Custom Reports vs Crystal Reports = Different Results

Joshua Bekerman bCLO,:

Hi!  Here's one I've never seen before.  When I run a custom Crystal Report through Custom Reports in RE I get different results compared to when I run the same report in Crystal Reports.  There's a subreport in the Report Header that summarizes by units the participant information in the details section of the report.  When run through Custom Reports in RE it's multiplying the summary results by 33, the same number of participants in the details section and on the Event record.  When the report is run in Crystal Reports the results are correct.


Anyone else ever see this happen?  I'm guessing this thread will end with someone saying that the report is corrupt and I need to recreate it.  Still curious if this has happened to anyone else.  Oh, also, we just upgraded from 7.93 to 7.96 patch 5 this past weekend.  The report was working before then.  We were using Crystal Reports XI before the upgrade, although this report was created in 2014.  Way before my time here so I'm not sure which version was used to first create the report.


Thanks!

Josh

 

Is there any chance that the RE version is on your live account and when you run it in Crystal you are pointing to a test account?

Joshua Bekerman bCLO,:

I just tried the backup Crystal Reports file from before we upgraded to 7.96 and it shows the same incorrect results.  No word yet from support.

We haven't figured out why this happened, but deleting the mdb file and recreating everything stopped it from happening with new custom reports. It still didn't fix the original custom report, which probably got corrupted, but Blackbaue doesn't believe the latest patch had anything to do with it. Blackbaud asked me to send a copy of my database to look into it further, but I don't think I'm going to take that next step. Thanks and hope your issue gets fixed, Joshua!

They have completely shut down any support for Crystal Reports and Custom Reports. We can no longer run anything we has set up as a custom report in RE, we have to run them directly in Crystal Reports, and if we have a problem with a Crystal Report they won't help. They are directing all of their resources to developing NXT 

Joshua Bekerman bCLO,:
​Here's the latest.  The case was referred to the Raiser's Edge engineering team (don't look behind the curtain Dorothy!) and they "confirmed" that this is not an issue that can be investigated by Blackbaud Support.  I waited a month to be told they won't help me.  I don't understand how this is not something they can support.  The report works perfectly fine when it is run through Crystal Reports.  The issue only happens when the same exact report is run through Custom Reports in Raiser's Edge.  But it's not a Raiser's Edge issue?


​Then they referred me to the Blackbaud Professional Services team.  Of course.





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This is a known Blackbaud issue started to happen I believe after version 7.93. When running a crystal report from Custom section in RE, the Raiser’s Edge application changes the actual crystal report file (check date modified on the report itself).
In my experience the Raiser’s Edge application changes crystal repot general settings options (under Report Options). It changes “Convert Other NULL values to Default”, from checked to uncheck. In addition, if the report is run via Raiser’s Edge queue, “Save Data with Report” is checked.
I have contacted Blackbaud multiple times and submitted to them .mdb and .rpt files, but I have not heard any good explanation when this issue is going to be fixed.
In the meantime, I have set “Read only” option (under Report Options) on all my reports and have re-written formulas so reports would not depend on conversion of other values to NULL. The date modified still changes when actual .rpt files when reports are run via queue.


Mark

Joshua Bekerman bCLO,:

Thanks Sarah and Marie.  Unfortunately we have no desire to move to NXT any time soon.  


Marie, is there a recording of that webinar?


Thanks Mark.  This report had worked for years and as you mentioned it stopped working after we upgraded from 9.73 to 9.76.  I'll take a look at the items you mention.


Thank you!

Marie Stark:

 

 

It was mentioned at a webinar I listened to this week, that the reports in NXT are so great that they hope we won't need Crystal reports anymore. 

 

We upgraded to 7.96 a year ago, and our Custom Reports work fine (at least the data matches). It was a process though. I took the opportunity to weed out old reports and enact a full re-organization and naming schema. That made this process take a lot longer, but it has made running reports so much easier, since there are so many fewer reports cluttering it up, and finding reports is much easier.


I upgraded each report individually from Crystal 8.5 to Crystal XI. This involved:

1) Make a copy of the report to preserve the old version, just in case.

2) Open the report in XI.

3) Database>Database Expert>Links

4) Clear links, Auto-arrange, Auto-Link (By Name)

5) Right click on every. single. arrow. Link Options. Change Join Type to "Left Outer Join." Click ok.

6) Click ok.

7) If there are any sub-reports, open the sub-report, and repeat steps 3-6 for each sub-report.

8) Note: Steps 3-6 need to be repeated for each MDB file AND each sub-report. From the main report, you can open "Datasource Location" and use it as a mental checklist. For big reports, it may be useful to jot it down and actually check things off as you go. (If your report is super-heavy and has sub-reports that bring all of the fields from the MDB file, but only use some of them, it will make the report run faster if you take this opportunity to delete tables from the sub-report that are only used in the main report.)

9) Save as new version.

10) Map Custom Report to new file location, if changed.


Once that process was done, we upgraded to 7.96. When we deployed the upgrade to the workstations, we also upgraded Crystal. Some machines got full Crystal Reports licenses (for those who actually open Crystal Reports), but the rest just got the upgraded "components." See instructions below.

 

• Uninstall Crystal Reports 8.5, via Control Panel. This is called “Crystal Reports for Blackbaud.”

• BB Runtime Components needs to be installed on all machines with RE, EE, or FE. This shouldn’t be thought of so much as “Crystal Reports,” than as a patch for RE/EE/FE that needs to be installed locally. This enables the user to use a function within RE/EE/FE that involves touching, but not changing, Crystal Report files. (aka Custom Reports)

  • This will appear in the Control Panel programs list as “Crystal Report”

• Install Crystal Reports XI Full Build (requires key - only users directly using Crystal)

  • Don’t check for updates.

  • This will appear in the Control Panel programs list as “Crystal Reports XI Release 2”

• Install Crystal Reports XI R2 Service Pack 6 (“patch”) (only users directly using Crystal)

  • This will appear in the Control Panel programs list as “Crystal Reports XI R2 Service Pack 6” (Current patch may be more recent, so you could probably skip 6)

  • This does not need a key, as it is just a “patch” for Crystal Reports XI

Indeed!


It's still a lot of clicking, don't get me wrong, but there is A LOT to be said for the arrow, tab, and enter keys!

Joshua Bekerman bCLO,:

• General Crystal Support will answer BB-product related questions about and assist on issues within the BB product.  (That is their underline emphasis, not mine.)  
•  

I guess what I'm not getting -- and obviously you aren't either -- is if your report works outside of RE, and doesn't work inside of RE, how is that not an issue within the BB product?