Navigation for dotNetTips.com - March, 2008

If you are a student at a university, you can get a free copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional and other Microsoft software. Got to this link: https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Products/Visual_Studio_2008.aspx

The ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview is a preview of new features being added to ASP.NET 3.5 and ADO.NET.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A9C6BC06-B894-4B11-8300-35BD2F8FC908&displaylang=en

I found out the hard way in the last two days that an SQL Server CE database does not work properly when creating a typed Dataset with a ASP.NET 3.5 application. Sure, you can create one in the IDE, but the code-on-the-fly will not be generated therefor you can't use it in your code. Actually causes an error if you try to build.

Rec'd an confirmation from Microsoft today that they did not implement this for ASP.NET. Just wanted to warn you so you don't waste an hour plus like I did. If you still want to use SQL Server CE and typed DataSets in ASP.NET you will need to create a separate assembly (which should be done anyway). Oh, won't work with LINQ either.

I needed to update a program and when I brought it up in VS 2008, it changed the version of Crystal Reports to 10.5.3700. This presented a challenge to get the required Crystal files onto the production server. Of course using the VS web publish feature does not do this even though I wish it did. So I went to the Business Objects site (makers of Crystal Reports) to search for an install. I first download the version for 2008... made sense to me, but it actually turned out to be version 12.

Then I tried the download for CrystalReports 2008 ClickOnce Package for Visual Studio 2005 since it said it was version 10. Unfortuneatly it did not say what minor version it was. This turned into a headache because it kept asking me for a product ID before the install would continue. I followed the instructions and got the number from VS 2008 and that did not work. Even spend time registering Crystal with Business Objects and that did not work either. I tried to create a support case on their web site and that was not even working!

After many hours of frustration, I did a search of my hard drive of ANY file that started with "Crystal" and I finally found it! The installs are located in this directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\CrystalReports10_5

The files are either CRRedist2008_x86.msi or CRRedist2008_x64.msi. I installed them on the server and everything worked fine.

I hope this might save you from all the the wasted time I went through. Another reason why I love Microsoft Reporting Services!!!

Tip Submitted By: David McCarter