The user interface provided by the Report Designer Component at design time does not appear in your application at runtime, or when it is compiled into an executable file. Instead, the Report Designer Component is accessed directly by your Visual Basic code. New for version 8.5 is the Embeddable Crystal Reports Designer Control. This allows you to provide your users with the ability to design or edit Crystal Reports within your application using the same interface as the design time control. However reports can be opened and saved only in the Crystal Report format (.rpt) and not in the ActiveX Designer format (.dsr) of the design time control.
The Report Designer object model provides a complete object hierarchy for direct manipulation in Visual Basic. The object model can be accessed through both the RDC runtime engine and the RDC design and runtime engine. See CR Automation Server for more information.
The Active Data Driver is also available at runtime, through the Report object of the Report Designer Component object model, and can be assigned a new set of data based on user interaction with your application. You design a Recordset or Resultset object in Visual Basic using the DAO, RDO, or ADO object model, and pass it to the report.
Finally, the Report Viewer takes center stage at runtime, connecting to the Report Designer Component and displaying the embedded report. With careful design and placement on the Form, the Report Viewer appears as a window inside your application.
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