Crystal Reports - applications with embedded reports

Question

I have a SQL server database on my customer's server which is accessed by aprox 20 users through a winforms client application installed on individual machines.

I was thinking of using Crystal Reports to produce management reports etc and embedding this into my winforms application. However would this mean that crystal reports needs to be installed on every individual client machine, or just on the server?

Answer 1

For winforms you will need to install the Crystal Reports Runtime on the client machines so that they can view and interact with your Reports. You should be able to get the Runtime (msi) from SAP's website or sometimes it will come with your download when you purchase/download the software online (that was the case for me when I got the dev version for 2012).

SAP Crystal Reports, developer version for Microsoft Visual Studio - 2012 Now Available for Download

If that is not your version just Google for your specifics and you should be able to find what what you need.

Answer 2

BukHix is right, you need to install the runtime on each machine. If you don't want to do this you can consider implementing a report scheduler, which will run the reports on the server and will deliver them to the management as excel, pdf or any other applicable file type