Would it be better with a book template (i.e. the step style pages used in the installation guide)

Configure The Crystal Web Service

Both Quick Reports and Operational Reports of type Crystal Reports could be previewed and printed from IFS Enterprise Explorer. Yet, there are some configuration parts one would have to carry out before using this feature. The following describes how you can install and setup the Crystal Report Web Service.

Contents

• Installing and configuring Crystal Web Service
• Configuring the System Parameters
• Enabling Crystal Web Service logs
• Known limitations

Disclaimer: Some screenshot and examples are with respect to Windows 2008. The exact configuration depends on the specific environment.

Installing and configuring Crystal Web Service

Local system Administrator account should be used for all the below configuration steps. 

Prerequisites

1. CRYSTL component must be included in the build.
2. Dot Net runtime version 4 or later. You can download and install this from the Microsoft download site, http://www.microsoft.com/download
3. Microsoft IIS.
4. Install “IIS 6 Management Compatibility” Role. Follow the steps given below to install it. Without this the Crystal Web Service installation will not run properly.
   

    

   1. From Windows go to Start\Administrative Tools\Server Manage (This example is with respect to Windows 2008)

2. On the left Navigation tree go to Server Manager\Roles\Web Server (IIS) and select "Add Role Service"

3. On the "Select Role Services" pane, scroll down to "IIS 6 Management Compatibility". Select the all check boxes underneath the node.

4. Click "Next" from the "Select Role Services" pane, and then click "Install" at the "Confirm Installations Selections" pane.

5. After the installation finishes successfully click “Close” to leave the “Add Role Services” wizard.

6. Oracle Runtime Client needs to be installed. The client runtime of Oracle version 11G Release 2 (11.2) or any later certified Oracle version should be installed. When installing keep in mind that the Oracle Client Runtime and the Crystal Dot Net runtime files you install in step 8 should be of the same bit version. Both should be either 64 bit or 32 bit. Having mixed versions will cause database connect  issues. An entry matching the Oracle TNS entry specified under <ORACLE_TNS> tag found in ifs-crystal-config.xml in the Web Service installation folder needs to configured in to the tnsname.ora file. You will find this ifs-crystal-config.xml file after you install the Crystal Web Service. For example C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\IFSCRWebSetup.
7. After installing the Oracle Runtime Client make sure that that line SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS) in <ORACLE_HOME>\network\admin\sqlnet.ora file is commented.

# SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NTS)

8. You need to download the appropriate Crystal Web Service installation zip. This will contain the Crystal Dot Net runtime and the IFS Crystal Web Service installation setup. The installation zip file can be download through the Add-ons page. A link to the Add-ons page can be found in the IFS Applications Landing Page. When downloading, you might be prompt to provide login information. If so, provide your IFS Application login details. e.g. ALAIN and ALAIN user password.
   
   After downloading unpack the zip content to a folder and locate the appropriate Crystal Dot Net installation msi file and install the Crystal Dot Net runtime files.
   eg:32bit CRRuntime_32bit_13_0_1.msi 
   eg:64bit CRRuntime_64bit_13_0_1.msi 
   
   
   

9. When in a WindowsServer 2012 with .NET 4.5, the ASP.NET v4.5 should be enabled by following the below steps.
   Go to Server Manager > Add Roles and Features Wizard.
   
   Make sure to check on .NET 3.5 and 4.5 features under Features. Then install it.
   

   
   

If all prerequisites are met, follow the steps below to install and configure the Crystal Web Service.

1. Create a folder in the machine where the Crystal Web Service is going to be installed and copy the Crystal Report files that are going to be previewed from IFS Enterprise Explorer to this folder. This folder will be referred to as the OpenReportPath later on in the installation process. If the reports are Info Services Reports make a folder by the ordering language inside the "OpenReportPath" folder and copy the files in to that languge folder. For example, if one is are going to order Info Service reports with "en" language then create a folder called "en" inside the "OpenReportPath" folder and copy the Info Service layout of type Crystal in to the "en" folder.
2. Go to the same folder where you have unpacked the downloaded Crystal Web Service installation zip file which was downloaded through the Add-ons page. (See step 8 of "Prerequisites" section). Locate the setup.exe file and run it to install the Crystal Web Service.
   1. Selectt Default Web Siteeas thee Sitee, enter a new name for thee Virtual Directoryyor leave the default value as it is and select the Application Pool ass ASP.NET v4.00, clickk Nexttto start the installation. (If .NET 4 is unavailable reinstall Dot Net runtime version 4 and restart the setup ))

2. In the Database User Credentials step specify the IFSPRINT and IFSSYS passwords in plan text. The passwords will be encrypted and written in to the configuration file during the installation.

3. In the Database Details step specify the TNS Entry Name, Schema Owner, IAL Owner. The TNS Entry Name should match the tns entry that you created in the tnsname.ora in step 6 in the prerequisites section.

4. In the Main Instance Replication step specify the number of copies of the main instance that needs to be replicated.

5. Select Next to start the installation.

6. The following is shown if the installation is successful.

3. After successfully installing the web service, browse to the virtual directory folder in wwwroot of IIS (e.g. C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\<Virtual Directory>) and open the Web.Config file from a text editor. Specify the folder where the Crystal Reports are stored under the key OpenReportPath. This is the same folder that was referred to as the OpenReportPath at the beginning of this installation process.

For example,

<appSettings>
   <add key="OpenReportPath" value="C:\reports\Test Reports\CXI"/>
</appSettings>

4. Browse to <OS folder>\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.xxxx\CONFIG folder (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\CONFIG) and open the machine.config file from a text editor. Under the  <configuration>\<system.web> section, comment the following line

<processModel autoConfig="true"/>

and insert the following line,

<processModel enable="true" userName="SYSTEM" password="AutoGenerate" />

5. From the IIS, Check the Basic settings for the Virtual Directory , Make sure its running on ASP .NET v4.0 Application Pool.

6. In IIS version 6 the Dot Net Web Service Extensions are Prohibited by default. Make sure these Web Service Extensions are Allowed in the environment where the Crystal Web Service is installed. To allow these extensions, from the IIS Manager, go to Web Service Extensions. From the right hand side panel make sure that the, Active Server Pages and ASP .NET v.4.0.xxxxx Web Service Extension status are set to Allowed. If not, select these two extensions and click the Allow button to (or select Allow from the RMB menu) change the status to Allowed.

Do the following in order to enable Web Service Extension in IIS version 7. Please note that this example is based to Windows 2008 and IIS 7.

1. From Windows go to Start\Administrative Tools\Server Manage.
2. On the left Navigation tree go to Server Manager\Roles\Web Server (IIS) and select "Add Role Service".
3. On the "Select Role Services" pane, scroll down to "Application Development" and select “ASP .NET” and ”ASP” check boxes. You will be prompt to add some other required features in order for ASP .NET to run properly. Select “Add Required Role Services”.

4. The final selection will look like below.

5. Click Next from the "Select Role Services" pane, and then click "Install" at the "Confirm Installations Selections" pane.
6. After the installation finishes successfully click “Close” to leave the “Add Role Services” wizard.

7. Restart the machine which has the Crystal Web Service installed.

Main Instance Replication

When installing a Crystal Web Service, you can specify how many copies of the main instances that you need the installer to replicate. This is done in the Main Instance Replication step of the Crystal Web Service installer.

When replicating the installer takes some considerations in to account.

1. When replicating, the installer will replicate copies to the number of copies specified through the installer in addition to the main instance. For example, if you specify the number of copies as 3, you would get 4 Crystal Web Service instances.

2. All replicated copies have the same configurations details so that it points to the same database and use the same database credentials.

3. When replicating the installer will suffix a number to the main instance virtual directory name when creating and registering the virtual directories in IIS. For example, if the main instance name is IFSCRWebSetup and if 3 copies are requeste, then the installer will create and register the copies in, then the installer will create and register the copies in IIS as IFSCRWebSetup_1, IFSCRWebSetup_2 and IFSCRWebSetup_3.

4. The replication instance details are maintained in the main instance. In the main instance a file named Instance.list will include the names of the replications of the current main instance. This file is only found in main instances. Do not add/remove items from this file. If you want to remove instances, then use the Windows Uninstaller to uninstall the full installation, including the main and the replications.

How to check if the Crystal Web Service is running correctly?

1. Open IIS Manager and right click on the Crystal Web Service instance and select Switch to content view.

2. Right click on the Ifs_ReportService.asmx file and select Browse.

3. This will open the specification of the web service in the browser displaying the list of operations available in the web service.

4. Search for the operation called GetSavedReportA. Save a test crystal report with no connection to the database in the Report Layout Location specified in the installer. Provide the name of the sample report, the web user name and set the Secured Report Required parameter as False.

   

5. When the operation is invoked it should return a binary response. This indicates that the connection between the Crystal Web Service and crystal report works as expected. The next step is to setup Aurena to communicate with the  Crystal Web Service.

   

Configuring the System Parameters

One needs to configure some System Parameters in order for IFS to communicate with the Crystal Web Service. Namely these System Parameters are,

Note: If you set YES to web database access security system parameter then you need to add the CR_WEB_INIT procedure in the CRYSTAL_WEB_UTIL_API package to your Crystal layout. Check the developer guide lines on how to add the CR_WEB_INIT procedure  to a layout.

Enabling Crystal Web Service logs

• After Crystal Web Service version 90.00.0001 release, the Crystal Web Service Instances can be configured to write logs in different levels. The CR_Web_Log.exe which can be found in the Web Service instance folder could be used to configure logs for that particular instance. Once the logs are configured, you should make sure that the Windows security group IIS_IUSR has read, write and modify access the logging folder that you specify under "Log File Location".
  

Known limitations

• If you perform multiple report requests to the same crystal web service simultaneously, you can get the Error in retrieving the saved PDF report from Crystal Web Service exception. This limitation is due to an error in Crystal Runtime. This has been reported to the crystal runtime vendor. The issue is addressed by the LCS bug 104424.
• Users may identify a performance issue with delaying a report from rendering through the Crystal Web Service, when it has some active long-running requests. This occurs since the Crystal runtime is limited for 3 CPLs (Concurrent Processing License) where it limits only three report requests to be processed at once, and a Maximum of 75 Jobs where each of the integrated resources in the report like the main reports, subreports, and in-session report objects (e.g.; drill down, paging, searching, and more.) consumes a "crystal job". In a production environment, the above limitations could rarely happen.
  Related knowledge based articles : CPLs, Job Processing Limit

Security Considerations

• Crystal Web Service does not authenticate the requests sent to it. Therefore it relies on restrictions set by the infrastructure. So when setting up the Crystal Web Service, you should make sure that you have setup adequate security restrictions to prevent the access of the Crystal Web Service or send requests to the Crystal Web Service from outside and it only serve requests sent from the IFS Application Server that it's configured to handle requests from.

Command Line Installation

You You can install the Crystal Web Service through command line and install it through a script. The below table provides details on the parameters that needs to be passed as command line augments.

msiexec.exe /I IFSCRWebSetup.msi /l* IFSCRWebSetup.log
IFSPRINT=printpw
IFSSYS=syspw
SID=GHDEPCMB
APPOWNER=IFSAPP
IALOWNER=IFSINFO
TARGETVDIR=IFSCRWebSetup
NUMVDIR=3