Question

Our project currently uses Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2008. We need to upgrade to XI R2, but I’m having problems doing so. Here are the steps I followed:

1. Install Crystal Reports XI R2.
2. Collect updated assemblies from the GAC. I did this because I couldn’t find version XI libraries in the “Add References…” dialog. I verified that these assemblies were of version 11.5.*. The libraries I gathered were:
   • CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine
   • CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.Framework
   • CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.InfoStore
   • CrystalDecisions.ReportSource
   • CrystalDecisions.Shared
   • CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms
3. Replace all references in my projects to version 10.5 Crystal libraries with references to the newer assemblies.

Everything builds fine, but when I try to instantiate a ReportDocument, I get this error:

The type initializer for 'CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ReportDocument' threw an exception.

Is there anything I’m missing? Will this just not work?

Answer 1

If I understand your question, you can’t upgrade to CR XI R2 and use it with VS 2008. The highest supported version for XI R2 is VS 2005. I think you will have to upgrade the CR product to CR 2008.