Crystal Reports 2005 in Visual Studio 2010

Question

I have a couple of Crystal Reports that were developed in Visual Studio 2005, but I am now using Visual Studio 2010. The application is still referencing the 10.2.3600.0 DLLs and I have no desire to update those references. We are phasing away from Crystal and don't want to deal with migrating to a newer version.

I did install the latest version and support pack of "SAP Crystal Reports, developer version for Microsoft Visual Studio" from http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-7824 and am able to open and edit the reports as required.

However, when I try to run the application, I get the following error:

{"Could not load file or assembly 'CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.CommLayer, Version=10.2.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.":"CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.CommLayer, Version=10.2.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304"}

I did some searching around and it seems I need the 2005 DLLs registered in the GAC? Does this sound correct? Will it not work with the redistributables installed by v13? The referenced 2005 DLLs are all in another folder and properly referenced by my project so I would think the application should work with those.

What is the minimum I need to install in order to be able to work with the reports in Visual Studio 2010, and to actually run these old 2005 reports in the application?

Are you also copying the DLLs to the output directory of your project? You may need to select the DLLs in Visual Studio and under the properties, make sure "Copy to Output Directory" is set to "Copy always" — dub stylee
Sorry, I messed up the Visual Studio version. There isn't support for Crystal Reports in VS 2013 yet. I'm using VS 2010 for this project. — Vyskol
You can still display Crystal Reports in projects that are developed in VS 2013, you just won't be able to edit the reports in the designer view within Visual Studio. Did you try copying the DLLs as I mentioned? — dub stylee
@dubstylee They are currently set to Copy Local - False, if that's what you mean. I'm hesitant to change the project as we've had this working before, but recently got new machines and must now reinstall and reconfigure everything. Further, now that I've installed CRRedist2005, I am unable to uninstall to try another configurations. :-/ — Vyskol
I've got it working using the latest CR for VS executable (as detailed above), plus the 2005 redistributables. However, I am unconvinced that this is the best solution. I feel like I shouldn't need to install the 2005 redistributable since the referenced DLLs are present. Unfortunately, I am unable to test dub stylee's suggestion due to a challenge with uninstalling the 2005 redistributable. — Vyskol

Vyskol Vyskol · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06T16:09:47

Modifying the reports requires the Visual Studio integration Install Executable to be run. The latest version can be found at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-7824.

Displaying or printing the reports within the application requires the correct runtime distribution files. I cannot find an "official" source for the 2005 redistributables, but there seem to be a number of sites that offer it for download. Just search for it.

Crystal Reports 2005 in Visual Studio 2010

2 Answers