dBASE Reports - Upgrade for Crystal 3 packaged with VdB5.7?

Author

Upgrade for Crystal 3 packaged with VdB5.7?

John Burns

2005-05-25, 11:23 am

I have a customer with an installed/deployed dB5.7 app running the bundled Crystal 3.0 engine (dll) to generate all reports. They are experiencing some problems with this report generator such as : numerous stranded .tmp print files that keep accumulatin
g, and printers that eject blank pages. They want a more up to date version of Crystal to generate these reports.

First, is it possible to upgrade Crystal on a PC with a deployed vdB5.7 app? If so, what is involved? Ideally, copying over a new .dll would be the best solution. If I need to instal a newer "distributable" version of Crystal on each machine, is there
a chance that it would conflict with other apps that also use a version of Crystal such as MS Great Plains?

Thank you.

*Lysander*

2005-05-25, 1:23 pm

In article <2wQ8WUUYFHA.1760@news-server>, john-remove-
@burnstechnologies-remove-.com says...
> I have a customer with an installed/deployed dB5.7 app running the bundle=
d Crystal 3.0 engine (dll) to generate all reports. They are experiencing =
some problems with this report generator such as : numerous stranded .tmp p=
rint files that keep accumulating, and printers that eject blank pages. T=
hey want a more up to date version of Crystal to generate these reports. =
=20
>=20
> First, is it possible to upgrade Crystal on a PC with a deployed vdB5.7 a=
pp? If so, what is involved? Ideally, copying over a new .dll would be th=
e best solution. If I need to instal a newer "distributable" version of Cr=
ystal on each machine, is there a chance that it would conflict with other =
apps that also use a version of Crystal such as MS Great Plains?
>=20

1.) There will be no easy solution if using still 5.7
more new versions of CR can still read old CR-Report files, but there=20
are limits in this. For example if you used any formulas, which you most=20
likely did.
CR 3.x accepted dBase-language as formula-syntax.
All later versions of CR only accept CR-language or VB-language for=20
formula-syntax.

Next problem: the latest version that you could use without external=20
help with 5.7 would be CR 7.2. The reason is, that this is the latest=20
version that creates executable report files (myreport.exe) for=20
distribution.
All later versions demand either using the API-method via CRPE32.dll or=20
using Active-X (which just does not work properly with 5.7).

2.)
There will be problems with versions of CR lower than 10.x when you are=20
distributing them on machines which have already CR-clients. In such=20
case you can not do it automatically but must invest a lot of time in=20
writing an installation script.
Versions starting from 10.x can use a merge-module and this is=20
automatically checking for existing installations and not touching them,=20
only - maybe - enhancing them.

Somebody could write for you an executable distribution package, which=20
is looking for a report-name in a specified dbf-table, and then=20
processes this report.=20
That way you could keep the application in 5.7 but run reports in CR10.=20
You still would need to buy ONE version of CR 10/11 and to convert=20
report-formulas to new syntax.
But you would loose some nice features of changing formulas and=20
parameters at runtime and a lot of flexibility.

recommendation:
live with the problems until you can manage to install 32-Bit dBase AND=20
a new Crystal reports.

Business Objects (the owner of CR) - as far as I know - offers an update=20
chain backwards to 3.x up to 11.x.

=20

--=20
ciao,
Andr=E9
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~
Deutsche dBase-Konferenz dBKon 2005 ::: 11. bis 13. November 2005
Deutschsprachige Konferenz zu dBase und anderen Datenbanken
Info: www.dbase-konferenz.de

John Burns

2005-05-26, 8:24 pm

*Lysander* Wrote:

> recommendation:
> live with the problems until you can manage to install 32-Bit dBase AND
> a new Crystal reports.
>
> Business Objects (the owner of CR) - as far as I know - offers an update chain backwards to 3.x up to 11.x.
>
>

Thank you for this information, Andre. This is very helpful! Is there perhaps another option to generate a report? i.e. send the data to a Word or Excel file and then print the resulting document from within one of these programs? Is this easily done
with VdB5.7? All of my customers are running MS Office.
I'm trying to offer a solution to them that is the most economical and expedient.

Thank you!
John

*Lysander*

2005-05-27, 3:23 am

In article <n6D$GjiYFHA.1188@news-server>, nomail@noaddress.com says...

> Thank you for this information, Andre. This is very helpful! Is there p=
erhaps another option to generate a report? i.e. send the data to a Word o=
r Excel file and then print the resulting document from within one of these=
programs? Is this easily done with VdB5.7? All of my customers are runni=
ng MS Office.
> I'm trying to offer a solution to them that is the most economical and ex=
pedient.

I heard that it is possible to 'direct' MS Excel from within dBase 5.x,=20
but I never actually did it. And I stopped using 5.5 as soon as 7.0 came=20
out.

I recommend asking in the programming group.

--=20
ciao,
Andr=E9
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~
Deutsche dBase-Konferenz dBKon 2005 ::: 11. bis 13. November 2005
Deutschsprachige Konferenz zu dBase und anderen Datenbanken
Info: www.dbase-konferenz.de

Richard Perryman

2005-06-23, 1:23 pm

John Burns wrote:
> I have a customer with an installed/deployed dB5.7 app running the bundled Crystal 3.0 engine (dll) to generate all reports. They are experiencing some problems with this report generator such as : numerous stranded .tmp print files that keep accumulat
ing, and printers that eject blank pages. They want a more up to date version of Crystal to generate these reports.
>
> First, is it possible to upgrade Crystal on a PC with a deployed vdB5.7 app? If so, what is involved? Ideally, copying over a new .dll would be the best solution. If I need to instal a newer "distributable" version of Crystal on each machine, is ther
e a chance that it would conflict with other apps that also use a version of Crystal such as MS Great Plains?
>

One option for 5.7 is to use a newer version of Crystal and compile the
reports into exe's. I have version 8 which has this feature "plugin
module" to create the exe's. I don't think newer version still have it
though.

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