designed to be linked to or connected to. Crystal uses a SQL engine so just like using SSMS, you can't join a stored procedure to another table object.

Stored Procedures are executed which is why adding a stored procedure to an existing report takes so long. Crystal calls an execute when you try adding the procedure and you will get prompted for the parameters and the procedure will run before you it can be added into the report. It does this for a couple of reasons, the two biggest are the get the result set so you can Browse the data and to get the result schema so Crystal knows what each field type is.

Instead of linking stored procedures, you should actually put the new stored procedure into a subreport and link the subreport to the main report. This way the subreport executes the new procedure and will not interfere with the main report or any of the other subreports. This is similar to having a Stored Procedure in SQL Server executing another Stored Procedure. The inner Procedure returns a result set, possibly into a temp table, lookup or parameters that your main procedure can use.

This doesn't help your current situation but hopefully it answers some of the reasons why you are running into your issues. I've spent many hours and days swearing at Crystal and I've been using it for over 20 years. I've also ran into the same issue you are running into as well so I do know how frustrating this is.

Hope this helps,

Brian

vitaly_izmaylov
Employee
Employee
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Hi, I understand the frustration, but let's focus on the technical problems and take one issue per post. It would be easy to read and follow.

I guess the priority is the application crash while adding a stored procedure. So here are my questions:

1. What is the datasource? SQL Server, Oracle?

2. You mentioned few stored procedures to the report. Does it means you linking few stored procedures in one report?

3. Does Crystal Reports craching when you add the first stored procedure?

4. You mention 30-45 minutes. How long the stored procedure takes outside of Crystal Reports?

Thanks