SAP Crystal Reports: Step by Step Guide - Upgrade from Viewer
Upgrade from SAP Crystal Reports Viewer to full SAP Crystal Reports for enhanced report design and data analysis. Utilize SAP Crystal Server for scalable, web-based report distribution, real-time data access, and automated scheduling. Ideal for organizations needing flexible, high-volume reporting solutions. Download the DocumentPUBLIC
Step-by-Step Guide:
Upgrade from Viewer
With SAP Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Solutions
SAP Crystal Reports and SAP Crystal Server
Step-by-Step Guide:
Upgrade from Viewer
With SAP Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Solutions
SAP Crystal Reports and SAP Crystal Server
© 2025 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to this material. 2 / 5
1 Preamble
Upgrade from SAP Crystal Reports Viewer, SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio or SAP Crystal Reports for
Eclipse to Crystal Reports There are many ways to use and share reports designed with Crystal Reports. For
years, Crystal Reports has been the de-facto standard in integrated reporting for both Windows- and web-
based custom applications with custom reports appearing in thousands and thousands of programs
designed with Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse for Java. And, the free Crystal Reports Viewer has been
used by many organizations to distribute already-designed reports to end users.
However, when your viewing audience wants to start modifying or designing their own reports or when you
want to move beyond the limitations of the Visual Studio or Eclipse integrated report designer, it’s time to
upgrade to the full version of SAP Crystal Reports.
2 Flexibility with a Standalone Report Designer
One of the many pioneering features of early versions of Crystal Reports was integration with programming
languages. Thousands of Microsoft Windows programs and custom web applications designed by
programmers around the world include embedded Crystal Reports.
While there has been an evolution of approaches to integration of approaches to adding Crystal Reports to
custom projects, embedding a report designer within a coding development environment is the most current
approach. While this solution is free within the limitations of current licensing requirements, it presents
challenges to a wider reporting audience.
Crystal Reports embedded in a development environment is primarily designed for custom programmers,
not report designers:
• You must have a copy of a programming toolset, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.
• Coding and application development is the tool’s primary purpose, with integrated report design only
available as an add-on.
• Distributing a finished report is generally only accomplished when the final custom program is distributed.
1 Preamble
Upgrade from SAP Crystal Reports Viewer, SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio or SAP Crystal Reports for
Eclipse to Crystal Reports There are many ways to use and share reports designed with Crystal Reports. For
years, Crystal Reports has been the de-facto standard in integrated reporting for both Windows- and web-
based custom applications with custom reports appearing in thousands and thousands of programs
designed with Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse for Java. And, the free Crystal Reports Viewer has been
used by many organizations to distribute already-designed reports to end users.
However, when your viewing audience wants to start modifying or designing their own reports or when you
want to move beyond the limitations of the Visual Studio or Eclipse integrated report designer, it’s time to
upgrade to the full version of SAP Crystal Reports.
2 Flexibility with a Standalone Report Designer
One of the many pioneering features of early versions of Crystal Reports was integration with programming
languages. Thousands of Microsoft Windows programs and custom web applications designed by
programmers around the world include embedded Crystal Reports.
While there has been an evolution of approaches to integration of approaches to adding Crystal Reports to
custom projects, embedding a report designer within a coding development environment is the most current
approach. While this solution is free within the limitations of current licensing requirements, it presents
challenges to a wider reporting audience.
Crystal Reports embedded in a development environment is primarily designed for custom programmers,
not report designers:
• You must have a copy of a programming toolset, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.
• Coding and application development is the tool’s primary purpose, with integrated report design only
available as an add-on.
• Distributing a finished report is generally only accomplished when the final custom program is distributed.
© 2025 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to this material. 3 / 5
A full copy of SAP Crystal Reports is the best solution for report consumers who find they need to modify or
design reports and are not coders:
• The sole purpose is report design – there are no extraneous screens, dialog boxes, or menus that aren’t
directly related to analyzing and presenting data.
• The user interface is fully dedicated to report design and data analysis. You may resize and reorient the
report designer within your overall desktop organization more efficiently than with an integrated report
designer.
• Finished reports can still be imported into development environments for inclusion in custom applications.
And, there are additional benefits to using standalone SAP Crystal Reports, beyond features in the
embedded developer versions:
• Editable preview window
• Autosave
• Custom Templates
• Freehand SQL command object to optimize relational queries
• Save export options within the report
• Greater language support
3 The Next Level: SAP Crystal Server
Once you’ve designed a report, you very probably will want to share it with others in your organization. They
may wish to make modifications to it themselves, or they may prefer to just view report results. In most cases,
your audience will probably wish to update the report in real time with the most current data. Custom
applications designed with Visual Studio or Eclipse provide a custom integrated report to end-viewers.
However, especially in web environments, these are low-volume solutions (Visual Studio web applications
are limited to three threads per processor with Eclipse applications limited to five).
If you’ve used the free Crystal Reports Viewer to distribute finished Crystal Reports, you’ve probably
discovered the inherent disadvantages that the solution presents. You must install a full client product on
A full copy of SAP Crystal Reports is the best solution for report consumers who find they need to modify or
design reports and are not coders:
• The sole purpose is report design – there are no extraneous screens, dialog boxes, or menus that aren’t
directly related to analyzing and presenting data.
• The user interface is fully dedicated to report design and data analysis. You may resize and reorient the
report designer within your overall desktop organization more efficiently than with an integrated report
designer.
• Finished reports can still be imported into development environments for inclusion in custom applications.
And, there are additional benefits to using standalone SAP Crystal Reports, beyond features in the
embedded developer versions:
• Editable preview window
• Autosave
• Custom Templates
• Freehand SQL command object to optimize relational queries
• Save export options within the report
• Greater language support
3 The Next Level: SAP Crystal Server
Once you’ve designed a report, you very probably will want to share it with others in your organization. They
may wish to make modifications to it themselves, or they may prefer to just view report results. In most cases,
your audience will probably wish to update the report in real time with the most current data. Custom
applications designed with Visual Studio or Eclipse provide a custom integrated report to end-viewers.
However, especially in web environments, these are low-volume solutions (Visual Studio web applications
are limited to three threads per processor with Eclipse applications limited to five).
If you’ve used the free Crystal Reports Viewer to distribute finished Crystal Reports, you’ve probably
discovered the inherent disadvantages that the solution presents. You must install a full client product on
© 2025 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to this material. 4 / 5
each viewer’s personal computer. Web browsers aren’t used to view reports. And, reports can only be sent
with saved data. Viewers cannot update reports with currently available information as of right now.
After you begin to use standalone Crystal Reports, consider SAP Crystal Server for a high-volume, scalable
report distribution tool. Its web-based design eliminates the need for management of full client applications
on individual computers. As such, it is entirely platform-independent and also interfaces with SAP’s mobile
platform for report consumption using tablets and smartphones.
SAP Crystal Server is designed for flexible, scalable licensing based on your organization’s needs. With both
named and concurrent licensing options available at varying levels, you may start with a smaller license
complement and add capacity as your needs expand. And, SAP Crystal Server includes a set of custom SDK
and API options if you wish to continue to create custom web-based applications that embed pixel-perfect
reporting. SAP Crystal Server technical support is available from SAP or third-party consulting organizations.
Next-version upgrades are available at no cost while under software maintenance.
Perhaps most importantly, SAP Crystal Server provides a combination of real time, right-now access to data
and automatic scheduling and distribution. Depending on organization needs, specific viewers may be
granted permissions to view reports in real time, connecting at the moment to any corporate data source.
Other viewers may benefit from interactive drill down and navigation of reports that were run during off hours
to conserve database resources. And, additional viewers may prefer to receive e-mail attachments of pixel-
perfect reports on a regular automatic schedule.
each viewer’s personal computer. Web browsers aren’t used to view reports. And, reports can only be sent
with saved data. Viewers cannot update reports with currently available information as of right now.
After you begin to use standalone Crystal Reports, consider SAP Crystal Server for a high-volume, scalable
report distribution tool. Its web-based design eliminates the need for management of full client applications
on individual computers. As such, it is entirely platform-independent and also interfaces with SAP’s mobile
platform for report consumption using tablets and smartphones.
SAP Crystal Server is designed for flexible, scalable licensing based on your organization’s needs. With both
named and concurrent licensing options available at varying levels, you may start with a smaller license
complement and add capacity as your needs expand. And, SAP Crystal Server includes a set of custom SDK
and API options if you wish to continue to create custom web-based applications that embed pixel-perfect
reporting. SAP Crystal Server technical support is available from SAP or third-party consulting organizations.
Next-version upgrades are available at no cost while under software maintenance.
Perhaps most importantly, SAP Crystal Server provides a combination of real time, right-now access to data
and automatic scheduling and distribution. Depending on organization needs, specific viewers may be
granted permissions to view reports in real time, connecting at the moment to any corporate data source.
Other viewers may benefit from interactive drill down and navigation of reports that were run during off hours
to conserve database resources. And, additional viewers may prefer to receive e-mail attachments of pixel-
perfect reports on a regular automatic schedule.
© 2025 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. See Legal Notice on www.sap.com/legal-notice for use terms, disclaimers, disclosures, or restrictions related to this material. 5 / 5
You will find more information related to SAP Crystal Reports and SAP Crystal Server
here: https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/crystal-reports
You will find more information related to SAP Crystal Reports and SAP Crystal Server
here: https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/crystal-reports