Context
About two years ago, Service Pack 21 of Crystal Reports was released. This new service pack required applications such as the Windows GUI to update to a new version of Crystal Reports. Furthermore, the required .NET Framework version for this Service Pack was updated to to 4.7.1.
Updating to the new version would mean that the previous service pack would no longer be supported and older .NET Framework versions would no longer be supported. To keep supporting the status quo, we set the maximum supported version of Crystal Reports to Service Pack 20.
Since only one version of Crystal Reports can be installed on a client machine, this meant all other applications using Crystal Reports were also limited to Service Pack 20 or earlier.
Breaking change
We will be upgrading the following Thinkwise Platform components to only support Service Pack 21+ of Crystal Reports:
- Windows GUI
- Web GUI
- Indicium
- Indicium Universal
- Reporting Service
The required .NET Framework version for these components has already been updated to match the Crystal Reports Service Pack 21+ requirements, with releases dating back to december 2018.
Timing
The new versions of these applications which become available around November 18th, 2019. The changelog will clearly indicate this breaking change.
Impact
Web servers and desktop environments using Crystal Reports Service Pack 20 or earlier will have to be upgraded to Service Pack 21 or higher. This will have to be done in concert with the upgrade of the Thinkwise Platform component(s) running in this environment.
Continued usage of the Thinkwise Platform component(s) supporting Service Pack 20 and earlier after the Crystal Reports upgrade to Service Pack 21+ may result in failure to execute reports using Crystal Reports.
Environments using Crystal Reports Service Pack 20 or earlier that will not be upgraded can no longer receive updates of Thinkwise Platform components. Doing so may result in failure to execute reports using Crystal Reports.
The Intelligent Application Manager uses Crystal Reports. Environments used to run this report will need to be upgraded.
Update: As mentioned in the comments - Crystal Reports Service Pack 26+ introduced a new incompatible change. This means that the Thinkwise Platform does not support service pack 26+ until further notice.