Hi, John...

<< I'm playing with CR using the OCX method on my development machine and I have a few basic questions. First, are you using the CR OCX approach? Is that a good way to go? >>

Currently, I'm using the Crystal API, although I'm currently studying the Crystal Automation Server approach. I stopped using the OCX almost two years ago, mainly because it was very limiting. (It's good to teach someone the basics, but after a while you learn the things it can and can't do.)

Whether the OCX is a good way to go depends on how much run-time reporting functionality you need to give the user. If there's a particular function you need to implement, I can tell you (or you can look in the developer help files) whether it's available.

I read somewhere that Seagate may stop supplying the OCX some day, but I've never been able to confirm it.

<< When I distribute this app with CR to the clients (LAN application), do I just need to place the files needed by CR including the CR OCX and tell the setup wizard where to put these guys, or is there any other client registration that needs to go on?

<< There seems to be a pile of dlls to distribute just for the basic functionality according to the CR help file. Do you know which files are definitely needed to distribute to the clients?

I'll try to answer both here. The Seagate Runtime Requirements help file has a section for required runtime files, depending on which solution you're using. The # of DLLs you distribute depends on which runtime API calls you're using.
The 'basic' DLL's you must distribute are...

CRPE32.DLL
MSVCRT20.DLL
CRPAIG32.DLL
CTL3D32.DLL
IMPLODE.DLL

If you're using Fox2x tables, you must also include the following:

P2BXBSE.DLL

There's also another set of DLLs if your app will export the Crystal report to something like Excel, but Crystal's output to Excel is so, uhm, less than perfect, that I have a different set of methods to output to Excel.

Let me know if this info helps.

Take care,
Kevin