cViewBATCH Command Line Interface for Crystal Reports: FAQs

cViewBatch is a command-line utility that allows you to process a report from a desktop icon, and it also serves as a command line interface for cViewMANAGER and cViewSERVER Crystal Reports schedulers. Free 30-day trial. 

cViewBATCH is compatible with Crystal Reports XI and can process all prior versions of Crystal Reports.

Because you can run a scheduled report from the command line, you can create a desktop icon that runs a scheduled report, or can invoke a report from the command line. You can also schedule a cViewBATCH task using the windows setting output options and parameters in the command line. It also works with cViewMANAGER and cViewSERVER.

• cViewBATCH has expanded from its add-on functionality to our cViewMANAGER and cViewSERVER Crystal Report schedulers; it can process any Crystal Report. It will write to a default log file of cViewBATCH.log although this can be changed if required.
• You can use it to run a specific report file with a command line of

 cViewBATCH.EXE report=c:\My reports\sample\this.rpt

• Other command line options are available to set output destination and formats.  If the command line becomes complex, you can create a text file with each command on a separate line and invoke the file with

 cViewBATCH.EXE @mycommands.txt

• If no drive or path is specified, cViewBATCH will look for the command file in the cViewBATCH program folder. This will change the default log file to the commandfile.log.

Command Line Summary

A full list of the command line options are as follows. The first entry must be the report or "scheduleid" value. The other parameters can be entered in any order.

• @filename
• {?parameter}=value
• comment=a comment for the log file
• disk=output file name
• email=address to send to
• format=output format
• log=log file name
• mailsever=email server name
• mailfrom=senders email address
• printer=printer name
• report>=report file name
• scheduleid=id in the schedule

• Every report and collection in the cViewMANAGER and cViewSERVER schedule has a unique Schedule ID to identify it. Use that Report ID in the cViewBATCH command line to identify the report to process.
• The command line to run item 27 from the schedule will look like...

cViewBATCH.EXE 27
or
cViewBATCH.EXE scheduleid=27

• If cViewMANAGER and cViewSERVER are both installed on the same machine, cViewBATCH will use the cViewSERVER schedule database by default.
• It looks for the cViewSERVER database first, then the cViewMANAGER database.
• It does not require a schedule database to run, but you must be running one of these report schedulers to use the scheduleid option.

Output Control

The following keywords can also be entered in a cViewBATCH command line.

• printer=printername
  Will redirect the output to the printer name you have specified.
• email=name@domain.com
  Will redirect the output to an email address.  You may invoke a list file with angle brackets or enter multiple addresses separated by semi colons (;)
• disk=c:\this folder\myuname.pdf
  Will direct the report output to a disk file
• format=Acrobat File
  Will control the report output format.  This is only relevent if you have also specified a email or disk destination.  The format must also be a valid format from the following list:
  • Crystal Report
  • Excel Worksheet
  • Rich Text
  • CSV File
  • HTML Document
  • DHTML Document
  • Acrobat File
  • MS Word Doc
  • Text File

The printer name, email address, disk file and format may contain spaces, and are not case sensitive.

Log File Processing

• cViewBATCH will create a log file of the task as it processes.  By default it will be in cViewBATCH.log or if you are using a command file, that file name with a .log extension.  You can select a specific output file name with

log=c:\myfolder\logs\this.log

• You can also add description and comment information into the log file with

comment=a comment to add into the log file

• cViewBATCH will also create a log entry to be processed in the cViewMANAGER and cViewSERVER log file. This remote log entry will be processed by the schedule.

If you are running cViewBATCH without our report scheduler, and you want to email reports you will need to specify the SMTP server and sender email address.  These are specified with.

mailsever=email server name
mailfrom=senders email address

Parameter Processing

• Parameter values can be loaded into the report with the format:

{?parameter}=value

• You cannot currently enter multiple values or range parameters.