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[SHARING] Report Caster, bursting, hierarchy - ideas needed.

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September 25, 2009, 09:18 AM
Kathy P
[SHARING] Report Caster, bursting, hierarchy - ideas needed.
Hi,
I am looking for suggestions or ideas on how to get my end result. The end result would be to store excel compound reports in the library by location with versioning. Location is a hierarchy file and I am using to retrieve parent and all children. This request is two fold. One is to use the library to store the reports and second is to select their main location and the reports run for all the children locations.

Lets say they want all of Michigan's excel reports, so location would grab Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Detroit, but under Detroit, there are more children values, such as Redford, Troy, Dearborn, Livonia, etc. The metro Detroit area consists of several cities.

Client wants them stored in the report caster library with versions, each by location. The reports also need to be printed off to be signed. So, they will more than likely have to run twice, once for the library and again for the printer. They do not want to manually print each report. There will be too many.

I'm currently testing the excel compound report in the library. I was hoping to burst the reports by location. However, if it is going to the library, report caster does not allow me to enter values for bursting. Only for the printer or emails.

My other alternative was to do a loop and execute the fex for each location but report caster only does the last one. But we still want to use the library.

Any ideas or suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Kathy - 7.6.8

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows
September 25, 2009, 01:30 PM
Prarie
Look up information on Report Library Access List.


In Focus since 1993. WebFOCUS 7.7.03 Win 2003
Thanks. I will check it out. Our internet was down yesterday so I could not download the manual. Have it now.


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows
Well, I have not been able to successfully burst a compound XLS report (more than 1 tab) either library or email. The email version looks like a burst but when you open the file, it is blank. If I have only one report, it works. It might not be supported. If that is the case, then I am back to the drawing board. Has anyone bursted a compound excel report through report caster?

Regards,

Kathy


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows
quote:
Coordinated Compound Reports. ReportCaster can burst and distribute coordinated
compound reports developed using the Document Composer in Developer Studio in
DHTML, PDF, and PPT formats. Compound reports that are not coordinated cannot be
burst.


I found this in the RC Admin manual. It looks like you are out of luck as EXL2K is not on the list.


Ginny
---------------------------------
Prod: WF 7.7.01 Dev: WF 7.6.9-11
Admin, MRE,self-service; adapters: Teradata, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, Essbase, ESRI, FlexEnable, Google
Thanks Ginny! Then I will switch it to PDF. Hopefully that will be acceptable to the client.

Have a great day!
Kathy


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows
A little off the topic, but why, do you suppose, they left out Postscript. I have a case open on this one which has been thrown into the "new feature request" bucket. We're trying to run jobs through ReportCaster for distribution directly to a printer, so the output type is PS. The old compound document (SET COMPOUND=OPEN/CLOSE) works fine, but the new compound document syntax which allows for coordination will not burst in PS format. For the life of me I can't figure out why they made it work for PDF, but not for PS. This basically "disallows" distribution directly to a printer via PS (unless, of course, you have a newer printer which has queues that knkow what to do with PDF file. Most printers do not.)


Regards,

Darin



In FOCUS since 1991
WF Server: 7.7.04 on Linux and Z/OS, ReportCaster, Self-Service, MRE, Java, Flex
Data: DB2/UDB, Adabas, SQL Server Output: HTML,PDF,EXL2K/07, PS, AHTML, Flex
WF Client: 77 on Linux w/Tomcat
So, already up front, you are saying I won't be able to send my bursted, coordinated reports directly to the printer?


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows
Not if you're using PS output, which previously was the ONLY way to distribute to a printer. Like the manual says, your options for coordinated compound bursting are DHTML, PDF and PPT. DHTML and PPT are not options for printers. Some higher-end printers now can handle PDF output via processing queues, but most users don't have higher-end printers at or near their desks, so for widely distributed printing, there are no options.

If this is important to you (speaking to EVERYONE), please do open a case/NFR request to move this up the priority list. My case # for your reference is 52022558.


Regards,

Darin



In FOCUS since 1991
WF Server: 7.7.04 on Linux and Z/OS, ReportCaster, Self-Service, MRE, Java, Flex
Data: DB2/UDB, Adabas, SQL Server Output: HTML,PDF,EXL2K/07, PS, AHTML, Flex
WF Client: 77 on Linux w/Tomcat
I have opened a case with IB. PS for bursting compounded reports is a new feature not slated yet for any release.

When I run the hierachy report and select a pdf output for one report, my hierarchy does not print out fully. I have the following code and my caption does not show up in pdf but it does in xls.

SUM
AMOUNT AS 'Total,to date'
ACT
ETC
BY JOB
FOR
ACCTCHLD
'TOTAL DIRECT COSTS' WITH CHILDREN ALL ADD AS CAPTION LABEL R1 WHEN EXISTS

The main reason for doing this was to eliminate the pain of printing all the reports individually on TM1 (IBM). I used the hierarchy to pull all the jobs, create all their reports and thought bursting would take care of the rest. Anyone else with incorrect pdf results when printing out the heirarchy? Any ideas/suggestions?

Thank you.

Kathy


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows
ah ha! If I remove the following statement:
-*ON TABLE SET BLANKINDENT 8
it works in pdf. Who would have thought...

Kathy


Kathy Phillips
Web FOCUS 8.2.05.14, 8.1.05, 8.08, 8.0.7, 8.0.5,8.0.2m, 7.6.10,7.7.03
Windows