If you’ve been having trouble with deployment of Visual Studio .net 2005 (C# or VB) applications which use Crystal Reports, rest assured. You’re not alone. You can find many posts and blogs saying you should add the merge modules but if you’re having problems getting the setup to work, here’s the solution:
- First, search for this file (the CR.net redistributable package): cr_net_2005_mergemodules_mlb_x86.zip
- Extract it to get this file (merge module):
CrystalReportsRedist2005_x86.msm - Create a new “Setup Project” in your solution. (I’m assuming you’re comfortable with this stuff.)
- Right-click on the setup project and Add->Merge Modules.
- Browse to give the extracted merge module. It should be added to your setup project.
- Now, right-click on setup project again and click on Properties.
- In the properties dialog, click on Prerequisites.
- Check .Net framework , Crystal Reports and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC)
- Also, select Download from the Same Location as Project Setup (or something to that effect…. I don’t have VS.Net in front of me right now).
- Build the setup project and see the extra files there!
- Any Questions?