Question Re: Crystal Reports Web application in Technology Q&A

Crystal Reports Web application

Former Member — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:27:49 GMT

Hi, I have had a requirement for us to display crystal reports in our web page. These crystal reports are written in there own builders by the customer themselves and can be different user to user. They want to integrate with our web pages which are dynamic and customizable but i wanted some advice as to how this has been done before. i have found lots of material about building crystal reports in vis studio but thats not what they want to do. They want to build there own. upload the rpt to a table and run the report from a webpage without the need for credentials etc. can anyone point me in the right direction?

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

DellSC — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:45:24 GMT

Is the data local to the customer or is it stored on your network? Is the application running local to the customer or are you providing it as SaaS?

As long as the web server and the data are on the same network, you could have a page where they would upload the report and then display it in the .net or java web viewer.

The challenge is going to be setting the credentials. Crystal does NOT save the database password as part of the report so you would have to know from in your application how to set the credentials for the report.

-Dell

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

Former Member — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:53:09 GMT

the application and data are held on azure.

I dont think it would be an issue to provide a win form solution called by the app if needed.. but not sure how this is normally handled. im gussing as they own the builder and report they dont need to license anything else.

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

DellSC — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:57:36 GMT

They would have to have at least one license for SAP Crystal Reports.

-Dell

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

Former Member — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:59:57 GMT

yes they own the builder. is this different to the sap crystal reports license?

in what way is this normally handled? web or win form when end user is designing there own reports?

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

DellSC — Wed, 24 May 2017 20:15:51 GMT

Crystal for VS will run reports that are created with Crystal Reports - whether from the full version of the tool or the more limited one that is provided with Crystal for VS. So, your users don't have to have VS to create reports.

How this is handled is dependent on the software application. I have worked with several clients that allow users to upload custom reports - the app saves the report to an internal folder and metadata about the report to a database. It then use that metadata to show the user a list of reports that are available. When the user selects one, it then knows from the DB where the report is located so that the application can load it into a viewer.

-Dell

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

Former Member — Wed, 24 May 2017 20:27:12 GMT

sounds exacly like what i want to do. Is this done in web form or win form?

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

DellSC — Wed, 24 May 2017 20:28:28 GMT

You can do it either way.

-Dell

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

Former Member — Sat, 27 May 2017 20:08:11 GMT

can you point me to any documented examples or wher to start

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

ido_millet — Sun, 28 May 2017 13:26:52 GMT

Do they need to:
a) interactively change parameters when launching reports via a browser?
- or -
b) use a browser to access reports' output that is refreshed at desired frequency (plus the ability to drill-down to details and/or filter data)?

The 2nd option is simpler & inexpensive.

Re: Crystal Reports Web application

Former Member — Mon, 29 May 2017 12:35:12 GMT

Hi Peter,

Instead of running the actual rpt file, why not consider exporting the report to HTML/PDF etc automatically (hourly/daily/weekly etc) and uploading these files to your web server (can also be done automatically). This could be done with many Crystal Reports tools and I personally recommend Visual Cut from Millet software since it has so much extra functionality and great support.

I have taken this step one level further and written the HTML code in Crystal Reports so when I export my reports as text files (.html extension) I can have additional functionality in my HTML such as interactive charts, grids with filters, drill-down etc.

Recrystallize.com also offers a web viewer if you are sure you want to run .rpt files in the browser.

There are many possibilities with Crystal reports and the web!