Best way to set up a web portal for Crystal Enterprise 10

[pdsnoc]

We are looking into creating a web portal for clients to log into and view customized reports. We are currently looking for the best way to do this. Does anybody have any ideas. Does CE 10 have a built in solution that I have yet to discover?

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
CE has, by default, an interface called EPortfolio.

Not very elegant, but works out-of-the-box: once a report is published, it appears in EPortfolio for any user or guest with permission to view it.

You can also design your own web pages ( asp, csp, html,javascript, etc) to fully customise the user experience.

 

[pdsnoc]

Thank you. I was under the impression that EPortfolio is more for internal use.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Internal as Intranet or Internal as developers/administrators?

Do you need to have external ( Internet) clients use it? If so, you will need to review the docs about firewalls and Crystal Enterprise..

 

[pdsnoc]

Yes. We are looking for away to let external clients (not on our netowrk)viw reports. I'm new to this program and am still learning it. Unfortunantly we are unable to purchase the training at this time.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
This doc should get you started with the firewall issue:

http://support.businessobjects.com/...pers/ce_sdk_configuring_for_firewalls.pdf.asp

The BO site and this forum are good resources for info about using CE..

 

[pdsnoc]

Thank you

 

[rb2005]

I have one report, which has a date field. I have published this report into Crystal Enterprise 10. This report is for outside users. They Can only view the report. Can I modify the by default report view option i.e 'view latest instance,history' option so that I can have my own option. Other thing is can I autometically keep old instance and currrent/latest instances in two different user folder.So they can see old and new reports in different place. I am keeping this report to my hard drive. Is there anyway so that I can add one report field with my output report name. I know I can add date and time but I don't want system date I want my date. Let me know if anyone has any clue.

 

[mdwyer]

Three questions. Let's see if I got them right.

1. Can the actions allowed for a report be modified?
The actions available to a user are set in the Crystal Management Console / Objects / <specific report> / Rights. (You can also get there through the Folders path.)
If you want to change the text of the action, that can be done in the code. Let me know; I'll have to dig it out.

2. Can I save an old instance in a separate folder?
There is a recent discussion of this in the thread Can I backup Historical Report instances, thread782-1015404.

3. Can I add a date and time stamp to the report output file name?
Also a current discussion Scheduling with Parameters as the File Name, thread782-1019644. But I am not clear on your specific requirement. Can you give more information, maybe joining in the other discussion?

 

[mdwyer]

By the way, I just noticed this question was tagged onto another, very old thread that is unrelated to your three questions. It might be better to ask new questions in a new thread.

 

[rb2005]

mdwyer,
Thanks for the reply. My first question is
1. I have one report which I have published in Crystal Enterprise. My business user can see that report using CE user desktop. I have created one folder and that folder has two sub folder. User has access to these folders. User can only see the report. Now I want to keep the latest version of the report in one folder and all old reports in the onther folder. How do I do that?

2. I want to give a specific name to those reports when ever they will run. I want to add one date with the report. Not the system date but one date which I am using in my Crystal Report.So that user can easily understand which is new or old... Is it possible?

3. Is it possible so that I can change the report option(i.e. view latest option/history)? I guess I can overwrite the CSP. But if I do that it will change the whole set up or I can do that report specific?

I am using Business View to Create those report. I am using Crystal Report 10 and CE 10. I have scheduled the reports and set the destionation.

Let me know.

Thanks,
RB

 

[mdwyer]

The purpose of folders in Crystal Enterprise is to organize reports, not instances of the reports. When you display the history for a report, the instance date and time are displayed. If a date parameter is entered, it will be displayed. There is also the option to View Latest Instance.

So I don't see any way you can use the folders differently. Your model does not match the CE model, but again, see the other thread mentioned above.

If the report itself is generating the date that you want displayed in CE, I don't know of any way at all to do that.

If you modify the csp, it will affect every report unless you can make the code conditional on report name or id. Given the previous answers, I don't think you want to go this way.