Crystal Reports Administration: Version Issues

What versions can share reports?

As consultants, we work at different sites, and we find there are different versions of Crystal Reports in use at each. While many have upgraded to the current release (CR9), for various reasons we find older versions also operational at some sites.

You will find that a later version of Crystal Reports will normally be able to open, view, edit, and process a report saved as an older version. But once the report is saved, the older version may not be able to edit that report any more. The exceptions to this are CR6, which shares the same format as CR5 and CR8.0/8.5--which has an option to save a CR7 report.

So what if you are a site with a large collection of reports saved as CR7 or CR8, and a user accidentally upgrades a vital report to CR9? What can you do to get back in step? There are several choices:

1. Upgrade everyone to the latest version of CR. The simplest solution, but for cost and strategic reasons, not always practical 
2. Leave the report in CR9 and always use CR9 to process it.
3. Throw the report away and rebuild in the older version. It may be possible to open both versions on the same machine, so you can rebuild using the old version. Sadly, you cannot cut and paste objects from one report to another (but inside the formula editor, you can copy and paste the text of a formula).
4. Restore the report from your backup. You do have a backup of all your reports, don’t you? It could be time to make a fresh copy right now!
   

One technique we have found useful if you have dual versions of Crystal Reports on your system, is to identify the CR version in the summary information/comments. This information is displayed in File/Properties in File Explorer.

Another approach is to break up the standardization into manageable chunks. Examine the company's use of CR, and then determine which area or department has the most to gain from standardization. Begin standardization there. Document the financial benefits realized, and you will be able to make a much better case for standardization elsewhere.

A great tool for detecting and documenting things is Report Analyzer. See below.

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