Runner to allow the use of Crystal Reports in .NET Core using external process (in .NET Framework 4.8) and named pipes for communication.

If you are using Crystal Reports in your application you're probably stuck with .NET Framework 4.x. However, all the new features are in the .NET Core framework nowadays and you might want to take advantage of them by upgrading your app to use the latest version of .NET.

Unfortunately, Crystal Reports doesn't support .NET Core so one workaround is to isolate it into its own executable so that your own application doesn't need to have a dependency on Crystal Reports SDK.

1. Create a new Console Application and reference one of these NuGet packages depending the Crystal Reports runtime version you're using:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.34 x64:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.34 x86:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.33 x64:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.33 x86:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.32 x64:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.32 x86:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.20 x64:

   • Crystal Reports v13.0.20 x86:

   • You need a version that is not listed here? Please refer to Creating a custom Runner or contact us.

   • You can download SAP Crystal Reports runtime engine for .NET Framwork from SAP download website

2. Create an engine:

   using LijsDev.CrystalReportsRunner.Core;
   
   using var engine = new CrystalReportsEngine();

3. Optionally customizing viewer settings:

   engine.ViewerSettings.AllowedExportFormats =
       ReportViewerExportFormats.PdfFormat |
       ReportViewerExportFormats.ExcelFormat;
   
   engine.ViewerSettings.ShowRefreshButton = false;
   engine.ViewerSettings.ShowCopyButton = false;
   engine.ViewerSettings.ShowGroupTreeButton = false;
   
   engine.ViewerSettings.SetUICulture(Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture);

4. Show the report and provide a connection string:

   var report = new Report("SampleReport.rpt", "Sample Report")
   {
       Connection = CrystalReportsConnectionFactory.CreateSqlConnection(
           ".\\SQLEXPRESS", 
           "CrystalReportsSample")
   };
   
   report.Parameters.Add("ReportFrom", new DateTime(2022, 01, 01));
   report.Parameters.Add("UserName", "Gerardo");
   
   await engine.ShowReportDialog(report);

Samples are available in this repo.

• Creating a custom Runner
• How this library works

• This library heavily depends on PipeMethodCalls for Named Pipe communication.
• The signing certificate for the runners is provided by Microptic S.L.

Copyright (c) 2022-2023 Gerardo Lijs

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.