Crystal Report Version Control

An important process of software development is to have version control. There are many software applications around that can handle this for you. Control is maintained by checking a file out, making a change and checking the file back in.

If you do not have version control software application, you can maintain it manually although it not as secure. What you can do is create a formula field in crystal and call it something like 'Report Version'. In this formula field store the version number, the person who modified the report and the change that was made. Another good idea is to store the name of the person who requested the change and reference numbers if you have a job logging application.

It is also useful to get you software application that runs the report to show the version number by retrieving it from the formula field. This way a user knows which version of the report thay will be running. Also, printing the version number on the report is helpful.

Storing old versions of the report can easily be done by copying the report file to and archive directory.