Crystal Reports "Report Application Server"

Question

Does anyone have any experience with Crystal Reports' Report Application Server (RAS)?
The provided documentation is very thin and support are taking an age to respond.
I want to use a Bean as a data source for a report. The blurb says you can do this, but the only documented way I can find is for the bean to return a ResultSet, completely missing the point of using a bean or EJB in the first place.
Now, Seagate's sales blurb states that Beans and EJBs can be used as data sources, but if the only way to do this is to return a common or garden ResultSet, what's the point of the bean???
So, has anyone sucessfully used a bean or EJB as a data source for report generation under RAS, or merely CR in general, without resorting to a ResultSet??

Answer 1

Crystal Reports YUK!! especially in Java Forum!Tell me about it!!
But, like many developers, I don't get a choice. I have to use CR, and I have to integrate it into a Tomcat (4.1.24) based app. There is a Java API for RAS, but it is a pile of dung. Can you imagine publishing an API with public methods with 'do not use, for internal use only' plastered all over them!!!
But still, back to the original question, I have to find a way of doing this, but Seagate's javadocs are a mess, as are the howto docs. All of the examples, as you might expect, are childishly simple and don't give any insight into the large and hideous API :(
Here is an example of a CR howto.....
There appear to be two ways of creating a data source that isn't an existing report or a database query. This
Runtime data sources
One of the strengths of RAS over the Crystal Reports application, is that the RAS
can use data generated programatically at runtime. With a runtime data source,
you can take data from any source�such as a database, a data stream, or a flat
file�manipulate it with the programming language of your choice, and display it
with RAS.
To use a runtime data source
1 Put your manipulated data in a rowset form that can be processed by the RAS.
Consult the Rowset object and interface in the SDK JavaDocs, for details on
creating rowsets.
2 Create and fill the Dataset object with the rowset data.
3 Create a RowsetController object.
4 Add or set the data source using the RowsetController�s AddDataSource or
SetDataSource methods respectively.
The runtime data source is now available for use.
Note: If you create a report based on a data set, the data that is used is not saved
with the report. To populate the report with data the next time you open it, you
must either re-apply the data source to see current data, or access a saved version
of the data source for preview.
All well and good, but RowsetController doesn't have an AddDataSource or SetDataSource method!!!!
and this......
JavaBean custom data sources
You can use a JavaBean (or a Java class that does not extend the bean type) in order
to specify a custom data source. In order to do this, you will need to:
� Creating a Java class that specifies a custom data source
� Referencing a java class to provide data for a report
Creating a Java class that specifies a custom data source
To use a JavaBean (or a Java class that does not extend the bean type) in order to
specify a custom data source, you will need to create a class that serves as a Java
Beans Connectivity data source for creating Crystal Reports.
This class will need to conforms to the JavaBean standard by defining private
properties that are accessible only through get and set methods. In this way the
Crystal Reports designer can introspect the class as a Bean. The JavaBean
connectivity classes require the following.
� The constructor must have zero parameters.
� Methods that are used as "tables" must have a return type of ResultSet.
� Statement objects must be created using the
ResultSet.TYPE_SCROLL_SENSITIVE and ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY
arguments.
Note: Methods returning ResultSet can take arguments, these are treated as
Stored Procedure parameters by Crystal Reports.
Now, what the hell is the point of going to the trouble of abstracting your business data into a bean or EJB, if that bean has to return a ResultSet for Crystal Reports to use??!!