Custom uploading of reports

[JonHeath]

Hi all,

We'd like to use Crystal Reports 10 to save reports directly to Crystal Enterprise 10. This works fine, however the reports do NOT save with the database password, and sometimes it saves without the "prompt for parameter" setting. Therefore when users save reports, we then have to go into the CMC to set these properties for all reports. Obviously this is time consuming.

The obvious answer is to develop an ASP page to save reports automatically with the properties we want. I've had a look at the sample code and the basic examples that Business Objects provide but a fair bit of development work needs doing.

Surely this is a common problem...does anyone know of code for this problem that has already been written, or have any other suggestions? Many thanks.

 

[pelajhia]

This is sort of a confusing question. (to me anyway). Do you have report developers using the crystal reports designer uploading reports, but unable to configure them? Or is this done in ad hoc, something I am not familiar with.

 

[JonHeath]

We have several people in the ICT department who look after Crystal Enterprise 10. The main one being me. We then also have around 10 offices whom all have 'Team Experts' who write reports. (They are far from experts in IT which is why I want to make it easy for them....i.e. a 1 step process).

I want to provide these Team Experts with an easy way of uploading/saving reports to the Crystal Enterprise System. Ideally straight from Crystal Reports 10 would have been ideal, but using this method the reports are always saved without the database password. (which is very poor imo). This means someone then has to go into the CMC and edit the properties of each new report to put the database password on.

I have spoken to Business Objects support and they say the way around it is to develop our own ASP page. So we would then have a webpage the Team Experts used (and us!) where they browsed for their report and were able to save it to directories on the CE10 system that they had access to. The report would be saved WITH the password and would need no modifying in the CMC. i.e. it would instantly be workable.

 

[KingfisherINC]

I would give them the CE Publishing Wizard (client tool RptPubWiz.exe).

Kingfisher [CECP]

 

[rhinok]

With Crystal Reports and Crystal Enterprise, the ability for one to perform a function doesn't necessarily mean one should. Example: One can easily export a report to MS Excel, but said report may not have been designed to be exported to MS Excel. As such, the layout of the exported report may not be as expected and some fields may actually be dropped.

In your case, just because you can upload reports to CE from CR doesn't mean you should. This feature is basically there to allow easy modification to existing CE reports. Its not designed as a method of publication, hence the lack of features.

I agree with Kingfisher, just give them the CE Publishing Wizard. It works very well and will allow them to upload and configure one or more reports.


~Kurt

 

[jedownsjr]

If you give them the CE Publishing Wizard, you should be able to limit what they can do through your security -- but test that out to be sure you understand it. Alternatively, you are on the correct path to develop ASP/CSP scripts to publish or update your reports in CE. You are correct - studying the samples helps to understand the process, but I have found a pretty big learning curve attached to it.

 

[synapsevampire]

The big plus to the save directly from CR is that you can preserve existing report instances, scheduling, etc. by overwriting an existing report.

But again, you'd need to go in and set the PW.

I suspect that you'll want to use both means depending on whether you're modifying or creating a new report, or as CR suggested, create a custom page.

-k