| How
would cViewTEXT help me?
cViewTEXT is useful for report designers
who have a database table with an text filename in a field.
Prior to cViewTEXT, it was very difficult to take that file
name and display a dynamic text from the records in that table.
See separate FAQ on how to use cViewTEXT.
How do I use cViewTEXT?
Report Designers needing to take a file
name from a database and to display an text from the file name
inside a Crystal Report have found using cViewTEXT as follows
works best....
- Design your report using the tables,
fields, etc you need in the main report. You do not need to
display the field that has the filename of your text but it
does need to be in the table.
- Your database field does not need to
store the fully qualified filename. If you do have it, the
Crystal Report will use it as a parameter link to your
text. If you only store the file name, you can create a
formula in Crystal to add the path to the filename. The
formula will then be used as the parameter link instead.
- Create a subreport using the COM data
driver. The connection information Program Id =
cViewTEXT.SingleImage. Click the “Finish” button.
- The datasource for your subreport is
the “cViewTEXT” table from the
“cViewTEXT.SingleImage” datasource you created in the
previous step.
- When you select “cViewTEXT”
datasource, you will be asked to enter a value for “ImageFile()”
parameter. Use the name of one of your text files – you
will change it later to automatically link to all the
records. If you use an invalid value, you will need to
modify your subreport later to display the “Image” field.
- Display the “Image” field in your
subreport. You may also display the name of the file which
is the “ImagePath” field.
- Insert your subreport into the
appropriate section of your main report.
- Right click on the subreport. Change
Subreport Link fields.
- “Available fields” / Choose the
name of the file from either your database field or your
formula field (see point 2 above).
- “Subreport parameter field to
use” / Choose “?ImageFile” from the dropdown list.
- “Select data in report based on
field” / Leave the default as it is (cViewTEXT.ImagePath).
- Format the subreport to display the
text the way you want.
- This is part of the live processing -
your users will need a cViewTEXT Viewer on their machine if
they are accessing live data. They will not need cViewTEXT
if you export in a different format such as pdf or Excel.
What Crystal versions will cViewTEXT
work with?
The COM data source used by cViewTEXT is
included with Crystal Reports v8.5, Crystal Reports v9.0 and
Crystal Reports v10. We have not yet tested to see if it will
work with CR.Net as that is a version between 8.5 and 9.0 with
some features unavailable. The COM data source will NOT work
with CR8.0 or earlier versions.
We include the Crystal Reports v8.5 and Crystal Reports v9.0 COM
driver in the \Drivers subfolder of the cViewTEXT install.
Do I get free upgrades?
Yes – for the first 12 months we offer
free upgrades. This includes:
- Any product enhancements.
- Where we have developed a new version
of our product to support a new version of Crystal Reports,
we can offer this to you as part of the maintenance
agreement
You can continue receiving these two
benefits after 12 months from purchase date by either:
- Paying 15% of the product price at the
time of purchase.
- Paying 15% of the current price of the
product.
If you do not have a maintenance agreement
or if the maintenance agreement has lapsed, please contact
contact or us for the cost of a new maintenance agreement or for
the cost of an upgrade.
How can I use cViewTEXT to take a file
name from a database and display an text inside a Crystal
Report?
Report Designers needing to take a file
name from a database and to display an text from the file name
inside a Crystal Report have found this approach works best.:
- Design your report using the tables,
fields, etc you need in the main report.
- Create a subreport using the COM data
driver and the cViewTEXT.SingleImage data source. When the
ImageFile parameter appears, use the name of one of your
text files.
- LINK the field in the main report to
the ImageFile parameter in the subreport. Do not select the
default value and create a new parameter in the subreport.
- Format the subreport to display the
text the way you want
Where is the COM data source for
cViewTEXT?
The COM data source appears under:
- “COM Data” under “Create New
Connection” if you are using CR9.0.
- "“Active Data sources” if you
are using CR v8.5.
Go to the Program Files\cViewTEXT\Drivers
subfolder to see the Crystal Reports v8.5 and Crystal Reports
v9.0 COM driver. The cViewTEXT\Drivers subfolder is created as
part of the of the cViewTEXT install. The Readme.txt file tells
you which driver to use and where to place it so that CR lists
the source for your report.
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