Yes. In some way you will have to install the Crystal Reports Engine, not the full Crystal Report Program, on each computer that will use the application unless this is a Web Application (Site). If this will be hosted in IIS, then only the server will
need the Report Engine installed and not the users accessing the web app over the network. Crystal Reports is different from a lot of software in that you can't simply include the required DLLs to make it work. When developing the application, Visual Studio
will add references to the DLLs that are needed. However, even if you include these DLLs in you bin folder and copy the project over, you will not be able to use the reports you develop. Crystal Report Engine makes registry changes and other things that
are required to run the application hence why it is required to be "installed" some way.
If you are wanting to put this application on client machines after you have finished development, you can avoid manually installing the Crystal Report Engine on each machine by creating a setup project to basically install it for you. Since I am not an
expert at install projects or have a preferrence on which tool is the best to use, I can't offer more input other than it can be installed automattically for you if the setup project determines it's not installed already
au_mikey
Member
84 Points
12 Posts
Re: Running project with a Crystal Report included on Visual Web Developer?
May 08, 2012 04:00 PM|LINK
Yes. In some way you will have to install the Crystal Reports Engine, not the full Crystal Report Program, on each computer that will use the application unless this is a Web Application (Site). If this will be hosted in IIS, then only the server will need the Report Engine installed and not the users accessing the web app over the network. Crystal Reports is different from a lot of software in that you can't simply include the required DLLs to make it work. When developing the application, Visual Studio will add references to the DLLs that are needed. However, even if you include these DLLs in you bin folder and copy the project over, you will not be able to use the reports you develop. Crystal Report Engine makes registry changes and other things that are required to run the application hence why it is required to be "installed" some way.
If you are wanting to put this application on client machines after you have finished development, you can avoid manually installing the Crystal Report Engine on each machine by creating a setup project to basically install it for you. Since I am not an expert at install projects or have a preferrence on which tool is the best to use, I can't offer more input other than it can be installed automattically for you if the setup project determines it's not installed already