I have hundreds of legacy .rpt and am trying to change the connection configuration of all of these reports.
I used Crystal Reports Developer Version for Visual Studio (2019 community edition) to create a new Windows form application project and copy all the .rpt files to the project.
In the solution explorer of VS, I see the cs code in each rpt. It looks like the code only controls the layout of report. The .rpt files don't seem to have any database connection information.
Is copying existing rpt files directly into Windows Form Application project a correct way to import existing rpt? How to import .rpt in VS correctly?
Is changing database connection of existing reports in batch possible in Crystal Reports with Visual Studio 2019 community edition?
How to change database connection of existing rpt in Crystal Reports with Visual Studio? Can it be done in code with configuration file storing database connection information?
I have no idea what language were the reports developed in. It could be VB or C#. Are existing .rpt files language agnostic so that I can manipulate them in any programming language?
Documentation for Crystal Reports Developer Version for Visual Studio seems to be very limited on the internet. Is this the official user guide? The content doesn't seem to help with my problem.
https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_CRYSTAL_REPORTS,_DEVELOPER_VERSION_FOR_MICROSOFT_VISUAL_STUDIO?locale=en-US&version=latest
Thanks!
The design of Crystal Reports rpt files is saved in a proprietary format. It is not a programming language.
You can programmatically run these reports and/or modify their design using code via the object model (e.g. Crystal for Visual Studio).
What you are trying to do is possible but rather complex. Given that you have no experience with this, consider using one of the 3rd-party Crystal Reports tools that provide mass-update functionality.
Yes, Ken Hamady maintains a list of such tools here.
While that list contains 10 utilities, most of them are limited to documenting report properties. So focus your attention on those that can update data sources.
Disclosure: I'm the developer of the Visual CUT utility. Here is a video demo of mass-updating data sources across multiple reports using that utility:
Related
The standard method of implementing a Reporting Services report template is to create an .RDL (report file) and place it in the Visual Studio Report Project template folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject
Since this is a purely local approach, is there a way to implement a shared and source controlled template that can be used from the new item menu?
Our current solution for this issue is to store our templates in our report solution, and copy/paste them for new reports. Just wondering if there's a better alternative.
You need to create this as a .vsix extension and then share it. If you update the package and version all Visual Studio instanced that have it installed will prompt the user to update.
How to: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vsx/2014/06/10/creating-a-vsix-deployable-project-or-item-template-with-custom-wizard-support/
Although you can setup your own repo to load it from, It's much easyer to use http://marketplace.visualstudio.com for distribution.
While developing SSRS reports in Visual Studio, we are able to view the reports and then export them into Excel.
As part of our build process, I would like to automate the generation of Excel files during the Visual Studio build. [Then, I will compare the file to an approved version to ensure no regression errors have occurred.]
I would prefer not to use RS.exe, as all report developers would not have SSRS installed. I am looking for a local option, so that we don't have to deploy to an SSRS server and render from there.
How can I generate exports from the RDL files during the local build process?
One option is to create your own build tool, like a console application that has references to the Microsoft.ReportViewer.Common and Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms. In order to get the correct assemblies, install the Microsoft Report Viewer Controls (Redistributable Package) from:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms251723(v=vs.120).aspx
This tool could spin up an instance of a report viewer control, process the report in local processing mode, and return the excel byte stream that can be saved as a file output.
I just created a Report Project with 1 .rdl in Visual Studio 2008. I then deployed the report to the SSRS Server and I can now see the report in the Report manager.
I made a change to the report using report builder 3.0.
Is there a way that I can "get latest version" from the report server of the .rdl when I open my report project in Visual Studio again?
I am guessing that 1 way would be to download the .rdl and add back (overwriting) to the report project but I am wondering if VS has a built in function to take care of this for you?
There is no built in functionality in VS to attach to an SSRS instance and pull down the .rdl files. Since they can be moved, edited and deleted, outside of the designer there could be numerous issues with doing that. Just check all your local project files into source control and manually update if needed. Since I don't edit outside of VS I never had to deal with "pulling the latest version from ssrs". However, I have come across third party tools that may have functionality to make it easier.
If this is going to become a daily struggle for you then you may want to take the time now to automate the process using the ReportExecution2010 or ReportExecution2005 web service api.
Visual Studio is used to create and deploy reports, once they are deployed, there are no links between the report in Visual Studio and the Report Server, and there will never be. Think about it, you can deploy the report to X servers, so how could Visual Studio find which report you are talking about.
To ensure you are working on the latest version, you will have to download it and overwrite as you say, although I would compare it instead to see if there are changes not deployed.
If you are working with other developers that would potentially redeploy the report, then you can just check the last modification user of the report.
In all cases, I would strongly suggest to always check-in/commit when you deploy a report.
If you want to download several reports from the report server, then you could use a tool like RSScripter for example.
I have created my app which uses Crystal reports will the user of another pc require Crystal Report installation on his pc to use myapp on his own pc
From my experience they will need to have the crystal reports runtime version that you used in you app. Most of the time it is included when you package the app up. If not it is a small download and is fairly simple to install.
To use your app it is not required, it is sufficient to have crystal report runtime. But to use your report template they certainly need the crystal report installtion.
Visual studio 2008 has built in support to visualize your report template using it they can also edit. Afterwards realeases requires patch to visualize the report template.
Go through the following link to work with visual studio 2010 link
Go through the following link to work with visual studio 2012,2013 Link
I was wanting to know (as the title suggests) if anyone had any information on reporting in TFS 2010.
I know there have to be options for this, but I can't seem to find any literature on where any built-in reports are, nor where I could build custom reports.
Also, I have it set up now where I get email notifications upon a completed build. However, the email notification is just that--a notification. It doesn't give me much information outside the basics (for instance, it doesn't say details on any errors or warnings). It does give me a link in the notification that directs me to a page that lists further detail about the build. But I was wondering if there was any more flexibility on these notifications.
The long and short of it is this: I'd like to know what kind of reporting options are available in TFS 2010, and I'd also like to know if there was a way I could possibly customize the email notifications to somehow contain the aforementioned reports, or at least link to said reports.
Reporting with TFS2010 is pretty rich. Any chance that you have it installed on your workstation? Reporting is not supported in the workstation version of TFS.
What's New for Reporting for Visual Studio ALM
The reports are hosted inside of SQL Server Reporting Services so you can create custom reports using a standard SSRS project in TFS. You can do a lot to manipulate the reports using just the report manager that is available from within the project portal.
The email is done using a XSL transform that is normally located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Application Tier\TFSJobAgent\Transforms. You can manipulate any of these XSL files to create a new presentation of the data that is passed along from TFS. Of course you can create links to the reports by just including them in the XSL template.