ASP Page to query report

[Former Member]

Hi there,

So a long time ago we had a developer who set up an asp page that loads through some of our applications.  The asp page points to a specific report, depending on where it is called from within our application and also the parameters for that specific report are provided in the URL when it is called.  Then the report being requested from within our application is displayed with the given paramaters that are provided by our application. 

We are working on preparing to migrate everything to a new server, this is all on a windows 2003 server running like crystal server 8 or something, to a new server that is currently running crystal server 2013.  Is what I am describing possible on crystal server 2013 and if so, what would I need to set up server side to allow our applications to work the same as they are? 

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

A lot of this depends on how the reports are being displayed.  If the app is just using calls to "OpenDocument", then you may not have to do anything. However, if the app logs in to CRS and works with the Report object, you'll have to upgrade the app to use the latest version of the SDK as there are some major differences, including the requirement for Visual Studio 2010 or newer.

-Dell

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Well previously the reports were in our wwwroot file structure for our internal web portal.  Then one of our applications would send a web address like this: http://home.yesco.com/crystal/export.asp?reportname=applications/Credit/AR_Billing.rpt&db=jobscope&N... to points to the ASP page which then points to the location of the report, which is after the "reportname" and then the paramaters followed after that.  So it was just basically opening the document from the file structure.  Is this even possible with Crystal Server 2013?  So far I am not finding a way to access reports outside of the console and when I am referencing links that I have pulled from inside of the console it requires a login, where we never logged in before. 

So I guess the question I am really asking is, the file structure where reports are stored on crystal server 2013 seems to be masked and set up independant of the file structure inside of the console.  So calling these reports through their physical location is probably not going to work.  What would be the best way for our application to call them from here on out and is there a way for our current situation to call them through the console? 

Thanks!

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

If you pull the reports from Crystal Reports Server (CRS), you'll have to log in to CRS to get to them.  You'll also need the latest Service Pack of the BI Platform 4.1 .NET SDK to connect to the server. (version 14.1.x of the assemblies).  You'll run a query on the CMS database (through the SDK - you can't query it directly) to get information about the report and then either build an OpenDocument URL to open the report or open it in the viewer that comes with the SDK.  You can find more information about OpenDocument here:  http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sbo41/en/sbo41_opendocument_en.pdf.  Unfortunately, the documentation for the .NET SDK is virtually non-existent and what is available is not very good.  However, I have some sample C# code for working with the SDK on my website (http://www.dellstinnett.com/sample_code.html) that includes a couple of tutorial programs that show how to work with the SDK.

If you're not connecting to CRS, you'll use the SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio SDK, which you can download here:  http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-7824.  Get the latest "Install Executable" for integration into Visual Studio - the other downloads on the same line are for various types of runtime installs.  This will allow you to open reports directly from files.  You can get more information about this SDK here:  SAP Crystal Reports, developer version for Microsoft Visual Studio – SAP Help Portal Page

-Dell