Note: These changes should be applied only when the August or later release is available, and you plan to update FACTS to that version or a later one.
The process has been designed to include the FACTS update as part of the overall Crystal Reports changes, so both will be completed together.
Applying the changes while FACTS is still on an earlier version may result in errors.
Please follow the below steps:
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Download latest Crystal Report for Visual Studio SP38 CR Runtime 64-bit.
Direct Download Link: https://origin-az.softwaredownloads.sap.com/public/file/0020000000551832025
Downloaded File: CR13SP38Redist64_0-80007712.zip
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Install this 64-bits version on the server (on-premise school only)
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Set the 'Enable 32-bit Applications' setting to FALSE for the web application pool (e.g., SpiderPool).
Steps to Find the App Pool for a Website in IIS
a. Open IIS Manager
b. Navigate to Sites
i. In the left-hand Connections pane, expand your server node.
ii. Click on Sites to see the list of hosted websites.
c. Select Your Website e.g. Spider, SpiderPlay, etc.
d. Check the Right Pane
i. In the Actions pane on the right, click Basic Settings.
ii. A window will pop up showing the Application Pool assigned to that website.
e. View or Edit the App Pool
i. You can now go to the Application Pools section in IIS to view or configure the settings for that specific pool.
f. Make the below changes for all the Application Pools related to FACTS.
4. Use the latest FACTS version exe file to install the new version (2025.08.20 and above) Please test a simple report for e.g. Form Class List or any other simple report of your choice which was already working. If you encounter any issues after the update, please create a ticket with the error information and the steps that you had followed to make any changes.
Note: You may encounter an error during the installation of Crystal Reports. e.g. Error 1904
To resolve this, install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 Redistributable (x64, version 14.x)
Comments
5 comments
Hi Preet,
Our NPE and Prod are sharing the same physical server but uses separate pools. Is the upgrade still safe to do?
Hi Marlon,
It’s fine to have multiple FACTS instances on a single server, as long as each instance has its own dedicated application pool in IIS.
If you need further clarification or assistance, please create a ticket, and we will be happy to help.
Warm regards,
Preet
This Crystal Report upgrade broke our production Spider which resided on the same physical server as the test Spider despite claims that it's safe as long as they are on 2 separate application pools.
It worked for us (in September) with both Prod + NPE web apps on the same IIS server.
This was with 4x application pools {Prod, Prod-API, NPE, NPE-API}.
The Prod-API and NPE-API pools were already 64-bit (pool :: Advanced Settings :: Enable 32-Bit Applications = False) as of a year or so ago.
The Prod and NPE pools were each (separately) changed to 64-bit immediately prior to updating each to v2025.08.20 (we did the crystal update during the web app update from v2025.06.24 to v2025.08.20).
I did the NPE first and tested; both the NPE and Prod functioned fine at that point.
Admittedly I didn't do a whole lot of testing of Prod before going ahead and also updating Prod to v2025.08.20 that same day. Most of my testing was focused on the updated NPE.
Do you have 4x separate application pools as above?
And are the Prod and NPE web apps and their PCSApi apps actually set to use those separate pools?
Sites :: (sitename) :: Prod app :: Advanced Settings :: Application Pool = ?
Sites :: (sitename) :: Prod app \ PCSApi subfolder :: Advanced Settings :: Application Pool = ?
(and likewise for 2x NPE)
Yes, we do have separate pools for Spider, PCSAPi, SpiderPlay and SpiderplayAPI.
We upgraded to Spider 2025.10.03 (although I don't think that matters as the issue was with CR). Post-upgrade of Crystal, I did check Student Info and opened one of the CR reports on prod and it worked. I was later informed that Markbooks wouldn't load and the error message being presented pointed to the system not being able to load CrystalDecisions.Web.
The decision was made to just update prod as well.
I wanted to warn others although it's probably not going to matter much as we're all going to Azure in a few weeks anyway. That should standardize (I hope) all our installations so FACTS doesn't have to accomodate different versions and different set ups.
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