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Crystal Reports: Input Directory Administration

We are long past the days when Seagate Info was new. Yet, it's still being used. Quite often, it's part of another system (e.g., a production control and reporting system) package, and there's really no need to change it.

With that in mind, we have this hint specifically for those of you using Seagate Info 7 to schedule and distribute your reports. In the Info Administrator (on the Instances Tab), you specify the directories where you store your report objects.

One of the options is to "Copy new input objects to Input Location." This saves Exellent.rpt in the Input Directory as SI~2345.rpt. Now this might be great for solving any conflicts with NT share security, but it makes management of your files difficult.

We strongly suggest you manually copy your rpt files to the server and set them up on the desktop with their original names. Then they are a lot easier to find and change in the future.

This whole issue is gone in Crystal Reports. You don't have to work with report objects. But you will have other cases where you need to find out where files are or in some way analyze your file system. That's especially true in a mixed-legacy environment, such as that in merged companies that have different databases and different reporting systems to try to blend.

What's the solution then?

Report Analyzer to the rescue.

This is the ultimate documentation and analysis tool for Crystal Reports administrators, server administrators, and others who need to maintain electronic filing systems.

Originally developed as a Crystal Reports tool only, with its version 5 release Report Analyzer became a powerful tool for analyzing any data repository.

Some key points:

Generate summary and detailed documentation.
Analyze report complexity metrics to assist with test plan development and maintenance planning.
Easy to use documentation explorer to browse and compare report design settings.
Print report design diagrams.
Print report data dictionaries.
Extensive formula printouts including call trees, object cross references, formatted listing, and conditional formulas.
All documentation can be exported in a variety of formats including PDF, HTML and Word.
Uses Crystal Reports to produce the documentation, enabling complete customization.

Report Analyzer can also help you (tremendously) with project management. How so? Report Analyzer generates comprehensive documentation of your reports, with over 100 presentation quality reports. Complexity metrics assist with test case planning and maintenance estimates.

Generate summary and detailed documentation.

Analyze report complexity metrics to assist with test plan development and maintenance planning.

Easy to use documentation explorer to browse and compare report design settings.

Print report design diagrams.

Print report data dictionaries.

Extensive formula printouts including call trees, object cross references, formatted listing, and conditional formulas.

All documentation can be exported in a variety of formats including PDF, HTML and Word.

Uses Crystal Reports to produce the documentation, enabling complete customization.

And it will definitely help you improve your reporting system reliability. Report Analyzer documents over 30 design and style settings.

Discover unused Formulas, Fields, and Variables.

Identify group settings that cause blank pages and footers.

Identify missing standard Crystal documentation best practices (Report Title, Author, Description special fields).

Locate reports which may use the "Convert null field to default" setting inconsistently.

Keep versions of your documented reports for historical comparison.

This article is copyrighted by Crystalkeen, Mindconnection, and Chelsea Technologies Ltd. It may be freely copied and distributed as long as the original copyright is displayed and no modifications are made to this material. Extracts are permitted. The names Crystal Reports and Seagate Info are trademarks owned by Business Objects.