Exporting a Report to PDF

Question

Post Author: helfrich
CA Forum: Crystal Reports
I am re-writing a VB6 app to VB.NET 2005.  I have a viewer control that I use to display the reports in when I want to preview the report on the screen.  The VB6 app can also automatically export reports to PDF format silently (no user input or screen output).  I would like to do the same in VB.NET.  In the VB6 app, I simply set the viewer control's ExportOptions.PDFExportAllPages = True (I also set the DiskFileName FormatType, and DestinationType parameters).  I then display the form containing the viewer with the .Hide parameter.  This exports the report without displaying the report on the screen.  I have not been able to find any information that allows me to do the same thing in .NET with Crystal Reports XI.
I have tried creating a ReportDocument object, but when I execute .Export(), I get a "Missing parameter values" error - absolutely no other information.
For example:
Dim crExportOptions As New ExportOptions
Dim crDiskFileDestinationOptions As New DiskFileDestinationOptions()
Dim crFormatTypeOptions As New PdfRtfWordFormatOptions()
Dim crReport As New ReportDocument
crDiskFileDestinationOptions.DiskFileName = "C:\Test.PDF"
crExportOptions.ExportFormatOptions = crFormatTypeOptions
crExportOptions.ExportDestinationType = ExportDestiniationType.DiskFile
crExportOptions.ExportFormatType = ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat
crExportOptions.ExportDestinationOptions = crDiskFileDestinationOptions
crReport.Load("C:\Test.rpt")
crReport.Export(crExportOptions)
This is where the error occurs.
I also tried setting Viewer.Visible = False followed by Viewer.ExportReport().  The viewer does not display, but this prompts for the export filename.  The whole idea is for the export to be completely invisible to the user.
I don't care which solution I use:
1.  How can I get rid of the "Missing parameter values" error using the ReportDocument
or
2. Is there a way I can use .ExportReport(), but preset the export filename so there is not prompt?
TIA for any help anyone can offer.

Answer 1

Post Author: jennm
CA Forum: Crystal Reports
Here's a snippet of code from one of my recent projects that should offer some help.
        Dim crOrderPrintout As CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ReportDocument = New rptPublicOrder
  u2018clear the dataset, give it the appropriate parameters and fill the data adapter
        Me.dsReceiptDetails.Clear()
        Me.SqlSelectReceiptDetails.Parameters.Item("@ReceiptID").Value = sReceiptID
        Me.daReceiptDetails.Fill(Me.dsReceiptDetails)
        u2018set the data source and paper size for the report
        crOrderPrintout.SetDataSource(Me.dsReceiptDetails.Tables(0))
        crOrderPrintout.PrintOptions.PaperSize = CrystalDecisions.Shared.PaperSize.PaperLetter
  u2018These are the printing options, Printer, File or Viewer
        Select Case My.Settings.PrintType
            Case "Printer"
                crOrderPrintout.PrintToPrinter(1, False, 0, 0)
            Case "Viewer"
                Dim frmReportViewer As New frmReportViewer
                frmReportViewer.CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = crOrderPrintout
                frmReportViewer.ShowDialog()
            Case "File"
                crOrderPrintout.ExportToDisk(CrystalDecisions.Shared.ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat, "C:\test.pdf")
            Case Else
                crOrderPrintout.PrintToPrinter(1, False, 0, 0)
        End Select
  u2018close the report
        crOrderPrintout.Close()
The file option will print directly to a file without prompting the user.  As for the missing parameter values if I had to guess either it's the dataset missing a parameter or the report requires a value.  Example:
crOrderPrintout.SetParameterValue("ParamName", sParamValue)
HTH,
-Jen