Moving from Crystal Reports for Enterprise to Crystal Reports

1. Save your CR4E report to a local folder, then open it in CR2020 designer.
   • Following dialog would pop up in CR2020, click “OK”.
2. Set Datasource Location: In CR2020 “Database” menu, click “Set Datasource Location…”.
   • Under “Replace with” section, make a CR2020 connection to the same data source.
   • Select table names (“efashion” and “efashion_query” in below example), then click “Update”.
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   • Repeat step 2 if your report contains multiple connections.
3. Field mapping (only if needed): e.g. table / field names and availability differ in CR and CR4E.
   • Note: if certain field has no alternative and can’t be mapped, they will have to be removed from your report.
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4. Validation: You should be able to refresh and validate your report in CR2020 Designer, and then verify in BOE.
   • Normally formatting, formulas and summaries will be retained in CR2020, adjust the report only if necessary.
   • Tag Cloud / Box Plot / Tree Map / Waterfall charts are not supported in CR2020, switch to other CR2020 supported chart types.
5. Correct issues found during validation (if any).
6. Production usage.

In short, customers can start moving their CR4E reports, if corresponding connectivity is available in CR2020.

If your CR4E report is built on relational Unx

(e.g., Unx Universe on ODBC/JDBC connection)

With 4.3 SP04 (Dec 2023) or newer versions, you can start migrating CR4E reports on relational Unx to CR2020.

Beside the general steps above, below are additional things to keep an eye on during migration.

1. In step 2 above, to make a connection to relational Unx in CR2020, use the new driver named “Universe (Unx)“
2. As part of step 2, query panel pops up after selecting an universe. User have to manually recreate the Unx query.
   • User could make a copy of same report and open it in CR4E Designer side by side, so that he/she can compare and recreate Unx query easily.
   • Before closing CR2020 query panel (QP), make sure the recreated query in CR2020 is exactly the same as the query in CR4E (E.g. compare generated SQL). If there’s missing field, it will be removed from your migrated report later on.

For CR2020 relational Unx connectivity (SP04+) usage tips and known issues, see SAP Note 3371775 (to be released in Dec 2023).

Crystal Reports 2020 Unx Query Panel

Avoid using CR2020 “Universe” driver (for unv universe), that driver will be removed in BI 2025. See also https://blogs.sap.com/2023/01/12/unv-is-dead-long-live-unx/

• BW field names differ a lot between CR4E (BICS) and CR2020 (crdb_bwmdx), field mapping is difficult.
• BW parameter & Hierarchical data handling in CR4E (BICS) and CR2020 (crdb_bwmdx) are different.

CR2020 BICS connectivity to BW is currently planned in 4.3 SP05.

(Recommended) Customers could wait for CR2020 supports BICS connectivity to BW, with that the migration for corresponding reports will be simpler.

If your CR4E reports is built on relational connections

(e.g., ODBC/JDBC connection created in Information Design Tool – IDT, then published to BOE)

With current versions (e.g. 4.3 SP03), above general migration steps can already be used to migrate CR4E reports on (IDT) relational connections.

Currently the IDT relational connection will be replaced with a “crdb” connection in CR2020, e.g. crdb_odbc.

In a future release, if CR2020 directly supports IDT relational connections (time TBD), that could also simplify migration steps for corresponding reports.

Customers can choose to migrate now (with the general steps above), or choose to wait for CR2020 directly support IDT relational connections.