exporting to Excel using npviewer

[Former Member]

I am using CR version 8.5. I installed the npviewer manually on user machines without a full Crystal install.  The viewer displays the report, but we cannot export the report to any file type, especially Excel.

My question is how to export using the npviewer. We are distributing machines with Windows 7 and IE 8.0. However, the export button does not work. Whenever the export button is clicked on, the process starts. It asked where to save the file, what format, etc. Whenever the user selects Excel as the file type, the only option is Excel 5.0. The user then names the file and clicks save. CR acts like it is exporting, but whenever it asks the user if they want to open the file after exporting, nothing happens if they click open the file. Also if they go to the folder where the file was supposed to have been saved, there is no file there.

Does anyone know how to fix this? We really need to have this option.

Thanks for any help.  We are planning on upgrading in September as that will be our new fiscal year, but we need this option for the next couple of months until the upgrade has been done.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I have found the solution to this issue, so if anyone else has this problem below is the answer.

1)    Open Internet Explorer

2)    Go to Internet Options and click on Security Tab

3)    Click on Internet

4)    Slide Security Level Zone to Low

5)    Uncheck enabled protected mode

6)    Click on Local Intranet

7)    Slide Security Level Zone to Low

😎    Click on Trusted Sites

9)    Uncheck Require Server Verification (HTTPS:) for all sites in this zone

10)    Add url for report page

11)    Click Apply

12)    Click OK

Go to a report and run the report.  Export the report to Excel.  There will be several messages about Protected mode, but ignore those.  After saving the file in a folder, review to make sure the file is there and open it using Excel.

Close Internet Explorer

Open Internet Explorer and go to Internet Options.  Click on Reset all Zones to default level and save.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Wow. This is amazing and weird news in one

Noting that in one of the posts on this thread, Netscape was mentioned, I decided to do a bit more searching / asking around here. As it happens, right around the time of CR 8.5 I stepped out of the support role. Once I got back, I quickly caught up to CR 8.5 (or so I thought). Unfortunately I never heard of NPViewer. Anyhow. As I do more research on this, I run into an old hand who actually remembered supporting it. According to him, even then Netscape was a minor player and perhaps that is why I never got up to snuff on this.

The weird thing is that you actually got this working on Windows 7 and IE 8.0(?). I have never heard of anyone else ever getting the ActiveX viewer working on WIN 7 - unless they used CRXI R2 (11.5) and even then it's flaky).

But I do thank you for hanging in there and for posting the solution.

- Ludek

[joshua_kuhn]

You're probably missing the export files.  I think CR 8.0/8.5 stored all these export files in the C:\windows\crystal folder.  Look for any file that begins with "crxf_" or "u2f".  For example, excel export used a file called 'u2fxls.dll" or "crxf_xls.dll".  Right around that version it switched from u2f to crxf.  Either way, when you find those files on the CR designer machine, copy them into the /system32 folder on the client machine running npviewer. 

Most of the files names will make sense when you see them.  The u2f file are all format files.  There are also destination files that, I think began with "u2d".  You will need both types, the format and destination.  This has all changed in the newer versions of CR, so some of these names might not be 100% right.

u2fpdf.dll

u2ftext.dll

etc.

[Former Member]

Thanks, Joshua.  I will try this and see if it works.  I will let you know if this works.

[Former Member]

Copied all the dll files from Windows\Crystal to Windows\System32.  I rebooted and tested.  It still does not work.  Banging the ol' head against the wall.  I have googled and searched for an answer to this and still not able to get it to work.

[joshua_kuhn]

What destination are they choosing?  export to application or export to file?  be sure to export it to file, save and see if the file exists in the selected folder before trying to open it. 

Does the viewer work when installed to the a machine where CR8.5 designer is installed?  And has any other CR product version been installed to this user's workstation?  It could be that the npviewer is loading older left over files from a previous install.  Make sure some of these files you moved from /crystal don't exist elsewhere on the same machine... especially a different version.

[Former Member]

I have tried both ways destination wise.  It is not saving a file out to a selected folder.  I have a Windows 7 with IE 8 test machine that I am using for this issue.  There have been no other CR products or different versions installed on it.  I just installed CR8.5 designer on this machine.  I uninstalled the ActiveX viewer as it does not work anyway and installed the npviewer.exe file.  I am back to status quo.  The npviewer allows me to see the data on the report, but will not export the data to any file type or save a file in a folder.

One note, though....when I try to export out again, the file name I named the previous export shows up in the export save window.  In other words, when I try to export a second time out to a My Documents folder, in the export save a file window, there is a filename.xls file there.  I tried to open it from that window, but it came back with an error saying "There was a problem sending the command to the program" and Excel opened but it was all greyed out.  However, if you go to explorer and look for the xls file in the My Documents folder, there is not anything there.

Thanks for your help...you are the only person that has taken a interest in this in the 4 forums I have posted this problem to.  I appreciate your interest in this problem.

[joshua_kuhn]

It sounds like you're getting closer.  If the first filename shows up in the window, what happens when you export a report again to the same folder with the same filename?  Does it ask you to overwrite the file?  If so, the file is there and maybe its just hidden within Windows Explorer?

There are a couple other things that come to mind. For one, you're using Windows 7 and the npviewer was probably only ever supported/tested up to Win2000.  Thats not to say it won't work, but it could easily be something in Win7 not handling the program as it should.  Or maybe something else blocking the file creation like anti-virus or something else.  Can you run the npviewer in compatibility mode?  If you right click on the .exe and choose properties, you should have a 'compatibility' tab.  This might help if its a self running .exe.  But if the npviewer.exe was just the file you used to install the viewer then this may have little effect.

The last thing i can think of is to download a tool called "Process Monitor" from Microsoft and capture which files are getting loaded when you open the viewer and do the export.  You can't really attach a log to the forums so you'd be by yourself looking at whats loaded. But the idea would be to see how far the export file gets in the creation process.  Is the u2ddisk.dll and u2fxls.dll and other export files loaded etc?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

Other than going this route, you may want to try on a different machine (ie lower version OS).  Or if your copy of win7 is 64bit, maybe compare to a 32bit OS?

[Former Member]

I will try these things over the weekend. 

Again, thanks for your help and have a good one.

[ido_millet]

As an alternative, you may want to consider one of the free/inexpensive 3rd-party Crystal Reports viewers listed at http://kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

[Former Member]

What's an np viewer?

Where did it come from?

- Ludek

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[Former Member]

The npviewer comes with the Crystal Reports software.  I took that executable file and installed it on a user machine and the user can view Crystal Reports.  However what I found is that you cannot export the report out of the npviewer with just it being installed, hence my question.

[joshua_kuhn]

I believe it used to be called the "Offline Viewer" or the "Crystal Reports Viewer".  It was a free tool that gave non-designer users the ability to view a .rpt file without the CR Designer.  npviewer.exe I think was just the filename.

[Former Member]

I have been working for Crystal / Seagate / Business Objects / SAP for 18 years now. And I'm sorry to say, I have never heard of npviewer in all that time. Closest I can find is a download from Mappware. With a significant amount of trepidation I downloaded the file... it never even installed on my WIN 7. The only free viewer actually available from CR in the 8.5 days was called "Compiled Reports".

Things to remember;

CR 8.5 was created about 10 years before "modern" Operating Systems. I distinctly remember CR 9 having problems exporting to XLS due to OS securities. In CR 9, this was patched, in CR 8.5 not as it was out of support by then. And even if it was patched, as the product is out of support, the patches would not be available anymore in any case. The sort of it; I really do  not think yo will get this working.

Your options:

See post from Ido

See this:

http://scn.sap.com/people/crystalreports.team/blog/2008/08/29/do-you-care-about-compiled-reports

The viewer downloads can be found here:

http://www.businessobjects.com/forms/crystalreports/viewer/

Hope the above helps,

- Ludek

[joshua_kuhn]

I just did a little more searching (more for my own sanity) and there are documents, kbases, etc that reference npviewer.exe around the time of CE8, 8.5 and 9.  I was thinking it was the offline viewer which was more of a standalone client, but in fact it looks like the name of the .exe that would give users the ability to install the ActiveX viewer.  The viewer was usually pushed down from the IIS server but this looks to be a .exe IT administrators could use when their end-users didn't have install rights.  It gave another option for installing the viewer.  I think it stood for netscape plugin activeX viewer, but not 100% sure.

[Former Member]

Yeah - like I said, I've never heard of it. Maybe if you can provide some of the links you mention, I can have a closer look. But expecting 10+ year old software to work on Win 7, Vista, etc., may just be pushing things a bit too far.

- Ludek

[Former Member]

Thanks all for the help.  I have tried the compatibility tab and it still will not export.  I tried exporting and overwriting the file, but still got the same result.  It looks like this is just not going to work and the only option is to wait until we do the upgrade or use another viewer.  I will discuss both with our management to see which way to go.

Again, I appreciate all the help and if anyone has another idea, I am more than willing to try it.