Automatic reports via email

Yahoo Archive
1
Anton & Troy,

Thanks so much for the help with this. I have the intranet going, sort of,
and I created a simple html page that lists my reports. However, when I
click the report it always opens it with Crystal. If I go to another
machine and connect to the intranet site and try to click to open one of the
reports, it cannot associate the file extension rpt. I'm sure there is
something I am missing, but I cannot figure out what. From the crystal web
reporting guide there is a section about how to verify that IIS is set up
for this, but when I go into IIS2, I don't have any of the options that it
talks about in the manual b/c the manual addresses IIS4. Can anybody direct
me a little?

Thanks!

Sarah
2
Anyone know of some way to automatically run report builder reports and
email them to someone each week? Thanks.

Amy MacKay
Parkinson Technologies
3
Never thought of this. I do have a utility that runs Report Builder Reports
automatically which could be setup to use a text file printer, then with a
simple Visual Basic routine, you could attach it to a e-mail and send it.
Even better, you might be able to print using a PDF format to an
automatically created file and then attach that.

I currently do something similar, I have several programs that extract data
out of Vantage on a nightly basis, then the Visual Basic programs do number
crunching and format the data in to nice readable e-mail messages and send
them out.

I like your idea and it might be do-able. Thanks for the suggestion.....

Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Mackay [mailto:amackay@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:28 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Anyone know of some way to automatically run report builder reports and
email them to someone each week? Thanks.

Amy MacKay
Parkinson Technologies
4
Mike,
Do you know of a way to do this using a Crystal report?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Podlin, Michael
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:15 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Never thought of this. I do have a utility that runs Report Builder Reports
automatically which could be setup to use a text file printer, then with a
simple Visual Basic routine, you could attach it to a e-mail and send it.
Even better, you might be able to print using a PDF format to an
automatically created file and then attach that.

I currently do something similar, I have several programs that extract data
out of Vantage on a nightly basis, then the Visual Basic programs do number
crunching and format the data in to nice readable e-mail messages and send
them out.

I like your idea and it might be do-able. Thanks for the suggestion.....

Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Mackay [mailto:amackay@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:28 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Anyone know of some way to automatically run report builder reports and
email them to someone each week? Thanks.

Amy MacKay
Parkinson Technologies



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5
Troy,
Do what with Crystal? Report to a File? Run Report Automatically?
E-mail Report information? More information required.
Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 11:23 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Mike,
Do you know of a way to do this using a Crystal report?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Podlin, Michael
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:15 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Never thought of this. I do have a utility that runs Report Builder
Reports
automatically which could be setup to use a text file printer, then with
a
simple Visual Basic routine, you could attach it to a e-mail and send it.
Even better, you might be able to print using a PDF format to an
automatically created file and then attach that.

I currently do something similar, I have several programs that extract
data
out of Vantage on a nightly basis, then the Visual Basic programs do
number
crunching and format the data in to nice readable e-mail messages and send
them out.

I like your idea and it might be do-able. Thanks for the suggestion.....

Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Mackay [mailto:amackay@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:28 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Anyone know of some way to automatically run report builder reports and
email them to someone each week? Thanks.

Amy MacKay
Parkinson Technologies
6
We have a Crystal Report that takes 6 hours to run. We need it at lease weekly. We're using Crystal 8 with Vantage 7. The reports ends up at 200 pages, so we can't send it to the printer unattended because of the printer needing to be refilled. What I would love is for it to automatically run and print to a PDF file and emailed to a person. Scratching the email part would be OK too, and just have it saved as a PDF.

All this being automated would be really nice, so it could be run off-hours, then printed when the printer is somewhat free.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Podlin, Michael
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:28 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Troy,
Do what with Crystal? Report to a File? Run Report Automatically?
E-mail Report information? More information required.
Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 11:23 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Mike,
Do you know of a way to do this using a Crystal report?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Podlin, Michael
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:15 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Never thought of this. I do have a utility that runs Report Builder
Reports
automatically which could be setup to use a text file printer, then with
a
simple Visual Basic routine, you could attach it to a e-mail and send it.
Even better, you might be able to print using a PDF format to an
automatically created file and then attach that.

I currently do something similar, I have several programs that extract
data
out of Vantage on a nightly basis, then the Visual Basic programs do
number
crunching and format the data in to nice readable e-mail messages and send
them out.

I like your idea and it might be do-able. Thanks for the suggestion.....

Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Mackay [mailto:amackay@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:28 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Anyone know of some way to automatically run report builder reports and
email them to someone each week? Thanks.

Amy MacKay
Parkinson Technologies




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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
7
At 01:06 PM 1/18/2001 , you wrote:
>What I would love is for it to automatically run and print to a PDF file
>and emailed to a person. Scratching the email part would be OK too, and
>just have it saved as a PDF.

Used to be, you had to buy the full blown Adobe Acrobat to get the print
driver to PDF utility. But recently I've heard that SeaGate has one for
C.R. that's freeware, although still beta-ish. You might scrounge around
on seaGate's web site.

-Wayne
8
Aother free one that works well too is Hotsend. It is available at www.hotsend.com . It will create two document types; an EXE file (the client needs no special software to view), or a HOT file which can be viewed with a Hotsend viewer.

John Mueske
IS Manager
Hiatt Manufacturing, Inc.
SBS 4.5 - Vantage 3.00.632


----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne Cox
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


At 01:06 PM 1/18/2001 , you wrote:
>What I would love is for it to automatically run and print to a PDF file
>and emailed to a person. Scratching the email part would be OK too, and
>just have it saved as a PDF.

Used to be, you had to buy the full blown Adobe Acrobat to get the print
driver to PDF utility. But recently I've heard that SeaGate has one for
C.R. that's freeware, although still beta-ish. You might scrounge around
on seaGate's web site.

-Wayne






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
9
John, the Hotsend application has been replaced by eFax Messenger Plus. Go
to eFax.com. The newer version has some extremely useful features; such as,
annotations w/ predefined stamps; page rotation; print appending; combining
files; links to pages, other efax files, webpages, and applications. I
create a battery of sales reports at month-end and save them as a single
eFax file (contains 300+ pages with a table of contents page that has links
to page 1 of each report included) that I manually distribute via e-mail and
archived. It's still free - a great piece of software.

Regards
Jim Stetter


-----Original Message-----
From: Hiatt Manufacturing, Inc. [mailto:hiattmfg@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 11:20 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Aother free one that works well too is Hotsend. It is available at
www.hotsend.com . It will create two document types; an EXE file (the client
needs no special software to view), or a HOT file which can be viewed with a
Hotsend viewer.

John Mueske
IS Manager
Hiatt Manufacturing, Inc.
SBS 4.5 - Vantage 3.00.632


----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne Cox
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


At 01:06 PM 1/18/2001 , you wrote:
>What I would love is for it to automatically run and print to a PDF
file
>and emailed to a person. Scratching the email part would be OK too,
and
>just have it saved as a PDF.

Used to be, you had to buy the full blown Adobe Acrobat to get the print
driver to PDF utility. But recently I've heard that SeaGate has one for
C.R. that's freeware, although still beta-ish. You might scrounge
around
on seaGate's web site.

-Wayne






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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10
Seagate has a product called Seagate Info that lets you schedule and
distribute Crystal reports in various formats (CSV, Excel, text, etc.) and
you can have any of these formats e-mailed to users or made available as a
web view on your intranet or over the internet.

They were giving it away for free about a year ago with a 50 user license!
We use it all the time, users can run reports with their own parameters
without having to log into vanatge.


Jerry Solobay

Ebco Aerospace
11
There are simple ways to get systems setup for automating reports and
emailing them, outputting them to PDF with Crystal Reports. Please feel
free to email me to find out more. Everything listed here so far is
possible with Crystal and ODBC.

Ted Kitch
Tedkitch@...

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 12:06 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email

We have a Crystal Report that takes 6 hours to run. We need it at lease
weekly. We're using Crystal 8 with Vantage 7. The reports ends up at 200
pages, so we can't send it to the printer unattended because of the printer
needing to be refilled. What I would love is for it to automatically run and
print to a PDF file and emailed to a person. Scratching the email part
would be OK too, and just have it saved as a PDF.

All this being automated would be really nice, so it could be run off-hours,
then printed when the printer is somewhat free.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Podlin, Michael
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:28 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Troy,
Do what with Crystal? Report to a File? Run Report Automatically?
E-mail Report information? More information required.
Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 11:23 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Mike,
Do you know of a way to do this using a Crystal report?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Podlin, Michael
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 6:15 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Never thought of this. I do have a utility that runs Report Builder
Reports
automatically which could be setup to use a text file printer, then
with
a
simple Visual Basic routine, you could attach it to a e-mail and send
it.
Even better, you might be able to print using a PDF format to an
automatically created file and then attach that.

I currently do something similar, I have several programs that extract
data
out of Vantage on a nightly basis, then the Visual Basic programs do
number
crunching and format the data in to nice readable e-mail messages and
send
them out.

I like your idea and it might be do-able. Thanks for the
suggestion.....

Michael Podlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Mackay [mailto:amackay@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:28 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Anyone know of some way to automatically run report builder reports and
email them to someone each week? Thanks.

Amy MacKay
Parkinson Technologies




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12
I have the add-on to Crystal that allows you to export in PDF format. It is available on Seagate's website. What I would like to see is automation from running the report at a set time each week all the way to having the PDF on the desktop the next morning ready to print (or even emailed automatically to someone).

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne Cox
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


At 01:06 PM 1/18/2001 , you wrote:
>What I would love is for it to automatically run and print to a PDF file
>and emailed to a person. Scratching the email part would be OK too, and
>just have it saved as a PDF.

Used to be, you had to buy the full blown Adobe Acrobat to get the print
driver to PDF utility. But recently I've heard that SeaGate has one for
C.R. that's freeware, although still beta-ish. You might scrounge around
on seaGate's web site.

-Wayne




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13
Troy,

are you using this Add-on with crystal Version 7 or version 8? I would love
this capability, but on the website I only found this for version 8 and I am
still running 7. I have version 8 sitting in a box, but I have heard that
people have issues with it, so I haven't upgraded yet.

Thanks,

Sarah

----------------------------
I have the add-on to Crystal that allows you to export in PDF format. It is
available on Seagate's website. What I would like to see is automation from
running the report at a set time each week all the way to having the PDF on
the desktop the next morning ready to print (or even emailed automatically
to someone).

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics
14
I am using version 8. I am not aware if the PDF export is available for version 7.

Version 8 is far superior to 7 in my honest opinion. It does run faster for some reports than 7 did, primarily because you get to see the first page as soon as it is compiled, and you can begin navigating that page while it continues working on the next 200 pages.

Also, they have fixed SOME of the linking bugs that happen - such as the DECLARE bug (where you had to delete the parenthesis in the SQL statement).

Also, you can have one report running in designer... And open a whole other session of Crystal in another window and start working on another report while the first in crunching away. A great time saver.

Also, with the Web Component, you have a powerful way of distributing reports without needing the compiled reports and ODBC license on each machine that uses the reports. (Only drawback - you need another piece of hardware. But if we had had this before we pruchased 11 ODBC licenses at $99 each, we could have bought a nice machine with NT to run the Web Component and distribute reports.)

Main drawback of version 8 is related to Progress itself... You need to save any Crystal reports that Vantage itself initiates by saving as a version 7 report. It's only a drawback because you have to specify version 7 everytime you save, or it will be a version 8 report.

Install version 8 and start going. The learning curve was very short. A quick glance through new features section of the manual will get you onto the new things fairly quickly. Does anyone read the manuals out there?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

----- Original Message -----
From: sarah.vareschi@...
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 7:10 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Troy,

are you using this Add-on with crystal Version 7 or version 8? I would love
this capability, but on the website I only found this for version 8 and I am
still running 7. I have version 8 sitting in a box, but I have heard that
people have issues with it, so I haven't upgraded yet.

Thanks,

Sarah

----------------------------
I have the add-on to Crystal that allows you to export in PDF format. It is
available on Seagate's website. What I would like to see is automation from
running the report at a set time each week all the way to having the PDF on
the desktop the next morning ready to print (or even emailed automatically
to someone).

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics

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15
Troy,

Thanks for your response. I wish I could remember why I have negative
thoughts associated with version 8. Since I don't remember and since you
gave it a glowing referral, I think I'll try it today. If I can use it, and
I can also save in pdf format to distribute, that would be great. I could
also try to get the web component working down the line, that sounds like
great functionality as well. Thanks again for answering,

Sarah
16
Hi Troy,

I'm sure the last thing you want is to be bombarded with questions about
this, but I'm hoping you can just give one quick answer that will point me
in the right direction.

I installed crystal 8 and so far so good. I also downloaded the adobe
writer utility from their website and it works great so far. I would like
to start using the Web component, but I got stuck very early on.

I don't know what 'web server' software is. I thought it was just internet
explorer or Netscape navigator, but reading on in the manual I see that it
talks about Microsoft information server and Netscape server. Is this
something separate I have to purchase? Which are you using? Sorry for the
apparent ignorance of this question.

Thanks for any feedback,

Sarah
17
Sarah,
You've just hit my area of weakness. I did (by luck and pluck) get Crystal Web Component running on our Vantage server, but Vantage does not recommend this because of potential conflicts with the ODBC drivers and Progress running on the same machine.

Here is the recommended way: Have a separate PC running as a separate server on your network (using Windows NT or 2000). It must also have Server software like Microsoft Information Server. This comes with NT Server version of NT, but I'm not sure how or where you get it if you just have regular NT. Basically, this machine will become an Intranet Server, just like an ISP's computer serves as an Internet server.

On the Server PC, you install ODBC, then install Crystal. If you can run a regular Crystal report on the Server PC using Crystal Designer, you're all set to try the Web Component server.

The Web Component server normally runs as a service in NT. However, there have been problems with Progress and Web component in that setup, so many users on the Egroup have had to run the Web Component from a command prompt, which leaves the program running on the taskbar, but it seems to run fine after that. Ted Kitch on the Onelist is the only person I am aware of that has Web Component running on the Vantage server AND running as a service. I still can't figure out his trick.

Anyway, Once the Web Component is running on the Server PC, then any computer in your company that has Internet Explorer or Netscape can view a Crystal report in their browser. This is done by designing a simple Web page that has the "local url" for the report on the Server PC. By clicking on the "local URL link" the report shows up in their browser, and has all the viewing tools that you normally have in Crystal Designer. Really nifty if you can get the server set up OK. I don't have it set up OK at this time because our only NT machine with Microsoft Information Server is the Vantage server, and it has compromised the reliability of Vantage a number of times. I had it working, but am not currently using Web Component.


All this is meant as an overview to give you the general idea. It's not very technical because I really don't understand the technical aspects enough to explain it to you.

But hope it helps.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


----- Original Message -----
From: sarah.vareschi@...
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 2:46 PM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Hi Troy,

I'm sure the last thing you want is to be bombarded with questions about
this, but I'm hoping you can just give one quick answer that will point me
in the right direction.

I installed crystal 8 and so far so good. I also downloaded the adobe
writer utility from their website and it works great so far. I would like
to start using the Web component, but I got stuck very early on.

I don't know what 'web server' software is. I thought it was just internet
explorer or Netscape navigator, but reading on in the manual I see that it
talks about Microsoft information server and Netscape server. Is this
something separate I have to purchase? Which are you using? Sorry for the
apparent ignorance of this question.

Thanks for any feedback,

Sarah

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18
Troy,

I think you are right. We upgraded from 6 to 8, and it was a big leap. The
product is now much more reliable and the Web Component Server is a
brilliant piece of technology. Luckily for me I had just purchased a couple
of NT Workstations, so I grabbed one for myself and set up an intranet on
it, and we now have our ODBC reports shared on that, no hassle.

The "declare" bug still crops up on very complex reports, but is better than
in 6.

Regarding your drawback of having to save the Vantage-generated reports as
version 7, try this:

**************************************************************************
- Make a backup of the following files from the Epicor/Vantage/Dll folder:

crpe32.dll
crpaig32.dll
crpaig80.dll (if it is present)


- Find the following files on your Crystal Reports 8 development machine,
and copy them into the Epicor/Vantage/Dll folder:

crpe32.dll
crpaig32.dll
crpaig80.dll


That will update the Crystal Reports Engine and related dll's that Vantage
uses, so that it writes version 8 reports and is compatible with any v8-only
features (e.g. Basic Syntax).

If you do have any problems, needless to say, put your old files back, but
I'd be glad to help if I can.

Having said that, it should work fine. I have no problems with it here.
**************************************************************************

On another point, yeah, I do sometimes read the manuals, but they're
frustrating things, and I don't think the Crystal one is a very good one.
As with most software, you get a better understanding of it by having a
quick browse of it's features (which should give you an idea of how you can
best use it) and getting stuck in.



Anton Wilson,
Systems Analyst,
Deanestor Healthcare
















--------------------------------------------------------


Message: 15
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:08:50 -0800
From: "Troy Funte" <tfunte@...>
Subject: Re: Automatic reports via email

I am using version 8. I am not aware if the PDF export is available for
version 7.

Version 8 is far superior to 7 in my honest opinion. It does run faster for
some reports than 7 did, primarily because you get to see the first page as
soon as it is compiled, and you can begin navigating that page while it
continues working on the next 200 pages.

Also, they have fixed SOME of the linking bugs that happen - such as the
DECLARE bug (where you had to delete the parenthesis in the SQL statement).

Also, you can have one report running in designer... And open a whole other
session of Crystal in another window and start working on another report
while the first in crunching away. A great time saver.

Also, with the Web Component, you have a powerful way of distributing
reports without needing the compiled reports and ODBC license on each
machine that uses the reports. (Only drawback - you need another piece of
hardware. But if we had had this before we pruchased 11 ODBC licenses at $99
each, we could have bought a nice machine with NT to run the Web Component
and distribute reports.)

Main drawback of version 8 is related to Progress itself... You need to save
any Crystal reports that Vantage itself initiates by saving as a version 7
report. It's only a drawback because you have to specify version 7
everytime you save, or it will be a version 8 report.

Install version 8 and start going. The learning curve was very short. A
quick glance through new features section of the manual will get you onto
the new things fairly quickly. Does anyone read the manuals out there?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics
19
Troy & Sarah,

grab yourself a copy of NT4 Workstation and upgrade one of your better PCs.
NT4 Workstation comes with "Peer Web Server", which includes IIS2 - OK it's
old, but sufficient to run the Crystal Web Server.

I have no probs with this setup. I use the PC for my work with the intranet
running in the background, doesn't even slow me down... but then again, fast
machine, few concurrent users...

Anton Wilson,
Systems Analyst,
Deanestor Healthcare


---------------------------------------------------


Message: 14
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:09:28 -0800
From: "Troy Funte" <tfunte@...>
Subject: Re: Automatic reports via email

Sarah,
You've just hit my area of weakness. I did (by luck and pluck) get
Crystal Web Component running on our Vantage server, but Vantage does not
recommend this because of potential conflicts with the ODBC drivers and
Progress running on the same machine.

Here is the recommended way: Have a separate PC running as a separate server
on your network (using Windows NT or 2000). It must also have Server
software like Microsoft Information Server. This comes with NT Server
version of NT, but I'm not sure how or where you get it if you just have
regular NT. Basically, this machine will become an Intranet Server, just
like an ISP's computer serves as an Internet server.

On the Server PC, you install ODBC, then install Crystal. If you can run a
regular Crystal report on the Server PC using Crystal Designer, you're all
set to try the Web Component server.

The Web Component server normally runs as a service in NT. However, there
have been problems with Progress and Web component in that setup, so many
users on the Egroup have had to run the Web Component from a command prompt,
which leaves the program running on the taskbar, but it seems to run fine
after that. Ted Kitch on the Onelist is the only person I am aware of that
has Web Component running on the Vantage server AND running as a service. I
still can't figure out his trick.

Anyway, Once the Web Component is running on the Server PC, then any
computer in your company that has Internet Explorer or Netscape can view a
Crystal report in their browser. This is done by designing a simple Web
page that has the "local url" for the report on the Server PC. By clicking
on the "local URL link" the report shows up in their browser, and has all
the viewing tools that you normally have in Crystal Designer. Really nifty
if you can get the server set up OK. I don't have it set up OK at this time
because our only NT machine with Microsoft Information Server is the Vantage
server, and it has compromised the reliability of Vantage a number of times.
I had it working, but am not currently using Web Component.


All this is meant as an overview to give you the general idea. It's not
very technical because I really don't understand the technical aspects
enough to explain it to you.

But hope it helps.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


----- Original Message -----
From: sarah.vareschi@...
To: vantage@egroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 2:46 PM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Automatic reports via email


Hi Troy,

I'm sure the last thing you want is to be bombarded with questions about
this, but I'm hoping you can just give one quick answer that will point me
in the right direction.

I installed crystal 8 and so far so good. I also downloaded the adobe
writer utility from their website and it works great so far. I would like
to start using the Web component, but I got stuck very early on.

I don't know what 'web server' software is. I thought it was just
internet
explorer or Netscape navigator, but reading on in the manual I see that it
talks about Microsoft information server and Netscape server. Is this
something separate I have to purchase? Which are you using? Sorry for
the
apparent ignorance of this question.

Thanks for any feedback,

Sarah

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ted@...


-----Original Message-----
From: it@... [mailto:it@...]
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 3:29 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Automatic reports via email

Troy,

I think you are right. We upgraded from 6 to 8, and it was a big leap. The
product is now much more reliable and the Web Component Server is a
brilliant piece of technology. Luckily for me I had just purchased a couple
of NT Workstations, so I grabbed one for myself and set up an intranet on
it, and we now have our ODBC reports shared on that, no hassle.

The "declare" bug still crops up on very complex reports, but is better than
in 6.

Regarding your drawback of having to save the Vantage-generated reports as
version 7, try this:

**************************************************************************
- Make a backup of the following files from the Epicor/Vantage/Dll folder:

crpe32.dll
crpaig32.dll
crpaig80.dll (if it is present)


- Find the following files on your Crystal Reports 8 development machine,
and copy them into the Epicor/Vantage/Dll folder:

crpe32.dll
crpaig32.dll
crpaig80.dll


That will update the Crystal Reports Engine and related dll's that Vantage
uses, so that it writes version 8 reports and is compatible with any v8-only
features (e.g. Basic Syntax).

If you do have any problems, needless to say, put your old files back, but
I'd be glad to help if I can.

Having said that, it should work fine. I have no problems with it here.
**************************************************************************

On another point, yeah, I do sometimes read the manuals, but they're
frustrating things, and I don't think the Crystal one is a very good one.
As with most software, you get a better understanding of it by having a
quick browse of it's features (which should give you an idea of how you can
best use it) and getting stuck in.



Anton Wilson,
Systems Analyst,
Deanestor Healthcare
















--------------------------------------------------------


Message: 15
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:08:50 -0800
From: "Troy Funte" <tfunte@...>
Subject: Re: Automatic reports via email

I am using version 8. I am not aware if the PDF export is available for
version 7.

Version 8 is far superior to 7 in my honest opinion. It does run faster for
some reports than 7 did, primarily because you get to see the first page as
soon as it is compiled, and you can begin navigating that page while it
continues working on the next 200 pages.

Also, they have fixed SOME of the linking bugs that happen - such as the
DECLARE bug (where you had to delete the parenthesis in the SQL statement).

Also, you can have one report running in designer... And open a whole other
session of Crystal in another window and start working on another report
while the first in crunching away. A great time saver.

Also, with the Web Component, you have a powerful way of distributing
reports without needing the compiled reports and ODBC license on each
machine that uses the reports. (Only drawback - you need another piece of
hardware. But if we had had this before we pruchased 11 ODBC licenses at $99
each, we could have bought a nice machine with NT to run the Web Component
and distribute reports.)

Main drawback of version 8 is related to Progress itself... You need to save
any Crystal reports that Vantage itself initiates by saving as a version 7
report. It's only a drawback because you have to specify version 7
everytime you save, or it will be a version 8 report.

Install version 8 and start going. The learning curve was very short. A
quick glance through new features section of the manual will get you onto
the new things fairly quickly. Does anyone read the manuals out there?

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics





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