Hooray! I Finally caught the exception!
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For over a month, I have had a small nagging issue with a single customer where exporting his reports to pdf generated a report viewer (crystal) error. It was working one day, then the next...kaput! Try as I might, I was never able to reproduce the behavior on any of my test platforms... 'works on my machine'. This morning, another customer called to report the same problem...now it's no longer an isolated issue. So, I fire up the test rigs and let them install the latest batch of windows updates...restart, and BAM! Behavior replicated! :) Now, to track down which of these 20 or so updates is the culprit! :sigh: Edit: It wasn't WU but rather a single missing library missing from the installer! :doh: I couldn't have tracked it down without procmon. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
Crystal Reports is [REDACTED] and needs to be launched into the sun. The 'developers' behind it need to be put in the sun as well.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question? The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism. Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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When in doubt Run Process momitor. Possibly look at a Path Length issue (how long is the string path?) or the path itself (does it have access permission still to the path ?). Are you using a %path% variable, or C:\User\JoUser\Documents type of output path ? Happy hunting
It's user choice. The error is happening now when the browse destination is supposed to appear. This is all handled internally by the viewer control. For now, I have them printing to a pdf printer as a workaround. Thanks. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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When in doubt Run Process momitor. Possibly look at a Path Length issue (how long is the string path?) or the path itself (does it have access permission still to the path ?). Are you using a %path% variable, or C:\User\JoUser\Documents type of output path ? Happy hunting
If running Win 10 check the KB 3135173 update..
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It's user choice. The error is happening now when the browse destination is supposed to appear. This is all handled internally by the viewer control. For now, I have them printing to a pdf printer as a workaround. Thanks. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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kmoorevs wrote:
crystal
Worst piece of s*** I've ever worked with. Setting a single property somehow cleared my entire object leaving it in an invalid state that could never be made right. After searching in the deepest and darkest corners of the interwebz I found out I had to set that property using a whole different API (had to add about six references to set a single property), go through some very obscure classes and properties, get a reference to some dictionary, and then set the value of some string key. And all of that had to happen in a very specific order, because if I got a reference to B before getting a reference to A my object would be invalid again. Way to go Crystal. It's a few years back, but I remember commenting my code "the programmer who made this must've been drunk and drugged!" and that was the most serious comment I ever wrote X| None of that was a joke, a matter of speech, or an overreaction. That was how it actually was... :(
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
I can sign that sentiment as well. When we started using Crystal Reports we had a scaling issue, the support was non existent and the was literally hundreds and possibly thousands of people having the same issue. Three versions later it still wasn't fixed and we swapped to Devexpress. Their product wasn't really ripe by that time and we had quite some issues actually, but what a support! They really tried to fix everything for us by the next day, and either gave us a workaround or a fix with the returning mail.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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I can sign that sentiment as well. When we started using Crystal Reports we had a scaling issue, the support was non existent and the was literally hundreds and possibly thousands of people having the same issue. Three versions later it still wasn't fixed and we swapped to Devexpress. Their product wasn't really ripe by that time and we had quite some issues actually, but what a support! They really tried to fix everything for us by the next day, and either gave us a workaround or a fix with the returning mail.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
we swapped to Devexpress
We've used their WinForms control suite. The controls were beautiful, worked really well, and had lots of features! Whenever we did have a problem or question their support was great. We got the same support you got, usually a reply within 24 hours and more often than not a fix or workaround. I can't recommend DevExpress highly enough! Too bad we couldn't use their reporting suite. Our customer used Crystal and had hundreds of custom made reports. They did have someone who knew how to create Crystal reports, but no one who could create DevExpress reports... :sigh:
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
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For over a month, I have had a small nagging issue with a single customer where exporting his reports to pdf generated a report viewer (crystal) error. It was working one day, then the next...kaput! Try as I might, I was never able to reproduce the behavior on any of my test platforms... 'works on my machine'. This morning, another customer called to report the same problem...now it's no longer an isolated issue. So, I fire up the test rigs and let them install the latest batch of windows updates...restart, and BAM! Behavior replicated! :) Now, to track down which of these 20 or so updates is the culprit! :sigh: Edit: It wasn't WU but rather a single missing library missing from the installer! :doh: I couldn't have tracked it down without procmon. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
Hope it's not contagious?
New version: WinHeist Version 2.2.2 Beta
tomorrow (noun): a mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored. -
Jörgen Andersson wrote:
we swapped to Devexpress
We've used their WinForms control suite. The controls were beautiful, worked really well, and had lots of features! Whenever we did have a problem or question their support was great. We got the same support you got, usually a reply within 24 hours and more often than not a fix or workaround. I can't recommend DevExpress highly enough! Too bad we couldn't use their reporting suite. Our customer used Crystal and had hundreds of custom made reports. They did have someone who knew how to create Crystal reports, but no one who could create DevExpress reports... :sigh:
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
Sander Rossel wrote:
but no one who could create DevExpress reports
I could do the switch, so why couldn't they?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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NO PROGRAMMING QUESTIONS IN THE LOUNGE Yes, now even me hates myself... :rolleyes:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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Neither the joke icon it seems... :laugh:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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For over a month, I have had a small nagging issue with a single customer where exporting his reports to pdf generated a report viewer (crystal) error. It was working one day, then the next...kaput! Try as I might, I was never able to reproduce the behavior on any of my test platforms... 'works on my machine'. This morning, another customer called to report the same problem...now it's no longer an isolated issue. So, I fire up the test rigs and let them install the latest batch of windows updates...restart, and BAM! Behavior replicated! :) Now, to track down which of these 20 or so updates is the culprit! :sigh: Edit: It wasn't WU but rather a single missing library missing from the installer! :doh: I couldn't have tracked it down without procmon. :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Neither the joke icon it seems... :laugh:
[www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]
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The dreaded conversation. > (developer, in a superior tone) : okay, you need to use the latest version of ABC. I am on 11.7. You need to update to that. > (customer) : I am actually on 12.1. Looks like *you* need to update. > (developer, very meek now) : Oh! uhm yeah, you are right. ahem, I'll get back to you on this. > (customer) : *chortle* Just being anecdotal here (friend of a friend etc.), this never happened to me. :-D
Regards, Nish
Website: www.voidnish.com Blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Nish Nishant wrote:
Just being anecdotal here (friend of a friend etc.), this never happened to me
:laugh:
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Sander Rossel wrote:
but no one who could create DevExpress reports
I could do the switch, so why couldn't they?
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Because they just made reports, that went pretty well (mostly, some issues there as well). We made the software. It's the Crystal SDK that's a steaming pile of shit. We had the problem, not our customer. As far as they were concerned we just didn't know how Crystal worked (and I guess that's true as Crystal made sure no one would ever understand their SDK) :D
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
