Binding to Crystal Enterprise (VS .NET 2003)

This binding scenario refers to legacy technology and is intended for users with an existing installation of Crystal Enterprise. Crystal Enterprise has been replaced by Crystal Reports Server and BusinessObjects Enterprise. For more information on Crystal Reports Server and BusinessObjects Enterprise, see Upgrade Options.

Object Model

This report binding scenario uses CrystalReportViewer (see Report Binding with CrystalReportViewer Object Model).

Location of Reports

The report is located on the Web Component Server (WCS server) in Crystal Enterprise 8, 8.5, 9 or 10. Reports from the WCS server are exposed as Report Web Services through the EnterpriseReportService.asmx web service. This web service is located in the viewers' virtual directory on the Web Component Server.

Crystal Services Overview

This report binding scenario applies to reports accessed from the Crystal Services server node in the Server Explorer.

This section examines the Crystal Enterprise sub node of Crystal Services, within Visual Studio .NET 2003.

[SERVERNAME]

• Crystal Services
  • Crystal Enterprise

Description

The Crystal Enterprise sub node accesses and then displays reports that have been exposed as Report Web Services from a WCS server.

For the Crystal Enterprise sub node to correctly access and display a list of reports from the Crystal Enterprise WCS server, the following conditions must be met:

• The server that you are currently viewing in the Server Explorer is running Crystal Enterprise 8 or 8.5.

  Note

  You must upgrade Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET 2003 to What is Crystal Reports for Visual Studio? (version 9 or greater) if you wish to connect to Crystal Enterprise 9 or greater.

• The WCS (Web Component Server) of Crystal Enterprise is installed on the Crystal Enterprise server.

  Note

  The WCS server is installed by default in Crystal Enterprise 9 and 10. In Crystal Enterprise 8 and 8.5, the WCS server must be installed separately.

• In order to configure Report Web Services on the Crystal Enterprise 10 server, you must install Visual Studio .NET 2003 on the Crystal Enterprise server, and then run Custom Install to specifically add Crystal Services.

  If the Crystal Enterprise administrator does not wish to install a full version of Visual Studio .NET 2003 onto the Crystal Enterprise server, they may instead do the following:

  • Install the managed.msm merge module.
  • Locate the viewers' virtual directory installed on the dev machine and copy the EnterpriseReportService.asmx file from that directory to the viewers' virtual directory on the server machine.

Once the reports are successfully displayed in Crystal Services, choose a report and drag and drop it onto the Web or Windows form. When dropped onto the form the report is wrapped into a report wrapper class and then displayed as a report instance in the component tray.

For a comparison table of all versions of Crystal Services, see the following:

• CrystalReportViewer Binding Scenarios that Use Crystal Services
• ReportDocument Binding Scenarios that Use Crystal Services (VS.NET 2002 and 2003).

Installing Crystal Services

Crystal Services are not installed by default during the Visual Studio .NET 2003 install. To add Crystal Services, load your Microsoft Visual Studio .NET installer CD, locate Crystal Reports, select Crystal Web Services and click the update button.

Pros

• Easy access to Crystal Enterprise reports from a Web or Windows application.

Cons

• Limited object model: this binding scenario offers only the limited object model that is part of the CrystalReportViewer control. See Which Object Model Should I Use?.

  Note

  In Crystal Reports 9 and 10, Crystal Services is upgraded to a different wrapper class and connection protocol.

See Also

• Binding to Server Files (Visual Studio 2005 and up)