Lost "Text" format export option in report preview window in Sage 500 2014

A client reported missing the Text format export option in report preview window in Sage 500 2014.    I was able to confirm that on my installation.   Looks like it's gone from the latest Crystal runtime used in 2014.   Does anyone know if there is a fix?

Thanks!

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  • 0

    That is correct that some of the previous export options, including exporting to text, that were available in the older version of the Crystal runtime are not available in the newer version. We are in the process of moving reports from the older version due to the version of crystal that was used becoming unsupported. There is not a fix for this, we are strictly using the Crystal engine capabilities for exporting and printing.  

    In looking at some options to get a text version of the report: You could Export it to Excel then save as text from Excel.

    Hope this helps,

    Kevin

  • 0 in reply to kkeller

    Thanks Kevin for the answer.   However, text export is still supported in the Crystal Report XI Release 2 Designer program itself.   If I preview a report in the designer, then export, Text option is available, along with many others that were lost in the 500 UI.  Also, I am also able to find the U2ftext.dll file in the system.   So the issue is in the Sage 500 report engine code.   I poked around in it, but wasn't able to figure out what may have caused the lost functionality.

    When text export is needed, it's usually not easy to work around the problem, because Excel or any other export format would distort the data, not to mention causing extra work.    

    I guess I will have to add this to the idea list, even though it's technically a regression bug, since it's a lost functionality.

  • 0 in reply to John Lian

    John,

    Did you code compare ReportEngine between versions?  Maybe it's easy to find...  I'd do it but I don't have the source code anymore.  BeyondCompare is perfect for this kind of job.

    John

  • 0 in reply to JohnHanrahan

    Thanks John.  I may try that.   I was hoping for Sage Support to do that and give me a more meaningful answer.  So far all they said is "sorry, it's crystal's fault".    They blame in on Crystal 13.   But I can't find anything that would indicate that text export is not supported in Crystal 13.  In fact, I am able to find the u2ftext.dll file for version 13 on the workstation with Sage 500 2014 installed...

    I have already gone down the path of rewriting this export to not use Crystal.   Client is not thrilled about the extra expense, but it is easier to use in the end.

  • 0 in reply to John Lian

    Many of the report generation processes in Sage 500 currently still use the older version of Crystal which is accessed through the ReportEngine.dll which uses the XI R2 (version 11.5) crystal runtime engine.

     The reporting process is being changed to use a newer version of Crystal and they are being done in groups due to time constraints vs quantity of report processing code that needs updated. This updated process uses the ReportEngineWithAdapter.dll and the Accounting.Framework.CrystalAdapter.dll which uses the Crystal for vs 2010 (Version 13) for the runtime processing

     When you are viewing the report through the preview button (old and new) the viewer you are seeing is a crystal control and the options available at that point are what is available from the crystal runtime.

     Below are the supported export types from the Crystal for vs 2010 (Version 13)

    The export types highlighted in the list are available from the Crystal Reports viewer. Export types in black are only available via calling the appropriate export API.

     Crystal Reports (*.RPT) 
    Adobe Acrobat (*.PDF)
    Character Separated Values (*.CSV)
    Microsoft Excel (97-2003) (*.XLS)
    Microsoft Excel (97-2003) Data-Only (*.XLS)
    Microsoft Excel Workbook Data-Only (*.XLSX)
    Microsoft Word (97-2003) (*.DOC)
    Microsoft Word (97-2003) - Editable (*.RTF)
    Rich Text Format (RTF) (*.RTF)
    XML (*.XML)
    HTML32 (*.HTML)
    HTML40 (*.HTML)
    RPTR (*.RPTR)
    Text (*.TXT)
    Tab Separated Text (*.TXT)

     At this point it does not appear possible to add any of the API only items directly to the list of available exports and handle it behind the scenes, so to be able to export to the API only items it appears it will take new item on our report interface maybe a button (“Additional Exports”) or some other method to access them. We are discussing options and methods to accommodate these API only items.

    Kevin 

  • 0 in reply to kkeller

    Thanks Kevin.    Yes, adding a button to the preview window that supports the API only items would be good to restore this lost functionality.    I think both the Microsoft Excel (97-2003) (*.XLS) and Text (*.TXT) would be needed.  I have never seen anyone use the others.

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