Crystal Report XI

Crystal Report XI or 11 by Business Object is a very good solution for quick ad-hoc report.  If you are in a crunch for timely report, this is the program to get.  The cost of the product is worth it's weight in gold.  I've been using it for many years now and have seen it grow from version to version.  One notable feature with version XI is the ability to reference images and not have to embed it in to the report itself as an object.  This is especially good for report that may have dynamic images on a page, like an order form that may include images of the product.  Trying to embed all the images into it at once would be unheard of.  The size of the report would grow so big and not to mention maintaining it.

You can easily reference:

1. Put an image object on to the worksheet.
2. Click Property
3. Select Picture Tab
4. And click on formula for Graphic Location
5. Once in there, you can enter any graphic location you want.  It can be an URL, UNC directory, Physical Drive location.

The graphic setting location works fine when running from my desktop, but when deploying the report to a website, well that a whole different story. What I used was URL location as a reference for the image, but that will not work. I am not sure why, but I am not going to try to figure it out, but somehow the image will not show up when the report runs from the website.  The only way for me to get it to work is to use UNC or Physical Address(ie. C:/).  A little tip, if you are trying using the .net and trying to pass the parameter for UNC or Physical Address, you need to put an extra "\" on to the "\".  Example: UNC "\\ComputerName\Directory\Image.jpg" when sending parameter to Crystal Report XI, you would form it as "\\\\ComputerName\\Directory\\Image.jpg.