The objective here is to be able to report on "live" data using Crystal Reports XI. The database (if you will) is located on our LAN on SERVER1. It is structured in Pervasive SQL v9.5 and both the client software and server software are installed on SERVER1. We have been using this program for a few years and it appears to be working fine. The problem comes in when we need a timely report. The data that is created in the database is time sensitive and any time someone needs a report, the data has had to be exported before it was reported on. These are custom reports I am speaking of and not the standard reports that are available from the program. Because the data is dynamic in nature you can see that this creates an enormous amount of labor intensive time to export the data and then run a report on the extracted data. Apparently this has been going on for many years. So I come into the picture and I introduce Crystal Reports as a solution for real time reporting only to discover that PSQL is not truely ODBC compliant. I have never worked with PSQL so I am very naive when it comes to this standard...however, in the past year, i have learned a lot.
So that is my dilema in a nutshell. I need to be able to report on this data in real time without the need of extracting, exporting and then reporting.
What have I done thus far? I received the DDF files from the vendor. I used Pervasive SQL Control Center to create a database using the DDF files. this appeared to work fine as I could now see several tables that were created from this process. I used CR XI to connect to this created DB and viewed one of the tables only to find it is empty. So what went wrong? Did the vendor create the DDF's incorrectly?
Here is some more background. I am using a client PC for the development process. the client PC has PSQL v9.5 server installed on it. I believe this was a correct install because I needed the correct PSQL engines installed and I read somewhere that the client version would not have the proper engine installed upon installation of the software. I don't know, I just followed the directions in that blog.
So as far as the DDF's are concerned, does the DDF actually have the data within it or is simply a roadmap that indicates where the data is and the "structure" of that data? I ask this because when I was using the PSQL Control Center, I clicked on "new database", it asked me to select the server and the server name defaulted to the client PC name, clicking on next it asked for the database name and location, so I gave it a name and navigated to where the DDF's were located on the local client PC. On the DBname options I unchecked the option to create the DDF and left "relational integrity enforced" checked as well as create DSN and normal. I clicked finish and it created the DB in the list of the Control Center. I assumed that was the correct method.
Then I went to CR XI and connected to it using first the Btrieve connector and then the ODBC connector. Both yielded the sam results. When I browsed a few of the tables, they were empty. Now I have been using CR for many many years so I believe the connections I made from CR through the connectors was ok but, I do not understand why the tables were empty.
Do the DDF files and the data need to be in the same location? Should there have been an opportunity to "locate" the DB when I was navigating to the DDf's in the Conrrrol Center?
I apologize for the lengthly question but, I wanted to give you all the details to better troubleshoot the resolution. Thanks in advance.
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