The usage of report files with an older version of i-net Clear-Reports as the designer version can be fatal and is not supported. But in the most cases this will work.
From version 8 to version 9 there was a format change. That means versions before 9 can not understand rpt files of versions after 9.
But there is a workaround that should work with the most but not all report files. You need a designer of version 9. You can download it from our website and install the designer in an separate directory.
The designer of version 9 must be started with the command line parameter -Dusenewparser=false
The completely command line can look like:
java -Xmx256m -Dusenewparser=false -jar Designer.jar
You can change this in the startDesigner.bat or startDesigner.sh. The real command line can differ from system to system. Add only the additional parameter -Dusenewparser=false to line.
Now you start the designer open the report, save it on a new location.
Now open a designer of your target version. Open the modified report and save it again. Now you can test if the report work as expected. It can needed to do some corrections on the report.
This workaround will not work with every report and is not supported. A better solution is to design the report with your target version.