Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Installer
You can use Windows Installer in place of merge modules for deployment projects. The Windows Installer allows for smaller deployment projects and reduced installation time.
When you create an installer for an application that uses Crystal Reports for Visual Studio, a setup package is made. This setup package installs Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 2.0 runtime files on target machines. It creates two setup files: an .exe and an .msi. In the .exe setup file, merge modules are included in a deployment project because they install the Crystal Reports runtime. However, if the Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Installer .msi file is used for installation on target machines, merge modules do not need to be added.
You can use the Windows Installer when many deployment projects are installed on the same target computer. In this case, Crystal Reports runtime files are installed once. If merge modules are used, the Crystal Reports runtime is installed each time a deployment project is installed on the target computer.
Note
In Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 9.0 Beta 1, map objects are not supported; therefore, there is no mapping merge module.
Deploying a Visual Studio project that uses Crystal Reports
To learn to deploy a Web or Windows application that uses Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 9.0 Beta 1, or to migrate merge modules deployment projects to Windows Installer projects that use Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 9.0 Beta 1, see Windows Installer Deployment for Visual Studio.