Print Engine?

[jsblakley]

Can someone provide some help / direction on how to use "Print Engine" calls or API to generate report output. I need to be able to generate reports in a "background/batch" process, saved as PDF in a specific directory, then email or fax these documents programmatically.

Will "Print Engine" calls or API calls do the job? Are they necessary if we have Crystal Reports Enterprise 9? If not, how is is done using Enterprise?

Thanks!
Jeff

 

[SurfingGecko]

Crystal Enterprise, since you have it should take of this for you. You can create your reports in Crystal Reports, add them to your Enterprise system and then schedule them to SMTP in PDF format.

The Crystal API will also work for you , but will obviously require creating a VB or MFC application to handle this.

As an alternative you may want to have a look a list of 3rd party tools that may make your life a lot easier

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

Cheers,

SurfingGecko

http://www.surfinggeckosoftware.com

Home of Crystal Ease

 

[jsblakley]

SurfingGecko,

Here is my situation...

I have several reports that will need to be executed multiple times a day. These reports are dynamic requiring parameters to distinguish between differing customers. Then these reports will be emailed to the requesting customers. However, these are not always the same customer and can be different each time the report is executed.

The steps I need to complete are;
1. Run a report (with parameters) in a background process or batch mode.

2. Save (export) the report to PDF format with a customer file name.

3. Run a SQL Server stored procedure to find the directory where the reports are stored, then use SQLMail to email the reports to the specific customers.

4. After emails are sent, clean up the report directory.

Step 3 & 4 seem easy. It is steps 1 & 2 that I can not find refeneces to or help.

Any suggestions?
Jeff

 

[rcsshah]

i am also in same trouble

can any one help???

jsblakley (Programmer) , do you have solution now ????

 

[jsblakley]

We ended up writing our own exe. Not too bad really, we just had to define the steps. It was written in VB.NET.

 

[markinro]

jsblakely,

We have crystal 9.0 with the report portal. Currently the only way to generate/export/print report is manually selecting the report entering criteria and clicking refresh. We would like to do all this from a .net app.

Any chance you could elaborate on your solution ?