Crystal Reports Handling Large Data Sets in CR2005.net

Message

   The Situation:
When one develops a Web Based Application for Real Life situations, following things happen:
a) Processing of Large volumes of Data on Server
b) Creation of Large Data Sets
c) Creation of voluminious(say 1500 pages of ) Crystal Reports e.g. reports with sub-totals and totals for each key such as a product, a warehouse, a branch, a region etc. etc. which are difficult to process in parts(i.e. by giving a From-To Range of keys), e.g. Bill of Material Explosion for Production Planning to workout Material Requirement, Placing of Purchase orders erc.
d) Creation of large Reports with sub Reports (Linked Sub Reports)

e) Exporting such Reports to say a *.pdf file.

The Problem:

a) There are various timeouts - at a Database level, at a Session Level, at a Server level and at a Page level in a Browser.

b) Since Datasets are memory resident, making available large Main memory is a serious problem (even 4GB is found to be less).

c) Crystal Reports with Sub Reports(Linked) for more than 1000 times linkages for each main key of the Main Report.

d) The system throws out with various errors such as server timeout / page not available etc. 

e) The Report-Sub Report situation which works in VS2003 beautifully, gives an a error 'Missing Parameter Values' when run in VS2005. (There is a so called patch in Business Objects' site, but it does not work.)

How to resolve these issues. I have posted these on 'n' no of forums but none seem to be replying or havaing any answer. People talk of AJAX etc. but that does not solve these problems.

Brian,

I am hoping that you - an Authority in Crystal Reports help me to resolve these issues.

What I have Done:

a) At a database level, I have increased timeout as follows:
    oSQLCommand.CommandTimeout = 1800

b) I have tried to process reports in parts by giving small From-To Key Ranges to cut down the size of the Reports whereever possible.

c) Created a new dataset where sub report data also comes as a single table so that there are no subreports. 

d) Increased session timeouts, server.scripttimeout etc. 

BUT STILL THERE ARE MANY SITUATIONS WHERE DATA PROCESSING AND REPORT PRODUCTION IS VERY HEAVY.

I hope that this forum helps to solve these real issues.

With Regards,

Dilip Nagle