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Introduction

Web services would be a convenient way of distributing reports, and additional security features can be installed. Being a web service, it is platform neutral and can be accessed from other OS. This 'CodeWalk' is to illustrate the ease with which such such a distribution can be accomplished. The article shows the mechanics of creating a web service, and then it shows how to access this service from a WebForm. This access is not limited to a WebForm, it can also be through a console client, but a different procedure has to be adopted.

On Publishing a Crystal Report as a Web Service

Crystal report as a web service:

Start a new project in Visual Studio [Microsoft Development Environment 2003 Version 7.1.3088]. Choose the web service project template [WebSvc2]. Remove the default file 'service1.asmx'. Import the Crystal Report file into the WebSvc2 folder [ParQry.rpt]. Right click this Crystal Report and pickup 'Publish as web service' from the pop-up menu. Now the service ParQryService.asmx is created. Choose ParQryService.asmx as initial start page and build the solution. Right click and pick up 'View in browser'. You will see the following web page:

On this page, all permitted operations will be listed as shown above. Click on 'Service Description' on this web page, this is the so called '*.wsdl' file, a file that can locate the service: 'http://localhost/WebSVC2/ParQryService.asmx?WSDL'.

The Crystal Report published as a service will be available at the website for the above query string.

Testing the functionality of the Web Service

Web Service test rig:

Create a web application [WebSvc2Test]. To the WebForm1.aspx, add a CrystalReportViewer control from the tool box. Add a Button to the page, set Text property of the Button to 'Test Web Crystal Service'. Make some changes to the properties of the CrystalReportViewer1 as shown in this screen shot.

To the Button's Click event, add the following code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
          ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = _
     "http://localhost/WebSVC2/ParQryService.asmx"
End Sub

This sets up the source for the CrystalReportViewer to be fed from the web service called 'ParQryService', on the localhost web site. Build the solution and view the page on the browser. The browser page on loading will appear as in this picture:

Now, click the button and you will be getting the Crystal Report published as a service on the local host, as shown here:

Crystal Report from Web Service

Now, the overall folder structure of the test rig project is shown here:

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Showing Graphs... shiber12 22:00 22 Feb '09   Thanks for this great article. But I cant view graphs from the Crystal reports in the web services, only details. can u please help me? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Crystal Reports Web Service Return PDF Stream abiondo 11:41 12 Apr '07   This is cool, but what would be great is if you can take a report dynamically query and display only a report for a specific user and output it as a pdf. I know sites like Smith Barney do this for their statements. Does anyone have any examples? thanks, Anthony Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Re: Crystal Reports Web Service Return PDF Stream mysorian 12:28 12 Apr '07   Thanks. Actually this is possible with parameteric queries and as for as user customized queries perhaps the database has permissions enforced. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.75/5 Use in WinForms the bill 23:29 19 Mar '07   How can i use this in my desktop application, so that i can host my reports on my web server for a LAN? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Re: Use in WinForms mysorian 3:28 20 Mar '07   Using the asmx file you will have to create a windows client program to call the service from your desktop. You can find some examples at this link: http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2007/02/links-to-my-articles-on-web-services.html[^] Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Error when consuming Report from a webservice mew_lobo 17:42 16 Jul '06   Hi, I'm using Visual Studio.Net 2005 with Crystal reports. I tried the tutorial on Publishing and consuming a report as a webservice from MSDN. When I run the windows form, I get error messages saying that the report failed to load. It works fine if I give the file path to the .rpt file, but when its been published as a webservice and I give the URL, I get the error. I have all the sample reports and database(MS Access Db). If anyone knows, plz let me know. Thx, Mahesh Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Re: Error when consuming Report from a webservice mysorian 18:18 16 Jul '06   I am sorry I do'nt have CR on my computer and if you are interested in knowing about publishing reprots to your intranet you may want to check out some articles at: http://www.angelfire.com/vt2/hodentek or my bolg at: http://hodentek.blogspot.com/ Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Error when consuming Report from a webservice mew_lobo 22:44 16 Jul '06   Ok, Thanks. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Publish Crystal Reports to Web Doug72 9:28 6 Mar '06   Regards, I´m trying to deploy my web application in a shared hosting place, but the Crystal Report XI pages does not work. I read your article and tried to do that as a web service, but it is not still working. Have you ever tried to use Crystal Report to do this? Is that even possible? If so, what are the steps to follow up? Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer. Douglas Borrero Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Re: Publish Crystal Reports to Web mysorian 10:07 6 Mar '06   No, O have not tried what you are asking for. I have not worked with Crystal Reports for quire some time. What version of CR is referenced by Crystal Report XI pages? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.67/5 Re: Publish Crystal Reports to Web Doug72 11:09 6 Mar '06   Thanks for your answer. I´m using Crystal Reports XI developer edition. The version of the dll´s that appears when fails the load is 11.0.9500.50 Do you know any other tool for web reporting that allows to put the reports in a shared hosting environment? Regards Douglas. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.80/5 Re: Publish Crystal Reports to Web [modified] itmanager8815 13:00 26 May '08   You may want to consider a web portal like rePORTAL at http://www.reportalsoftware.com. This allow you to publish your Crystal reports on the web in a secure fashion. modified on Monday, November 2, 2009 8:18 PM Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Publish Crystal Reports to Web mysorian 13:08 26 May '08   Another option is to host it on the SSRS 2008 Report Server. Probably this is not a "Crystal" solution. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Live Data cman1973 6:30 7 Oct '05   My report seems to be showing saved data. Is this a mistake in my report or do I need to add some code to refresh the data in the report before diplaying it? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Live Data mysorian 6:37 7 Oct '05   Could you explain to me a little bit more on what you are trying to do so that I can understand the problem? Thanks, Jay Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Live Data cman1973 6:50 7 Oct '05   I have created an online application using Visual Studio. The application connects to SQL Server Database. I am trying to read data from a table and display it my report when user accesses the report over the web. Currently, the report is publishing 'saved data'. I have to open my report in Crystal Reports and refresh the data. Then I save the report. Then I open Visual Studio and right click on the report. I go to 'Publish as web service'. Then I rebuild the project. When opening the report over the web. I get the data from the point where I rebuilt. If I add another record to the database, it doesn't show on the report (over the web) until I follow the steps above. Do I need to add a section of code to refresh the data in the report before publishing the report or is there a setting in your code that I need to change? I hope this makes sense. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Live Data mysorian 7:07 7 Oct '05   I am soory I cannot test your problem on my system since I do not have the original software anymore. However, I believe that while sving the report in Crystal you can save it in such a way that refresh is not necessary. Pleae refer to your Crystal Report software. It is highly version sensitive, and I persuade you to look at it closely. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 Re: Live Data cman1973 7:13 7 Oct '05   Okay, thanks. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink hi,crystal web service Anonymous 2:22 28 Jul '05   hi, I am using your procedure.It is working well for MS-Access database but it is not working for oracle DB it is asking for logon details although i give it shows "Logon failed error". Please help me soon.It is urgent Regards selva Thanks in advance Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: hi,crystal web service mysorian 3:00 28 Jul '05   Can you connect to Oracle database in server explorer? If yes, thre should not be a problem. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Re: hi,crystal web service m.sreenivas 1:20 22 Aug '07   Im also Having the same problem, im asking for database login at runtime. plz help me how to remove it..... im using oracle database... Thanks in advance Regards, Sreenivas Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 Re: hi,crystal web service Narayanan Dayalan 2:32 13 Sep '07   Hi, For me also its prompting to enter MSSQL user name and password when my report is getting launched. Please get us some solution for this issue Regards Narayanan Dayalan Thanks & Regards Narayanan Dayalan Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 runtime customization BobbyKumar 6:49 18 Feb '05   1. How to pass parameter to report? 2. How to pass database information i.e. ServerName, Database, UserId & Password? w/o using the user intervention I mean suppressing the windows poped up by the report at runtime. 3. Is this possible in Crytal Report 9 with C# making Crystal Report Web service Consumer that load report from web service then being pushed by the dataset from ado.net. Is anybody has this experience before? It is seem really simple. But the ReportDocument just cannot load the xml web service. Thanks in advance for all your help and support. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Re: runtime customization mysorian 7:25 18 Feb '05   When teh crystal report is added to RS, the vb file generated has referenes to 'parameters' as well as 'dbinfo'. It may be possible to use these. The web service in this reprot is called from a web form. The web form is consuming the web service. When you say ReportDocument, do you mean a *.rdl file? Also refer to the following article on RS: http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/AccessImport.asp Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Move on Credentials SDSimonsen 5:16 27 Oct '04   How do you move on credentials for the database? /SDS Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5

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