Crystal Reports newer runtime broke old applications - crystal-reports

Question

I'm working on upgrading a legacy application for my company and for the sake of saving time, I opted to re-use the 20+ reports already done in some older Crystal Reports while using the latest Crystal Reports that support and integrates with Visual Studio 2015.
The new reports in the new system are working but once I deployed to the test server, all older application failed to report once CR runtime was upgraded.
Is this a known behaviour? I don't have sources/permission(s) to modify the CR references. With GAC, this was not supposed to be an issue anymore.
Does anyone have experience with having multiple versions of Crystal Reports running side-by-side?

Answer 1

I had to change reporting to SQL Server Reporting Services to overcome this issue and now, after the project delayed by 1.5 months, I'm very glad I did. We have completely stopped using Crystal Reports in future development and existing legacy applications are bound to old web servers with ancient CR runtimes.

Answer 2

You can build your new applications using a later build of Crystal Reports for VS and install the later version of run time on your computers, but the older applications that use a previous runtime need a .config file to make them work.
In the example below, you could have an application that uses 13.0.2000.0 but has run time 13.0.3500.0 installed on pc (that would be 13 service pack 25) and then make the file names the same as your application and put .config after the name.
For example, an application with executable CutomApplication.exe
CutomApplication.exe.Config (containing the text below)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<startup><supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/></startup>
<runtime>
<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportSource" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.Shared" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.Web" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ClientDoc" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.CommonControls" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.CommonObjectModel" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.Controllers" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.CubeDefModel" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.DataDefModel" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.DataSetConversion" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ObjectFactory" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.Prompting" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.ReportDefModel" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity name="CrystalDecisions.ReportAppServer.XmlSerialize" publicKeyToken="692fbea5521e1304" culture="neutral"/>
<bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-13.0.3500.0" newVersion="13.0.3500.0"/>
</dependentAssembly>
</assemblyBinding>
</runtime>
</configuration>