Outlook BCM Reports don't work

[Aussie Holly]

I've installed BCM & the Update but now none of the business reports work
anymore. It just says " the report could not be generated. Please try again"

Any ideas why or how to solve this?? I have information in all areas where
I am requesting a report so it should work...

 

[Raul]

Try reinstall the BCM V2 update this should take care of the issue

 

[Aussie Holly]

Thanks Raul - I've already tried that twice but to no avail... any other
suggestions?

Cheers, Hol

 

[Raul]

Hi

Thanks for the update.Check if you have .Net Frame work 2.0 beta installed
in add /remove and if so remove the same
If that also does not work migh be an issue with MDAC .This is the link to
download the same
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f6-4a21-4b43-bf53-14332ef092c9&displaylang=en
if you unsure about usage refer the link below
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307255

Hope this helps

 

[Susan]

I just reproduced this error today when I had ACT open (looking at importing
ACT data to the BCM) and then opened Outlook BCM same time and tried to run
previously successful reports.
Go check this location (or where you installed to)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Small Business\Business Contact Manager\Reports

and see if icons are ACT icons (or some other contact product). If you
right-click one of the Reports you will see that it's to open with ACT (or
whatever) instead of Outlook BUT when I manually associated a report to the
correct product, I opened an email message. When I reinstalled BCM and the
BCM update, I still have the ACT icon, but at least it works in the BCM.
I'm testing now to see what happens when I open ACT, but not Outlook (won't
do that again!). Susan
Susan

 

[Susan]

I was able to reproduce this error without having ACT! installed. Installed
BCM, installed Update, tried to report, got error msg. Went to BCM|Reports
folder, found that *.RPT files were not associated with any application
(with ACT! installed, they all took on the association to ACT, without ACT!,
they're associated to nada). Associated them to Outlook. Still no reports.
Reran BCM Update install, repaired BCM Update install, reporting worked.
Checked, all the RPT files remain associated to Outlook application.
No idea why, but this does seem to be a viable workaround, it's worked twice,
on both my BCM installs.
S

 

[Raul]

The only link i can find is that both BCM and ACT use MSDE to store data so
reinstalling must change some kind of association

 

[Nozmo]

I just installed the update (from Raul). I cannot get the reports to run
either. I don't use ACT, although I did trial it about a year ago. How can
I get the reports to run. I am a novice, so a detailed explaination would be
very much appreciated.

 

[Nozmo]

The reports did not work before I did the upgrade. What about all this
Crystal reports stuff? I think our Agent Office (for Real Estate) uses
Crystal reports, but that particular software does not work well for email -
thus the BCM. So how do I get the reports to work? Can someone provide a
step-by-step description of what to do?

 

[Nozmo]

Can someone please help me with these reports. I simply cannot get them to
run and do not have enough technical expertise to understand all the issues.
Can some go through the details of what I must do to get this product to
print reports? Thanks

 

[Nozmo]

I got the reports to work!!! The last reinstall that I did somehow fixed the
report writer.

 

[dpminusa]

Having read several posts in this discussion group I was able to get my
reports to finally run. Here are my findings for others who may need to
travel the same route.

1. I installed BCM add-on v1, then upgraded to v2. As is suggested in the
posts, this leaves the installation WITHOUT the crystal reports assemblies in
NET 1.1. i.e. breaks the BCM reporting capability. BCM does use Crystal
reports for developers at about v 8 or 9, as far as I can see. (This can be
seen by a right click on a report file (.rpt) , these are Seagate Reports.
Seagate sold Crystal Reports to Business Objects and subsequently SAP
acquired Business Objects. The history of these transactions are documented
on WIKIpedia along with the versioning info. Incidentally SAP offers a FREE
crystal reports viewer download. BCM has an older one built in.
2. Reinstalling the v2 upgrade DOES add the missing crystal assemblies back
in. Presumably because the program logic is slightly different when it
detests they are missing. In the v1 to v2 upgrade they are there and left
out. On reinstall this is the reverse.
3. The SQL database instance was NOT removed by the reinstall. I found that
loading Outlook did not find the instance unless I rebooted the system first
or refreshed the SQL Engine. In one case I also had to clean the registry to
repair broken links, as well. You can download a FREE, reliable cleaner from
www.ccleaner.com. (Some users don't prefer ccleaner. I have had good luck
with it in XP and Vista).
4. The reports are good basic tools with some light customization,
filtering, and exporting capabilities.

Hope this helps another frustrated soul with the "Please try again" letdown.

I would vote for more detailed error messages in Microsoft systems to make
this less frustrating. Perhaps part of the QA process for software could be
to have testers do more of what the end-user does when the installs and
upgrades go wrong and suggest improvements in the error messages given. I
see that they do read the News Groups. So they have an idea of what is
missing.

Regards.