rePORTAL Software has just released v5 of rePORTAL, and they are offering a limited time 20% discount through June 15.

rePORTAL is a a web portal and scheduler that distributes reports from Crystal Reports as well as SSRS and FRx.  You can read about the current version in my comparison of server-based schedulers.  Within the next week the comparison will be updated for the new version.  The new features include:

• Native support for 64 bit operating systems
• Support output to Fax and SMS
• Enhanced support for Crystal export options
• The ability to launch batch and command files before or after scheduled events
• A customizable user interface to highlight favorite items

The folks at R-Tag.com have just released a new tool called CR Data Source which is designed to do just one thing. It lets you perform a “Set Location” on a folder full of reports, all in one stroke. The tool does just this one task, but then again it only costs $29, so it will probably be a popular choice for certain users. If you look at my review of RPT management utilities you will only find one other tool that does this, and that tool does lots of other things and costs about $400.

The current limitations are:

• It only works with ODBC/OLEDB
• It can only be used on reports that only have a single data source.

But even with these restrictions, the tool will still work on most reports.  And, if the tool catches on I am sure the folks at R-tag would be open to suggested improvements.  As always, if you try this tool please let me know what you thought.

If you have been considering purchasing Find it EZ then you might want to do it in the next few weeks. The developers of Find it EZ are offering my readers a 25% discount on purchases through 6/20/2012. Use this link to get the discount.

Find it EZ is a source code scanning tool that I have included in my comparison of RPT management utilities. It allows you to search your entire application, including your RPT files, for the use of specific tables, fields and text.

The current promotion is to highlight the release of version 4.0 which adds new features like team collaboration and Continue Reading »
Discount on purchases of Find it EZ

Every fall I do a review of custom functions libraries that you can add into Crystal Reports. These are formula functions that are added into your formula editor and allow your formulas to do all sorts of wonderful things, like interacting with other programs and pulling in information from unusual sources.  It looks like I will be adding a new one in the near future.

Pursuit Technology, a consulting group in the UK, has recently released a function that allows your report to authenticate into your Twitter account and send a ‘tweet’ notification directly from a report formula.  The content of the tweet can be calculated in the report formula.  This can be handy if you use twitter as Continue Reading »
Custom Function lets your report send a ‘tweet’

Every few months one of my customers will ask me if I have copies of their reports.  Usually a hard drive crash or some other system failure has made some or all of their reports disappear.  Only then do they realize that they have no backups.  When I work on reports in my office I have copies to replace the lost files.  But recently I am doing more work via remote control.  In those cases I work directly on the customer’s workstation, and so I don’t have copies of the reports to use as backup. So, do you have recent backups of your reports?

If you do, it is just as important that you do a pretend restore periodically.  That is the only way to confirm that your backups are any good.  I remember one customer who used a tape drive for backups.  He had followed an elaborate rotation schedule for the tapes and dutifully swapped the tapes out every week.  But when I checked one of the tapes I discovered that the  backup program had stopped running several months back.  No one realized that the tapes hadn’t been updated in months.  Another client was told that her IT department was managing her backups, but it turns out they were only backing-up the shared network drives.  Only after her hard drive failed did she realize that she had no backup of her local files.

The most recent was a customer who accidentally deleted an elaborate report we had done together.  It was the only copy.  That was when I first got the idea to write this post.  Then yesterday I learned that March 31st is World Backup Day (so you won’t be an April Fool).  The official site has all sorts of info on backing up your data. Do us both a favor and backup your reports regularly.

One of my customers recently asked me how quickly I thought people were going to the newer versions of CR.  I didn’t really have any basis to answer him, so I was pleased last week when one of my LinkedIn groups started a survey, asking people to select their primary version of CR.  After nearly 100 responses I was surprised to see the persistence of version 11 (XI) which is shows up as the primary version in use.  This is a full 7 years after XI was released.

Only then did I remember that I ask my newsletter subscribers to list their version when they sign up.  So I did my own analysis based on the 1200 users that answered this question in the past 5 years.  I used the same 5 categories used in the LinkedIn survey.  You would think that since I am only counting new subscribers each year, that the data would skew slightly toward newer versions.  But version XI is still a clear winner, even when looking at the new subscribers so far this year.

Also note that as version 14 starts to appear, its increase seems to come at the expense of version 12 more than version 11(XI).  I currently don’t have an explanation for the persistence of version XI (I prefer v12/CR 2008) but if I come up with a plausible explanation I will share it.

Millet Software has just released version 6.5 of Visual Cut, one of my favorite tools for automating Crystal Reports.  There are about 50 fixes and new features but the one that stood out was the ability to export to XLSX format.  This format supports more than a million rows in a single tab and consumes much less disk space.

Another handy new feature, pointed out by Jared Faulkner of JF Electric , is the “After_Success_SQL” command that allows you to run a SQL statement after a completed report, or for each group in a burst. This gives you the ability to update the database with tracking information for each e-mailed or exported item. Doing this before required having the CUT Light UFL (also by Millet Software) but now this is built into Visual Cut.

If you want to learn more about Visual Cut or one of the other similar tools, then you should read my annual review of Desktop Schedulers.  The review is done each March so it will be updated next month.

The folks at ReCrystallize have recently released version 14 of ReCrystallize Pro.  For those of you who are not familiar with ReCrystallize, it is a low cost way to put your reports on the web.  Walk through a wizard and ReCrystallize will generate ASP or ASP.NET web pages that are designed to run your reports.  You can read more about it in my comparison of server based deployment options.  With version 14 there are two significant changes.

1) It now supports the newest version of Crystal Reports (2011). This means you can do dynamic and cascading parameters and you can change parameter values without changing web pages or in some cases without even refreshing the report.

2) It now supports ASP.Net which means it works better with the current browsers and current versions of Windows and IIS.  It also means that the user’s browser doesn’t need to download anything.

Note that they still support classic ASP and most older versions of CR.  See their web site for more details.

One of my readers wrote in today to tell me that SAP released Service Pack 4 a few months ago.   He had CR 2008 set to “Check for Updates on Startup” but it  never triggered an update for SP4.  Even after he manually clicked on “Check for Updates” the message said that he had the most recent version.  But when he searched the SAP website he found it.  

I have been holding at SP2 because of two issues that  I wrote about earlier.  But when I asked CR to check for updates I got the same message – that I had the most recent version.  So searched the download site and found SP4 in the “Downloads” area of the SAP web site.  I installed it and it didn’t break my dynamic parameters, so that is good news.  The “Saved Data” issue was intermittent so I will be on the lookout for that or any new problems.

And thanks to Mark Edwards at DataReport Consulting for pointing this out.

I am working on my annual review of Crystal Reports viewer programs and will be adding a few new ones to the matrix this year.  One of the “new” ones I will be adding is Report Runner Viewer by Jeff-Net.   Even though this is the first time RRV has been in the review it is not really a ‘new’ viewer.  RRV has been around 9 years and has a considerable install base, so it is great to finally have their information included.

But what IS new is that they are offering the first copy of the viewer for free to any company that wants to try it.   Additional copies are $50 plus a $4 per user annual renewal fee.  The renewal fee covers 24x7x65 support.

The site also offers a free 90-day evaluation, which seems redundant when the first copy is free. But to get the free license you have to use a company EMail address (not gmail,  hotmail, etc).  The other thing that might confuse you is that this offer is on the front page of the Jeff-Net site, but is not mentioned on the RRV product page.   So it is some type of special promotion.   No guarantee how long it will last, so if you want to try a new viewer program you can get a free copy of Jeff-Net’s Report Runner Viewer.

And when you do, please let me know what you think of it.