Publishing LBI / Crystal

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Joe O'Toole
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    We recently installed LBI and I'm looking for a way in LRS / Crystal to create reports that are written to disk. I've heard that some versions of the Crystal server can do this, but I’m told the version of this that Lawson OEM’s with LRS does not have that functionality and that LBI can only publish to a printer or email device. It was my understanding that Lawson was positioning LRS / Crystal  as the “new technology” offering for users who wanted to get away from RW100 and HR Writer. The ability to do this seemed so simple we did not discuss it at length prior to implementation. As a workaround we were considering the possability of setting up virtual printers to get the reports to go to a file. Has anyone out there accomplished this?

    jellis
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      Hi Joe,

      Are you doing RAS on the local box or a remote box? I have a thread here called LBI Installed and I am having some teething problems with Crystal and if you just went through this would love some input.

      Joe O'Toole
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        Our LBI is installed on a seperate machine than the Lawson app server. As an alternative to the virtual printer pointing at a folder, I was thinking about using a PDF printer plugin. Not sure how LBI would like that.

        John Henley
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          Hi Joe,

          Are you talking about for published "Back-Office" reports, or for "custom" Crystal reports, or both?

          Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
          John
          Joe O'Toole
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            The immediate need is to have LBI / Crystal run a custom Crystal report we developed (in an automated fashion) and store the report as a pdf file.
            Milo Tsukroff
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              Joe:  As installed, standard LBI with the Crystal Report Application Server (RAS) will do exactly what you want.  All of our Crystal Reports are published by running schedules overnight.  They are stored in the LBI Repository as PDF's - and, since we apply bursting security, each individual security view is stored as a separate PDF as well. Here's the key - Tell LBI to publish reports as PDF's, then, look in the LBI Repository. 

              It's a no-brainer - and now you can look like a genius!

              Matthew Nye
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                Milo,
                Isnt it true that the individual PDFs dont have a specific name identifying what they contain, is that what youve found? I think the naming convention is:

                reportID_InstanceID_reportName_
                Example:
                15_2_IncomeStatement

                Is that true or have you found otherwise?
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                Milo Tsukroff
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                  Matthew: The instance naming convention you mention is used in the History portion of LBI. What I find out in the Repository is somewhat different. The top level has a folder name of just reportName_reportID and under it folders of name date.instanceID. Within each of those instanceID folders is one .rpt and one .pdf named reportName_InstanceID and then under that a folder called "Publications" with .pdf's of name reportName_reportID_publicationID which correspond to the individual bursted rights. Once you look in the repository the #'ing makes sense.
                  Matthew Nye
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                    Publication ID is also an auto incrementing number correct?
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                    Milo Tsukroff
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                      Publication ID is tricky.  Under certain cache settings, not all publications will be generated.  So I have seen some numbers "missing" in the Publications folder.  That occurs when only a few people view report with a lot of different rights assigned.  Then, I'm not certain what happens when you add a new user with new rights to an existing report.  I would assume that the Publication number would auto-increment, but, I haven't tested it yet.

                      Joe O'Toole
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                        Thanks for the info - we're going to need to test this. Based on your experience with this, if for example I had a crystal report called sales_report.pdf that runs weekly in LBI for various process levels, would an automated process be able to reliably find that file in the repository every week? If the names are constantly changing, this might be difficult to accomplish.

                        Milo Tsukroff
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                          Joe: The base name stays the same, it's only the numbers in the name that change. A decent script writer can make the script detect the file based on the number, if the script has the base name coded in. It should not be very difficult. Also, a script should be able to search for folders and names by using date parameters, which makes things even easier. I think that once you test it you'll see what is going on in the LBI Repository & you'll be pleasantly surprised.

                          The one thing to watch out for is that you always make your scheduled report output to a PDF. The default is RPT and you have to remember to change it to PDF each time.
                          Joe O'Toole
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                            Do you know if bursted reports have the same naming conventions? Ultimately, I'd like each process level burst into a different folder, but it sounds like Lawson can only burst to a printer or email address.
                            Milo Tsukroff
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                              I'm no expert, but this I know very well. Follow closely: Each User Right has a set of group rights for a structure. A report that is being burst has structure fields mapped. Reporting Services searches to match the data in the structure fields against the user rights. For each matching set of user rights, RS creates a "Rule" - a unique set of 'bursting rights'. Each Rule generates a unique PDF. You can view the various Rules in the Publication section to see what they are. If two or more User Rights ends up with the same Rule, they are directed to the same PDF.

                              Even worse -- if data in a report does not match any a particular Rule, I believe that no report is generated for it, and it is not included in the Rule numbering.

                              Although I haven't done it myself, I believe that it's possible to write a report that will find the number of the exact Rule that matches to a given User Right, thus enabling you to locate the particular PDF you're looking for.

                              So, if you want to distribute the reports for a particular Rule to a consolidated folder, it would take some programming work. I do believe that it's possible, though I haven't done it yet. I found that the LBI tables are accessable and, with some work, understandable. One resource that's available is the set of ERD's here in LawsonGuru. Okay, 'Nuff said.
                              Milo Tsukroff
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                                I'm no expert, but this I know very well. Follow closely: Each User Right has a set of group rights for a structure. A report that is being burst has structure fields mapped. Reporting Services searches to match the data in the structure fields against the user rights. For each matching set of user rights, RS creates a "Rule" - a unique set of 'bursting rights'. Each Rule generates a unique PDF. You can view the various Rules in the Publication section to see what they are. If two or more User Rights ends up with the same Rule, they are directed to the same PDF.

                                Even worse -- if data in a report does not match any a particular Rule, I believe that no report is generated for it, and it is not included in the Rule numbering.

                                Although I haven't done it myself, I believe that it's possible to write a report that will find the number of the exact Rule that matches to a given User Right, thus enabling you to locate the particular PDF you're looking for.

                                So, if you want to distribute the reports for a particular Rule to a consolidated folder, it would take some programming work. I do believe that it's possible, though I haven't done it yet. I found that the LBI tables are accessable and, with some work, understandable. One resource that's available is the set of ERD's here in LawsonGuru. Okay, 'Nuff said.
                                Joe O'Toole
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                                  It appears that each scheduled report publishes to a uniquely named folder under it's home folder in lawson documents every time it runs.

                                  IE: \\LBI_Server\LawsonDocuments\X_Reportname\Instances\2009-03-11_1, 2009-03-11_2, etc.

                                  So developing a process to "find" this report looks like it would be a pretty messy workaround.
                                  Now since LBI's publishing features may not be the best, I'm wondering what all the non Lawson Crystal customers use from Business Objects.
                                  Does anyone have any experience with BO's scheduler / publisher?
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