Jeff-Net

Jeff-Net Report Runner Viewer Software Version Information

 

Important

We offer multiple versions of our Report Runner Viewer products. We offer a version 8.5.x, 10.9.x, and 11.x. So, what version should you use? Now, at first glance, you might think I'll just get version 11, and that will cover me for whatever. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT. So what's the story? Keep reading.

ALL VERSIONS OF OUR SOFTWARE OFFER THE EXACT SAME FEATURES. That's right. Whether you use version 8.5, 10.9, of 11, you will have access to the same features. By the way, if you're looking for the FREE version, they are all capable of running the free, ad-supported version. So which one is right for you?

  • If you use Crystal Reports versions 8.5, 8, 7, 6, 5 or previous, you should use version 8.5 of our products.

  • If you use Crystal Reports version 9 or 10, you should use version 10.9 of our products.

  • And if you use Crystal Reports version 11, also known as XI, you should use version 11 of our products.



    • The Hows and Whys of Various Versions of Crystal Reports and our Report Runner Products

    Crystal Reports is a great report writer. It's only big flaw over the past few years is backward compatibility. It's understandable that an old version of Crystal Reports shouldn't be able to run a version 10 template, but version 10 should be able to run any previous version. For the most part, that's true, but if you run enough reports, you'll find some inconsistensies. (See one additional note about version 11/XI later). So what does that have to do with our Report Runner products?

    We use (legally) the Crystal Reports runtime engine to process your report templates. So if Crystal Reports is inconsistent, so will be our Report Runner products. So, to remedy that, we keep multiple versions of runtime engines available. As a user of our Report Runner products, as long as you have a current license with us, you can run ANY of our versions on your desktop. Your license with us covers all of our versions of the same Report Runner product.

    One other 'gotcha' related to version 11 of Crystal Reports and our Report Runner products. Starting with version 11, Crystal Reports 'tricked' things up a bit with parameters. When you are prompted with parameters, the screen is dynamically created in HTML, usually in a temp directory on your PC, including various button images. If you have tight security on your PC, and most are pretty well locked down these days, you will get errors on reports with parameters, because the prompt window is unable to 'generate' completely.

    So, one last caution. Unless you need version 11 of our products, we strongly recommend a previous version of our products. And your license allows you to use any version of our software. If you use v10.9 now, and you're current with licensing, if you decide to use v11 later, you can do that at no additional charge.

    If you have any questions, just let us know.