Datasheet

And finally, there are a number of tools that have been included for distributing reports with your appli-

cation, including updated merge files for this version of Crystal Reports. In Chapter 10, “Distributing

Your Application” we will look at how to use these tools to successfully deploy your own applications

and how to trouble-shoot installation and setup problems.

How Is Crystal Reports .NET Different from

Previous Versions of Crystal Reports?

Crystal Reports .NET 2003 is an updated version of the report writer integrated with Visual Studio .NET

2003 and has been updated from the original version that first shipped with Visual Studio .NET 2002.

This version is a special OEM version of Crystal Reports that is available with the Visual Studio .NET

suite. It shares some common features with the retail version of Crystal Reports and was built on the

Crystal Reports 8.x technology, but components of Crystal Reports .NET have been rewritten using C#

and are designed to take full advantage of the .NET Framework.

Integrated Design Environment

Unlike the standalone versions of Crystal Reports, Crystal Reports .NET is part of the Visual Studio

.NET Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Using the integrated Report Designer, you can create

or modify reports from within the Visual Studio .NET IDE. If you have used the Report Design compo-

nent from previous versions of Crystal Reports, the concept will be familiar.

Any Language, Any Time

Crystal Reports .NET follows the Visual Studio .NET mantra of “any language, any time” and is not too

picky about the language you use to write reporting applications. You can use any of the .NET lan-

guages (VB, C#, J#, C++, and so on) to develop reporting applications or integrate reports into your

existing applications.

For all .NET languages, the Report Designer remains the same, and the code used to control viewing

reports and report engine calls will vary only slightly between languages, due to different syntax rules

and conventions. For example, if you were binding a report to a Web Forms Viewer in VB .NET, the

syntax would look something like this:

crystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = my_Report1

The same code can be ported to C#, with only one rather minor syntax change:

crystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = my_Report1;

So for developers who are creating applications with different languages or deployments, the concepts

are the same, regardless of the language used.

Crystal Reports .NET Overview

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