Multi-targeting in vs2008 with crystal reports
Is there a way to get VS2008 to work with old builds (vs2005 crystal reports) and not require updates to be installed on client computers?
We've updated the Visual Studio 2005.net 2.0 solution for Visual Studio 2008. The goal is to leverage IDE enhancements and support for multitagging. The solution still needs to be built against .net 2.0.
Everything works as advertised, we rebuild and run it on a machine with only .net 2.0 installed. But during testing, we get an exception when we try to show a Crystal report that is included in the application.
Then, after checking, we found out that without telling us, Visual Studio changed the crystal assembly references and pointed our solution to the updated versions that ship with vs2008, which requires the crystal version to be updated on the client machines.
We tried to remove links and add old ones, but they will not compile.
a source to share
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do not use Crystal reports
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You can try to place all reports in a separate project. Then create a second visual studio solution in VS2005 that uses the same project (add an existing project). Then use VS2005 to edit reports. Create a library directory for your links in vs2008 and refer to the vs2005 dll.
Not sure if it works, but it's worth a try.
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We faced the same problem. You may have an old DLLS project reference that works, but can lead to a hell of a DLL. Against such a fight, I cannot recommend it.
After studying the Crystal Reports site for a long time, I have come to the conclusion that there is no good way to solve this problem without waiting for an upgrade to Crystal Reports 2008 or switching to a different reporting engine.
In our case, we have not yet developed a large number of Crytal reports and our reporting needs are modest. We switched to Microsoft Reporting Technology, which is part of Visual Studio. It took a bit of work to figure it out, but so far it looks like it will do whatever we ever need. By not updating Crystal Reports, we have saved a non-trivial amount of money.
Hope it helps.
a source to share
do not use Crystal reports
You can try to put all reports in a separate project. Then create a second visual studio solution in VS2005 that uses the same project (add an existing project). Then use VS2005 to edit reports. Create a library directory for links in vs2008 and refer to the vs2005 dll.
Not sure if it works, but it's worth a try.