Crystal Reports for Eclipse vs. Crystal Reports Developer

Question

We are developing a Java web application for internal use.  Since we have some people at the company who are familiar with Crystal Reports, we'd like to have them write reports that we can display through our application.  Crystal Reports Server seems like overkill for this project, but the <a href="http://devlibrary.businessobjects.com/BusinessObjectsXIR2/en/devsuite.htm#en/JRC_SDK/">JRC</a> sounded like a good fit.
I have been evaluating <a href="http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/developer/default.asp">Crystal Reports Developer</a> and trying out the <a href="http://support.businessobjects.com/communityCS/FilesAndUpdates/crxi_r2_jrc_web_samples.zip.asp">JRC samples</a>.  The samples don't use the tag library.  Instead, they show how to set session variables and redirect to a viewer JSP which contains a bunch of Java code to use the CrystalReportViewer.
The samples are so much more complex than the code created by Crystal Reports for Eclipse, which simply uses the tag library:
<%@ taglib uri="/crystal-tags-reportviewer.tld" prefix="crviewer" %>
<crviewer:viewer reportSourceType="reportingComponent" viewerName="myreport-viewer" reportSourceVar="myreport" isOwnPage="true">
<crviewer:report reportName="myreport.rpt" />
</crviewer:viewer>
I assume that I should be able to use the same tag library approach without using Crystal Reports for Eclipse, but I haven't seen any tutorials on it.  I'm trying to understand whether I should purchase Crystal Reports for Eclipse instead of Crystal Reports Developer.
This is the difference, as I understand it:
Crystal Reports Developer gives you the stand-alone Crystal Reports Designer and the right to run the JRC on an internal server.  It costs <a href="http://store.businessobjects.com/store/bobjects/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.40434600">$595</a>.
Crystal Reports for Eclipse Standard provides a free report designer built into Eclipse.  It also includes the JRC for use on an internal server.
Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional provides "a more powerful runtime engine" with the right to run it on one internal server.  It costs <a href="http://store.businessobjects.com/store/bobjects/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.52068100">$495</a>.  Is this the same JRC provided with Crystal Reports Developer?
If the "powerful" JRC is the same as Crystal Reports Developer's JRC, could I install Crystal Reports for Eclipse Standard to take advantage of the Eclipse integration and the built-in designer, but use the more powerful JRC from Crystal Reports Developer, which would also give me the stand-alone designer?

Answer 1

<p>Hi there,</p><p>     If you are planning on deploying a JRC application then you should definitely be using Crystal Reports for Eclipse for your runtime engine. It is the latest version of the JRC and includes many updates not available in Crystal Reports Developer.</p><p>As for "power" the JRC included in CR Developer is on par with the JRC available in the Basic edition of Crystal Reports for Eclipse. The Professional edition of Crystal Reports for Eclipse provides the most powerful version of the JRC available.</p><p>With the release of Crystal Reports for Eclipse, Business Objects is setting the groundwork for separating Developer needs from the Report Author needs.</p><p>A professional report author will require a professional report design tool. For these users we are recommending that they purchase Crystal Reports Professional.</p><p>The developer, on the other hand, generally needs the SDKs and a toolkit to assist with building applications. We believe that these should be available at no cost to the developer, only charging when the application is deployed (in this case a CR4E Pro license). This is different from the current model with Crystal Reports Developer where we have combined a professional report designer plus the required runtime.</p><p>So, to summarize, definitely use Crystal Reports for Eclipse for your application runtime and have your report authors puchase Crystal Reports Professional. If you need a more powerful engine, access to technical support or plan to deploy on multiple servers then I would recommend purchasing the Crystal Reports for Eclipse Professional license for your development purposes.</p><p>As for some tutorials on creating viewer pages, the integration in Eclipse provides a very simple way of accomplishing this. I would suggest reading the section titled "<strong>Creating a New Viewer Page</strong>" in our Getting Started Guide found at the following URL:</p><p><a href="/node/320"><strong> http://diamond.businessobjects.com/node/320</strong></a></p><p>Let me know if you have some follow-up questions. </p><p>Regards,<br />Sean Johnson (CR4E Product Manager) <br /><strong><br /><a href="http://www.eclipseplugincentral.com/Web_Links-index-req-ratelink-lid-639.html">Rate this plugin @ Eclipse Plugin Central</a></strong>           </p>