scheduling reports / viewing report job status in .NET web application

[tomkyn]

I have about 100+ reports, which sit on the web server. Multiple users need to run these reports. Some of these reports run for an extended amount of time (30 minutes) and therefore the user cannot sit around and wait for the report to finish and load into the report viewer control.

How do I schedule the job and have the report
a. delivered by email as doc or pdf
b. show report history with clickable links so that users can click on previously finished reports.

The target application is a C# .NET web application.
I have CR8.5 Enterprise, CR8.5 PIA and .NET framework 1.1.

Are there any examples of this interaction? I'm getting desperate here.

 

[synapsevampire]

A 30 minute report sounds suspect, perhaps the data sources can be improved.

So when you say that the reports sit on a Web server, do you mean Crystal Enterprise, or do you have custom code?

You can use URL passing to leverage Crystal Enterprise, if that's what you're using.

-k

 

[tomkyn]

Perhaps 30 minutes is a bit exaggerated. It's more on the order of 5-10 minutes. We're talking 10,000,000 records or so. The point is that I have a bunch of *.rpt files, which I'd like to run. I want to simulate some of the functionality of the enterprise console (report scheduling, parameter passing, etc). After scheduling a report on a web page, I do not want the user to wait while the report finishes executing. Later on (at an unspecified time), the user could come back and see report history (just like in the enterprise console) and view previously executed reports.

 

[tomkyn]

Sit on the server = crystal enterprise. Sorry.

 

[synapsevampire]

Why not just direct them to CE CSP scheduling screen, then later leverage the CSP history screens, etc?

-k

 

[tomkyn]

Usability issues, difficult interface. We need to simplify the report scheduling process by picking a report from a list, and scheduling default or with parameters, and navigating away from the page. Nothing more. Oh, yes, and we do need to conform to corporate visual guidelines. Any viable way to do this, short of ripping apart the CSP pages?

 

[tomkyn]

On a related note, I'm interested in a good API reference for the CR8.5 Enterprise Model PIA downloadable by Crystal. Namely, how to use the classes, etc. The documentation included in the distro really stinks.

This is the package i'm talking about:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/pro...semb&ref=devzone_netzone_downloads_net_assemb

 

[tomkyn]

Sorry, this is the link. Look to the right side of the page for the download link.

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/products/dev_zone/net/downloads.asp?ref=devzone_netzone_nav

 

[tomkyn]

Enough of mystery... Here is the answer.

Since this is a feature of Crystal Enterprise (CE), you must install Crystal Enterprise on your local machine.

Then, include references to the CE objects in your .NET project.

The CE distro comes with CE_SDK.chm file, which has a pretty decent API reference, and easy to follow examples.