Report Builder Exporting

system · September 5, 2001, 5:57pm

Wayne,
Do you know if you can export payroll files this way. It would be very
useful for me if I could.

Thanks,
Rhonda

-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Cox [mailto:wmc@...]
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 10:25 AM
To: lcyr@...; vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Report Builder Exporting

At 09:51 AM 8/22/2001 , you wrote:

>Yes, that would be nice to be able to export to excel dirrectly. I'm using
>4.0. What where your thoughts on exporting directly?

Back in 3.0 I discovered that when you ran the Export Utility, it actually
generated a chuck of Progress source code in the Vntgwork directory to do
the work. Normally, it deletes it after it runs. But if you slowed down
the process (exporting to a floppy disk worked nicely) you could grab a
copy of the program while it was running.

Once you had that, you could make a permanent copy, and setup a menu item
for it. That way, users could run exports without having to grant access
to the whole export utility. You could also get fancy, and prompt for
dates or other parameters.

Unfortunately, in 4.0 they rewrote the export utility, and you can't do
this anymore. I messed around with NT permissions on VntgWork to deny
deletes and was able to capture all the temporary code. But it no longer
generates a stand alone program like 3 used to. The export programs that 3
generated will still run under 4; so if you still have a test DB with 3 you
can generate them there. Or I have some samples that you could use as a
skeleton to write your own. I'll try uploading one to our files section...

-Wayne Cox

Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

system · August 20, 2001, 7:59am

Hi All,

I've got a small problem and I'm quite sure you folks can help me out with
it.

I have a few reports that need to be exported to excel format every month.

So what I do, is put semi-colons to separate the info and export it in a
text file to create a comma separated value file to import in excel.

The problem is, when setting reports inside of vantage, the users DO NOT
have access to exporting the info.

Also, I am the only one that has access to report builder. The basis of
that is because we dont want users to make permanent changes to the reports
created.

So every month I end up having to export about 10 reports to a text file
that I give my users.

The question is, IS there a way for them to do the export themselves?

Thanks,

Luc N. Cyr
Enseignes Imperial Signs

system · August 20, 2001, 11:13am

I would create a 'generic text only' printer on each workstation, and
have each user select as default before running report.

Another approach would be to modify the RB engine code Steve Sanders
uploaded to work with your report. You would have to remove all
references to begin/end dates, and not override rb-filter.

Also in the program set...
report-library = 'YourPRLPathAndName'.
rb-printer-name = 'Generic / Text Only'.
rb-report-name = 'The Complete Report Name'.

This would not be an easy approach without Procedure Editor or
AppBuilder.

Lonnie

--- In vantage@y..., "Luc Cyr" <lcyr@e...> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I've got a small problem and I'm quite sure you folks can help me
out with
> it.
>
> I have a few reports that need to be exported to excel format every
month.
>
> So what I do, is put semi-colons to separate the info and export it
in a
> text file to create a comma separated value file to import in excel.
>
> The problem is, when setting reports inside of vantage, the users
DO NOT
> have access to exporting the info.
>
> Also, I am the only one that has access to report builder. The
basis of
> that is because we dont want users to make permanent changes to the
reports
> created.
>
> So every month I end up having to export about 10 reports to a text
file
> that I give my users.
>
> The question is, IS there a way for them to do the export
themselves?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Luc N. Cyr
> Enseignes Imperial Signs

system · August 20, 2001, 11:40am

It seems that you should be able to use Michael Podlin's AutoRpts program to
run the reports for you each month creating the text files. Once setup, you
would not need to take any other action to get them the files each month.

his homepage: http:\\members.aol.com\mpodlin\index.html

Jerry Boyle
Sipco Molding Technologies
Meadville, Pa. 16335-6725
814.724.2243
Visit our web site at www.sipco.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Luc Cyr [mailto:lcyr@...]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 8:00 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Report Builder Exporting
I've got a small problem and I'm quite sure you folks can help me out with
it.
I have a few reports that need to be exported to excel format every month.
So what I do, is put semi-colons to separate the info and export it in a
text file to create a comma separated value file to import in excel.
The problem is, when setting reports inside of vantage, the users DO NOT
have access to exporting the info.
Also, I am the only one that has access to report builder. The basis of
that is because we dont want users to make permanent changes to the reports
created.
So every month I end up having to export about 10 reports to a text file
that I give my users.
The question is, IS there a way for them to do the export themselves?
Thanks,
Luc N. Cyr
Enseignes Imperial Signs

system · August 21, 2001, 4:52pm

At 04:38 PM 8/21/2001 , "Luc Cyr" <lcyr@e...> wrote:

>I have a few reports that need to be exported to excel format every
>month. .....is put semi-colons to separate the info and export it in a
>text file to ... import in excel.
>
>when setting reports inside of vantage, the users DO NOT have access to
>exporting the info.

Either of the two programs recently uploaded to our YahooGroups Files
section (thanks to Lonnie & Steve) could be adapted to handle this.

The trick is to call _printrb with the RB-PRINT-DESTINATION parameter set
to "A". This does a text export with no print control characters,
identical with using the "Export" from within Report
Builder. RB-OUTPUT-FILE specifies the output pathname. This would let you
run the export directly from a Vantage menu item, or a windoze
shortcut. No need to mess with the quirky "generic / text only" print driver.

If you're on Vantage 3, there is another trick that lets you capture the
source code generated by Vantage's Export Utility, and run it directly from
a menu item. This can even export directly in an Excel of DBF format, and
skip the text import step.

-Wayne Cox

system · August 21, 2001, 6:27pm

I dived in and changed a few reports to filter using runtime-parameters and
created udxxxx.W procedures to prompt for these parameters, only to find it
is considerably slower.

For example one report asks for project number. When setup to use a custom
report link it will take less than 10 seconds to get the edit filter screen
displayed and less than 10 seconds to have the report in preview.

If I use the same report and launch using _printrb I can enter the project
number immediately, but it takes over 2 minutes for the preview to be
displayed and it is still reading records for about another 30 seconds.

Strangely, if I run the same routine from Procedure editor, it only takes
about 20 seconds for the preview to be displayed. This is why I didn't find
out about the delay until after I had told someone how much better it is.

HELP !!!! The 2 minute delay means that I have to go back to using custom
report links and edit-filters.

Michael Miles
Continental Conveyor

system · August 21, 2001, 8:16pm

At 08:29 AM 8/22/2001 +1000, you wrote:

>I dived in and changed a few reports to filter using runtime-parameters and
>created udxxxx.W procedures to prompt for these parameters, only to find it
>is considerably slower.

Seems like I read something in the _R.B. Deployment Guide_ that said using
run time parameters or filters could require the report data to have to be
evaluated on the client PC, rather than at the server. But I can't find it
now. If that's what's happening, your PC has to pull all the data over the
wire, and evaluate it locally instead of letting the server crunch it all
and only return the relevant data. Big Time slow down.

What if you leave the filters, runtime-parameters, etc null and allow it to
use what's saved with the report? Is the time identical or slower?

Are you specifying all the filter parameters required for on-server
evaluation, like {table}.Company ?

-Wayne Cox

system · August 21, 2001, 9:15pm

Spot on, it does appear to be making the PC do all the work. If I leave my
filter at ProjectID="example" and launch from _printrb it works at the usual
speed (preview in about 20s).

I've always included Company in my joins, but wasn't aware of the need to do
so in filters. I added Company to my filter so that it was :-

Project.Company = 'xxxx'
and Project.ProjectID = RunTime-Project

and there was no improvement, it still took over 2 minutes to get the
preview and was reading records for over 30 seconds after that.

Would a solution be to use RB-FILTER instead ?
-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Cox [mailto:wmc@...]
Sent: Wednesday, 22 August 2001 10:14
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Launching Report from Code much slower than
Custom Report Link ?

At 08:29 AM 8/22/2001 +1000, you wrote:

>I dived in and changed a few reports to filter using runtime-parameters and
>created udxxxx.W procedures to prompt for these parameters, only to find it
>is considerably slower.

Seems like I read something in the _R.B. Deployment Guide_ that said using
run time parameters or filters could require the report data to have to be
evaluated on the client PC, rather than at the server. But I can't find it
now. If that's what's happening, your PC has to pull all the data over the
wire, and evaluate it locally instead of letting the server crunch it all
and only return the relevant data. Big Time slow down.

What if you leave the filters, runtime-parameters, etc null and allow it to
use what's saved with the report? Is the time identical or slower?

Are you specifying all the filter parameters required for on-server
evaluation, like {table}.Company ?

-Wayne Cox

system · August 21, 2001, 9:53pm

I don't think this is the whole answer to your problem, but it might be
a contributor. When you apply filters to a report, you need to be
careful about which fields you filter on, and how you structure the
request. Progress has to select the records that match you filter
fields, and if one of those fields is un-indexed. then progress must
examine every record in the table to find the ones of interest. It is
there fore best to structure your filter such that index fields appear
before un-indexed, and the indexed fields appear in the same sequence as
they are used in the index (where possible). Progress will make a pretty
good job of selecting the best index(es) to use, but the more help you
can give it the better. The only part of the request that is resolved on
the server side is the selection of records based on indexes. If you
filter on un indexed fields, that will be processed on the client side,
and all records of potential interest will be sent over. Obviously then,
eliminating records based on indexes will help performance. You can see
what indexes are available on any table by examine the Progress Data
Dictionary.

HTH.

Michael Miles wrote:

>
> I dived in and changed a few reports to filter using runtime-parameters and
> created udxxxx.W procedures to prompt for these parameters, only to find it
> is considerably slower.
>
> For example one report asks for project number. When setup to use a custom
> report link it will take less than 10 seconds to get the edit filter screen
> displayed and less than 10 seconds to have the report in preview.
>
> If I use the same report and launch using _printrb I can enter the project
> number immediately, but it takes over 2 minutes for the preview to be
> displayed and it is still reading records for about another 30 seconds.
>
> Strangely, if I run the same routine from Procedure editor, it only takes
> about 20 seconds for the preview to be displayed. This is why I didn't find
> out about the delay until after I had told someone how much better it is.
>
> HELP !!!! The 2 minute delay means that I have to go back to using custom
> report links and edit-filters.
>
> Michael Miles
> Continental Conveyor
>
>
> Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
> (1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
> (2) To search through old msg's goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
> (3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

--
/* ================================================================*/

Specialists in Progress Databases and Software since 1986

William E. Colls william@...
PROComputer Systems Tel 613 591 0079
67 Willow Glen Dr. Fax 613 591 3924
Kanata Ontario Canada www.procomsys.com
K2M 1T1

system · August 21, 2001, 10:14pm

At 11:16 AM 8/22/2001 +1000, you wrote:

>Spot on, it does appear to be making the PC do all the work. If I leave my
>filter at ProjectID="example" and launch from _printrb it works at the usual
>speed (preview in about 20s).
>I've always included Company in my joins, but wasn't aware of the need to do
>so in filters.

Yup. Say you're reporting on LaborDtl that has an index in
Company,JobNum,SomethingElse and you're filtering on JobNum and you only
have one company set up -- for the server to take advantage of the indices
you still have to specify Company = '{your_one_and_only_company}'.

>Project.Company = 'xxxx' and Project.ProjectID = RunTime-Project
>and there was no improvement, it still took over 2 minutes to get the

Hmm, yeah, that makes sense. RB is probably too dumb to realize that a
calculated field with RunTime-Parameter() is really a constant value, so it
can't evaluate it on the server. If you incorporate it into the RB-Filter
as a constant, like you mentioned, it might be able to crunch it
quickly. Tried that?

-Wayne Cox

system · August 21, 2001, 11:02pm

What Progress PDF will give me information on _printrb ? I'm trying to wing
it from the example Steve posted, but I'm not having any success. I'm
trying to give it a filter, but Report-Filter() is saying "Include all
records".

I created an instant report on Region as a small table to test with :-

RUN v:\progress\gui\aderb\_printrb(
"h:\vantage\Test-Region.prl", /* RB-REPORT-LIBRARY */
"Region", /* RB-REPORT-NAME */
"", /* RB-DB-CONNECTION */
"", /* RB-INCLUDE-RECORDS */
"RegionCode BEGINS 'N'", /* RB-FILTER */
"", /* RB-MEMO-FILE */

-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Cox [mailto:wmc@...]

can't evaluate it on the server. If you incorporate it into the RB-Filter
as a constant, like you mentioned, it might be able to crunch it
quickly. Tried that?

system · August 21, 2001, 11:12pm

try qualifying the field with a table name e.g.

region.regioncode begins 'N'

Michael Miles wrote:

>
> What Progress PDF will give me information on _printrb ? I'm trying to wing
> it from the example Steve posted, but I'm not having any success. I'm
> trying to give it a filter, but Report-Filter() is saying "Include all
> records".
>
> I created an instant report on Region as a small table to test with :-
>
> RUN v:\progress\gui\aderb\_printrb(
> "h:\vantage\Test-Region.prl", /* RB-REPORT-LIBRARY */
> "Region", /* RB-REPORT-NAME */
> "", /* RB-DB-CONNECTION */
> "", /* RB-INCLUDE-RECORDS */
> "RegionCode BEGINS 'N'", /* RB-FILTER */
> "", /* RB-MEMO-FILE */
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wayne Cox [mailto:wmc@...]
>
> can't evaluate it on the server. If you incorporate it into the RB-Filter
> as a constant, like you mentioned, it might be able to crunch it
> quickly. Tried that?
>
>
> Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
> (1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
> (2) To search through old msg's goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
> (3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

--
/* ================================================================*/

Specialists in Progress Databases and Software since 1986

William E. Colls william@...
PROComputer Systems Tel 613 591 0079
67 Willow Glen Dr. Fax 613 591 3924
Kanata Ontario Canada www.procomsys.com
K2M 1T1

system · August 21, 2001, 11:33pm

At 01:04 PM 8/22/2001 +1000, you wrote:

>What Progress PDF will give me information on _printrb ? I'm trying to wing

"Report Builder Deployment Guide" Sorry, don't have the URL handy here at
home. But it's under the "Reporting Tools" section if you know where to
find the library at PSC.

>trying to give it a filter, but Report-Filter() is saying "Include all
>records".

Think you need to set RB-Include-Records. Values are:
S - (saved) use what's in the report
E - (entire) no filters
O - (override) use RB-Filter parameter
? - prompt to enter a filter, or modify saved filter. (dunno it that's a
constant "?" or an `unknown' value?)
blank - same as "S"

-Wayne

system · August 22, 2001, 12:06am

Changing RB-Include-Records to "O" did the trick. I now have user friendly
data entry back and it loads in a time similar to the Custom Reports method.

I learnt something today, so I can go home happy !

Thanks Wayne ...
-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Cox [mailto:wmc@...]

>trying to give it a filter, but Report-Filter() is saying "Include all
>records".

Think you need to set RB-Include-Records. Values are:
S - (saved) use what's in the report
E - (entire) no filters
O - (override) use RB-Filter parameter
? - prompt to enter a filter, or modify saved filter. (dunno it that's a
constant "?" or an `unknown' value?)
blank - same as "S"

system · August 22, 2001, 3:04am

"go home happy" ?, you guys been working all evening? Who works this
time of night?!? It's Guinness and NTN trivia tuesday!?! (On-Tap
B'ham,- look us up- Gold League, summer promotions at ntn.com), ....
but I'm glad you're discussing programmin'. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash,
wherever you are.....

--- In vantage@y..., "Michael Miles" <mmiles@c...> wrote:
> Changing RB-Include-Records to "O" did the trick. I now have user
friendly
> data entry back and it loads in a time similar to the Custom
Reports method.
>
> I learnt something today, so I can go home happy !
>
> Thanks Wayne ...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wayne Cox [mailto:wmc@u...]
>
> >trying to give it a filter, but Report-Filter() is saying "Include
all
> >records".
>
> Think you need to set RB-Include-Records. Values are:
> S - (saved) use what's in the report
> E - (entire) no filters
> O - (override) use RB-Filter parameter
> ? - prompt to enter a filter, or modify saved filter. (dunno it
that's a
> constant "?" or an `unknown' value?)
> blank - same as "S"

system · August 22, 2001, 12:57pm

At 09:51 AM 8/22/2001 , you wrote:

>Yes, that would be nice to be able to export to excel dirrectly. I'm using
>4.0. What where your thoughts on exporting directly?

Back in 3.0 I discovered that when you ran the Export Utility, it actually
generated a chuck of Progress source code in the Vntgwork directory to do
the work. Normally, it deletes it after it runs. But if you slowed down
the process (exporting to a floppy disk worked nicely) you could grab a
copy of the program while it was running.

Once you had that, you could make a permanent copy, and setup a menu item
for it. That way, users could run exports without having to grant access
to the whole export utility. You could also get fancy, and prompt for
dates or other parameters.

Unfortunately, in 4.0 they rewrote the export utility, and you can't do
this anymore. I messed around with NT permissions on VntgWork to deny
deletes and was able to capture all the temporary code. But it no longer
generates a stand alone program like 3 used to. The export programs that 3
generated will still run under 4; so if you still have a test DB with 3 you
can generate them there. Or I have some samples that you could use as a
skeleton to write your own. I'll try uploading one to our files section...

-Wayne Cox

system · August 22, 2001, 5:37pm

Did I see source code uploaded? Ok, as promised here's the Employee
Selection program.

Replace "EmployeeImagePath" with path to image
directory, "YourCompanyName" with value of company field.

Copy to vantage\ud directory and run from an icon. Sample command
line...

v:\EPIC50\PROGRESS\bin\prowin32.exe -db v:\epic50
\vantage\db\vantage.db -N TCP -H ServerName -S Epic50 -p
v:\vantage\ud\EmpSlct.w

--- In vantage@y..., Wayne Cox <wmc@u...> wrote:
> At 09:51 AM 8/22/2001 , you wrote:
> >Yes, that would be nice to be able to export to excel dirrectly.
I'm using
> >4.0. What where your thoughts on exporting directly?
>
> Back in 3.0 I discovered that when you ran the Export Utility, it
actually
> generated a chuck of Progress source code in the Vntgwork directory
to do
> the work. Normally, it deletes it after it runs. But if you
slowed down
> the process (exporting to a floppy disk worked nicely) you could
grab a
> copy of the program while it was running.
>
> Once you had that, you could make a permanent copy, and setup a
menu item
> for it. That way, users could run exports without having to grant
access
> to the whole export utility. You could also get fancy, and prompt
for
> dates or other parameters.
>
> Unfortunately, in 4.0 they rewrote the export utility, and you
can't do
> this anymore. I messed around with NT permissions on VntgWork to
deny
> deletes and was able to capture all the temporary code. But it no
longer
> generates a stand alone program like 3 used to. The export
programs that 3
> generated will still run under 4; so if you still have a test DB
with 3 you
> can generate them there. Or I have some samples that you could use
as a
> skeleton to write your own. I'll try uploading one to our files
section...
>
> -Wayne Cox