Feedback on ReportSmith/Crystal Reports Updrade...

If you stay with Max7 then you're stuck with ReportSmith unless you already own a copy of CR8 Professional. CR9 and CR10 are not compatible with Max7.

Besides, you can upgrade to Max8 for $119/seat until the end of this month (January 28th). Each copy of Max8 includes an imbedded runtime version of CR, and four Max8 upgrades will cost about the same as a copy of CR Professional.

So if you want to avoid having to recreate the reports later, that's the way to go.

p.s. People building custom reports in Max8/ME8 might be interested in the following link:

http://www.regensys.com/CreateUdfViews

Hi Gord,

You don't happen to have the guide for 3.03 that you could email to me? I've downloaded their 4.2 version but thought I'd check to see if you or any other member has the older version.

Thanks

Iris

Sorry, no. The only documentation I've seen for RS has been the help files that come with installing the "ReportSmith Explorer for Maximizer" component.

No problem...

Another question if I may. With Maximizer, when one selects either 'File/Print/Custom Reports' or 'Reports/Custom Reports' Maximizer prompts the user wether or not the report is for the "Current Entry" or "ALL Entries" in the address book list - however, this selection seems to be ignored when using RS as the report in generated for ALL records even if they're not in the current list.

Is this normal behaviour?

What is the normal practice or RS coding to generate a report for Current Entry, ALL Entries in List, or ALL databse records?

How is this handled under Crystal Reports 8.5?

Iris

I don't really know what RS "normal behaviour" is any more. I haven't used it in a long time.

CR8 reporting on a Max7 database will use the Maximizer ODBC driver to access the tables directly, so the reports will have no idea what the current list is. (In fact, Maximizer does not even have to be running.)

Custom reports built in Max8 do have the option of running against "Selected entries in the current list", "All entries in the current list", or "Entire Address Book".

quote:

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Originally posted by Gord:
CR8 reporting on a Max7 database will use the Maximizer ODBC driver to access the tables directly, so the reports will have no idea what the current list is. (In fact, Maximizer does not even have to be running.)

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RS will also use the Maximizer ODBC driver w/o Maximizer running. And, like you say, it will generate the report on the whole database since there is no list available. Even if Maximizer is running accessing the program directly (ie. not through one of Maximizer's menu choices) it'll access the ODBC driver.

I can understand this and to me it is within my expectations.

quote:

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Custom reports built in Max8 do have the option of running against "Selected entries in the current list", "All entries in the current list", or "Entire Address Book".

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With Max 7.0 selecting either of the report choices as discussed previously with do a couple of thing before launching RS.

1. Is to prompt you whether the report is for the current entry or all entries in list.

2. Based on the user's choice will create a Maxrpt.csv file in the c:\temp directory. Examination of this file shows a header row with the names of all Maximizer's fixed, system and UDF fields. Subsequent row(s) will contain the data for either the individual record or all records in Maximizer's address book list.

RS initialization file rptsmith.ini contain a section as follows:

[Maximizer]
MaxRptPath=c;\temp\maxrpt.csv

3. Finally, RS loads.

In this scenario, my expectation is RS would use the Maxrpt.csv file somehow in generating a report. But what I'm seeing is that this csv file and the data it contains is being ignored.

So, perhaps one needs to write a selection criteria within RS to filter the records against this csv file? Maybe that is Maximizer's intended use of this csv file?

If one were to do this with CR how would it be written in SQL say?

I'm assuming CR shipped with some sample reports in Max 8.0. If Max 8.0 generates a similar csv file does the CR samples have any SQL that references the csv file? If so, could it be posted here or emailed to me?

Thanks

Iris

Ah, yes. All of this .csv stuff sounds familiar.

IIRC, the default behaviour of the "ReportSmith Explorer for Maximizer" is that the generated .csv file *is* the data source for the report. That's how Max7 can offer the "current entry" and "all entries" options.

If you subsequently change the data source of the report to the Maximizer ODBC driver then the .csv file is no longer involved. Maximizer may still generate it before it launches RS, but it no longer has anything to do with the report.

With custom reports in Max8 this is all handled internally, so there is no .csv file or SQL tweaking required. The custom reports use the Pervasive.SQL ODBC driver to pull information from the various tables, and Max8 itself is able to filter the records based on "Selected entries...", "All entries..." or "Entire Address Book".

Certainly Max8 sounds like it is exploiting the ODBC driver more.

What certainly lead to the confusion is the Maximizer knowledgebase - but I guess that sometimes happens. They provide a PDF and even a few sample reports - the PDF guides you through ODBC and establish a named connection to the driver while the sample reports have been coded differently.

Anyways, I'm going to explore someway to utilize the CSV even though the primary connection will be the Maximizer ODBC driver. I guess one could do things either way but only time will tell (me testing) if one way presents any limitations over the other.

Other than that, if one just focuses on the Maximizer ODBC connection, launches ReportSmith directly it seems like everything works as expected, FWIW.

Thanks for your feedback Gord.

Two Canadian boys make a round trip via the UK just to exchange some ideas. :-)

Iris

quote:

In this scenario, my expectation is RS would use the Maxrpt.csv file somehow in generating a report. But what I'm seeing is that this csv file and the data it contains is being ignored.

For clarification, the command line Maximizer 7 uses to launch RS (any version) includes the AutoNew.mac file that configures RS to use MaxRpt.csv via Microsoft ODBC Text Driver.

Microsoft's ODBC Text Driver is limited to a maximum of 255 fields. MaxRpt.csv consists of 35 fixed fields (ie. Last_Name, Company, etc.) and User-Defined fields. If the total of these exceeds 255 then the ODBC connection will fail and RS will load w/o any reference to the MaxRpt.csv.

So, one either must keep the combined Fixed and UDF fields within this 255 limit or USE the Maximizer ODBC Driver to directly connect to the Maximizer database.

Iris

If you are serious about reporting you should consider moving to the SQL product. You do not have to use the Max ODBC driver then and just connect directly to the tables through the SQL ODBC and you get access to everything. The Max ODBC driver is good if you don't know anything about databases the access direct to SQL limits nothing but your capability as a report writer.
One other benifit of using this method and crystal is you can now (version 8) just drop the reports in the report folder and run them straight through maximizer, if you have users that are not using Max and who want to see the report BO makes some sweet web distribution tools for all your reports.

PillPopper, seems overkill to have to go through an upgrade of Maximizer. I guess one has to decide whether they want to invest the $$$ and the KB time to write SQL or CR reports or in the case of v7 - RS.


IRIS

Hi Iris,

How r u. I am working with a client in California, US. They want to convert all existing reports from Reportsmith to Crystal reports. Do you have any idea about existing tools?

Thanking You,
Manas

quote:

Originally posted by Iris:
We've developed our Maximizer 7.0 (4 users) to the point now that I want to begin creating some reports.

I already know from reviewing ReportSmith 3.03 bundled with 7.0 that I would need to upgrade to ReportSmith 4.2 to get access to Master/Detail report functionality that interests me. On the otherhand, it appears that I could use Crystal Report v9.0 (they're still offering it for sale) but there would some issues I would need to work around as posted by members here.

We're also not motivated enough to upgrade to Max 8.0 as our upgrade plan is to take v7.0 to 8 licenses at which time we'd likely look at the Enterprise version.

Given the foregoing I'm looking for some feedback on creating reports using either report writers.

- ReportSmith v4.2 compatibility with Enterprise v8.0 (anyone upgraded to 8.0 and still using ReportSmith?)
- Crystal Reports v9.0 compatiblity with Maximizer 7.0
- Any specific comments related to an equivalent Master/Detail functionality under CR.

I guess I want the most flexibility to create a report with Max 7.0 while avoiding the need to re-create them under Enterprise 8.0.

Thanks

Sorry, I haven't.

Please post here if you do.

IRIS