BOE Report with Excel Datasource

[TheGoldMineGuru]

BOEXI on Win2003 / MSSQL2000

I uploaded a report that uses an Excel file on the network for a subreport. It always wants to ask for a login, which I cannot avoid. Nor will it work no matter what user I type in. I assume I can avoid this by configuring an ODBC on the local machine or server, but I feel reluctant to support these one-off scenarios.

Any other suggestions?

TIA!!

 

[MJRBIM]

My first suggestion is to NEVER use Excel files on a Network as a data-source for a report!!!

If the data can be in Excel - it should be in your MS-SQL-2000 database.

There are two kinds of people in the world, Spreadsheet people and Database people - and waaaay too many times the spreadsheet people are hoarding mission-critical information in their little Excel buckets.

That rant ended....on to the feedback ->

The account that the BOE-XI "Crystal Reports Job Servers" run under has to be a DOMAIN account (not LOCAL) that has access to the network location you are trying to connect to for the Excel file.

You also need to use a Universal/Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path (eg. \\server\volume\directory) for the directory when you set it up in the ODBC instead of the network path X:/pathname/.

 

[TheGoldMineGuru]

You're preaching to the choire, as they say ~: ). I have done a pretty good job at eliminating those silos. This is a one time situation and based on a few other lingering factors, it will have to do for now. I do have the UNC configured but I'll check the service account. I initially installed the services with a domain account but I'll double-check.

Thanks for posting!

 

[MJRBIM]

Also, ensure you set-up the ODBC as a "SYSTEM DSN" not a "USER DSN".