Strange Crystal Behavior on 8.03.305K

> Interesting, care to elaborate on what you found?

I'll share that off-list with you. Since I was getting the "we won't help you
without extra $$$" speech even before they looked at a thing then I don't
really feel compelled to share it on a list that is read by Epicor employees.
It works both ways, right? If we have to pay extra to figure out an Epicor
problem, then maybe Epicor needs to pay us when we solve those problems.
After all, these answers support a revenue stream as they go into a knowledge
base that is used to charge for support. I don't blame the tech, Ken Anderson,
who I have found quite helpful in the past. He's clearly carrying out policy.
A policy that, in the long run, will probably cost more than some braniac
managers thought they'd save. Oh well...

Again, if my Crystal didn't work in the development environment then I would
have no trouble paying extra for that kind of service, but there is some
inconsistency that makes reports launched from the developer different than
when launched from Vantage. I personally believe that this is something that
Epicor would have wanted to know. The way that Report Data Definition works is
also partially to blame for this issue as well. They'll figure it out if/when
they get more calls on it.

> As for Epicor's stance, do you have an account manager? That's a BS
> response from support in my opinion and I'd take it up with your account
> manager if it were me.

Yeah, I think the AM would be interested as she wants to make us a reference
site.

Mark W.
Accounting had an issue with the Stock Status report and Epicor said that
upgrading to 305K would fix it. So we applied the patch. Oddly, the patch
included a brand new Invoice Crystal Report. I'm not used to seeing new tables
and such in a patch level, but OK, we applied our mods and tested the report
in Crystal. Works great.

However, when we run the same report with the same ADO.Net XML file, we see
strange behavior. The serial number line will repeat X times where X is the
number of lines on the invoice. Misc. Charges does the same thing. If I go
back to the Crystal Development program, IX R2, and I do a preview, the report
looks fine. I've reported this to Epicor but I got the "we don't debug Crystal
Report" speech but the report runs fine in Epicor's version of Crystal (which
we pay support) just not in the report viewer within Vantage.

Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks,

Mark W.
When you're testing it in Crystal are you using a data set that includes
more than one invoice?

It sounds like the database links in Crystal aren't set up properly.
I've seen this type of behavior before and the same 'not seeing it in
Crystal', the not seeing it in Crystal was because I was using a data
set that didn't have the problem. The behavior was because the database
links weren't matching the way Vantage spits them out.

If either of these sound possible I can offer more details if needed.

________________________________

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 1:08 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Strange Crystal Behavior on 8.03.305K



Accounting had an issue with the Stock Status report and Epicor said
that
upgrading to 305K would fix it. So we applied the patch. Oddly, the
patch
included a brand new Invoice Crystal Report. I'm not used to seeing new
tables
and such in a patch level, but OK, we applied our mods and tested the
report
in Crystal. Works great.

However, when we run the same report with the same ADO.Net XML file, we
see
strange behavior. The serial number line will repeat X times where X is
the
number of lines on the invoice. Misc. Charges does the same thing. If I
go
back to the Crystal Development program, IX R2, and I do a preview, the
report
looks fine. I've reported this to Epicor but I got the "we don't debug
Crystal
Report" speech but the report runs fine in Epicor's version of Crystal
(which
we pay support) just not in the report viewer within Vantage.

Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks,

Mark W.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> When you're testing it in Crystal are you using a data set that includes
> more than one invoice?

No.

> It sounds like the database links in Crystal aren't set up properly.
> I've seen this type of behavior before and the same 'not seeing it in
> Crystal', the not seeing it in Crystal was because I was using a data
> set that didn't have the problem. The behavior was because the database
> links weren't matching the way Vantage spits them out.

Here's how I create and link my dataset:

1.) Go to Invoice Tracker and select an invoice.
2.) Print Preview the Invoice
3.) Go to Crystal and set the ADO.Net XML connection to the dataset generated
by Vantage.
4.) Preview report from Crystal. Works.
5.) Preview the report in Vantage. Doesn't work - with the same exact data and
RPT file.

I guess my question is why does the report run one way when executed by
Crystal and a different way when executed by Vantage? Epicor responded that
they can repeat the effect on their machines but wants to bill for
investigating further. Now I can understand that Epicor support shouldn't work
on custom reports but this appears to be an execution problem. When we buy the
Epicor version of Crystal and pay support on it, are we not paying for that
interface?

Ah ha! I was looking at the new structure of the ADO.Net data file and see
what happened. I switched something around and got it to work both in Crystal
AND in Vantage. Apparently a Crystal report launched from Crystal and a
Crystal Report launched in Vantage do not process the XML data in the same
way.

Thanks,

Mark W.
Interesting, care to elaborate on what you found?

As for Epicor's stance, do you have an account manager? That's a BS
response from support in my opinion and I'd take it up with your account
manager if it were me.

________________________________

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 2:44 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Strange Crystal Behavior on 8.03.305K



> When you're testing it in Crystal are you using a data set that
includes
> more than one invoice?

No.

> It sounds like the database links in Crystal aren't set up properly.
> I've seen this type of behavior before and the same 'not seeing it in
> Crystal', the not seeing it in Crystal was because I was using a data
> set that didn't have the problem. The behavior was because the
database
> links weren't matching the way Vantage spits them out.

Here's how I create and link my dataset:

1.) Go to Invoice Tracker and select an invoice.
2.) Print Preview the Invoice
3.) Go to Crystal and set the ADO.Net XML connection to the dataset
generated
by Vantage.
4.) Preview report from Crystal. Works.
5.) Preview the report in Vantage. Doesn't work - with the same exact
data and
RPT file.

I guess my question is why does the report run one way when executed by
Crystal and a different way when executed by Vantage? Epicor responded
that
they can repeat the effect on their machines but wants to bill for
investigating further. Now I can understand that Epicor support
shouldn't work
on custom reports but this appears to be an execution problem. When we
buy the
Epicor version of Crystal and pay support on it, are we not paying for
that
interface?

Ah ha! I was looking at the new structure of the ADO.Net data file and
see
what happened. I switched something around and got it to work both in
Crystal
AND in Vantage. Apparently a Crystal report launched from Crystal and a
Crystal Report launched in Vantage do not process the XML data in the
same
way.

Thanks,

Mark W.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]