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Crystal Reports 2016 with ODBC

peter_r
Explorer
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I have been developing reports for use with a PostgreSQL database using ODBC for the last 2 years. I just upgraded to Crystal Reports 2016 from Crystal Reports 2013 and found that all of my reports now treat Boolean fields as Boolean even though my ODBC driver has a checkmark in "Bools as Char".

This has broken every report written in the last two years.

Is this a known issue or am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks.....Peter

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

former_member205840
Active Contributor
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Hi Peter,

What version of PostgreSQL database you are using ? will it support CR-2016 ?  have you checked Product Availability Document for compatibility ?


Also check what is the driver you are using ? is CR-2016 will support the driver you are using in your DSN ?




Thanks,

Sastry

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Sastry,

Thank you for the reply!

We are using Postgres 9.3.6. The PostgreSQL ODBC driver is version 9.03.0210. I have never seen a Product Availability Document.

The driver in the ODBC Data Source Administrator shows PostgreSQL Unicode version 9.03.02.210 and it seems like Crystal 2016 does not support it the same way as Crystal 2013 did for the last two years and several hundred reports. Other than the "Bools as Char" setting being ignored, it seems to be fine otherwise.

Does that help you identify the problem?

thank you!

Peter

former_member205840
Active Contributor
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Hi Peter,

Yes, the problem is with driver.

Here two things, one is crystal and other is ODBC, I think there is some problem with the ODBC which is ignoring "Bools as Char". it could be an issue with the driver which we are using in DSN.

Can you check your report use OLE DB, this connection uses native driver. 

Thanks,

Sastry

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Sastry,

I appreciate your assistance with this.

I understand that I could replace the ODBC driver however I am still using the same ODBC driver that I have been using with Crystal XI and Crystal 2013 for the last two years.

I only upgraded my Crystal Reports Designer from Crystal 2013 to Crystal 2016 and found that all of my reports that use a Boolean field in the database now fail validation.  The map fields wizard pops since the Boolean fields that were recognized as Character fields in Crystal 2013 are now recognized as Boolean fields in Crystal 2016.

I could try replacing the ODBC driver, with the Data Direct driver that I believe SAP makes available however I suspect that will also present Boolean fields ad Boolean values in Crystal 2016.

Normally this would be a good thing except that I get two problems from this.

1. I have to edit several hundred reports and it causes issues for many of our users who have to edit their customized reports.

2. We are forced to use Crystal XI Report runtime in our application which does not support Boolean values from ODBC.

I could also change all of the reports to use OLEDB but I am still left with the first problem, assuming that the Crystal XI Report runtime has no problem with the same OLEDB driver.

Therefore I was hoping that you had a solution for Crystal 2016 to respect the "Bool as Char" setting in the ODBC driver, the same way that Crystal 2013 does.

Many of our users purchase the Crystal Reports 2013 upgrade license from your web site. However since the release of Crystal 2016, the Crystal 2013 upgrade license is no longer available. Subsequently our users want to upgrade their Crystal 10 or Crystal Report XI Designer to Crystal Reports 2016 upgrade and they are not able to do that until I resolve this problem.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Peter

gabriel_schroedter
Participant
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Has this been resolved?

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Gabriel,

No, it appears that Crystal Reports 2016 has changed the way it uses the PostgreSQL ODBC driver. I have reverted back to Crystal Reports 2013 for now and advised all of our clients NOT to purchase Crystal 2016 until I find a resolution.

I suspect that we will have to change to another ODBC driver so that we can expect consistent Boolean results with Crystal Reports 2016 Designer, Crystal Reports 2013 Designer and the Crystal Reports XI Runtime that we use within our application.

Regards,

Peter Reimer

gabriel_schroedter
Participant
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http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/507d3365-009b-3010-04b0-e5abc8f00...

Is the product availability matrix that Sas is mentioning above, when I went over it I didn't find PostgreSQL on that document, there hasn't been an update for Crystal Reports 2016 made available yet.

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Gabriel,

I found this in row 164 of BI 41-SL PAM - v1_1.214.xlsx

which is included in;

- SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Supported Platforms (PAM) - Tool.zip

from the link on Page 23 in the document that you sent me.

RelationalPostgreSQLPostgreSQL*9ODBCSQLPostgreSQL 9.1.4 ODBCDirect 4.1 RTCDirectDirect

I have been using psqlODBC version 9.03.0210 for two years with Crystal Reports 2013, Crystal XI and Crystal 10. Are you suggesting that I change to an earlier version?

Best regards,

Peter Reimer

gabriel_schroedter
Participant
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I'm just trying to put the pieces out in the open in the hopes the experts on this forum can weigh in. I'll have to defer to anyone else here for technical support.

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Gabriel,

It's been a week so I thought I would follow up.

I am just trying to find out if there is a registry entry (there has been several in the past) to change the behaviour of how Crystal 2016 respects the ODBC options the same way as Crystal 2013 did.

Do you have anyone available to answer that?

Thank you!

Peter Reimer

patrick_genest
Advisor
Advisor
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Hello Peter,

There is no option to change how a database field of data type: Boolean is seen in Crystal Reports. The data type information is provided by the ODBC Driver to Crystal Reports.


I setup a trace on the PostgeSQL ODBC Driver, and it is actually sending a bool data type.

Below is an extract from the log:

     "...PGAPI_Columns: table=;'orders',field_name='delivered',type=16,name='bool'"....

I also tested it outside of Crystal Reports using the utility: SQLCON, and it also shows the data type as Boolean, and not as a string, regardless of the option selected on the ProstgrSQL ODBC Driver.

Finally, I downloaded different versions of the PostgreSQL ODBC driver, and it always return a boolean data type.

From the test performed, it points to the PostgeSQL ODBC driver issue that does not comply with the ODBC standard. You may ask:

Why then it was showing the expected data type in Crystal Reports 2013 and below?
 
I do not have an answer for that at this point because from the test results and the trace on the PostgreSQL ODBC driver, it shows the same information of the field being a boolean. I will perform furher investigation and will update you.

peter_r
Explorer
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Hello Patrick,

Yes, you are correct. I am trying to understand why Crystal 2013 saw the Boolean data value as a String when I enabled Bools as Char on the ODBC driver.

Much as I would prefer not to do this, it was the only way that I could make the Crystal XI report runner work with the data and so now I have many reports this way.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Regards,

Peter Reimer

patrick_genest
Advisor
Advisor
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Hello Peter,

We performed an ODBC trace, but we unfortunately could not find exactly why it is binding the boolean field as a string in Crystal Reports 2013, and as a Boolean in Crystal Reports 2016.

We have requested the product developers to investigate this situation. We will document this scenario in an SAP Knowledge Base Article, and add it to this post at the beginning of next week.

peter_r
Explorer
0 Kudos

Hi Patrick,

Excellent. I will look forward to any information available on this!

Thanks!

Peter

peter_r
Explorer
0 Kudos

Hi Patrick,

Did you complete the KB article yet?

Thanks!

Peter

peter_r
Explorer
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Patrick,

May I have an ETA please?

We are still telling our clients that they can not use Crystal 2016 and must stay on Crystal 2013, XI or 10, in order to use it with our software.

Regards,

Peter Reimer

patrick_genest
Advisor
Advisor
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Hi Peter,

This product defect has been documented under SAP Knowledge Base Article: 2363553
According to the SAP Note information, it is planned to be resolved in Support Pack 04 of Crystal Reports 2016. I just reviewed the SAP BusinessObjects Maintenance Schedule, but it unfortunately does not list when it is schedule to be delivered.

If you have a maintenance contract, you can review the SAP BusinessObjects Maintenance Schedule periodically, as it gets updated on a regular basis, and it should display an estimate to when it is going to be scheduled in the future. The document is available on the SAP Support Portal following the steps below:

1. Logon to the SAP Support Portal at:  support.sap.com

2. In the upper menu, selecy "Release, Upgrade & Maintenance Info"

3. In the next screen, click on the gray button: "Schedule for Maintenance Deliveries"

4. In the Schedule screen, click on "SAP BusinessObjects maintenance schedule" document,

Look for the product line: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.2.
Crystal Reports 2016 follow the same schedule.

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

Former Member
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Hi Peter,

Please use formula in crystal reports.

The formula have to  be in Crystal Reports formula syntax or if you set 'basicFmSyntax' to true in basic syntax.  To add a FormulaField to the fields set use method Fields.addFormulaField(String,String,int) in  class Fields.

Please let me know if you need more details.

Regards,

Deepa.

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Deepa,

I do not have a problem changing a formula in a report to work with a Boolean value but I do have a problem with changing every report that we have distributed with our application over the last two years. We also have users that have customized many reports based off the reports that we have written, that would have to be edited. We are talking about hundreds of reports.

The second problem is that we own Crystal Reports XI Developer which is the last version that has the Runtime that our application uses. The Crystal Report XI Runtime only works with Bools as Char enabled.

Therefore I was hoping that there was a way to have Crystal Reports 2016 respect this Bool as Char setting again so that I can advise our users that they may purchase Crystal Reports 2016, otherwise we can only use Crystal Reports 2013 or lower.

Regards,

Peter

peter_r
Explorer
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Hi Deepa,

Did you see my last post in this thread?

Peter