Crystal Bug: On-Demand Subreport with Linked and Unlinked Parameters

[ido_millet]

While this was tested in Crystal 2016, I suspect this bug also exists in Crystal 2020.
The attached report (change .txt to .rpt) uses the Xtreme sample database.
It has one main report parameter (Country).
The on-demand subreport has two parameters:
1. a linked parameter based on the Country link from the main report.
2. an unlinked parameter for City

The bug: when the main report runs, it prompts for the main report Country parameter as well as for the unlinked subreport parameter. It should NOT prompt for the unlinked subreport parameter when running the main report. Reasoning:
1. the user may not invoke the on-demand subreport. So it doesn't make sense to answer for a parameter that is not required for the main report.
2. the user may want to trigger 2 different instances of the on-demand subreport, each with different values for the unlinked parameters.

And when running the On-Demand subreport, it does NOT prompts for the unlinked City parameter. It should prompt for that parameter.

on-demand-sub-parameters-test.txt

[JWiseman]

hi Ido, I see the same behaviour, that you have described, in CR 2020. Here's my version:

SAP Crystal Reports Support Pack 3 Patch 3

Version 14.3.3.4562

[ido_millet]

Thanks, Jamie. Hopefully, that would increase SAPs motivation to fix this bug.

[ido_millet · Accepted solution]

Hi Jamie,

My users don't use a server platform. But the solution I just finished implementing follows a very similar logic to yours. A click on a report object launches a secondary report and passes to it parameters (and other arguments) based on the tooltip expression of the clicked object.
This approach not only avoids the problematic parameter behavior of on-demand subreports, but also allows for subreports in the triggered secondary report (Crystal doesn't allow subreports within subreports).