One-click deployment of Crystal Reports 13 for restricted users?

Question

Update VS2003 1.1 window forms for VS2010 with a click once, we also had to update the version of crystal reports used in the application.

Everything works fine if the user has a local administrator. Unfortunately, most of our users are extremely locked and cannot install anything. This creates a problem for installing CR13 binaries. In the click settings, once I checked all the CrystalDecisions files. * Dlls as Include / Required, but they are not published in the deployment folder and, therefore, are not copied to users' computers with other third-party libraries. This means that the application starts normally, but as soon as the user tries to run the report, he receives the following error:

************** Exception Text ************** System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms, Version=13.0.2000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. File name: 'CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms, Version=13.0.2000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304' 

Even if it is marked as Include / Required, this file does not expand. I really do not want to chase every user and install him manually (we do not have the ability to do group push). There are four Crystal dlls that we use:

• CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine
• CrystalDecisions.ReportSource
• CrystalDecisions.Shared
• CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms

Of these, only the engine is actually deployed! Does anyone know why one doesn’t deploy others (for example, Windows Forms dll) and how can I convince it?

thanks!

edit: tried to remove existing links to Crystal dlls (pointing to the Crystal installation under "C: \ Program Files \ SAP BusinessObjects \ Crystal Reports for.NET Framework 4.0 \ Common \ SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0 \ win32_x86 \ dotnet" by copying them to project and adding them through the tab "view", but they still have not been deployed :( Almost the same as their flag is set, to say that they should not be deployed, so the visual studio just ignores them ??

Answer 1

I run a large ClickOnce project, which also uses the Crystal Reports engine to create PDF documents.

I believe that what you are trying to do is technically related to the Crystal Reports terms of service. Instead, you must establish that users install the latest Crystal Reports runtime as a prerequisite. Yes, I understand that this is a HUGE inconvenience, but this is the only solution to this problem.

Did you try to set the CR runtime using the ClickOnce precondition, or did you try to associate the installer with your application? You will want to use the latest ClickOnce installation package, which is available on this page , from the SAP website. I could be wrong, but I think that your users can set the runtime without administrator privileges if you install it using the ClickOnce unattended installation for prereqs.

From my experience, if you are deploying a reliable application that must have several prerequisites installed in the user application, someone with administrator privileges should set your prerequisites. This is not always a requirement, but it can save a lot of headaches in the future.