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Loading Crystal Report reports which use Stored Proc in C#

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20 Apr 2005 11  
An article on how to load Crystal Report reports using C#.

Introduction

This article focuses on loading Crystal Report reports in C#. The Crystal Report report created here uses a SQL Server stored procedure which takes two parameters and it uses DSN with SQL Server authentication.

Background

When I started working on Crystal Reports, mainly I was wondering about these problems:

  1. How to set parameters of stored procedure from C# code using Crystal's APIs.
  2. How to avoid popup window which comes when we use DSN with SQL Server authentication.
  3. How to avoid these errors:
    • Missing prompting unit
    • The parameter is incorrect

This article gives a solution to all of the above issues and also gives a few notes to avoid unpredictable results.

Using the code

The attached code here loads the "SalseReport.rpt" file. The steps to run the attached application are:

  1. Create database say "testDB" in SQL Server and execute the script "SalseData_Table_SP.sql" in the SQL Server Query Analyser which will create a stored procedure "Sel_SalesData" and a table "SalesData" for you.
  2. Import the sample data to the table "salseData" from file "SalesData_Data.txt" (data is comma separated).
  3. Create a DSN named "TestDB_DSN" with SQL Server authentication. Give valid user name and password.
  4. Open "frmSalseData.cs" file and update the below line with your logon information, in the function "btnPreview_Click".
    //The parameters are in the order 
    
    //- UserName, Password, DSN Name, DatabaseName, Case Sensitive
    
    reportDocument.SetDatabaseLogon("pchitriv", "Windows2000", 
                               "TestDB_DSN", "testDB", false);
  5. In case you have created a DSN with some other name than "TestDB_DSN", then open the "SalseReport.rpt" file from the Reports directory and set the DataSource location to point to the correct DSN and "Sel_SalseData" stored procedure again.
  6. The code to load the report looks like this:
    private void btnPreview_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e) 
    {
        //Instantiate variables
    
        ReportDocument reportDocument = new ReportDocument();
        ParameterField paramField = new ParameterField();
        ParameterFields paramFields = new ParameterFields();
        ParameterDiscreteValue paramDiscreteValue = new ParameterDiscreteValue();
    
        //Set instances for input parameter 1 -  @vDepartment
    
        paramField.Name = "@vDepartment";
        //Below variable can be set to any data 
    
        //present in SalseData table, Department column
    
        paramDiscreteValue.Value = "South";
        paramField.CurrentValues.Add(paramDiscreteValue);
        //Add the paramField to paramFields
    
        paramFields.Add(paramField); 
    
        //Set instances for input parameter 2 -  @iSalseYear
    
        //*Remember to reconstruct the paramDiscreteValue and paramField objects
    
        paramField = new ParameterField();
        paramField.Name = "@iSalesYear";
        paramDiscreteValue = new ParameterDiscreteValue();
        paramDiscreteValue.Value = "2004";
        paramField.CurrentValues.Add(paramDiscreteValue);
    
        //Add the paramField to paramFields
    
        paramFields.Add(paramField); 
    
        crystalReportViewer1.ParameterFieldInfo = paramFields;
    
        reportDocument.Load(@"..\..\..\Reports\SalseReport.rpt");
    
        //set the database loggon information. 
    
        //**Note that the third parameter is the DSN name 
    
        //  and not the Database or System name
    
        reportDocument.SetDatabaseLogon("pchitriv", "Windows2000", 
                                   "TestDB_DSN", "testDB", false);
      
        //Load the report by setting the report source
    
        crystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = reportDocument;
    }

Points of Interest

  1. Error - Missing prompting unit:

    I got this error when I was not creating a new �ParameterField" object for each of the input parameters.

  2. Error - The parameter is incorrect:

    I got this error when I used paramField.Name = "vDepartment"; instead of paramField.Name = "@vDepartment";. This is because in the report, the parameter field name in the Field Explorer is @vDepartment. So remember to use the exact name in the C# code as that is used in the report (for parameter/input fields).

  3. Note:

    Remember to uncheck the option �Save data with Report� under Crystal Reports File menu. Checking this option gives unpredictable results when you call a report in a C# form.

License

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