Crystal reports, mysql using a php website, Is it possible?

Question

I have been asked to find out if it is possible to connect Cyrstal Reports to a MYSQL database within a php website.

1. Is this possible?
2. Are their any alternatives

Thanks

Edit I suppose in the perfect world I am wanting to show crystal reports within a PHP website

Solution 1

In response to your comment:

I would want to show CR within the PHP website

CR being a Windows executable, this will not be directly possible (aside from embedding a Remote Desktop or VNC instance, but this is probably not feasible, and would not be legal.)

Your best bet is to check whether CR has an export format that can be embedded into the web site: PDF, HTML, XML come to mind. Those you could insert into your web page manually.

If you want automated interaction between the web site's user and CR, this probably possible, but not going to be trivial. There are third party products that allow controlling CR from the command line. You may be possible to set up an interaction between PHP and Crystal Reports through the command line on a Windows server, but it's going to be a lot of work.

Solution 2

As an alternative you can use iReport. You can use it just as you need, with a mysql database from a php website.

Solution 3

Your question isn't very clear, if you're trying to ask if you can connect Crystal Reports to a MySQL database (a MySQL database that is connected to a PHP site) then you might be able to, have a look at this article.

If you're tying to connection Crystal Reports to a MySQL database and embed it within a PHP application... well I'm not too sure, perhaps someone else can tackle this problem.

http://www.eakes.org/80/connecting-to-mysql-with-crystal-reports-xi/

Comments

[Pekka]

Please be more exact about what you want to do. Do you want to show CR reports on a website? Do you want the users of your website to be able run CR? Do you want to use CR to fetch data from a website that runs PHP and mySQL?

[Fred Smith]

@Pekka - I would want to show CR within the PHP website.

[Fred Smith]

+1 thanks for answer. I will try and lead the client down another route, unless the php site is running on a windows server, then I can grab the data using a odbc connection and use .net

[Pekka]

Yup, sounds like a good idea. Using CR in an automated way like this on a public web site could also lead to license issues, you would have to check the license agreement. You can use ODBC to query remote mySQL databases as well btw, mySQL doesn't need to run on the same machine. You just need Connector/ODBC installed on the windows machine.

[chhameed]

@Pekka: Nice Answer... but i have a question about this.. can we generate CR from mysql result using php... ?? like we have generate pdf or xls files,... is it possible

[Roshdy]

I would recommend checking these links, I'm checking them now my self, they suggest using COM objects 1- forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58998 2- datavision.sourceforge.net