Crystal Reports: Move Files on Hard Drive

You can use the File System driver in Crystal Reports to create a list of files in a folder. There is a lengthy list of file properties available to display on your page. But you could also use this report to select files for a delete, rename or copy operation.

One approach is to create a formula to write a DOS file copy command. Yes, in these Windows based days there is still a place for the good old command line. This formula will copy the selected files to a Backup folder on your c:\ drive.

Yes, you could easily do this within the File Explorer or even use a DOS command window to

Where the above technique is useful, is where the selection criteria is a little more complex. In the file system driver we can select on a wide range of fields including, file size, last written date, various system flags like Archived bit or Hidden or System files. Where you have this complexity, then use a Crystal Report and a formula built like the example above.

Suppress all sections except the details section with the formula and export the report to a text file. Copy the text into a BAT file (or rename the TXT to a BAT) and set that command file for processing. With a scheduler that can process both Crystal Reports and BAT files, you can automate this processing.

Is there another, easier, way to do this? There often are multiple solutions to the same requirement. Our Disk File User Function Library includes Exists, Delete, Rename, and Copy functions.

Rather than exporting the report to a text file and then processing the file, do the whole operation inside the Crystal report. User Function Libraries are fast and work well with many older Crystal Reports versions. They are simple to download and install on each User’s PC and are used via the Formula Editor.

Not sure where your data are, what's original, and what's duplicated? Is your system so tangled up with information silos, information caches, and embedded data that just describing the problem is a strain? We have a solution.

Report Analyzer will help you get a handle on things, in a way that provides you with clear, actionable information.

Report Analyzer 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.

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

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.