HI there,
I have been asked to help make multiple custom reports I wrote in Crystal XI for Vantage 8 to now work in E10 and I am trying to get up to speed.
The customised job traveller I created in Vantage 8 was driven by an XML output - no doubt based on the original job traveller that it came with.
Does the same process still apply in E10 and can I still use a modified Crystal XI report as the basis for the job traveller in E10?
While you can still use Crystal, the amount of work to sometimes āupgradeā the report to work in E10 is not worth it vs. starting in SSRS.
Ian,
Yes you can, however use of Crystal Reports is not supported by Epicor.
Also, between Vantage 8 and Epicor 10 there have been many schema changes and as a result the RDD associated with each report in some cases have changed. From my experience between 9.05 and 10 Epicor did not ensure that the RDD for Crystal worked, so we got a bunch of errors with the dataset (extra or missing fields or fields with the wrong name)
My recommendation would be to learn and modify SSRS. It is quite different from Crystal but for the most part Iāve been able to do everything that Crystal did. When an SSRS report is queued the dataset for it is stored in the Epicor Reports database, there is no file.
Also when I migrate customers we try to further leverage Dashboards and drop previous Custom Crystal reports when possible. This really reduces the complexity of the migration.
Hi Rick,
First of all thanks for the prompt response.
I used quite a few formula fields which in turn were used for conditional
document structure formatting. It was quite complex to create originally.
So do you still think SSRS is up to this and how accurately does SSRS
format the document ready for printing?
Ian,
So far I havenāt found anything that cannot be done.
Most of the Epicor Standard SSRS reports employ conditional structures, changing the visibility of a Tablix Row given certain values. The same can be done for individual controls. Examining existing Standard SSRS reports helps in understanding how to accomplish the desired results.
It just takes time, patience and resourcefulness to learn the SSRS Report Builder, but this forum, Insights and EpicWeb resources are very valuable when learning SSRS. Plus since SSRS is a MS product there are many many resources and helps just by using google.
Have Epicor produced any manuals on customising their out of the box SSRS
reports?
Other than a few Insights classes, every Epicor installation usually includes an Education Web App installation and in there there is a course for SSRS called āEpicor SSRS Reporting -
Shipping Reports and BAQ Reports.ā The course takes the user through a modification of an existing SSRS report and creating a new BAQ SSRS Report in your Training database. I found it helpful enough to get going and comfortable. The course should have a link to download the PDF version of the course guide.
-Rick
We kept our reports in Crystal. We went from 9.05.702 to 10.1.600.5.
Once we got UD fields dealt with, we found it wasnāt too hard to get most of the crystal reports working again in E10. Hereās our modified, upgraded job traveler for Crystal. I donāt think we have any UDs on this one.
Nancy
Ian,
I was like you, loved Crystal, been working with Crystal for over 20 years. Now Iām working in SSRS and I couldnāt imagine going back. SSRS is not hard to learn. You just need to put some time aside and learn it. Once you get the hang of it, takes no longer then 2 weeks to be a pro, youāll love it! The time it saves you and all of the things you can do with it are endless, and I mean that!
When Epicor said no more Crystal I was M A D! I even came on here to blow off steam. I sat down, pounded away and with in a few days I was like, āOkay, I can live with this.ā Now I donāt even look back.
Epicor has a couple of classes to get you on your way:
Creating Custom Epicor ERP Reports with SSRS
Modifying Shipping Reports and BAQ Reports with SSRS (The one @Rick_Bird mentioned)
The internet is always your friend for finding code as well as us! We always share our stuff. You need to let go of Crystal, itās Dead! Not to mention itās slow, clunky and harder to maintain.
Hereās some links:
Tutorials
Download Report Builder:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53613
And a small tip that brought it all home for me: Itās all in the 
Youāll understand when you start working with it. The Table is what makes all the magic! Insert one and make it do your bidding.
Have fun with it!
EDIT: I almost forgotā¦ Thereās absolutely NOTHING Crystal can do that SSRS canāt. In fact in most cases SSRS does it easier and better.
The one bug bear that I have is the lack of live preview and rearrange that you get in Crystal. You have to preview, look where things are and what they look like, they go back to design and alter it before previewing again. I find myself going back and forth many times to get fonts and sizes looking good.
Any tips to overcome that issue?
Report Builder does have a preview, 
.
