CR Reports 2008: Space Between HTML Attribute and Value Causes Attribute To Be Ignored

[Former Member]

I have a field in a report with its Text interpretation set to "HTML Text".  When content is rendered in that field that was sourced from a Microsoft Word document, some of the attributes seem to be ignored by Crystal. 

For example, I have observed with "style" attributes that if there is a space between the attribute and the value, e.g. "FONT-FAMILY: SimSun" then Crystal will not render the Asian characters, replacing them with squares.  However, if I manually remove the space so that the attribute appears as "FONT-FAMILY:SimSun", then the characters properly render as expected.  I have observed the same issue with at least one other attribute as well, "FONT-SIZE".

This html does render properly in various browsers, so it seems to be an issue with Crystal Reports.  Can you provide me with information about this and if there is a fix for it in subsequent versions.  The version I tested with is 2008 - 12.5.0.1190.

Thanks for any assistance that you can provide.

[JWiseman]

hi Ethan,

here are the list of supported html tags in text interpretation...font family is indeed a supported tag.

does the html appear properly in the designer?...you mentioned various browsers and am wondering if you mean the crystal web viewers?

if the issue is in your cr designer, you may wish to patch it to the latest level.

also, ensure that you do not have any unsupported tags in your html that may be causing an issue.

-jamie

html
body
div (causes a paragraph break)
tr (causes only a paragraph break; does not preserve column structure of a table)
span
font
p (causes a paragraph break)
br (causes a paragraph break)
h1 (causes a paragraph break, makes the font bold & twice default size)
h2 (causes a paragraph break, makes the font bold & 1.5 times default size)
h3 (causes a paragraph break, makes the font bold & 9/8 default size)
h4 (causes a paragraph break, makes the font bold)
h5 (causes a paragraph break, makes the font bold & 5/6 default size)
h6 (causes a paragraph break, makes the font bold & 5/8 default size)
center
big (increases font size by 2 points)
small (decreases font size by 2 points if it's 8 points or larger)
b
i
s
strike
u
The supported HTML attributes are:
align
face
size
color
style
font-family
font-size
font-style
font-weight

In Crystal Reports 2008 Service Pack 2 and above, the following additional HTML tags and attributes have been added to the supported list:
The supported HTML tags are:
ul  ( bulleted list )
ol  ( ordered list )
li   ( tag defining a list item used for both list type: ul and ol. )
Important Note: The bullet will not show up as a regular size bullet, but as a small dot.

The supported HTML attributes are:
strong ( bold )

[Former Member]

Jamie, I am wondering if you actually read my question all the way through?  I am not asking if CR supports a standard tag attribute like "FONT-FAMILY", I am asking why CR properly processes the attribute value if there is no space between the attribute and the value; whereas, if there is a space then CR seems to ignore the attribute altogether.  That seems like a bug to me since I would expect CR to ignore the intervening white space, which it clearly is not.

My tests were run from the designer using a simple report to render the contents from a database field.

Thank you for your help.

[JWiseman]

i actually did read your thread and that's why i asked you if your html has any unsupported tags in it. that's why i posted the list, so you could cross-check your html in a record that doesn't work.

text interpretation does not support all tags and there could be something in there that's affecting the rest. this is a very early standard of html that is supported so any additional tags may or may not cause issues.

please paste a sample from your db that doesn't work.

i would also recommend that you patch your cr2008 to the latest level. if you do end up needing to contact customer assurance, they will not deal with any issues on a version that is not fully patched.

[Former Member]

Fails:    <SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun">看雲聊弄翰，把酒更題詩。</SPAN>

Works: <SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY:SimSun">看雲聊弄翰，把酒更題詩。</SPAN>

Please note that the Span tag and Font-Family attribute are include in the list of supported items that you posted, and, more importantly, that the only difference in these two fragments is the intervening space before the font name.

[JWiseman]

yes that does seem like a bug.

  can you see this in the tracking system as a bug for 2008 sp5? i am using cr2013 14.1.1.1036 and see it there as well.

in the meantime if Ludek doesn't see it as fixed in a certain service pack or fix pack, you would need to use a workaround...create a new formula similar to

replace({your field}, 'FONT-FAMILY: ', 'FONT-FAMILY:')

[Former Member]

Thanks, Jamie.  I appreciate your quick responses.  If Ludek confirms that it was never patched I hope it will be considered for an upcoming release.

[former_member183750]

Hi Ethan

Unfortunately, there is nothing in the bug database that I could find on the issue. So, I will escalate it for a fix. Theoretically the fix should be in SP 5 or perhaps SP 6 (ETA; 3 to 6 months).

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

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[Former Member]

Thank you, Ludek.  This affects some rather large clients of ours (and of SAP's as well), so if this could make it into the next patch that would be most appreciated.

Thank you to you and Jamie for helping to resolve this.

[Former Member]

Oh one more thing....

Would the patch be available on earlier releases than CR 2013?  We distribute CR runtimes with our applications and have clients who are using versions from CR 2008 and above.  The runtimes are the ones compatible with the .Net CR Viewer.

[former_member183750]

Hi Ethan

We will try and get it into the next SP, but I just can't promise - sorry...

Now, the last part of your reply is a bit troubling though. In all of this, the understanding was that this is happening in the CR 2008 / CR 2013 designer. Now, CR 2013 does not install any SDK, so when you mention CR runtimes, we need to get this cleared up:

CR 2008 is version 12.x

SAP CR 2013 is version 14.1.x (no SDK)

I suspect that you are actually using "SAP Crystal Reports, Developer Version for Visual Studio .NET", which has files of version 13.x.

But. Seeing as you mention "large customers", you may be using the BI Platform SDK, which would be version 14.x (this is BI Platform SDK not CR SDK...).

Yeah, I know we could have made this more confusing... not sure how, but there's gottta be a way LOL

Anyhow, please do let me know the version of the assemblies you are referencing in the app and I will then make sure this is escalated for the correct version of CR.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Yes, sorry for the confusion.  We have been CR customers since the beginning, and support several versions for our clients. 

The version that I tested with is 2008, but we always try to certify the latest CR runtimes for our clients.  I believe that we are now compatible with Support Pack 9 for Crystal Runtime for Visual Studio 2010 vesrion 13 ( i.e 13.0.9).  This is the .Net-based components.  We also intend to support  the Java components, so not sure if they are affected by this bug as well -- actually, would you know if they are?

Hope this helps.  If you need more details let me know and I will get them for you.

[Former Member]

So, to be clear, we would be interested in a fix that would service all versions of CR from 2008 through 2013.  Please confirm that this bug will be patched for each of these versions. 

Also, please respond with the defect-tracking number for this issue.

Many thanks.

[former_member183750]

Hi Ethan

I will create the escalation for the issue this week. One thing that would be very useful to attach to the escalation would be an actual report from a customer that exhibits the issue, e.g.; from you. If you could attach a report with saved data that shows the problem, that would help a lot.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Here you are, Ludek.

I tried to attach the rpt file, but got a message that the .rpt content type is not allowed to be attached, so I renamed it to .txt -- you will need to change the extension back to .rpt.

The report has hard-coded Select statements in a Command object and displays 2 rows: the first one is the errant one, displaying squares where the Asian characters should be rendered; the second one is the correct output, showing the Asian characters displaying with the correct font size (24pt.).  The first column shows the proper Asian characters; the second column is the test case for each Select statement.

Here is the SQL query for the report:

Select N'看雲聊弄翰，把酒更題詩。' as 'Unicode Content', N'<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; FONT-SIZE:24pt">看雲聊弄翰，把酒更題詩。</SPAN>' as 'Unicode Content With HTML Markup'

Union

Select N'看雲聊弄翰，把酒更題詩。' as 'Unicode Content', N'<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY:SimSun;FONT-SIZE:24pt">看雲聊弄翰，把酒更題詩。</SPAN>' as 'Unicode Content With HTML Markup'

This example illustrates 2 variations of the same problem -- an intervening space between either the attribute property and its associated value OR between attribute properties will cause at least some of the attribute properties to fail.  The white space should be ignored by CR.

Thanks,

Ethan

CR Bug Report.txt.zip

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Is there an update on this bug, like bug # and estimated fix release date?  Also, can you confirm that it will be patched in CR 2008 through CR 2013?

Thanks,

Ethan

[former_member183750]

Hi Ethan

Tracking would be done under this number: 1012580

ETA for CRVS (v. 13) would be early 2015. CR 2013 early 2015 as well, but we'll have to see what R&D has to say re. CR 2008 and CR 2011. E.g.; I'm not sure how much of an appetite they will have to go back to those products. If you can check back in a few weeks, I should have some news fro them.

Oh, early 2015 = Januarish...

- Ludek

[former_member183750]

Hi Ethan

This was the fastest fix I've ever got from R&D (I actually got the notice on Wednesday(!) ). Unfortunately, now we have to wait for the SPs to be released. So, here are the details for SP releases:

CR Version	Estimated Time of Arrival
SAP Crystal Reports, Developer Version for Visual Studio .NET: SP13	End of January / mid Feb 2015
CR2008: FP6.5, FP7.2	Nov. 2014, Dec. 2014
CR2011: SP11	March 2015
CR2013: SP06	Feb 2015

Please note that the dates are ETA, not a guarantee.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Thank you for the update, Ludek.  How can I be informed of the SP releases?

[former_member183750]

Keep coming back, I usually make a note under Featured Content. Or Follow us on Twitter

That's about it - other than asking near the SP ETA...

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

I haven't seen any updates as to the status of these fixes and CR versions.  Can you please confirm for me if all versions that you mention above have been patched with the fix?

Thank you very much.

Best,

Ethan

[former_member183750]

The latest updates for CR 2008, 20122 and 2013 are in the downloads portal:

Downloads for SAP Crystal Reports and others

and the latest updates for CRVS are here:

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek,

Thanks so much for the response and for getting the fixes escalated. 

Unfortunately, I am having trouble getting the fix pack installed to test the fix.

We distribute CR Reports runtimes with our application to our clients.  We support several versions of CR Reports depending on which release of our product a client is using.  Currently, we support 2008, 2011, and 2013.

I have a test environment that had the CR 2008 Runtime SP2 installed.  When I tried to install the SP7 FixPack 7.2 (one of the patched versions that was listed on the page you directed me to) I received a message stating that the installed version of CR was too old to upgrade to this FixPack.  I could not find supporting documentation to advise me how to upgrade to SP7, so I started to do this incrementally, starting with SP4, which I successfully installed -- again, downloaded from the same site that you pointed me to. 

However, in checking the list of installed applications after this upgrade, I see that I have 4 CR installations:

• Crystal Reports 2008 FP 2.5 Update
• Crystal Reports 2008 Runtime SP2
• Crystal Reports 2008 SP2
• Crystal Reports 2008 SP4 Update

So my questions are:

1. Does the SP4 that I just installed also update the runtimes so that they are now at version SP4?
2. This test machine also has the CR designer installed, so do all CR 2008 SPs upgrade both design-time and run-time components?
3. Should I continue on with the next available SP, which seems to be SP5 (skipping all of the intervening FixPacks assuming they are included in the later SP), in order to hopefully get to a version from which I can successfully install SP7 FixPack 7.2?

Thanks again for your assistance.

Ethan

[Former Member]

Ludek, can you please answer my questions above?

Thanks very much for your assistance.