Crystal Reports 2013 Designer and .Net 4.0 data source

[Former Member]

Hello,

Is it possible to create a .Net 4.0 (or 4.5.1) data source which can be used by the Crystal Report Designer from SAP Crystal Reports 2013? The ADO.Net driver (crdb_ado.dll) used by the designer (crw32.exe) is .Net 2.0 based, so I currently have to create a .Net 2.0-3.5 data source. Obviously the designer in Crystal Reports for Visual Studio is capable of doing this, but my customers don't use that product. Or is there another non-developer oriented product which can consume ADO.Net data sources built with .Net 4.0/4.5?  Thanks.

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hi Todd

I think this KBA will help.

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

Follow us on Twitter

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ludek,

Thanks for the response. I'm actually asking about my customer who is running the Crystal Reports 2013 designer (crw32.exe), so this is not about the CRVS2010 environment which is working fine for me (the developer). Or are you saying that I need to create a config file (e.g. crw32.exe.config) and tell the user to install this in their Crystal Reports designer installation directory? Thanks for any clarification.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello again,

I went ahead and created a new config file for crw32.exe and it works with the .Net 4.0 (or 4.5) data sources. I consider this question answered, but have a minor suggestion for you: the Crystal Report Designer should either automatically create this file, or have an option for the user to choose which .Net framework to work with (e.g. under the Options menu, or in a Database Expert detail dialog). Thanks.

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Ooops. Note to self: read customer question carefully...

Now, I am still not 100% sure but by .Net 4.0 (or 4.5.1) data source, do you mean and ADO .NET Dataset? If so, you can create a dataset DLL and use that in the CR Designer. The following has more info:

Apologies if I goofed again... keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, I have a few sample apps that demo this so if I'm on the right track, let me know and I'll share those.

- Ludek

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the document, that's exactly what I am doing. Note: it is a bit outdated since the current ADO.Net provider supports IEnumerable<T> in addition to DataTable types (which is great). Also it doesn't describe dealing with different .Net versions.

The only remaining interesting bit is how to provide report parameters to the .Net object. But I think I can simply make a factory method in our runtime environment. The customer won't be able to use the preview function in the designer, but it seems to be disabled when using ADO.Net data sources anyway.

[former_member183750 · Accepted solution]

Hi Todd

Good feedback. Re. dataset to the report in the CR Designer. You are correct that you can not do this directly. However, it can be done using dataset provider dlls. This doc has a pretty good description of that. Just an FYI - maybe it will come in handy one day

- Ludek