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View Full Version : VRW replacing CR?, Comments, Suggestions.



Boris
10-May-2009, 09:04 AM
HI! I'm completely lost here, I just discovered this product and I wonder if this new tool will replace Crystal Reports in the long term? (Since sap is making it very hard to find the merge modules for 2008 and lack of support from DAW to this version, which BTW I already bought a few months ago).

I already read a Chip's answer to someone that there will not be an import tool for .rpt files. I think we all will agree that IS BAD VERY BAD, THAT'S AWFUL!!! I have written Hundreds and Hundreds of reports in Crystal, there should be something that could be done.

Suggestions:
I don't know if I missed it, but if I have to change reporting tools, I need to export to least: word, rtf, excel & pdf. (I don't find it anywhere, just the .html) I already had to rewritten tons of reports written in winprint to crystal, just to be able to export.

The Suppress checkbox has to be conditional, in fact everything has to be conditional.

What about crosstabs? What about subreports? :eek:

Best Regards
from Scared Boris Reyna

David Martinko
11-May-2009, 08:25 AM
HI! I'm completely lost here, I just discovered this product and I wonder if this new tool will replace Crystal Reports in the long term? (Since sap is making it very hard to find the merge modules for 2008 and lack of support from DAW to this version, which BTW I already bought a few months ago).

I already read a Chip's answer to someone that there will not be an import tool for .rpt files. I think we all will agree that IS BAD VERY BAD, THAT'S AWFUL!!! I have written Hundreds and Hundreds of reports in Crystal, there should be something that could be done.

Suggestions:
I don't know if I missed it, but if I have to change reporting tools, I need to export to least: word, rtf, excel & pdf. (I don't find it anywhere, just the .html) I already had to rewritten tons of reports written in winprint to crystal, just to be able to export.

The Suppress checkbox has to be conditional, in fact everything has to be conditional.

What about crosstabs? What about subreports? :eek:

Best Regards
from Scared Boris Reyna
If possible, I would be very interested in creating a conversion tool. There will definitely be a need for such a tool.

Ola Eldoy
11-May-2009, 09:07 AM
At the moment, there are challenges on "both sides". Both the Crystal Reports report file format (rpt) and the DAW Visual Report Writer report file format (vrw) are proprietary, closed file formats.

Someone mentioned (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332787/reverse-engineering-crystal-reports-definition-files/357764#357764) that you could export a Crystal report as "Report Definition(TXT)". There are also reports of conversion utilities, e.g. to MSSQL Reporting Services (an open format report definition).

But until DAW decide to facilitate either dynamic report generation or import of report definitions from some open format, this is not feasible.

In any case, Visual Report Writer propably has some way to go before it can replace most of your Crystal reports.

David Martinko
11-May-2009, 09:17 AM
At the moment, there are challenges on "both sides". Both the Crystal Reports report file format (rpt) and the DAW Visual Report Writer report file format (vrw) are proprietary, closed file formats.

Someone mentioned (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332787/reverse-engineering-crystal-reports-definition-files/357764#357764) that you could export a Crystal report as "Report Definition(TXT)". There are also reports of conversion utilities, e.g. to MSSQL Reporting Services (an open format report definition).

But until DAW decide to facilitate either dynamic report generation or import of report definitions from some open format, this is not feasible.

In any case, Visual Report Writer propably has some way to go before it can replace most of your Crystal reports.
Well, with the RDC, you can fully read and write CR files. So I can tell that you have an image and a label in the header... the size and position and values. If VRW were to provide the same ability to set the location of objects, then it would be a matter of reading one report format and creating the new report. Complex, time-consuming, lots of testing...yes. But we only need DAW to provide the same functionality in the ActiveX interface they are providing.

Boris
11-May-2009, 11:21 AM
David, if you create such a tool in the case we have to drop Crystal in the future, I'll certainly be the first to buy the conversion tool.
Do you know where to download the merge modules for cr 2008?
Any other on DAW in regards of medium to long term support for crystal?

David Martinko
11-May-2009, 12:28 PM
David, if you create such a tool in the case we have to drop Crystal in the future, I'll certainly be the first to buy the conversion tool.
Do you know where to download the merge modules for cr 2008?
Any other on DAW in regards of medium to long term support for crystal?
Uh oh... tell me you didn't buy CR 2008.

This does not come with support for either the API or the RDC. They only supplied a .NET wrapper for 2008 (which we can't use in VDF unless someone builds a COM wrapper for it).

Dennis Piccioni
11-May-2009, 12:39 PM
Hi Boris,

we do not yet have support for Crystal Reports 2008: http://www.dataaccess.com/support.asp?pageid=889

Boris
11-May-2009, 01:55 PM
I did buy it a few months ago. I made the following test: I opened an existing CR XI report and saved it using crystal 2008. Using the merge modules from XI, it ran, only with a message saying the this report was in a new crystal format.
I was digging around and there ARE merge modules for 2008. But it haven't been easy to download them from the sap site. I want just to make a test downloading those merge modules to see it I can start deploying cr2008 reports.
Hi! Dennis, do you know of a way to get this merge modules?

Dennis Piccioni
11-May-2009, 03:00 PM
Hi Boris,

I'm sorry I don't. I was pointing out to you that we don't support this and we know that some things do not work and we recommend to our customers not to upgrade to it at this time.

Stephen W. Meeley
11-May-2009, 03:25 PM
I did buy it a few months ago. I made the following test: I opened an existing CR XI report and saved it using crystal 2008. Using the merge modules from XI, it ran, only with a message saying the this report was in a new crystal format.
I was digging around and there ARE merge modules for 2008. But it haven't been easy to download them from the sap site. I want just to make a test downloading those merge modules to see it I can start deploying cr2008 reports.
Hi! Dennis, do you know of a way to get this merge modules?
Boris,

The merge modules for Crystal 2008 are only for .Net deployments, not for RDC deployments. Crystal 2008 does not support the RDC interface at all.

Marco
11-May-2009, 09:42 PM
Hi Guys,

I see at least the first versions of VRW, to be really for:
- End-users
- Starting developers
- Quick and simple reports by anybody

I think it is unreasonable to expect that within a couple of years VRW would have all the functionality of Crystal so a conversion can be made and work successfully.

Perhaps it is fine that the complex reports can stay with Crystal XI for a couple of more years, as long as the end-users have something for them to work with. Offcourse this is some doubling up of logic, but as it is a DataFlex product, it could use relationships to start with, but perhaps labels etc from the DD, at a later stage (offcourse need to compile the DD's or 'copy' into a repository).

For now, I still think that for real complex reports (where 90% of the developers time is in the logic and only 10% in the layout), that VPE (or perhaps even winprint), is the tool to go for.
In Crystal and in VWR for that matter, the advantage are in the interface, but unless you heavily use the RDC stuff in Crystal, the logic can be quite hidden and hairy in the end (especially as there is no Beyond Compare way to look at changes).

Cheers,
Marco

Boris
12-May-2009, 09:31 AM
"we recommend to our customers not to upgrade to it at this time."
Is support for Crystal 2008 coming any time soon? Crystal 2008 has been out there for quite some time now and as I see DAW's continued answers are "not to upgrade yet", "not to upgrade yet" and then I discover this new product. My worst fear is that this Crystal 2008 & further versions will not be supported, as DAW will focus efforts on making VRW a viable option instead of CR.
So, my question is "Not to upgrade at this time or EVER?".
I agree with Marco that VRW is far away to get all the crystal features and that it will take some time to get there, but in the meantime we need crystal. (I think having your own reporter is the right thing to do, and I was one the biggest promotor ever since you fix winprint with winprint 2).

Mark Powers
12-May-2009, 04:19 PM
Boris:
I think they did tell you DAW is not going to support it. They said the 2008 support for the RDC doesn't exist and from what I can tell from SAP is that they have no intention of changing their mind on it. So DAW really doesn't have a choice unless they want to go the .net route of supporting it. And they are working on a totally seperate product to compete with CRW.... so isn't the writing on the wall?

Mark

Boris
13-May-2009, 10:53 AM
I guess you're right, but Denis did say "don't upgrade YET". no "don't upgrade EVER".