Automatic generation of reports from templates on the Crystal Report Server

[Former Member]

Hello,

We are new to Crystal Report Server so please feel free to correct me.

We are investigating the possibility of the automatic generation of reports from the templates on the Crystal Report Server XI Release 2 via the automatic retrieval of the data from certain databases and inserting this into the template on the Crystal Report Server

We are planning that our Java Application Server sends a message with particular parameters to Crystal Report Server each time an instance of a particular report should be generated.

Parameterlist contains Information, which template to use, for example a templateID, SQL-query or just u201CWHEREu201D-clause of the SQL-query as a String, to retrieve data sets, and some parameters which are needed to connect to a particular database.

On the Crystal Report Server side the following steps should be executed:

1. Connect to a specified Database (we use Oracle Database)

2. execute the SQL-query

3. insert the result data sets into specified template to generate a reportinstance

After the report is generated, it should be scheduled to one or more specified printers.

Has anyone programmed something like that before? Can anyone send a code snippet?

Thank you!

Best regards

Angelika

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Is it possible to pass somehow the SQL-Query to Crystal Report Server XI, so that it retrieves the data sets from the specified database and inserts them into the template automatically?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yes this is a functionality you could have using Crystal Reports Server. You will need to do some development (build an application using an SDK)..... out of the box, without using custom code, you can't really do it. The closest you might come is to adding a record selection formula to filter your data, however you will still be required to add your data at design time.

The Report Application Server SDK has the capability of passing a sql query at runtime. With this you can create a result set from your database, and add that to your report template at runtime. This way you can design templates without data and add that data when you run the report.

The trick is that the Report Application Server SDK doesn't schedule reports, only modifies them at runtime, so after adding your report source you would need to commit the report back to your CMS database, and then schedule it using the BusinessObjects Enterprise SDK.

I would highly recommend reviewing the documentation referenced earlier in this thread to get an idea of what the different SDK's can do.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Is it possible to expose the code written with RAS SDK which generates automatic reports from templates as web services?

[ted_ueda · Accepted solution]

There RAS report creation/modification functionality is not exposed as a Web Service, but only via the proprietary Enterprise Framework via the RAS SDK.

Sincerely,

Ted Ueda

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Ted,

is there a possibility to acess that functionality remotely? Is it possible to write my own Web Service in order to call the function which generates the reports from templates remotely?

Sincerely,

Angelika

[ted_ueda · Accepted solution]

You'd then be creating a Web Service interface to the RAS SDK.

CR Server <> RAS SDK <> Your Custom Web Service Provider <--> Consumer

The RAS SDK [docs|http://devlibrary.businessobjects.com/BusinessObjectsXIR2SP2/en/en/RAS_SDK/default.htm].

Sincerely,

Ted Ueda

[former_member203619]

Another option would be to just build the report from scratch - or you could take an existing report, and modify it by either added a dataset, and then adding the fields to the report.

This would be done using the RAS RCAPI SDK.

Shawn

[Former Member]

Angelika, I'm not sure if I understand you correct. Do you wish to alter the query or just the where clause? If you wish to alter the where clause only you can use parameters in the reports and set the parameter values once you schedule the report.

Please read the "How to set parameter information tutorial" in our Developer Library for further information.

http://devlibrary.businessobjects.com/BusinessObjectsXIR2SP2/en/devsuite.htm#en/Viewers_SDK/viewerss...

Further information about scheduling are available in "Schedule a report to run" - Business Objects Enterprise SDK

http://devlibrary.businessobjects.com/BusinessObjectsXIR2SP2/en/devsuite.htm#en/BOE_SDK/boesdk_java_...