Load time issue for the Crystal Reports

Question

Hello All
My reports take painstakingly longer time to load and display due to the number of records it has to display (~10000 records)
Currently i use the loop approach to provide the logon info for all the reports/subreports. This is the place where i presume it is taking time.
                 crTables = crReportDocument.Database.Tables
                ' Loop through each table in the report
                For Each crTable In crTables
                    crLogOnInfo = crTable.LogOnInfo
                    ' Set the connection information for the table in the report.
                    crLogOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.ServerName = DB_SERVER_NAME
                    crLogOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.DatabaseName = DB_NAME
                    crLogOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.UserID = DB_USER
                    crLogOnInfo.ConnectionInfo.Password = DB_PASSWORD
                    Log("set login info to main table " & crTable.Name & " location " & crTable.Location)
                    crTable.ApplyLogOnInfo(crLogOnInfo)
                Next
Can i use the following approach instead to provide the same functionality to avoid such nasty loops??
crReportDocument.DataSourceConnections[0].SetConnection(DB_SERVER_NAME, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD);
crReportDocument.Refresh();
Thanks in advance
Srivatsa
Edited by: Srivatsa Haridas on Nov 10, 2008 11:02 AM

Answer 1

You need the "loop part" - at least I'd be way more comfortable if you use it. From my experience, you have a more robust app when you loop through the tables.
reason I asked about subreports; if a subreport is inthe detail section and you have a 1000 records in the detail, and the subreport runs per record, you are essentially running 1000 + 1 reports. Obviously this will take a significant amount of time. As it is even 10 to 15 subreports is quite significant as you are running the subreports plus the main report... Possibly the best way for you to compare the speed is not run the report in a CR designer.(e.g.; what I am asking is; OK, the report is slow. Compared to what?) As you are using CR 10.2, I'd recommend downloading an eval of either CR XI r2 or CR 2008 and see how the reports perform there. If the performance in the designer is slow, it will not get any faster at runtime.
The evals can be downloaded from here:
http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalreports/eval.asp
Also will the below line work for my subreports too ?
crReportDocument.DataSourceConnections(0).SetConnection(DB_SERVER_NAME, DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD)
- it will, as long as the subreports are using the same connection type as your main report. However I really would not get hung up on loop v.s. no loop. As a matter of fact, this subreport database logon uses loop s as well and it is the recommended way of connecting the subreports:
'Log on subreport
crSubreportDocument = crReportDocument.OpenSubreport("Ron")
crConnectionInfo = New ConnectionInfo
With crConnectionInfo
.ServerName = "Rcon1"
.DatabaseName = "Northwind"
.UserID = "tech"
.Password = "tech"
End With
crDatabase = crSubreportDocument.Database
crTables = crDatabase.Tables
For Each crTable In crTables
crTableLogOnInfo = crTable.LogOnInfo
crTableLogOnInfo.ConnectionInfo = crConnectionInfo
crTable.ApplyLogOnInfo(crTableLogOnInfo)
Next
Ludek
Regards