Reports Registry entry

Several Registry entries are required to generate a report:

- define the action for each report type

Specify an association between an internal report type (e.g. Crystal, Excel) and the action to perform when the report is run in the client.

Description

EMu provides several output formats as part of its standard reporting environment. Each report type has a report name that identifies it in the System (e.g. Crystal, Excel), and an output format that defines what the reporting system has to do to run the report.

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned at the system level only:

Key System
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Action
Key 5 report
Value format
System Setting Reports Action report format

where:

report

is the name of a type of report, e.g. Crystal, Excel.

format

is in the format:

[action][location][options]

where:

action

can be:

Save

The output is saved to a file(s). The location defines where the file should be saved. If this option is used, the output of the report will be placed in the file(s) as specified. There are no options for this action.

Launch

The report output is saved to a file(s) as specified by the location setting. Once all the output is saved, the options part specifies what files should be launched. The application with which the file is launched is the application registered for the file type in the Windows Registry. Thus it is the same as double-clicking the file in Windows Explorer.

The options section specifies the files to launch. These can be hard coded paths or file place holders of the form %n where n is the file number in the list of files saved. Thus %1 is the first file saved, %2 the second and so on. If you specify a placeholder greater than the number of files generated, it is ignored silently. The %roption is substituted at runtime for the name of the report to run.

Run

The output is saved in a file as specified by the location setting. Once the output has been saved, the options define the client-side command to be executed. All options available for Launch can be used for Run.

location

can be:

Temp

The output file(s) is saved in the Windows temporary file area (for Windows this is usually C:\Winnt\Temp). The file name used is the same as the file name created on the server. The user is not asked for any input.

ODBC

The output file(s) is saved under the ODBC Data Source for the current module. It is expected that the output files generated are in a format suitable for use by the Microsoft ODBC Text Driver.

File

As each file is copied from the server to the client the Save File box will appear, allowing the user to specify where the file should be saved.

Directory

When the first file is copied from the client to the server the user will be asked to specify a directory into which all files will be saved. The file name used is the same as the file name created on the server.

This entry specifies an action for running a Crystal report:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Action
Key 5 Crystal
Value Run ODBC Crystal/crystal.exe %r

In this example, when a Crystal report is run, the output is stored in the ODBC Data Source for the current module. If the user invokes a Crystal report from the Parties module, the output file is stored under the ODBC Data Source that exists on their machine for the eparties module. The Crystal executable is invoked on the client machine and passed the file name of the report to run.

The following entry specifies an action for running an Excel report:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Action
Key 5 Excel
Value Launch ODBC %r

In this example, when an Excel report is run, the output is stored in the ODBC Data Source for the current module. If the user invokes an Excel report from the Parties module, the output file is stored under the ODBC Data Source that exists on their server for the eparties module. The output file has a file extension of .xls, as defined by the Reports|Extension Registry entry. The output file name is substituted for the %r, and Excel is launched as it would be if the user double-clicked an .xls file in Windows Explorer.

- associate the report extension with an application

Specify an association between a report type and its file extension.

Description

EMu provides several output formats as part of its standard reporting environment. Each report type has a report name that identifies it in the System and a suffix that is the file extension to be appended to the output file's name when generated by the System. The suffix will generally be the file extension associated with the destination report viewing program (e.g. .xls for an Excel or Microsoft ADO report).

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned at the system level only:

Key System
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Extension
Key 5 report
Value suffix
System Setting Reports Extension report suffix

where:

report

is the name of a type of report, e.g.:

  • ArcExplorer
  • Crystal
  • Crystal ADO
  • Excel
  • Microsoft ADO
  • Power Point
  • Word
  • Worperfect

suffix

is the file extension associated with the report type, e.g. .xls for an Excel report or Microsoft ADO report; .doc for a Word report, etc.

This entry specifies that when creating reports of type Word, the output file name should have .doc appended to it:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Extension
Key 5 Word
Value .doc

This entry specifies that when creating reports of type Crystal, the output file name should have .rpt appended to it:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Extension
Key 5 Crystal
Value .rpt

This entry specifies that when creating reports of type Microsoft ADO, the output file name should have .xls appended to it:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Extension
Key 5 Microsoft ADO
Value .xls

Note: When building a new Microsoft ADO report in EMu and running it for the first time, in this case Microsoft Excel will open by default. If you specified .doc as the Value, Microsoft Word would open by default.

- define a filter that needs to run before sending the report output to the client

Specify a filter to be run before sending report output to the client.

Description

The standard EMu reporting facility outputs reporting data in XML format. A filter residing on the server can translate the XML into another format if required. The purpose of this entry is to define a filter to be applied to the XML before it is sent to the client. Every report type can have a filter associated with it. The filter must reside on the server in ~/utils/filtername.

This entry is optional. Most report types are saved on the client machine under the ODBC Data Source for the current module and are translated to ODBC.

The filter is run on the server after any Media Filter.

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned at the system level only:

Key System
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Filter
Key 5 report
Value filter
System Setting Reports Filter report filter

where:

report

is the name of a type of report, e.g. Crystal, Excel.

filter

is the name of a filter to be applied to the XML before it is sent to the client. The filter must reside on the server in ~/utils/filtername.

This entry specifies a filter texxmlodbc that translates Crystal reports into ODBC before being sent to the client:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Filter
Key 5 Crystal
Value texxmlodbc
- define a media filter that translates the location path of an image from its server path to its client-side path

Specify a filter that translates an image's path from its server path to its client-side path.

Description

When a report is run, any images that are displayed in the report have their path stored in the Multimedia field. However, this path is to the image stored on the server. The purpose of this entry is to define a filter that translates the path to what it will be on the client machine, enabling the reporting program to find and display the image.

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned at the system level only:

Key System
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Media Filter
Key 5 report or Default
Value filter
System Setting Reports Media Filter report or Default filter

where:

report

is the name of a type of report, e.g. Crystal, Excel; or use Default for all report types.

filter

is the name of the filter that is run on the server, located in ~/utils/.

This entry specifies a filter called reportsmedia for all Crystal reports:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Media Filter
Key 5 Crystal
Value reportsmedia

This entry specifies that all report types without their own Media Filter entry will be filtered by reportsmedia:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Media Filter
Key 5 Default
Value reportsmedia
- define an association between an internal report type and the name to display in the client

Specify an association between a report type (e.g. Crystal) and the name to display in the client.

Description

EMu provides several output formats as part of its standard reporting environment. Each report type has a report name that identifies it in the System (e.g. Word) and a display name shown in the client (e.g. MS Word). A list of existing report types can be viewed in the Report Properties window (select Reports on the Home tab of the Ribbon, right-click a report, select Properties and click the Type drop list). A Reports Name entry exists for every report type.

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned at the system level only:

Key System
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Name
Key 5 report
Value display
System Setting Reports Name report display

where:

report

is the name of a type of report, e.g. Crystal, Excel.

display

is the display name shown in the client (e.g. Excel).

This entry specifies a report type of Word with the displayable name of Microsoft Word:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Name
Key 5 Word
Value Microsoft Word
- specify the data export format for a record type

Associates a report type (e.g. Crystal Report) with an export format (e.g. ODBC data set, ADO record set).

Description

EMu's Reporting subsystem was modified with version 5.0 in order to bypass some filtering which occurs when a Crystal Report or Microsoft report (Excel, Word, etc.) is generated out of EMu. Bypassing the filtering improves report generation and performance.

The Reporting subsystem has been modified in two major ways:

  • Crystal Reports.

    In order to build and generate a report, Crystal Reports requires a .csv file with the exported EMu data. In previous versions of EMu, data was exported as XML and then filtered to produce one or more ODBC compliant .csv files. The filtering process has been bypassed and EMu is now able to generate the ODBC data source directly.

    Note: This change does not affect the way that you build a Crystal Report, it simply means that the ODBC data source (one or more .csv files) output by EMu is generated far more efficiently. With the Reports|Type Registry entry it is possible to specify whether the filtering process is bypassed or not.

  • Two new report formats have been introduced that report directly to an ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) RecordSet object (XML) rather than reporting to an ODBC data source (CSV). The new report options are:
    • Crystal ADO: report using ADO RecordSets for Crystal (which are accessible via Crystal's ADO connector).
    • Microsoft ADO: report using ADO RecordSets for Microsoft products.

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned at the system level only:

Key System
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Type
Key 5 report
Value value
System Setting Reports Type report value

where:

report

is the name we have used for a type of report, e.g. Crystal CSV, Crystal ADO, Microsoft ADO, etc.

Tip: The name is specified in a Reports|Name Registry entry.

value

is:

0

where report is Crystal CSV (or an equivalent Crystal report type), data is generated as it was in EMu 4.3 and earlier: data is exported as XML and then filtered to produce one or more ODBC compliant .csv files.

Note: In the absence of this entry, a Value of 0 is assumed.

1

where report is Crystal CSV (or an equivalent Crystal report type), the filtering process is bypassed and EMu generates the ODBC data source directly.

2

where report is Crystal ADO (or an equivalent Crystal ADO report type), data is generated as a Crystal ADO RecordSet (i.e. reporting directly to an ActiveX Data Objects RecordSet object rather than reporting to an ODBC data source).

3

where report is Microsoft ADO (or an equivalent Microsoft ADO report type), data is generated as a Microsoft ADO RecordSet t (i.e. reporting directly to an ActiveX Data Objects RecordSet object rather than reporting to an ODBC data source).

This entry specifies that the report type we've called Crystal CSV generates data by bypassing the filtering process and generating the ODBC data source directly:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Type
Key 5 Crystal CSV
Value 1

This entry specifies that the report type we've called Crystal ADO generates data in the Crystal ADO recordset:

Key Setting
Key 1 System
Key 2 Setting
Key 3 Reports
Key 4 Type
Key 5 Crystal ADO
Value 2