What was supposed to be a nice evening at my parents turned into horror...
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WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. I was considering the Soapbox because the tools mentioned in this post are certainly not kid sister safe. So I was at my parent's place last night. Had dinner there, had a nice walk, and we were supposed to go watch a movie. But then my father drops the bomb. The bomb that would ruin my evening and probably a better part of my weekend. "I have a little problem with a customer and you can probably help me." "Sure dad, what's up?" "One of my customers can't print a Crystal Report." A CRYSTAL ELEPHANTING REPORT @$#(&$!@(&#!:mad::mad::mad: In a WinForms application. Spent two hours browsing the SAP website (never have I found a less helpful website), installing runtimes, installing NuGet packages, dragging missing DLL's to the customer's computer. To no avail :sigh: So I'm spending this weekend trying to get Crystal Reports to work, thanks dad :((
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My sincere condolences on the loss of your weekend. My rule is that is anyone asks me about Crystal Reports, my response is always "What is Crystal Reports? I've never heard of it", even if doing so will make me look like an idiot. In my mind, it's better to have people think I'm an idiot than to solve a problem like this for them. Because if you help, and you succeed, then they'll see you as a Crystal Reports expert, and they'll come to you with all of their future Crystal Reports problems. And they'll also tell all their friends and cow-orkers you're a Crystal Reports expert, and pretty soon you'll be doing an extra 20 hours a week of off-the-books Crystal Reports work. Now, if that sounds like your idea of a good time, then go for it! To each their own. I'd rather be seen as a bumbling oaf.
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WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. I was considering the Soapbox because the tools mentioned in this post are certainly not kid sister safe. So I was at my parent's place last night. Had dinner there, had a nice walk, and we were supposed to go watch a movie. But then my father drops the bomb. The bomb that would ruin my evening and probably a better part of my weekend. "I have a little problem with a customer and you can probably help me." "Sure dad, what's up?" "One of my customers can't print a Crystal Report." A CRYSTAL ELEPHANTING REPORT @$#(&$!@(&#!:mad::mad::mad: In a WinForms application. Spent two hours browsing the SAP website (never have I found a less helpful website), installing runtimes, installing NuGet packages, dragging missing DLL's to the customer's computer. To no avail :sigh: So I'm spending this weekend trying to get Crystal Reports to work, thanks dad :((
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
We are in the process of converting to DevExpress reports from Crystal which has caused a plethora of problems over the years. After the initial pain and other than a couple of very complex reports yet to be converted, it has all been fairly straightforward. Again, there was pain at the start but easier now.
Keep your friends close. Keep Kill your enemies closer. The End
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WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. I was considering the Soapbox because the tools mentioned in this post are certainly not kid sister safe. So I was at my parent's place last night. Had dinner there, had a nice walk, and we were supposed to go watch a movie. But then my father drops the bomb. The bomb that would ruin my evening and probably a better part of my weekend. "I have a little problem with a customer and you can probably help me." "Sure dad, what's up?" "One of my customers can't print a Crystal Report." A CRYSTAL ELEPHANTING REPORT @$#(&$!@(&#!:mad::mad::mad: In a WinForms application. Spent two hours browsing the SAP website (never have I found a less helpful website), installing runtimes, installing NuGet packages, dragging missing DLL's to the customer's computer. To no avail :sigh: So I'm spending this weekend trying to get Crystal Reports to work, thanks dad :((
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
For as long as Crystal Reports has been around, all I've ever heard are horror stories. I've never heard anyone who was enthusiastic about the product. The anecdotal evidence has been so damning that, whenever I've needed a printable report, I've generated HTML into a file and
ShellExecute'd the document with the verb 'print'. I admit I've never used Crystal Reports myself. Is it really that bad? If so, how does it keep selling? Is it a case of "it's the only game in town, so we're stuck with it"?Software Zen:
delete this; -
For as long as Crystal Reports has been around, all I've ever heard are horror stories. I've never heard anyone who was enthusiastic about the product. The anecdotal evidence has been so damning that, whenever I've needed a printable report, I've generated HTML into a file and
ShellExecute'd the document with the verb 'print'. I admit I've never used Crystal Reports myself. Is it really that bad? If so, how does it keep selling? Is it a case of "it's the only game in town, so we're stuck with it"?Software Zen:
delete this;Yes, it's really that bad if you're a programmer. The designer works well enough. You install CR and you can create beautiful reports, even if you're not a programmer (which is exactly the problem). But as soon as you need to implement it in your software you're in for a world of pain. I once had a piece of code that worked, I was setting some properties and then printed the report. Or at least I thought it worked, until we had two tables with the same name, but in different schema's. Turned out one of the properties I set made CR forget the schema. I had to drill into a whole new API just to set the schema. Also, changing the order in which I set the properties made a huge difference. Setting A then B resulted in a working report, doing it the other way around made the report forget it's table names, schema's, everything. And then there's the issue of getting it to work on the computers of people who don't have CR installed... It's all old COM stuff, so they need to install something, but neither the website nor the documentation are very clear on what that is. I believe it also matters if you build x86 or x64 and which runtime you install. All things considering, avoid it like the plague. Why we still use it is because programmers don't make the choice, but the business does.
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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We are in the process of converting to DevExpress reports from Crystal which has caused a plethora of problems over the years. After the initial pain and other than a couple of very complex reports yet to be converted, it has all been fairly straightforward. Again, there was pain at the start but easier now.
Keep your friends close. Keep Kill your enemies closer. The End
The company where I used CR switched to DevExpress for a couple of reports. I never had the pleasure of working with their reporting tools, but I remember the problem was that our users couldn't create their own reports, while with CR they could.
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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My sincere condolences on the loss of your weekend. My rule is that is anyone asks me about Crystal Reports, my response is always "What is Crystal Reports? I've never heard of it", even if doing so will make me look like an idiot. In my mind, it's better to have people think I'm an idiot than to solve a problem like this for them. Because if you help, and you succeed, then they'll see you as a Crystal Reports expert, and they'll come to you with all of their future Crystal Reports problems. And they'll also tell all their friends and cow-orkers you're a Crystal Reports expert, and pretty soon you'll be doing an extra 20 hours a week of off-the-books Crystal Reports work. Now, if that sounds like your idea of a good time, then go for it! To each their own. I'd rather be seen as a bumbling oaf.
Yeah, I could do that, but this is my dad and he knows I know about CR and he also raised me and all... ;)
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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:thumbsup: Great story!!! :laugh: To commiserate, my pita brother-in-law needed my help (remote) to get the pin the ribbon in Outlook. (it really frustrated him that it would show up and then just disappear!) ...and while you're at it...another remote into his wife's computer to troubleshoot a printer issue that I never did get resolved...gave up on after an hour. :sigh: I've got almost two decades in CR...I feel your pain! :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
kmoorevs wrote:
I've got almost two decades in CR
Why haven't you switched careers yet? :wtf: :omg:
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And so a another Code Project rule of Software Development is born: Never let your relatives know you're a software developer. Or several more!
Latest Article - Building a Prototype Web-Based Diagramming Tool with SVG and Javascript Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
People: "So what do you do for a living?" Me, sweating, thinking of a lie: "I'm a male prostitute! :~"
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My parents learned to not ask me for tech support that isn't for them without proper consideration. After I asked my dad how he felt when people asked him for medical advice for their friends, it kind of clicked in his mind. For extended family, I changed my phone number and email address then refused to share it with anyone who didn't respect my time. Same went for people who shared my number with those same relatives. Sort of extreme but after the umpteenth phone call about connecting the digital camera to the PC using USB turned into how to edit them and send through email but oh the email client isn't working and that is what the real reason for the call, it felt justified.
My dad doesn't ask lightly, he either thinks it'll be easy for me, or he's tried everything there is to try. Other than that I never get asked for computer support :D I got asked a few times, but my answer is usually "I don't know much of computers. I can write kick-ass software, but whenever the computer doesn't do what it's supposed to do I call support too."
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Do you discount your rate for your father? :-D
Yeah, basically what he's charging his customer so he can send the invoice to them, which is about half my own rate :sigh: And I've got plenty of work at my own rate as well :sigh: But it's really just helping out my dad, I guess we all do that from time to time :)
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Next time you say "Golly Dad, that's horrible" - And on you go.
I've tried that once, but he'll answer stuff like "I guess it's horrible next time you need X or Y" and of course he's right ;) My relation with my parents is a good one, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough to last through CR though :laugh:
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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Sander Rossel wrote:
"One of my customers can't print a Crystal Report."
Show him how to take and print a screenshot. It's times like these I'm reminded I should be grateful my dad doesn't do much with computers.
The problem's a bit deeper, CR doesn't start at all. Missing DLL's, wrong versions of DLL's, wrong locations of DLL's, wrong installation of DLL's, etc. We've tried some stuff, but couldn't figure it out. The only way my dad could get it to work is by installing his development environment on the customer's computer, which isn't quite how it's supposed to be done :~
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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You might need to open the report in the designer and check if the default printer is set / saved in the report. It's not too difficult in code to set the default printer of the report.
The problem's a bit deeper, CR doesn't start at all. Missing DLL's, wrong versions of DLL's, wrong locations of DLL's, wrong installation of DLL's, etc. We've tried some stuff, but couldn't figure it out. The only way my dad could get it to work is by installing his development environment on the customer's computer, which isn't quite how it's supposed to be done :~
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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u need to get the designer... open the rpt file...check the connection.validate the schema..update table and columns ... save rpt..run report.. etc...etc
Caveat Emptor. "Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
The problem's a bit deeper, CR doesn't start at all. Missing DLL's, wrong versions of DLL's, wrong locations of DLL's, wrong installation of DLL's, etc. We've tried some stuff, but couldn't figure it out. The only way my dad could get it to work is by installing his development environment on the customer's computer, which isn't quite how it's supposed to be done :~
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You could say "no".
Imagine if my dad did that 30 years ago ;) Saying "no" really isn't an option.
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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Imagine if my dad did that 30 years ago ;) Saying "no" really isn't an option.
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I'm a dad. I have 2 kids. If my son or daughter did not want to do something for me, I would not fault them, if they had a good reason. Just saying...
Sander Rossel wrote:
Saying "no" really isn't an option.
Saying "no" IS ALWAYS an option...even with parents. Don't get me wrong, I try to help my mother as much as possible, even if I don't like the task. I get it. :thumbsup:
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I'm a dad. I have 2 kids. If my son or daughter did not want to do something for me, I would not fault them, if they had a good reason. Just saying...
Sander Rossel wrote:
Saying "no" really isn't an option.
Saying "no" IS ALWAYS an option...even with parents. Don't get me wrong, I try to help my mother as much as possible, even if I don't like the task. I get it. :thumbsup:
Slacker007 wrote:
if they had a good reason
"I don't feel like it because it's a few hours of work" is not a very good reason. Sure, saying "no" IS an option... If you want to destroy the good relations you have with people. My dad did tons of things for me even though he'd rather be doing other things. If I say "no" now he'll be saying "no" next time. And his happiness when it's solved is so much better than his sadness/disappointment when I say "no". All in all saying "no" really isn't worth it (and so not an option).
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People: "So what do you do for a living?" Me, sweating, thinking of a lie: "I'm a male prostitute! :~"
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
Sander Rossel wrote:
"I'm a male prostitute!
Go for [Gigolo - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigolo) - it's more sophisticated. ;)
Latest Article - Building a Prototype Web-Based Diagramming Tool with SVG and Javascript Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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The company where I used CR switched to DevExpress for a couple of reports. I never had the pleasure of working with their reporting tools, but I remember the problem was that our users couldn't create their own reports, while with CR they could.
Best, Sander Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
Always a trade off. You could give them MS Access...
Keep your friends close. Keep Kill your enemies closer. The End
