HELP - "Fail to render the page" error - asp.net - crystal report viewer

[mrwoopey]

I have a asp.net application that uses the crystal report viewer
control.
It displays all of my reports but all of a sudden it started giving me
the following error on ONLY two reports:

"Fail to render the page"

I can view the reports with within Crystal Reports.
The same issue was posted here with no solution:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...ge%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wg

I remembered that I received a similar error message if the report had
a certain report options set within Crystal Reports but these reports
never were updated (it use to work)!

Please post your solution.

Thank you!

Phin

 

[Brian Bischof]

According to the information you posted, this appears to be a bug that
Crystal is aware of. They posted a fix for CR 9, but not CR.NET. Thus, I
doubt if anyone can tell you how to fix it. However, I suggest that you do a
query of your data prior to printing the report and see how many records are
returned (SELECT COUNT(*)... ). If its zero records, then don't print the
report. This is probably your best alternative.

HTH,

Brian Bischof
http://www.crystalreportsbook.com/123aspx.asp

A Crystal Reports.NET book for programmers? Its here!
* Covers ASP.NET and Windows Forms
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* Alerts you to the bugs and how to get around them
* Maps out the complex ReportDocument object model
* Shows how to perform runtime customization
* Demonstrates all options of connecting with ADO.NET
* Gives complete code listings in VB.NET and C#

 

[Ron Fluegge]

This is one of the problems I have with the "arrangement" that Microsoft has
with CR/BO ... no support for CR.NET.

While I can understand BO/CR wanting to promote/sell/support CR 9 and 10,
there MUST be an arrangement with Microsoft that they patch/fix/update
CR.NET (at least the 1.1/2003 version) in order for it to be a viable
reporting option for VS.NET's next release.

To post a fix for CR 9 and not CR.NET "says" a whole lot about the support
that we're going to get in the future regardless of the "version".

My two cents worth...

Ron

 

[Brian Bischof]

this is a very valid comment. BO doesn't make much money off CR.NET and I
don't see them giving it a high priority. CR 9/10 is the money maker and
that's what they are focused on serving. it's too bad.

 

[Ron Fluegge]

I'm hoping that someone from Microsoft is reading these postings and passing
back to MS management that getting CR support -- real support -- needs to be
built into the agreement between BO and Microsoft.

BO has posted on their website that MS and BO have agreed that CR.NET will
be included in the next release of VS. BFD!!

The posting is interesting in that Microsoft is enthusiastic about including
CR, but there doesn't appear to be the same level of "joy" at being included
in VS 2005 from BO's side. See below for details:

http://www.businessobjects.com/news...crosoft_20040324.asp?ref=devzone_netzone_main

If there's no long term support -- read into this: "timely" patches,
updates, support, etc -- built in to the arrangement, then MS needs to look
for another partner ...

I have a love-hate relationship with Visual Studio: Love Microsoft - Hate
CR.NET

OK, now that was 3 cents worth ....

Ron

 

[mrwoopey]

Thank you for your feedback!

I'm sick of Crystal! It's a pain and expensive to deploy (user
licensing!).

I'm thinking of ditching Crystal and going for Microsoft's Reporting
Services which is basically free if you have at least a SQL 2000
server! Also, Reporting Services is easier to develop than Crystal!

Crystal is going to keep loosing users (like myself) if they keep not
supporting their product and if licensing doesn't go down!


Phin

 

[Ron Fluegge]

Phin,

I can't comment on the deployment being expensive (user licensing) since I
might be implementing it differently.

As I understand it, if you are creating the app with the CR reports embedded
in the app, then there are no additional licensing fees. However, if you
include the ability for the end-user to customize the reports with their
additional DLLs, then there is a licensing fee required since you are
essentially deploying a copy of their product IDE to the end user.

I have no problems with that since my clients cannot customize our
"standard" reports.

We recommend to them that if they need "customized" reports that they can
either (1) buy CR 9/10 or (2) import the data from the database tables into
Excel, etc -- using products that they are more familiar with already. For
my clients, a lot of them are already familiar with CR since it is the
report backend for things like SAP, PeopleSoft, etc ... if I recall
correctly.

My biggest problem is the fact that CR.NET is included with VS, but is not
supported to the same level as BO's "main line" products like CR 9/10 ... if
BO is not going to support it the same as CR9/10, then MS needs to consider
a different partner for the VS.NET reporting tool set.

Ron