I've worked with a few enterprise software packages that use Crystal Reports. The most common way to do it seems to be just like you've described... drop the report files in a Reports folder along with the other application files. From there, using a relative path combined with the execution path would be the most flexible. I've also seen a software system that allowed you to check-in/check-out reports from the database. Not only was this used to capture metadata about the reports but also to store them in a database instead of the standard file structure. I think it really boils down to whether or not you want the reports to be accessible (easily) or not and if you'll be having user functions within the app to manipulate the reports (e.g. adding new ones).

Never actually deleting records can provide an extra layer of data protection. A common approach is to have an IsDeleted flag on each database table to specify whether the record is "deleted" or not. However, without the proper low-level mechanism in place to filter out the records, bugs can begin to invade the application space (and they're not always easy to spot!). In my case, I have written my own Entity classes to handle CRUD operations. The SELECT methods within these classes automatically filter on IsDeleted and the classes are auto-generated by a tool I wrote to ensure this issue is minimized. However, I recognize some folks may want to use other techniques to address this issue. What technique(s) do you prefer? My goal is to initiate some dialogue and gain some feedback as to the various mechanisms used by fellow members on this particular subject matter. Thanks in advance.