Regarding Crystal Reports 2013 SP1/SP3 runtime distribution

[Former Member]

Hi,

We are in process of migrating exsisting Crystal Reports from CR 2008 SP4 to CR 2013 SP1/SP3.

Iam unable to find the corresponding msms for the same for runtime distribution.

Please help out link where I can download msi (or msms) for Crystal Reports 2013 SP1/SP3 that need to be deployed on user PCs.

Also need advise

( i ) Can we install both runtimes (CR 2008 SP4 and CR 2013 SP1) on user PC at same time?

( ii ) Will CR 2013 SP1 support old CR 2008 SP4 ?

Thanks & Regards,

Rajeshwar Rao

[abhilash_kumar · Accepted solution]

Hi Rajeshwar,

From what I've read in this space, CR 2013 does Not have any runtimes.

Please have a look at these blogs from Ludek for more info:

How do you spell confusion; CR for VS, Crystal 2011, BI 4.x and the .NET SDKs

So, what's up with CR 2011 and .NET SDK - actually, any SDK?

-Abhilash

[DellSC]

What do you mean by "runtime"?  Is this the .NET SDK or is it the Crystal Reports Viewer?

If it's the SDK, you'll need to do a couple of things:

1.  Go here and download the latest version of the "Install Executable" to integrate into Visual Studio 2010 or newer.  (NOTE:  This does NOT work well in VS when installed side-by-side with the older version of the SDK!)

2.  Upgrade your application to VS 2010 or newer and the new version of the SDK.

3.  From the same page, download one of the runtime installs - whichever version is applicable for the type of deployment that you're using.  This WILL work side-by-side with the Crystal 2008 SDK runtime.

-Dell

[Former Member]

Hi Dell,

If I should make a new question please let me know, it is just that it matches our problem on the spot that I post here.

We are in a similar situation ( moving from CR2008 and CRS2008) , and as Ludek puts it, the confusion is complete :-).http://scn.sap.com/community/crystal-reports-for-visual-studio/blog/2013/06/28/how-do-you-spell-conf...

We developed a setup for our clients that installed (only afaik)necessary files for being able to view reports in our windows app.

This was after crystal/Microsoft separation so there was a bit of work with creating the setup.  The setup consisted of  Visual C++ Redist files and specifically "crystal runtime" , the files CRRuntime_12_3.msm and a language specific CRRuntime_12_3_sv.msm. The first of these allowed us to specify a keycode in the mergemoduleproperties.

Note that we use Crystal in unmanaged, outproc way according to our experts. Not using enterprise features.

Now we are upgrading all of our application and also Crystal to CRS2013 on our report server and cr2013 files on the clients(version 14.3500.0). So now we need to develop a new setup for our clients that installs only the necessary files for this to work as with previous version and we were hoping that merge modules or similar would be available but that seems history?

We are using Visual Studio 2015 and although this is not yet supported(patch coming in sept/oct) it works fine from a developer point of view.

So what files do we add to our client setup?

If we look at the links you recommend, the files there are of Version 13.0.14.1720 and  it does not seem to match with ours(14.x.x.x)?

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-7824Hi

We cant possibly ask our clients to do a massive install like the one we had to to when we installed on the developer computers. There must be another , much easier way, we just havent got it 😉 . Any help will be appreciated!

Regards Uffe

[DellSC]

Since you're using the version 14.x assemblies and Crystal Reports Server, you can download the .NET SDK runtime from the SAP Support site - http://support.sap.com.  You'll need an "S" number to do this download.

The challenge is that many of the assemblies have dependencies on other files, so there's no simple way to determine which specific files need to be installed.  However, you may be able to set up your install program to automatically run the runtime install prior to installing your application.

I'm not sure whether the runtime is a .exe or .msi, but it's a much easier install that what you put on the developer workstations.  Also, you'll need to either target your application specifically for "x86" or "x64" and make sure you install the correct version of the runtime (32-bit or 64-bit respectively).

-Dell

[Former Member]

Hi,

One problem I think we have had is the confusion between SAP Crystal Server 2013(that does not have an SDK acc. to Ludek) and BI4.1(X) that has an SDK.

Today we actually have two setups, the first for the crystal runtimes and the second for our application.

We just found one of your previous posts in this forum(great job btw to all of you who tuck into the questions) which spells it out loud and clear.http://scn.sap.com/thread/3685525

We have been searching this for weeks now!

We followed your instructions in the other post but when we clicked on the letter "B", there was nothing there!

So I guess the problem is that we are not yet registered as upgraded to the product?

We have license for CRS2008 for quite some time and are now developing/testing the rollout of the upgrade to CRS2013. I will get in contact with our support locally and see that we get registered properly or find another way get hold of the runtime.

Yes , we target x86 specifically, thanks.

Thanks for the help, really appreciated

regards Uffe

[Former Member]

Hi again,

Today we got an answer from our support to SAP in Sweden.

It turned out tha the runtimes were found under "C" for us, not under "B".

But-, heres the sad bit:

They tells us that there is no runtime smaller than the one that is installed on the developer workstations! This is terrible and our customers will be outrageous, and I cant blame them.

Does SAP really want to leave us developers completely out in the cold? I think this could be a huge problem for the future.

regards Uffe

[former_member183750]

Hi Ulf

The runtime has been the same size since, give or take... well for a long, long time. It has really never, or certainly rarely been an issue. I actually don't remember working with anyone that considered this to be an issue in the last 5 / 10 years(?).

Why do you think this is such a big issue for your customers?

- Ludek

Senior Support Engineer AGS Product Support, Global Support Center Canada

Follow me on Twitter

[DellSC]

Ludek,

The issue is that they're using the BI Platform SDK (14.x) with Crystal Reports Server.  Unfortunately, they are unable to get to the runtime downloads for the SDK because those are not available under the CRS links on the support site.  So, all they have access to is the Client Tools for CRS, which has a lot more included than they want to install with their software.

-Dell

[Former Member]

Hi Ludek and Dell,

Thanks for bothering with this!

I am propably not very good at explaining our problem(in english) but I will try to clarify a few things.

We have a windows application(client/server) that allows the users to open previously created reports in a reportviewer (using RAS) that are stored on a report server.

From the client, they can export it to the standard formats (pdf, word, etc).

They can also initiate new reports, these are not created on the client but on our application server, the process of collecting data for the report is only started from the client, but all work is done on the server.

There is actually nothing else happening at the client level.

No fiddeling with the reports, no digging into the data, nothing, just viewing and printing!

On the application servers we install the runtime in question of course.

The setup client we have had the clients install before ( when we used CR2008) was as desrcibed above , a few C++ Redist files and the merge module CRRuntime_12_3.msm(59MB). This, Ludek, is what I compare with when I talk of runtime that has to be installed on our client computers.

Since no merge modules seem to be available for the CR2013(version 14.x.x.x) we have been looking for a similar runtime setup that resembles the previous as much as possible. This is what we need. From our perspective there is a huge difference if we have to ask the clients to install the runtime outpointed by our support for SAP. That is, if we have understood correctly, and to be honest, I feel more and more confused and start to question if I maybe lost it a long time ago ;-).

The outpointed runtime is completely ok and adequate for an install on the developer pc's , that is as it should be, but for the client pc's that install our app this will be a very large difference. From 59MB to 327MB and for what? No difference in use for them.

The runtime we have found that seems to be what you are talking about is in this structure( we picked it when it was sp3)

"CRS_SP3_CLIENT_COMP_WIN_32_64B_\DATA_UNITS\BusínessobjectsRuntime\32bit\setup.exe"

Is this the right one? It took some 40 minutes to install with my developer pc, it is not a small installation.

I strongly suspect that something is not right here and that we should be able to use a much smaller installation for our clients. Am I wrong?  If I am unclear I ask that you oversee my low skill with the language (and Crystal in general).

I hope it got a little clearer though.

Maybe this is not a standard way of using Crystal but it is what we have to deal with today.

regards Uffe

[former_member183750]

The SDK runtime is now in an exe that canbe downloaded as follows:

Go to Support.sap.com

Click on Download Software

Click on Support Packages & Patches

Click on A-Z Alphabetical List of Products

Click on E

Find SBOP BI Platform (former SBOP Enterprise)

Click on SBOP BI Platform (Enterprise)

Click on SBOP BI Platform 4.1

Click on SBOP BI PLT .NET RT 4.1

Choose your bitness (e.g.; Windows server on IA32 bit)

You will finally get a list of available Downloads. SBOP BI Platform .NET SDK Runtime 4.1 SP06 is the latest. Once extracted the whole thing is about 350MG.

Now, the thing to keep in mind is that CRRuntime_12_3.msm was for Crystal Reports, not CR Server or BI / BOE. I have not checked for the size of the BOE runtime v. 4.0 (which would be equivalent to CR 2008 (12.x)), but I will do that in a while. I suspect it will not be much different.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Thanks for the reply,

Regarding the CRRuntime_12_3.msm, an equivalent for this is exactly what I need to deploy to our clients, nothing more. Is it the BOE runtime v 4.0 that I should be looking for? Do I understand you correctly when I say that? Has it grown that much, you think?

Regarding the download:

Sorry, there is no such item under E when I log in(probably due to some limitations in my access), I managed however to find it via the software search so downloaded it. This seems to be the same as I referred to above "..DATA_UNITS\BusinessobjectsRuntime\....". Same size and structure. Thanks anyway, but I was hoping for something much smaller...I still havent given up hope completely 😉

Thanks again for helping out

Regards Uffe

[former_member183750]

So I think we need to discuss the difference between version 14 and version 13 assemblies.

Version 14 assemblies would normally be for Enterprise apps using the following assemblies:

BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Admin.DocProcessingServer.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Admin.FullClientServer.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Admin.WebiServerAdmin.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Agnostic.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.AppFoundation.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Category.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Designer.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Encyclopedia.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.FullClient.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.FullClientAddin.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.FullClientTemplate.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Inbox.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.InfoView.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.MyInfoView.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Overload.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.PersonalCategory.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Profile.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Publication.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.ReportConvTool.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.StrategyBuilder.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Universe.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.Webi.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Desktop.WebIntelligence.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Dest.Managed.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.LanguageTools.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Sdk.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.WCA.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.WCAManaged.dll
BusinessObjects.Enterprise.Web.AppPlugin.Mgr.dll
BusinessObjects.Licensing.KeycodeDecoder.dll
BusinessObjects.ReportEngine.CommonServices.dll
BusinessObjects.ReportEngine.dll
BusinessObjects.ReportEngine.FC.dll
BusinessObjects.ReportEngine.WI.dll

I believe that CRRuntime_12_3.msm did not include any of those assemblies (certainly it did not include the whole suite) as that msm is for Crystal Reports SDK. The equivalent CR SDK for CR 2013) is "SAP Crystal Reports, Developer Version for Visual Studio .NET" (crvs). The specific msm would be 46 MG:

Note that the above msm does not include any Enterprise assemblies. See KBA 1547065 - CRVS2010 is missing BusinessObjects.Enterprise.* assemblies

One other thing to note. The msm for crvs does not include any dependencies (e.g.; VC++) and it is up to you to ensure that these are included / installed. This is a Microsoft licensing limitation. On the other hand, the msi does include all the dependencies. The MSI is about 76 Megs.

SAP Crystal Reports, Developer Version for Visual Studio .NET and all the runtime downloads are noted in this doc:

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Thanks again for the reply,

I cannot begin to say how grateful I am for this advice and information.

Your are completely correct.

The only reason why we have been stubborn and wanted to use version 14 assemblies is because we were recommended to do so. There was absolutely no need for this new functionality.

We dont need any of the enterprise assemblies as far as I can tell.

This changes the picture completly!

We have installed Crystal Report Server 2013 (Version 14.2.3.1257) on our report server in a test environment and have installed the runtime as described above (Version 14.x.x.x) on our developer computers.

This new information tells me that :

1) Uninstall the CRS2013(version 14.x.x.x) from our report server and install CRS2011(Version 13.x.x.x) ? Correct? Or is there a CRS2013 that has version 13.x.x.x that we can use?

2) Uninstall the version 14.x.x.x runtime from developer machines and install the runtime for  version 13.x.x.x =Support Pack Version 13.0.14.1720 from  the link page you provided?

3) create client setup that includes the msi that you refer to (76Mb)

Testing , job done!

Now , this is getting really interesting, there is a solution in sight!

Extremely grateful

regards Uffe

[Former Member]

For information, this is what we see as the main argument for the version we were recommended.

Our support told us that:

" From what we can see, Crystal Reports for Visual Studio does not support to run the Report Application Server on a remote computer in so-called unmanaged mode as you do."

We are binding to an unmanaged RAS using ReportClientDocument.Open Method, this does not seem to work so well with the

13.0.2000.0 version of CrystalDecisions.ReportAppserver.ClientDoc. We get errorcode -2147215349, 'The document has not been opened'

What can you say about that? Correct? Is there more trouble ahead?

regards Uffe

[former_member183750]

Managed reporting would mean that the reports are stored in the CMS database and need to be retrieved using the CUID. Version 13 assemblies do not support Managed reporting. Only version 14 assemblies do.

Unanaged RAS (e.g.; reports are loaded from some HD path) should be fine using RAS or CR SDK.

As for the error. Understanding the history here (I think ), I'd like you to have a look at this Discussion:

In a nutshell the solution was to make sure v14 and v13 assemblies are not on the same computer.

There are a few other possibilities, e.g.;

1329713 - Error "Document has not been opened" while initializing ReportDocument object

but I think the v14 v13 incompatibility is it (fingers crossed).

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Thanks for the reply,

I uninstalled the version 14.x but maybe some rest left.

I will follow your links and see what I can find, willl be back shortly.

Hi again,

I have uninstalled all 14.x from development computer.

Running the code (server 1 has CRS2008, server 2 has CRS2013) gives the same errors when trying to access reports from disk.

Syntax:

Dim crGeneratedReport as new ReportClientDocument

crGeneratedReport.ReportAppServer=String.Format("{0}:{1}",rasUrl,RASPort) --This is the line where it crashes

StackTrace: CrystalDecisions.ReportAppserver.ClientDoc.ISCDReportClientDocument.set_ReportAppServer(string pbsVal)

Source : clientdoc.dll

ErrorCode: 2147215349

--code continues--here

crGeneratedReport.ReportAppsession.Initialize()

crGeneratedReport.Open(CType(filepath,Object),1)

setting the reportsource to this after this code.

Which Crystal report server version do I need for this to work?

And I guess the runtime (support package 14) on the application servers as well?

[former_member183750]

But this line:

crGeneratedReport.ReportAppServer=String.Format("{0}:{1}",rasUrl,RASPort)

indicates that you are trying to use managed reporting...

In unmanaged reporting, ReportAppServer does not come into play at all. Version 13 assemblies have no idea what that is.

I am thinking that creating a phone incident and discusing your options and goals will be the way to go(?).

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Ludek, I too feel that this is growing out of hand.

I will let you 'of the hook'  , you have been most kind with the insights that you have provided.

Some final words though.

We have no Crystal expertize in our company(you might have guessed ), simply because we dont have many customers that use it and the few that do, only use a small fraction of the functionality that Crystal has.

Therefore we depend to a large part on the support and advice we get from the support company that sells us the Crystal license.

It is from them that we have the information that we use unmanaged reporting(and outproc I think thay say).

I guess I will have to learn the differences properly myself now.

All we do is create reports dynamically based on some selected report template that was created in the designer, get the data for the report from the db, generate the report , store it on disk on the reportserver and show it for the user in the reportviewer. We only open files on disk, nothing else.

We want to upgrade because today we have CR2008 and we want to be working in VS2015 wich is currently not supported ( what we know..) , but working though. Also the framework we want to upgrade as much as possible.

We will try now to buy help to solve it and find the best way forward.

Thanks a million, you have been a great help!