Work-around for Crystal Reports in Blackbaud environment

Mark Zarbailov

I just tested this.

from my previous post.

there is work-around (I have not tried this yet) with keeping/updating and creating new reports in Blackbaud environment. Crystal reports would need to be installed on a local machine. Then the local machine or a computer on your network would need to be named “bbhfs01”. It appears that is how blackbaud is naming their share at least in Boston data center. Then a shared folder would need to be created on “bbhfs01” machine. The shared folder should be names as xxxx$ where xxxx is your site id. Then another folder(s) need to be created for your .mdb files. So, the full path should be identical, as you would have them in blackbaud environment. For example \\\\bbhfs01\\XXXXX$\\RE\\ReportDatasource\\. Once you have this set up, you can create/update crystal reports files in your local environment with linking them to your local .mdb files. Once the local reports are tested, you can use the FTP to copy the crystal report files to blackbaud environment and then make them available in custom report section of RE.

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE

@Patricia Lewis This should answer your question about linking CR to a file stored on the Web Transfer Client.

Sarah Fitzgerald

Hello, I need to do this for my tax statements but I'm confused about the renaming my computer part. I'm not IT so this kind of thing isn't second nature to me. Can you point me in the right direction on translating this process?

William Drew

Rather than renaming a local drive could I rename a USB Flash Drive to the same effect and then plug that into the PC when I need to build/edit custom reports? Limited by company IS infrastructure/permissions.

Dariel Dixon 2

I don't think any of these steps need to be taken. I think you can reset the link in Crystal Reports by using the database expert wizard. It does take a higher level of understanding, though. But you will have to rename the links for a while.

William Drew

Legend! Just created a report on my local machine, once finished renamed the data connection using Database Expert to match the hosted files location. Copy and pasted the report into the hosted files. Updated the RE Export file location to export directly into the hosted files ensuring it matched the renamed data connection. Ran the report in Raiser's Edge Custom Reports and worked first time.

Being able to continue running Crystal Reports within the hosted environment is a life saver in a hybrid working environment.