Emailing if there is data to send... 1

[bessebo]

We have Crystal Enterprise 9 and what I want to do is use the emailing funcationality of CE9 and set up a job that will email an invoice (created in Crystal Reports) to a customer if an invoice exists for that customer for that day. I don't think that this functionality is built-into CE9. With Seagate Info there was the concept of events and if an event existed (or a flag was switched) then you could kick off a job. In other words, I could run a query and if records were found the report would run and email out. Would I have to purchase a 3rd party app to get this functionality?

 

[techie2]

CE 9 does have events. You can set up event to kick in based on file generated and then schedule your report based on events, which in turns is set to send an email.

1.> Create an event and set it to run based on physical creation of file.
2.> Set up your report desination to SMTP for emailing teh report output.
3.> Not schedule this report based on events.

I might not have provided you the exact step by step as I dont have CE 9.0, but you can accomplish what your are wanting by this approach.

 

[techie2]

No. 3 is "Now schedule this report based on events."

 

[bessebo]

OK,
I notice that I can Manage Events and create a new event and there are types (File, Custom, and Schedule). Not sure how to go forward yet so I'll have to read up more on it within the KnowledgeBase. I just don't know how I schedule the report based on the Event. I don't see how that happens. At least I now know that there are Events and I can look into it more.

Thanks,
Bessebo

 

[techie2]

Yes, read the help files and you will get more handle on how it works.

When you try to schedule the reports, in the drop down list there will be a set of scheduling options and one of them will be "with events", exaily, with events. When you select that option, you will see the list of events you have created and you can schedule your report based on success / failure.

Hope that helps.

 

[bessebo]

There is nothing within the Scheduling options that says "with events". We have Crystal Enterprise 9 and it is my guess that this feature is not available with CE9 unless it requires a patch that I have not installed yet.

 

[techie2]

CE 9.0 does have events.
Where are you looking for the drop down options?
Pull out the help for CE 9.0 and read through about scheduling with events.

 

[bessebo]

I can send you a screenshot of my schedule drop-down if you provide me with an email address. These are my options:
Now, Once, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, nth day of month, 1st monday of month, last day of month, and xday of nth week of month.

 

[techie2]

Hmmm, that is weird.

Look at this knowledge base article. It talks about CE9.0, recurring with events.

http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2013051.asp

This clearly explains that CE 9.0 does have these features. I have no idea why you can not see in your setup.

I have CE XI installed at work and my personnel computer.

Which flavour of CE 9.0 you are using.

Events and Scheduling with events are standard feature of CE irrespective of flavours.

 

[techie2]

Create an event and see if that fills up the drop down list with "with events" options.

 

[bessebo]

Let me try that. Good suggestion. I'll let ya know...

 

[bessebo]

Maybe I have to stop and restart the CE services for this to take place. I added an event and went back into ePortfolio but did not see any reference to events. I may just restart the server tomorrow morning to see if this does anything.

Thanks

 

[bessebo]

Guess what? I see the with events functionality from the CMC if I choose the report and schedule it from there under Manage Objects. I did some reading in the manual. I do not see it though from ePortfolio which is where I typically schedule my jobs. Do you think I should also see the 'with events' text when I schedule from ePortfolio?

 

[techie2]

No, you should not see it in eportfolio.

That feature is only availbale from CMC.

I was thinking that you are refereing to CMC when you said you can not see.

You are all good now, read some more and implement the feature.

Good Luck.

 

[bessebo]

Yeah, I used the file event and it isn't working yet but it may be a rights issue. thanks for all your help...

 

[bessebo]

Techie2,
Can you suggest a method of creating a file based on the existence of records within a query? I'm not sure how to create a file from within a Transact-SQl stored procedure but I am researching it.

Thanks,
Bessebo

 

[techie2]

I have never tried this before but here is an article to get you started.

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/1467601

Also read the help on xp_cmdshell stored procedure in SQL Server to understand what all you can do.