How to develop a report in Crystal with flexible database name?

Question

Hello
I am a Project Manager of a project of developing reports in Crystal 11.
The idea is to develop reports on top of the content in MS SQL tables.
The initial testing and demonstration to the customer is done within the Crystal development environment.
In a later stage, we need to integrate the reports with C# WPF application, using Crystal control.
We currently use ODBC connections.
We want the flexibility to set the actual database dynamically, by using the "default database" of the ODBC connection (or any other way). In other words, we want not just the flexibility to change the database server, but work with different database names, like "ProductDB_TEST", "ProductDB_PROD" etc. - without changing the report.
Unfortunately, we got the answer from the developer that the database name should be pre-defined for a given report. Although the connection can be set to another server, the DB name cannot be set dynamically.
Looking into the "Database" -> "Show SQL Query" menu, we see the following piece inside the query:
INNER JOIN "DATABASE_NAME"."dbo"."IncidentTypeSnapshotData"
So it looks like the query itself contains the DB name.
Is it really a limitation of Crystal, or rather the developer working on the project doesn't know the trick?
Thanks for any hint
Max

Answer 1

CR CR 2011 / "Crystal reports For Visual Studio 2010", you are correct.
Re. the database thinggy. You can connect to a database via ODBC, OLE DB or in some instances natively. Once a report is created you an change the datasource. A good sample app on how to do this is  csharp_win_dbengine / vb_win_dbengine. A link to the samples is here:
Crystal Reports for .NET SDK Samples - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki
More info on connecting to dbs and changing them is in the developer help files:
SAP Crystal Reports .NET SDK Developer Guide
SAP Crystal Reports .NET API Guide
More info on CR APIs for .NET (applies to all versions of CR and VS):
Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2005 Walkthro... | SCN
You can also use ADO .NET Datasets and in this way you handle the database connections in your app. A good sample is csharp_win_adodotnet (also available in VB) - same link as above.
More info on datasets:
Crystal Reports Guide To ADO.NET
Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET - Walkthrough - Reporting Off ADO.NET Datasets
For more complicated operations (e.g.; changing a report from ODBC to OLE DB, changing one table, etc., you will want to use the InProc RAS SDK that is also available in CRVS. Developer help files are here:
Report Application Server .NET SDK Developer Guide
Report Application Server .NET API Guide
Sample apps are here:
NET RAS SDK Samples - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki
and here:
Crystal Reports .NET In Process RAS (Unmanaged) SDK Sample Applications
More info on RAS SDK:
How to Use The RAS SDK .NET With In-Process RAS Server
Lastly, do use the search box in the top right corner. I find simple search strings such as 'crystal net parameter' return best results (KBAs, Blogs, docs, wikis, discussions and more).
- Ludek