PRB: Run-Time Error 713 Opening Data Report in Distributed Application

You are distributing a Visual Basic application that includes a data report. After installation, you receive the following error when you attempt to open the data report from your application:

The Data Report run-time file (Msdbrptr.dll) was not included in your setup package.

To resolve this problem, use one of the following methods:

• Open your project, and include a reference to the Msdbrptr.dll file. This file is listed as Microsoft Data Report Designer v6.0 in the References dialog box. You may see Microsoft Data Report Designer v6.0 listed more than once. Make certain that the file associated with the reference is Msdbrptr.dll. Once the reference has been verified, rebuild your setup package.
  
  -or-
• Manually include the Msdbrptr.dll file in the Package and Deployment Wizard (PDW). You can add the file manually in the Included Files dialog box window when you run the PDW and then rebuild your setup package.

After the installation, the following files should be present on the target system in the indicated folders: The inclusion of Msdbrptr.dll (and its dependent files) typically corrects this problem. If you are still experiencing problems, make sure that the following files are included in your package: Data Reports do not directly depend on these files. However, if the files are missing, this can affect the Data Environment that is used by your report.

NOTE: If your application must have the Msdatsrc.tlb file, do not explicitly include this file because Msdatsrc.tlb is installed as part of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) upgrade.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Visual Basic installs two files, Msdbrpt.dll and MSdbrptr.dll, that are very similar. Both files are listed in the References dialog box as Microsoft Data Report Designer v6.0. The Msdbrpt.dll file is the Data Report designer, and the Msdbrptr.dll file is the Data Report designer runtime. You must distribute the run-time version of this file with your application. There is no dependency file for Msdbrpt.dll. If Msdbrpt.dll is installed with your application, a data report does not function correctly.

There are several ways in which to add a data report to a Visual Basic project. With two known exceptions, Visual Basic adds the correct reference. If you add this reference manually, the similarity between these two files makes it easy to reference the wrong file. The other way to get an incorrect reference is to add the data report component through the Add Components dialog box. This adds a reference to the data report instead of the data report runtime file. Under these circumstances, the data report works only in the development environment or when the data report is installed to a computer that has Visual Basic installed.