Problem with RDC / Delphi 5 ... don't know where to turn.

Question

I use Delphi 5 to write Webbroker (ISAPI) applications. I use Crystal Reports 8.5 to generate reports. I was using the Crystal Enterprise 8.0 Server to deliver the reports. Because of this, I have been stuck on Windows 2000 server and unable to move to more current versions of Windows Server. I thought that I could generate all my reports via RDC, save them in various output formats (depending on user input) and deliver them via a typical ISAPI Response.content . All this worked fine until I encountered a report with a  SubReport in it. It would not run and I have determined that most probably it is because the SubReport needs to be logged into the database (SQL Server) just like the main report.  The code below is pasted directly from my application. The environment is WinNT4 / SP6 Workstation for development. I know that is old, but the debugger for Delphi 5 is excellent whereas later versions just suck. These are Crystal 8.5. The registered DLLs are ... craxdrt.dll  (08/05/03), crtslv.dll (02/02/01), and ExportModeller.dll (07/16/01).
The specific problem is that the code crashes with an address exception at the line indicated below.
It appears that CReportObject is not being created properly (a guess on my part) by the call to iReportObject. I have seen this code used extensively all over the net, so it must work somewhere ... just not for me. Perhaps I dont have the very latest (yes I know they are old) DLL's as listed above. Does anyone have a clue as to why the error ???
Exception: EAccessViolation
Message: Access violation at address 65343430 in module 'oleaut32.dll'. Read of address 655EDE98
I cant upgrade to Crystal XI or 2008 because they wont run on WinNT4 which is my development environment and later versions of Delphi Webbroker suck when it comes to development environment on more current windows versions. Plus Delpi 5 Webroker modules cant be migrated forward to later versions of Delphi because they changed the whole structure. I am not a COM expert. If I cant get over this hump I will probably be forced to switch to Visual Studio and rewrite my application in .Net which I find to be very slow compared to ISAPI modules that talk directly with IIS and SQL Server with no intervening modules. That is NOT how I planned to spend next year. Any help will be very much appreciated.
CReportSections := CReport.Sections;
for x := 1 to CReportSections.count do begin
CReportSection := CReportSections.item[x];
            CReportObjects := CReportSection.ReportObjects;
            for i := 1 to CReportObjects.Count do begin
               CReportObject := iReportObject(CReportObjects.item<i>);
               if CReportObject.Kind = crSubreportObject then begin                    <<< ======= crash here.
                  SSubReportObject := ISubReportObject(CReportObject);
                  SReport := SSubReportObject.OpenSubreport;
                  STable  := SReport.Database.Tables[1];
                  wkstr := STable.Get_LogOnServerName;
                  if pos('ODBC', wkstr) > 0 then
                     STable.SetLogOnInfo(cLogOnODBC, cLogOnDB, cLogonUser, cLogonPW)
                  else  
                     STable.SetLogOnInfo(cLogOnOLEDB, cLogOnDB, cLogonUser, cLogonPW);
               end;
            end;
         end;
Edited by: DelMurray on Dec 10, 2009 4:17 PM
Edited by: DelMurray on Dec 10, 2009 4:19 PM

Answer 1

Oh boy. I suspect you will have no choice but to bite the bullet and go with the present day technology. I think staying so far back, is problematic, irrespective of everything else. Anyhow, there is an update for CR 8.5 here;
https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100011722112008E/cr85win_en_sp3.exe
Not sure if it will do anything for you.
More downloads are here:
https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/bc/bsp/spn/bobj_download/main.htm
Other than that, as a test, rather than iterating through the sections for the subreport, see if you can get at the subreport like this;
Set subrpt = Report.OpenSubreport("sub1")
I know the above is VB code, but it's all I have. If htis is a complex report with a number of subreports, test this with a new simple report with one simple subreport.
Also, remember that the name of the report is "nameofreport" if it was created in the main report. If it is imported from a path, the name will be "nameofreport.RTP";.
The code in your post is hard to read, but VB code would be as below if you need to iterate through the sections:
Dim Report As New CrystalReport1
Dim subReport As craxdr.report
Dim subReportObj As SubreportObject
Dim sect As Section
Dim rptObject As Object
For Each sect In Report.Sections
    For Each rptObject In sect.ReportObjects
        If rptObject.Kind = crSubreportObject Then
subReportObj = rptObject
BTW.; there is a limit of 1500 some odd chars in a post. After that the formatting gets lost. So, if that occurs again, just break up the post into two or more.
But if you click on the edit button the formatting is returned.
Ludek
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Edited by: Ludek Uher on Dec 10, 2009 11:56 AM
Edited by: Don Williams on Dec 10, 2009 2:15 PM