Distributing a report to a shared folder in pdf "File in Use"

[nervous2]

Goal.

To export rpt files to pdf and have this pdf file available to users on my network.

using Easy Viewer to automatically export my report file (stock report) to pdf every 2 hours, problem is since the report is accessed by several users on the share often when the report is being exported the system will see the file is in use or open from another user and the file does not get updated. Often the shared computer leaves the report file open all day and therefore the report file is stale.

What is a good solution to my issues, I'm trying to free up citrix licenses moving away from on the fly generation through terminal services.


Thank You,

 

[RTag]

If you are replacing the exported file you are accepting the risk to provide old information (if the replacement fails) and also you cannot provide historical data. One solution is each time to create an unique file name for example using date and time as part of the name. However this will require the users to pay attention and to open the latest file.
Another option is to use a document management system where you can save multiple versions of the same file. When the user opens a file document management will create a local copy of the latest version. A variance of this scenario is to export the report to SharePoint server.
There are some schedulers on the market, which support internal document management and export to SharePoint. However, changing the scheduler is much bigger project compared to adding date and time to the file name.

http://www.R-Tag.com

Viewer, scheduler and report manager for Crystal reports and SSRS.
Send your report everywhere.

 

[IdoMillet]

At least one of the 3rd-party Crystal Reports desktop schedulers listed at

http://kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

has an option to "release" files on a shared folder before the export. This option was developed to address your use scenario. You could ask the Easy Viewer developer to add a similar feature.

hth,
- Ido

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

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[nervous2]

Thanks for the options and advice, as a work around I created a bat file what it does when run what it does is copy the file to a temp area on the users workstation , overwrite the existing file then open it. It works but what i don't like is it keeps the command prompt window open until the PDF file is closed. Other than that as long as the Easy Viewer works, me report seems to work, another issue I find is that if a user is on a Win 8 vs Win7 vs XP all temp locations are different.

Thanks Again.

 

[PeterDimitrov]

Instead of the hardcoding the path to the temp folder you can use %Temp%. This will return the actual path on the current system.

http://www.R-Tag.com

Tools for Crystal reports and SSRS.

 

[nervous2]

Ahh good to know thank you.