Create Individualized PDFs with VB.Net and Crystal Reports - vb.net

Question

I'd like to be able to create, name and store individualized reports (school report cards, actually) with VB.Net and Crystal Reports using data from our SQL database.
It would be even better to be able to automatically generate individualized e-mails using e-mail addresses stored in the database, attaching the aforementioned PDF reports and sending them off.
Has anyone attempted anything like this before?
TIA for any help/pointers!

Answer 1

1. Create PDF programatically
Depending on the version of crystal, the export function will look similar to this
Dim objApp As CRAXDRT.Application
Dim objRpt As CRAXDRT.Report
Dim Path As String = "MyReport.rpt"
objApp = new CRAXDRT.Application
objRpt = objApp.OpenReport(Path)
With objRpt
.ExportOptions.FormatType = crEFTPortableDocFormat
.ExportOptions.DestinationType = crEDTDiskFile
.ExportOptions.DiskFileName = "MyReport.PDF"
.ExportOptions.PDFExportAllPages = True
.Export( False )
End With
2. Send email with a PDF attachment
The "send" part will look like this:
Dim email As New MailMessage()
''//set the reply to address and the to address
email.To.Add(New MailAddress("student#domain.com", "Studen Name"))
email.ReplyTo = New MailAddress("youremail#domain.com", "Your name")
''//Assign the MailMessage's properties
email.Subject = "Your scorecard file"
email.Body = "Attached is the file you asked<br />Regards!"
email.IsBodyHtml = True
''//attach the file
email.Attachments.Add(New Attachment("c:\temp\myreport.pdf"))
Dim smtp As New SmtpClient
Try
smtp.Send(email)
Catch ex As Exception
messageBox("cant send")
End Try