Crystal Reports is a popular tool for designing and creating complex reports and for embedding reports within Windows applications. Crystal Reports has long been the reporting tool of choice by Visual DataFlex developers for in-house corporate use and by Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) for embedding reports into commercial application packages.

Reports created with Crystal Report Designer are integrated into Visual DataFlex applications by means of the Crystal Report Design Component (RDC) interface. The RDC is a COM component, which uses ActiveX controls to allow developers to run a report and dynamically control report settings.

The RDC interface was used until Crystal Reports version XI. In 2006, Business Objects (acquired by SAP in 2007) announced that the RDC interface would no longer be enhanced or delivered in future Crystal Reports products and that new versions of Crystal Reports would be based on Microsoft's .NET. Visual DataFlex does not support working with .NET-based components. As a result, even though new versions of Crystal Reports are being made available by SAP, Visual DataFlex users cannot use them.

Business Challenge

This change in Crystal Reports left DataFlex developers with two challenges: a) to preserve their legacy reports without redesigning them, and b) to locate a replacement reporting tool with the same feature set as Crystal Reports.

The Mertech Solution

Mertech used a two-step approach to address both challenges: 1) Mertech built support for .NET within Visual DataFlex, 2) Mertech developed a compatibility layer to integrate Crystal Reports with existing Visual DataFlex code.

The result is Flex2Crystal. Flex2Crystal allows seamless integration of new Crystal Reports versions with Visual DataFlex and allows developers to continue to use their existing reports. In other words, Crystal Reports is no longer a dead end for DataFlex users!

Features

• Provides seamless integration with VDF Studio and applications
• Allows newer versions of Crystal Reports to be adopted without
  changing source code
• Is a cost effective way to protect investments in Crystal Reports
• Ensures support for new features as they are added to Crystal
  Reports
• Does not compromise on report launching or data fetching
  performance
• Supports VDF version 12 (the first version to use RDC) 
  through the latest versions
• Is easy to install and distribute

Whitepaper

Flex2Crystal Whitepaper is available here.

Webinar

View a recording of our Community Technology Preview Webinar that gives users a complete overview of the new Flex2Crystal product.

Download

Flex2Crystal is available in our Downloads area.