Can a Crystal Rpt be sent to more than one printer? 1

[DCYMCO]

Hello,
I am not a Crystal Reports developer at all, but we have a developer who created a report and claims that he has to run it 6 times in order to get the report to go to 6 different printers. Is there a way within Crystal Report XI to specify that a report goes to more than one printer? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

 

[hilfy]

You can't specify that it goes to more than one printer. However, it depends on what code he's using to print. He should be able to generate the report once and then print that report 6 different times. However, it may take some creative thinking to figure out how to do it (I have a couple of ideas, but I haven't actually done this...)

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.

 

[DCYMCO]

Thanks for the response, Hilfy. What do you mean by "what code he's using to print"? Maybe printing to a file or something, then printing that to different printers? Not being a Crystal Rpt developer, I'm a little confused.

Thanks again.
Chris

 

[hilfy]

In .NET there are three different "object models" for accessing Crystal reports and each has its own methods for generating and printing reports. If he's not using .NET, there are other ways of accessing reports through COM.

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.

 

[DCYMCO]

Huuummm....it sounds like there's no "easy" way to do it. I was hoping there was something in Crystal Reports that he was just overlooking, but apparently not. I guess we'll have to live with it for now. Thanks for the input.

 

[IdoMillet]

There is no need to run the report 6 times. In my own applications, I allow users to specify any number of printers (using multiple command line arguments or a single text file containing the names of all target printers) and send the report to all these printers. Your developer should be able to achieve the same thing quite easily.

Cheers,
- Ido

view, email, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[RoMarcus]

I have a thought - create six copies of the report for each of the printers... it's ugly but it should work.

 

[dgillz]

The is a great application called Reform that will let you do this. The standard edition should suffice for this and it is $800 if I recall.

http://www.fabsoft.com

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?

 

[CR85user]

Are the printers themselves similar in terms of make & model?

If so then look at printer pooling.

Failing that do some searches on 'Broadcast Printing' or head over to Millet software (Link in Ido's signature above) and do yourself a bigger favour by investing in one of his fantastic 3rd party apps.

'J

CR8.5 / CRXI - Discovering the impossible

 

[dgillz]

Bruce,

What is printer pooling?

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?