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Crystal Reports.NET Benefits
Now that we have looked at some of the differences between versions of Crystal Reports, and some of the uses (and limitations), we need to have a look at some of the reasons you should be excited about this version and how your applications can benefit from the features we talked about earlier.
Leverage Existing Development and Skills
Crystal Reports can leverage the existing reports you have created, regardless of version. If you already have a suite of reports created in version 7.0, for example, you can quickly import them into Crystal Reports.NET and they are ready to be integrated in your application. But not the other way around - once you have opened or edited a report in Crystal Reports.NET, it uses a Unicode file format that is incompatible with previous versions. In addition, the report design process remains the same, with a number of Experts to guide you through report design, and the same familiar design concepts, formula languages, and features you have used in previous versions.
Tight Visual Studio .NET Integration
From within Visual Studio, accessing a new report is as easy as selecting Project | Add New Item and selecting Crystal Report. There is no need to open a separate application to design reports and all of the reporting features of functionality are available to you, allowing you to programmatically control the look and feel of a report, how it is processed and viewed, and so on.
Windows and Web Report Viewers
For a feature-rich report viewing experience, Crystal Reports.NET includes a report viewer for Windows Forms that has been built using the Windows Forms Classes and provides all of the functionality users have come to expect from Crystal Reports, including drill-down, search, exporting, and so on. In addition to a robust report viewer for Windows Forms, Crystal Reports.NET also includes a thin-client report viewing control for ASP.NET, providing most of the functionality found in the Windows viewer in a "zero-client" (meaning no client is downloaded or installed) DHTML environment, with no additional plug-in or viewer to download.
Easy Deployment
Crystal Reports.NET includes a number of merge modules to make creating setup projects easier. Instead of manually determining the required DLLs and other Crystal-related components, you can simply add one of the merge modules listed below to a setup project:
Managed.MSM
For installing the Crystal Reports.NET managed components, including:
CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.DLL
CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Web.DLL
CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms.DLL
Database_Access.MSM
For installing all of the database drivers and all non-managed components (Charting, Export Formats)
Database_Access_enu.MSM
For installing select language-specific components
REGWIZ.MSM
For tracking registration details and license keys
Important
One of the most common errors when deploying a Crystal Reports.NET application is forgetting to change the LicenseKey property in your setup project. This must be set or an error involving keycodev2.dll may occur.
In addition to the merge modules listed above, you may need to include the VC_CRT and VC_STL modules if you are reporting from ADO recordsets, as the Crystal Reports database driver crdb_adoplus.dll relies on the files within these modules.For more information on deploying your Crystal Reports.NET application, go to Chapter 9.
ADO.NET
With the introduction of ADO.NET, data access has become much easier; and Crystal Reports.NET can take advantage of ADO and the ADO.NET DataSet. Instead of having to work out how to access various data sources, Crystal Reports.NET can simply access the ADO.NET DataSet as the source for any report you may create.
XML Report Web Services
For sharing reports and creating tiered applications, XML Report Web Services are invaluable. Within the Visual Studio IDE, you can create a Web Service from a report file with two clicks - from that point, Report Web Services can be exposed to users in and outside of your organization and consumed using one of the new viewers included with the product. To optimize the report pages coming over the wire, XML is used to send the report a page at a time to either the Windows or Web Report Viewer, which makes reports viewed from Web Services quick and responsive.XML Report Web Services are covered in depth in Chapter 5.
