Converting an old CR 8.5 to CR 9.0, using datasets instead

[Rod]

We've got an old VB6 application we wrote years ago, that we're working on
converting parts of, to an ASP.NET application. So far, the work is going
well.

Now I'm looking at trying to convert the Crystal Reports to the new system.
To use the terminology that Crystal uses, the old VB6 application used a
"pull" methodology, meaning that the stored procedure was specified within
the .RPT file, and parameters were all there, and when you invoked it, you
passed an array of parameters (and formulas, if you used any) to the report
so that it could run the stored procedure, giving the parameters it needs to
the stored procedure in order to run the report. (These reports are all
written using Crystal Reports 8.5.)

The new system will use Crystal Reports 9, and I would rather use a "push"
methodology instead, giving it a dataset of data that I'll have previously
filled by running the stored procedure outside of the Crystal Report.

My problem is, I don't know how to remove the stored procedure from the .RPT
file, but leave all of the formatting and design that has been written
already into the report. All of the examples that come with Crystal Reports
9 assume that you're going to be writing a report from scratch, which doesn'
t work for me.

How do I do what I am trying to do?

Rod

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hi Rod,

Generally the .net framework has the new design for supporting the CRYSTAL
REPORT and has its class library. And the "PUSH" mode you mentioend is just
create a ReportDocument class instance which can set DataSource from a
DataSet object. And we can bind the ReportDocument with a CrystalReport
Viewer.

#ReportDocument.SetDataSource Method
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/crystlrf/ht
ml/crlrfreportdocumentclasssetdatasourcemethodtopic.asp

And the stored procedure is only used when we need to fill the dataset via
ado.net processing. As the
"removing the stored precdure from the .RPT file", do you mean the old VB6
rpt file? I think it is restricted by the Crystal reprot's design feature.
And you may try asking the Crystal Guys for some further assistance. Here
is a kb article on this:

#How To Get Help with Crystal Reports - International and U.S.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;100368

Thanks.

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

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[Rod]

Steven,

Thank you for replying. When the original developer wrote the dozen or so
Crystal Reports that need converting, she assigned the stored procedure into
the report itself. (I think the report actually uses ODBC, requiring a DSN
on the server.) It required you to feed the parameters using the
ParameterFields collection. However, at least as far as I understand it, if
I were to instead give Crystal Reports a dataset, then the .RPT file
wouldn't have to reference a stored procedure and we wouldn't have to use
the ParameterFields collection (assuming that the ParameterFields collection
is still a part of version 9). The important thing to me is, if at all
possible, can I leave all of the formatting that she did (placing of
database fields onto the report, headings, etc), because that represents a
very significant amount of work. I would, if possible, like to leave the
design of the report in place but change the mechanism by which the report
gets its data, rather than design a new report from scratch.

I'll see what the "Crystal guys" have to say about this.

Rod