Reportnet : Suggession required-urgent 1

[Abhi2379]

Hi,

I have 2 queries in Reportnet.

1) Can we print the different scheduled reports on different network printers.?

2) I need to save the scheduled reports in PDF on the server
which users should be able to access through web, any idea how I should go about it?.

Can I write a macro so that I can append the report with date stamp?

Plz let me know if anyone has any suggession/inputs in this regard.

Thanks in Advance.

~Jit

 

[winkid1]

1) Yes. Define a schedule (or job) for each report and route to the appropriate printer.

2) You have the option to save the output as pdf when you schedule. You may want to have more than one output history for the reports.

Macro isn't needed. Increase the number of report output versions and those will have a date/time on them. You just have to go under More... to view Report output versions (note: if there aren't any the link won't be there).

 

[Abhi2379]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the guidence , it is very useful,
In the 2nd point When I schedule the report the reports will be automaticaly generated and saved on the server.
But How do I change there names e.g.(Report1_Nov, Report1_Dec) so that I can differenciate them.

Is there any other method to do so, please let me know @ the same

Regds
~jit

 

[winkid1]

If you have the report scheduled to run once a month, then when you go to view output versions, you will be able to select a date to view.

To get the actual name of the report to appear (meaning it would be a separate entry in Connect), you can either save the report as a report view and put a %Date% or some thing else in the name to remind you to go change it (manual change required), or you can use a script to kick it off (see Chapter 7 in the sdk guide).

I don't know of a way to have it auto-name the output like that. I thought I did but it didn't work. If I figure it out, I'll repost here, otherwise I'm sticking with those answers.

 

[winkid1]

I think you are stuck with either using the report output viewer, using the sdk, or a somewhat hokey solution.

You could create twelve schedules for the report, once per month, and save as a report view, named appropriately. Of course, this implies that you would only have twelve copies of the report. Not sure how exactly you'd work it to have more...unless you created one time schedules and then kept on top of it (you'd always have to add schedules).

Unless someone else knows how to either insert Javascript or something else in the name of the report when it's scheduled. I couldn't make it work to update the name.

Good luck

 

[Abhi2379]

Hi,

I am new to reportnet so I would like to put my requirement

1) I have DB ready with data.

2) I need to prepare 4-5 different reports on that Data through reportnet.

3) Initialy we need to run the report manualy and generate the reports print them as well as archieve (save them in PDF) every 15 days or a month.

4) after that we need to schedule(automate) this procedure

5) The saved PDF should be visible to users on the web (I have no idea of using SDK and how should I go about it).

Could you please guide me to decide the approach for this.

And thanks a lot for the quick responces with useful information.

Thanks in advance
~jit

 

[winkid1]

Well it depends on whether or not the report output versions satisfy your archive requirements.

You say initially you want to run them manually, print and archive those results. What I would do is go ahead and schedule them to run a minute from now so you can do a save as pdf and also print them (otherwise you'll have to run it to save it and then run it again to print it). To automate it, same thing only set the schedule to be recurring.

The real problem comes in the archive scheme. Do you understand what report output versions are? Try this: View properties on a report and set the "report output versions" to some number (say 5). Now run the report and click 'save' and select pdf as the type. Close it. Return to the portal and run the report again, only save and put html as the type. Now either click the icon that looks like pages or go to the more... link and select 'View report output versions'. Now you can select which version to view based on the time. If this is acceptable, then you are done. You just need to schedule the report on a recurring (repeating) basis, make sure to save enough versions to satisfy your archive requirements, and educate the users on how to see past data. You do need to be leery of users with write access as they could potentially wipe out your archive. This would also be a point of user education and teaching them how to view the latest output. It's also a means to justify some stricter security on this set of reports and limiting everyone to just read and execute. (and traverse). Just make sure no one can save the report back to that folder and you are good.

If you are unhappy with using the report output version feature, then you are stuck with manually saving a 'report view' with a different name. To automate this, you would need to schedule the report to run, saving as a report view with some 'default' name that reminds someone to change the name to the current month.

Hope that helps

 

[Abhi2379]

Hi,

Thanks a ton for this great information.
I will look into these options also do some further R&D on this.

Thanks again for this information in quick time.

Regards
~jit