Using CrystalReport Viewer in JSP

Question

[Reposting this as earlier post did not seem to make it]
We have been looking into the option of using the Crystal Viewer in JSP. Presently we generate the report on user request and store the report in the Database as a Blob using  the following:
ReportClientDocument doc = new ReportClientDocument();
doc.open(name, 0);
We use POJOs to fill the data (we use the doc.getDatabaseController().setDataSource() to do this).
The filled ReportClientDocument is then converted into a BLOB as:
ByteArrayInputStream byteArrayInputStream = (ByteArrayInputStream) doc
                        .getPrintOutputController().export(ReportExportFormat.PDF);
int size = byteArrayInputStream.available();
byte filledReportInBytes[] = new byte[size];
byteArrayInputStream.read(filledReportInBytes, 0, size);
Blob filledReport = new SerialBlob(filledReportInBytes);
This filled report is then stored in the DB. Later when the user wants to view the report in PDF for e.g. we retrieve the PDF BLOB, convert it into a byte stream and pass it to the JSP and the user can then view the PDF.
We want to support multiple view formats e.g. PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV etc. and looking at the Crystal Viewer it looks like this should be possible.
Couple of questions we have are:
1. Is it possible to export a ReportClientDocument into the ReportExportFormat.crystalFormat format, store into DB as a BLOB, later retrieve the BLOB, convert into a byte stream, and then put it into a format that can be sent to the Viewer?
From what we can see the CystalReportViewer has the setDataSource(IReportSource) method which requires a IReportSource and we are not sure how to get the dataSource successfully. It should be possible if there is a way to recreate the ReportClientDocument from the BLOB that we stored in the DB.
2. Is this CrystalReportViewer free as part of CR4J - i.e. no distribution costs as well?
Has anyone come across this kind of requirement? If so, how is the viewer used successfully? If not, any ideas how this can be done?

Answer 1

Hi Antony,
do you use the "forward()" method or the "redirect()" method???
rgds
Howy