Database Connection help for accessing ACT 2008

[Former Member]

I am a new user to Crystal Reports and understand this is the only way i can obtain any technical support. With that in mind, I need to understand how to set up a database connection to ACT 2008. Every time i try to setup the connection, it looks for a dbf file, and the file extensions on act databases are .adf.

Can you give me any information how to setup access to ACT?

Thanks

Steve

[Former Member]

Stephen,

Don't know if you are still having the issue w/ACT! 2008 data extraction, but here are some steps you can walk through to pull the data using Crystal:

1. Create new connection

2. Select OLE DB (ADO)

3. Select ACT! OLE DB Provider for Reporting

4. Enter the data source, user name and password for the ACT! DB you are accessing

5. Click Next

6. Click Finish

That should get you connected to the tables in your DB.

Hope that helps (if you are still dealing with this issue).

Thanks,

COL

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am unable to access ACT database with either business universe or crystal report.

My query is, is there specific user or privileges needed to access.

And is there any other way to access this database?

Thanks

[former_member183750]

It would have been much, much better to create a new post rather than attaching your self to one that is over 6 years old...(?).

Nevertheless, according to the CR 2013 PAM, ACT 6 is supported (I believe that is the same as ACT 2008?). See screenshot of my data sources:

Now. To the best of my recollection, the ACT driver is not installed by default. E.g.; you have to do a custom install and select ACT.

If doing the custom install does not help, it will be a good idea to crate a new post, referencing this one and adding basic information such as:

Exact version of CR - including and updates applied.

Rather than saying "I am unable to access ACT database", specify why not; Errors? Symptom? Behavior?

Version of ACT.

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

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[Former Member]

This is not the only way you can have access to support. Purchasing a support contract is another option.

As for ACT - contact them and ask them if they provide an ODBC driver then you can use that to create a DSN and access the data via ODBC.

[Former Member]

James,

I've already spoken to the tech support team at SAGE who manufactures ACT! . They say that their product is already setup to work with crystal reports, and they cite the "ACT! Ole DB Provider for Reporting" tool in your odbc connection wizard.

They also mentioned the Act Reader Utility but said i wouldn't need that to allow Crystal Reports to access my database.

Also, the only other support that i have found is a single incident for $195. If you know of anything else, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it. I can't believe that there isn't any other form of technical support for new users? I know how to write reports but don't know how to setup the connection between the databases, and deal with sql/odbc structures.

Steve

[Former Member]

As an alternative, It looks like i can export the ADF file format of ACT 2008 SQL database to a text file in Excel. Once the data is in an excel comma/tab delimited format, or excel workbook format, what is the best method to access or connect to the data?

Please suggest any other ways to connect to the sql database. The problem with the ACT! ole db Provider function is it looks for a .dbf file and ACT! 2008 uses .adf sql file format.

thanks

Steve