8.5 Licensing Question???

[Sheffield]

Greetings,

I made a simple *.rpt viewing tool using personal copies of Visual Basic and Crystal Reports 8.5 Developer.

My work environment uses Crystal 8.0 and creates a large number of "saved data" reports to our network on a weekly basis. An ever growing number of users would like to view these and export them to *.pdf format. (My program solves this problem.)

I would like to distribute my report viewer program to some of my co-workers, but I'm unaware of any license issues that my arise. Please advise.....

 

[dgillz]

This most likely falls under the crystal broadcast license. Check out ken Hamady's website for a good discusssion of what this entails.

http://www.kenhamady.com

Software Training and Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
251-621-8972
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[Sheffield]

Very good info.

I've discovered that my company already has a Crystal Broadcast License.

However, Crystal 8.0 still can't export to *.pdf, but my VB program which uses the 8.5 Export functionality WILL export to *.pdf. Morever, 99% of the users have no method by which to even view the saved data reports.

I've noticed that some people/companies (Hammerman Assoc. for one...) sell a report viewer on the web. I don't want to sell anything, but rather give it away freely to some co-workers.

Can anyone see any potential licensing issues that I should be concerned with?

 

[mlmcc]

PDF exporting was added in CR8.5. There used to be a download on the CR web page to add this to CR8 but I think is was deleted.

mlmcc

 

[kenhamady]

I don't think YOU have to worry about the broadcast license. There are no licenses or fees associated with client based applications (unless your app uses the Report Creation APIs which isn't likely). You should be able to distribute your application and allow them to export to PDF. Make sure that installing your app on a PC with v8 doesn't affect the existing capabilities, but it shouldn't.

Since your company is already distributing the the saved data reports, they might have to consider the CBL, but only if the distribution is fully automated. Ken Hamady, On-site Custom Crystal Reports Training & Consulting
Public classes and individual training.
Expert's Guide to Formulas / Guide to Crystal in VB

http://www.kenhamady.com/

- tek@kenhamady.com