Like many users, I have not yet upgraded to CR 2020. I connect to lots of legacy data using DAO connections (e.g. Raiser’s Edge export data). To do this using CR 2020 involves installing new 64-bit connectors and updating each report. I’ve written up instructions on installing the new drivers but I haven’t applied the steps here since I am still on CR 2016.

This week I heard from a user who has to read legacy MDB files from Raiser’s Edge, using CR 2020. They followed my instructions to download the new driver, but got an error message when they tried to install it. The error said:

“You cannot install the 32-bit version of Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 because you currently have 64-bit Office products installed. If you want to install 32-bit Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016, you will first need to remove the 64-bit installation of Office products. After uninstalling the following product(s), rerun setup in order to install 32-bit version of Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016:”

The funny thing is that they also tried to install the 32-bit driver and got the opposite error. So even though I don’t have CR 2020 I downloaded the 64-bit Access driver and tried to install it. I got the same error.

After a bit of research I found a way to get the driver to install without having to uninstall anything, by running the install from the command line using the ‘quiet’ switch. Here are the steps I used:

1) Download the file to my downloads directory
2) open a command line window
3) change the directory in the command line window to \downloads
4) Run the command with the “quiet” switch. It will look something like this:

C:\Users\ken\Downloads>AccessDatabaseEngine_X64.exe /quiet

You can also read the discussion where I found this method here:

https://superuser.com/questions/1557350/

After testing it here I did the same thing for Raiser’s Edge user and got them working as well. 

In the past few weeks I have been contacted by two different users with xBase data (dBASE, FoxPro, etc). Both were trying to read the data using CR 2020 and not finding a way to connect. One had to upgrade to 64-bit because some of the xBase.dbf files had gone past 2GB.  As I now know, a 32-bit process can only use a maximum of 2 GB of memory. I didn’t know this was a general limit, but I did know that when one of my MS Access databases gets to 2GB I have to purge and pack it before my reports will run.  The other user upgraded without knowing that his connectivity would be affected. They might be able to revert back to CR 2016.

I have still not upgraded to CR 2020 because I use DAO connections and have little motivation to change them. However, if I get a slow week, I plan to setup a test environment to experiment with CR 2020. Then I can see if there are any workarounds for the xBase issues.

If I can’t find a driver that can connect directly to xBase there is one other thing I may try. I have read that MS Access 2016 can connect to dBASE files. It may be possible that MS Access 2016 can be used as a bridge between Crystal and dBASE files.  If so that might work for other xBase flavors like FoxPro.  I will post what I find.

If anyone else has any ideas, I would love to hear from you.

Everyone has been talking about the new Java security vulnerability called Log4j. I have been talking to colleagues to determine if this affects Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise or anything else in the Crystal ecosystem. SAP put out a note that states that this vulnerability does not affect SAP Business Intelligence 4.2 or 4.3. It doesn’t mention earlier BI versions but these are no longer supported.

There was a support note about this topic, but nothing in the support note mentions Crystal Reports or the Crystal runtime engine used by third party applications. One of my colleagues said that since this is a Java vulnerability, it should not affect stand alone Crystal Reports, and I tend to agree. I also believe that if Crystal Reports were affected it would be mentioned in that support note. The same goes for the Crystal runtime files, but it would be nice if SAP responded specifically to these questions in the discussion above.

Last, thanks to Andrew Baines of Pursuit Technology and Danny Shahrabani of rePORTAL Software for helping me track down and make sense of the SAP support note.  If anyone else has info to share on this topic, please let me know.

I create reports for several customers who use Raiser’s Edge donor management software. One of my customers shared this note from BlackBaud that went out today:

“On December 15, 2021, we will no longer support the ability to create or edit custom reports using Crystal Reports directly within any Blackbaud solution. Users will still be able to view historical reports and export file formats that work with Crystal Reports.”

Before the 15th it wasn’t clear if reports would still run in RE, but now it appears that they still do. The only noticeable change is that users don’t have a built-in copy of the Crystal Reports designer. To modify reports they will need to purchase their own license.

If you decide to buy a copy of Crystal Reports to work with your RE export (mdb) files, I recommend that you buy Crystal Reports 2016 instead of Crystal Reports 2020. That will give you something that works very much like what you have now. Crystal Reports 2020 can be made to work but it is 64-bit so it will use different drivers. You could modify reports but you won’t be able to run that same report both outside and within RE.

See this article for a link to the Crystal Reports product page and for clarity on what you do and don’t need to buy.

For the past few weeks several customers have need help with registry changes. So I have spent lots of time referring to a document that SAP has posted on their web site. It shows all the registry keys for Crystal Reports. I wrote about it in my blog. When I need the link I search my blog to find the article that has the link.

Today I went to check that same document and I found that it was just a ‘preview’ of the article. The full article was part of the SAP (password protected) support portal. This change must have happened in the past few days. Fortunately I have an old (free) User ID and password. I logged in and I could read (and download) the full registry key document.  It was a minor hassle.

Then I tried to pull up a related article on editing the registry.  Again I was shown just a ‘preview’ of the article. This time my credentials didn’t get me to the full article. I was given a second login screen and my credentials were rejected.  SAP may be starting to restrict access to certain support materials.

I tried a variation of the second URL and got this message:

You are signed in with a P-user ID.
Visitors with an S-user ID will benefit from more tools and enhanced functionality.

According to this SAP Article, S-user IDs are provided to those who have an active support contract.  P-User IDs are for the public and for partners.

If you anyone notices any other content that moves from free access to paid-only access, please let me know.

After releasing my course materials and my “Expert” series I realized that I had forgotten one item: My set of calendars. This three report set, with instructions, allows you to generate 3 different styles of calendar from your data (continuous, monthly and daily). The first two allow you to show multi-day events as boxes that stretch from the beginning to the end of the event.

The reports are designed so that you can swap in your fields instead of the sample data fields. You can read more about them in my original blog post, or download the set and try them out.

Several of my customers read Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Access MDB files and even text files using DAO connections. This are simple connections made by pointing directly to the data file. Unfortunately, these direct connections are no longer supported in Crystal Reports 2020. I was hoping that might be a temporary situation, but this link on the SAP website provides confirmation:

Crystal Reports 2020 is a 64bit application, and therefore it is no longer possible to connect to Excel or Access using DAO, since there is no 64bit version of this Microsoft Technology. This is why the option “Access/Excel (DAO)” is not available in Crystal Reports 2020.

You can still connect to these data sources using ODBC or OLEDB, but you will need the new 64-bit Microsoft driver. OLEDB actually works in a similar way to DAO, but you will need to do a “Set Datasource Location” in each report to convert it from DAO to OLEDB. I posted instructions in February for using OLEDB to connect to the Xtreme Sample Database (mdb) and the steps would be similar for other types of DAO connections.

If you run both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of CR you might want to switch to ODBC connections (DSNs). With ODBC you can create a 64-bit DSN on one PC and a 32-bit DSN on another PC using the same DSN name. That way you can maintain one rpt file and it can run in both the 32-bit and 64-bit Crystal environments.

Last month I released my Intro and Advanced course books as free downloads. Tonight I released the entire Expert’s Series of guides as free downloads. All of these are all on the “Library” page of my site. You are free to use them and share them for free as long as they are not modified or sold.

In April I made my Intro course materials available for free.  I mentioned this in my blog and newsletter and so far several hundred users have downloaded the material. This month I am going to make my Advanced course materials available in the same way.

Just like the Intro material, you are welcome to download the materials and use them. Share them with your friends. Please do not modify them or try to sell them.

Note that as a consultant, people often pay me to help them use or learn Crystal. You can, too. So if you have questions about Crystal Reports I am happy to schedule a short consult for you. This is explained further on these links:

https://kenhamady.com/faq.shtml
https://kenhamady.com/support/default.html

I have decided to make my Intro course materials available to download, for free. There are several reasons behind this decision:

1) Crystal use is slowly declining. This might encourage use of the product in a small way.
2) Classroom training was becoming rare, and stopped completely by the pandemic.
3) My work is now mostly consulting, so there is less call for course materials.
4) I hope for some good karma.

So you are welcome to download the materials and use them. Share them with your friends. Please do not modify them or try to sell them.

Note that as a consultant, people often pay me to help them use or learn Crystal. You can, too. So if you have questions about Crystal Reports I am happy to schedule a short consult for you. This is explained further on these links:

https://kenhamady.com/faq.shtml
https://kenhamady.com/support/default.html