[smithj]

I was wondering if anyone who has Crystal Reports based of the SQL has upgraded to 7.81 yet?

I am interested in the upgrade but wanted to make sure our crystal reports that use SQL will work after the upgrade. When I asked Blackbaud this is what they had to say,

Quote:

You will not be able to access the SQL database directly unless you have Read only database assistance or Extended Database Assistance. These are only available to Advantage Professional or Advantage Priority clients. Until you update you Maintenance level you will not be able to access the SQL database through Crystal or Access.

However we do not have either of these in our maintenance agreement now and can do SQL Crystal Reports.

Does anyone have any experience with SQL and Crystal and RE 7.81?

Thanks

[DavidZ]

Since you are managing your own SQL Server you are of course able to access the database with your own SQL Server user logins. The above quote became obsolete when RE moved away from Sybase! It may have applied to MSDE but it certainly does not apply to regular SQL Server.

David

[smithj]

Thanks, I am glad to hear that.

[DrewAllen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidZ

Since you are managing your own SQL Server you are of course able to access the database with your own SQL Server user logins. The above quote became obsolete when RE moved away from Sybase! It may have applied to MSDE but it certainly does not apply to regular SQL Server.

It doesn't even apply to MSDE. The Blackbaud version of MSDE does not come with the SQL tools, but you can still connect to MSDE using both Crystal and the SQL Tools. I had the SQL Tools from a real version of SQL Server, but I believe that you can install the SQL Tools from the Microsoft version of the MSDE download.

SQL Tools include Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer.

Drew

[smithj]

This doesn't apply to the crystal reports but if I have an action DB hooked in and currently can write a value to an RE field will I retain this functionality in 7.81. Based on your answers I believe it should work.

Thanks again for all the help.

[DrewAllen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smithj

This doesn't apply to the crystal reports but if I have an action DB hooked in and currently can write a value to an RE field will I retain this functionality in 7.81. Based on your answers I believe it should work.

You don't say how you are writing to RE. If you are using the API, you should be okay, because BB promises that the API will work within a major version (7.xx). If you are writing directly to the RE database, this invalidates your maintenance contract.

Drew

[smithj]

I will have to check I know my predecessor set it up and I am trying to figure out how it is working.

Thank you for the info.

[nisaac]

I'm not sure I understand all of the discussion in this thread; however, I run 7.81 on a SQL Server 2000 and use Crystal XI. I'm very happy with the improvements Crystal XI brings for me. I have no problem running reports created in the previous Crystal version on the lower version of RE. I do have the maintenance level discussed in this thread; however, I believe you should be able to do custom reporting through RE at any level maintenance.