best way deploying standalone installer for crystal report?

Question

Because a crystal report requires crystal reports to execute, I need to find a way to deploy the report on a user's desktop as a standalone app. After some searching around, it seems the best way is to embed the report using VB or C#.

Priorities here are getting the thing programmed fast and easy obviously. I've been told this can be done quite easily with VB however my experience with VB is somewhat limited. IT looks like I have to use Visual Studio to do this but it looks like VB developer may be enough.

Can someone suggest a tutorial or the best way to approach this?

Answer 1

Here's a nice tutorial with screenshots and a lot of explanation.

http://msdotnetsupport.blogspot.com/2006/09/step-by-step-tutorial-for-creating.html

And an even simpler one.

http://www.vbdotnetheaven.com/UploadFile/mahesh/ReportViewerControl09062007051533AM/ReportViewerControl.aspx

Basically, you need to do a simple applicaiton with a ReportViewer control. That's it.

And even easier, just use an already existing report viewer:

http://reportviewer.biz/

http://download.cnet.com/Report-Viewer-for-Crystal-Reports/3000-2065_4-10758218.html

Answer 2

You could use a viewer.

This is a related post on my blog about them.

http://www.made2mentor.com/2008/11/quality-reporting-on-a-budget/

Hope that helps.