Binding to Crystal Enterprise (Crystal Reports 10 and up)

Object Model

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

Location of Reports

Reports are located in the managed RAS server (see Report Application Server (RAS)). Reports are wrapped in the ReportDocument class.

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 Crystal Reports Developer.

[SERVERNAME]

• Crystal Services
  • Crystal Enterprise

Description

The Crystal Enterprise sub node accesses and then displays reports that have been exposed by a managed RAS server within Crystal Enterprise.

The Crystal Services>Crystal Enterprise node exposes reports from the Crystal Enterprise, through the managed RAS server. The Crystal Enterprise node is functional, but if Crystal Enterprise has not been installed on the development machine, go to the Properties for this node and set the Crystal Enterprise server name on the network.

When you drag and drop a report from the Crystal Services>Crystal Enterprise node onto a Web or Windows form, an instance of ReportDocument is generated. The ReportDocument class works as a wrapper class. Its purpose is to wrap (represent) the report that is passed from the RAS server within Crystal Enterprise.

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

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

For a summary of possible report binding solutions with Crystal Enterprise, see Summary of Recommended Scenarios.

Pros

• Easy access: easy access to RAS reports within Crystal Enterprise from a Web application.
• Extensive programmatic interaction: provides access to the powerful ReportDocument object model. The report wrapper class in this version is ReportDocument. This is the first version of Crystal Services that gives you access to the ReportDocument object model.

Cons

• Coding is less direct: not as direct as coding RAS reports with the ReportClientDocument object model. See Binding to a Managed RAS server Using ReportAppFactory.OpenDocument() Method.

To use Crystal Services>Crystal Enterprise

• Crystal Reports 10 or XI is installed and verified to be working.

1. In Visual Studio, open Server Explorer.

2. Expand Crystal Services, and then expand Crystal Enterprise.

3. Select a report from the Crystal Enterprise tree and drag it onto your form.

   At the bottom of the form in Design view, a reportDocument1 object appears.

   Note

   When a Crystal Enterprise report is placed onto your form, an instance of ReportDocument class is added to the Designer generated code region of your form.

   When classes that inherit from System.ComponentModel.Component (such as ReportDocument) are instantiated and configured within the Designer generated code region, an icon of this instantiated class appears at the bottom of the form in Design view.

4. Switch to code view and open the Web or Windows Form Designer generated code region.

A ReportDocument class has been instantiated and configured within this region.

5. Within the ConfigureCrystalReports() method (that you created in Project Setup), assign the ReportDocument instance to the ReportSource property of the CrystalReportViewer control.

``` vb
myCrystalReportViewer.ReportSource = reportDocument1
```

``` csharp
crystalReportViewer.ReportSource = reportDocument1;
```

6. Build and run your Web project to view the report.

See Also

• Object Models Available via Upgrade