Is Azure hosting compatible with Crystal Reports?

Jan Chaloux

I've gotten conflicting messages regarding this question.  Does anyone on here have first-hand experience with transitioning to Azure hosting?  Our org uses nearly 100 custom Crystal Reports and would like to continue to use them, but I'm not sure if it's possible on the Azure hosting platform.  I've had one user tell me that they can do it.  But Blackbaud's page lists the following as not compatible:  "Custom Crystal Reports leveraging connections outside of the database."  Currently when we use Crystal reports all of the data comes from the database.  We just design/modify the reports themselves through the Citrix hosting page.  Is all of the possible on the Azure hosting platform?

Elaine Tucker

Crystal is available in Azure; when you convert, you need to export the datafiles to the F drive (hosted drive for your organization) and then take the each crystal report and also save it to the F drive. To access crystal reports from the hosting environment,you can click on it from a drop down menu in the work center.

Keith Wilson 2

Hi @Jan Chaloux and @Elaine Tucker. We just got the notification today that BB is ready to move our org to Azure. I am reading the documentation about Crystal Reports and have the same question. I wasn't sure if we would be able to access Crystal Reports post conversion, and if our custom reports would continue to work. What has your experience been like now that you have moved over? I've also heard that BB is no longer supporting Crystal Reports and wondered if you had any advise per se on transitioning to other reporting platforms (Power BI, Tableau, etc.)

Elaine Tucker

@Keith Wilson our crystal reports continue to work, some of them will probably stay in use for as long as possible because of the nuanced information that the Crystal Reports functionality allows - if/then; calculations based on X give Y; that type of thing. This year I just started working with the reporting platforms available in NXT, and so far have only had time to create 1 which I accomplished during #bbdevdays. I hope to be able to create more in the future as time allows. Hope this answered your question.