On June 5, 2013, SAP released service pack 6 for Crystal Reports, developer version for Microsoft Visual Studio. The Service Pack includes 19 fixes and enhancements. Full list can be seen in the wiki SAP Crystal Reports, developer version for Microsoft Visual Studio - Service Pack 6 - Fixed Issues. While each of the fixes and enhancements will have their adherents as being the best, my best three are:
64 Bit PrintOutPutController was added in SP 6
Including the 64 bit PrintOutPutController was long overdue. Actually it was overdue since the original release of SAP Crystal Reports, developer version for Microsoft Visual Studio. The reason that this is so important is that the PrintOutPutController is way more functional and robust than the Crystal Reports PrintToPrinter API. The PrintOutPutController allows great control over your printing; From setting options such as “No Printer” to selecting paper trays to setting margins and more.
The crdb_xml.dll database driver was added in SP 6
Adding the crdb_xml.dll driver was just as overdue as the 64 bit PrintOutPutController. Until now, only the “full” versions of Crystal Reports (versions 11.5, 12.x, 14.x) included the driver and 32 bit only. Service Pack 6 installs both 32 and 64 bit crdb_xml.dll allowing connections to, obviously XML data sources. However, more than that, these reports are able to consume Web Service Data Sources. For details on using Web Service Data Sources see the wiki Getting Started with the Web Services SDK. The details of how to deploy runtime for application s using the crdcb_sml.dll driver are in KBA 1871962. At the writing of this blog, the KBA was not yet published. It should be published soon and simply searching for the KBA using the search box at the top of this web page will bring it up.
Blank lines when the SeparatePages property of the Web viewer is set to False
Finally the blank lines when the web viewer SeparatePages property is set to “False” is just my personal favorite. Until this fix, if the property was set to False, the report engine maintained a separator between the original pages. E.g.; blank lines were inserted between each page as you scrolled down the now one “page” report. Perhaps just an irritation, but then, this is my blog :smile: .
