Deploying a .NET Application with Crystal Reports

Introduction

Crystal Reports often cause problems in .NET deployment package. Errors like “Can’t find keycode32.dll” are likely to occur if the license key is not provided during creation of deployment package. To include license information, use the following procedure.

Create a Sample Deployment project.

Type the name of your project in the Name: Field “Setup” as in our example.

Now click the Application Folder from the left Pane (“File System on the Target Machine”) , then right click anywhere on the right yet empty pane and select Add > File from shortcut menu.

 

Go to the bin directory of your desired .NET application (which is already built) and select the *.exe file. This will add necessary references of all the assemblies required.

 

Now go to Solution Explorer and right click on Setup and select Add > Merge Module…

 

From Add modules dialog box, select the first four files namely Crystal_Database_Access2003.msm, Crystal_Database_Access2003_enu.msm, Crystal_Managed2003.msm and Crystal_regwiz2003.msm and click Open.

 

Now again from Solution Explorer, right click on crystal_regwiz2003.msm and select properties. Set license key value under MergeModuleProperties > License key as “AAP50-GS00000-U7000RN”.

 

You can find license key information through the About box.

To see how to go to Help menu of Visual Studio 2003, click About Microsoft Development Environment and locate Crystal Reports for Visual Studio.NET.