Crystal Reports in ASP.NET MVC

Question

I know the use of server-side controls is a no-no in ASP.NET MVC, however we have a long list of crystal reports that the company has already produced for a previous application that I would like to utilize for our new ASP.NET MVC application.

Is there an appropriate way to use crystal reports in ASP.NET MVC? If so, how?

Answer 1

It is pretty simple actually. just add following references to your MVC project:

• CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine
• CrystalDecisions.ReportSource
• CrystalDecisions.Shared

use Action method like below:

• C# :

  using CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine;
  
  public ActionResult Report()
      {
          ReportClass rptH = new ReportClass();
          rptH.FileName = Server.MapPath("[reportName].rpt");
          rptH.Load();
          rptH.SetDataSource([datatable]);
          Stream stream = rptH.ExportToStream(CrystalDecisions.Shared.ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat);
          return File(stream, "application/pdf");   
      }
  

• VB.NET :

   Imports CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine
  
   Public Function Report() As ActionResult
      Dim rptH As New ReportClass()
      rptH.FileName = Server.MapPath("[reportName].rpt")
      rptH.Load()
      rptH.SetDataSource([datatable])
      Dim stream As IO.Stream = rptH.ExportToStream(CrystalDecisions.Shared.ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat)
      Return File(stream, "application/pdf")
   End Function