Crystal Reports:
Fix Run Time Library Version Mix
What if your applications mix versions of CR run time libraries?
Crystal Reports is embedded in many applications. Crystal Reports is an easy choice for developers, as it is
included with developer tools like Visual Basic and Visual Studio.NET.
If you are a developer, we recommend you always maintain the most recent version-- as this will always include newer tools and features.
However, what happens if your site uses two applications that use different versions of Crystal Reports? This becomes a major problem if the second install includes the older version of Crystal Reports. The combined
effect of these mixed installs can be one, either or both sets of reports failing.
There are several potential solutions to this dilemma.
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Install each application on a separate machine. Older applications may work fine on an older PC with fewer resources.
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Use a virtual machine technology like VMWare to run a separate virtual machine for one or the other application. No additional hardware needed for this one and VMware is a useful tool for other reasons.
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Persuade your application developer with the older version to upgrade the newer version. Keeping both developers in step may be difficult.
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Persuade one of the developers to upgrade to Crystal Reports 9.0 which can coexist with other versions.
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Ignore reporting in the applications and use the latest version of Crystal Reports to do all reports from both applications. If the application uses ADO or custom data sources this option may have difficulties.
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Use a 3rd party report viewer such as
cView to view reports rather than using the application.
Application compatibility is a major headache for systems support staff. Upgrading versions of applications and tools have cost and resource requirements, but in the end it’s a one way street into the future. Just make sure your application developer has joined you for the ride.
Do you need to find out where all these libraries are being
used? Don't have unlimited resources? Then you need
Report Analyzer.
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Report Analyzer connects to your local Crystal
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Report Analyzer now comes in two editions -
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Improve report performance
Report Analyzer automatically detects potential
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Automatically detect reports that do not take
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Detect record selection formulas that use data
type conversion functions.
Detect group fields that use formulas instead
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Report Analyzer documents over 30 design and style
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You can easily view dependencies between report objects such as
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View report designs in a design window similar
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Select design objects and view/print settings,
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Query and print over 600 report settings across
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Click to enlarge
Project Management
Report Analyzer generates comprehensive
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Click to enlarge
This article is copyrighted by
Crystalkeen, Mindconnection, and Chelsea Technologies Ltd. It may be
freely copied and distributed as long as the original copyright is
displayed and no modifications are made to this material. Extracts are
permitted. The names Crystal Reports and Seagate Info are trademarks owned
by Business Objects.
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