Upgrading CE10 and RAS to Crystal Server 2013

[Former Member]

I currently use CE 10 Enterprise server for scheduling Crystal 10 reports and also support a client server (VB) application that interfaces with a browser to call legacy ASP logic including AlwaysRequiredSteps.asp and MoreRequiredSteps.asp (IIS and ASPs also resides on the same CE 10 server). The RPT files are filters before displaying back thru an older activeX CR viewer control in the client application.

My question is how can I replicate this functionality using Crystal Server 2013 (for scheduling reports) and a .net SDK replacement for the legacy solution.

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

RAS still exists in Crystal Server 2013 (CRS).  However, you won't use that for scheduling reports.

Since you're connecting to CRS, DO NOT use the SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio SDK (version 13.x)!  It doesn't include any of the assemblies you'll need to connect to CRS.  Instead, you'll need to get the BI Platform .NET SDK Runtime (version 14.x) which you can either get as a separate download from support.sap.com (same place you'll go to for downloading the CRS software) or through the CRS Client Tools install (which is also a separate download).  The Client Tools only includes the 32-bit SDK and the .NET SDK Runtime includes both 32- and 64-bit assemblies.  If you're going to use the Crystal Report Viewer component in your application, you'll need to install the Client Tools first - the runtime won't install the design-time components into VS.

If this is a web application, you'll want to look at using an OpenDocument call to view the report.  If it's a WinForms app, you'll use the viewer component.

Here are links to documentation:

OpenDocument:  http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sbo41/en/sbo41_opendocument_en.pdf

.NET SDK:   http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4sp5_bipsdk_net_apiRef_en.zip

And you can find sample code here:

My website:  www.dellstinnett.com/sample_code.html.  Look for "BOEScheduleCrystal" and for the various "Tutorial" code.

SCN:  On the home page for the .NET SDK Application Development space (where you posted this discussion) there are a couple of links to sample code on the left as you scroll down.

-Dell

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi so I'm out at the SAP BI download and see:

51046777_1 SBOP BI PLATFORM 4.1 SP1 CLIENT TOOLS WINDOWS (32B)

and

51046777_2 SBOP BI PLATFORM 4.1 SP1 ENTER .NET SDK RUNTIME WINDOWS

Do I need both zip files or am I looking at the wrong files?

Thanks

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

Yes, you'll want both.

-Dell

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Dell.

  I plan to schedule and store the Crystal report files .rpts (daily / weekly versions of each rpt) on the server file system and we will use Crystal Server 2013 for this.

I also need to open reports/rpts and filter them and serve them to the user. I don't need to connect to the Crystal Server software for this do I?

[DellSC · Accepted solution]

Yes, you do.  The SDK in both of those downloads will only work with Crystal Server, which uses the same SDK and basic platform code as the BI Platform (BusinessObjects).  Crystal Server will only work with Crystal reports (you can schedule to and view other document formats) and the BI Platform will work with a bunch of report formats, such as Webi, that Crystal Server won't work with.

-Dell

[Former Member]

Meant to say RDC not RAS

[DellSC]

There is no RDC component - it was deprecated several years ago.

-Dell