Crystal Reports - Search Dependencies - crystal-reports

Question

Is there a tool that will let you search a number of different crystal reports to see where a specific Table/View/SP is being used?
Scenario is this: We have over 200 reports, so when making a change to a View or Stored Procedure it is not easy to find which reports will be affected without opening each one and checking the "Database expert" or "Datasource location".
I have tried Agent Ransack on them and it doesn't pick any table or view names up.

Answer 1

I never found a tool to do this, so rolled my own in C# .Net 4.0.
If the crystal report uses a 'SQL Command' instead of dragging in tables, it becomes a bit tricky. I suggest only searching for the TableName rather than the fully qualified Database.dbo.TableName - since this may have been omitted in the pasted SQL Command.
usage:
var reports = CrystalExtensions.FindUsages("C:/Reports", "table_name");
code:
namespace Crystal.Helpers
{
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine;
using Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder;
public static class CrystalExtensions
{
public static List<string> FindUsages(string directory, string tableName)
{
var result = new List<string>();
foreach (var file in Directory.EnumerateFiles(directory, "*.rpt", SearchOption.AllDirectories))
{
using (var report = new ReportClass { FileName = file })
{
if (report.Database == null) continue;
var tables = report.Database.Tables.ToList();
var hasTable = tables.Any(x => x.Name == tableName || x.GetCommandText().Contains(tableName));
if (hasTable)
result.Add(file);
}
}
return result;
}
public static List<Table> ToList(this Tables tables)
{
var list = new List<Table>();
var enumerator = tables.GetEnumerator();
while (enumerator.MoveNext())
list.Add((Table)enumerator.Current);
return list;
}
public static string GetCommandText(this Table table)
{
var propertyInfo = table.GetType().GetProperty("RasTable", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
try
{
return ((dynamic)propertyInfo.GetValue(table, propertyInfo.GetIndexParameters())).CommandText;
}
catch (RuntimeBinderException)
{
return ""; // for simplicity of code above, really should return null
}
}
}
}
Hope that helps!

Answer 2

See the question here:
Any way to search inside a Crystal Report
Another option is to roll-your-own piece of software to do it, but that might be more time consuming than you're looking for. Or, find someone who already has done this :) If you find something that works, let the rest of us know because we're all in the same boat. Good luck!