Is there a way to do a dynamic ole insert of a pdf file into a crystal
report based on a value coming from a SQL database?
For example, I have an application in .net, back-ended by a SQL 2008 database.
The app. has a reporting subsystem which uses Crystal Reports to allow
users to run pre-written reports (from stored procedures) by entering
various inputs such as date ranges, etc.
What I want to do is allow the user to enter, say, an account number
which will then be passed to a stored procedure. The procedure will
get the path to the correct PDF file and pass that to a Crystal
Report. How do I get the PDF path to the OLE Object insert??
Is this making any sense??
Thanks for any help in advance.
do you have to use pdf? the idea of adding a pdf to a crystal report makes me feel dirty all over... If possible I would use rpt files as subreports. (note the reason it makes me pale quite so much is that I come from a *nix background and still think pdf should only be used for printing)
Related
There's a legacy VB6 application at my company that allows reports to be emailed to clients. Basically, a requisition number is entered, and after QC to make sure it's valid, the appropriate Crystal Reports template is called, exported to PDF, and emailed to the correct contact. I've been asked to research the feasibility of converting this from the current manual task (enter the requisition number and click the "Email Report" button) to a SQL Agent job, most likely an SSIS package. Duplicating the SQL that currently validates the requisitions is no problem, but I don't know how to get SSIS to call the Crystal Reports template (or if it's even possible), or how to then export it to PDF to be emailed.
The Crystal Reports templates are highly customized and have their own SQL queries that use the requisition number as the parameter. There are several templates for each client, so there are many templates existing (literally hundreds), and recreating all that customization isn't feasible. That's why I need to use the existing Crystal Reports instead of another option. We are using SQL Server 2008 R2 and Crystal reports 10. I have no ability to change this.
Is it possible to invoke a Crystal Reports template from SSIS and then export it to PDF, and if so, how? Any advice or links to resources will be very welcome!
Not sure if this is the correct place to ask, so if not, please direct me accordingly.
I would like to know what the best process would be to change VBA generated excel reports into SSRS reports.
A bit of background, I work for a client who have been generating weekly, monthly and ad-hoc MS Excel reports via VBA macros. Currently, it was a manual process where they need to specify the report to run by calling a VBA macro function directly within MS Access. This macro would then run through all its underlying macro functions in order to generate the MS Excel report based on predefined configurations.
Since macros have become unsupported from Office 2007 (I think), the client is obligated to completely move away from this way of reporting to a fully automated process.
So, how would I go about interpreting the existing macros and generating the SSRS report accordingly?
If the reports are from Microsoft Access, you can try importing the Access reports into SSRS with the Import Reports from the Solution Explorer window.
You'll probably need to make changes and set the datasources to your new location. I haven't actually done this so I can't say how successful it is.
You can then use the Report Server's subscriptions to run the reports.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms156375(v=sql.105).aspx
Does anyone know if it is possible to have SSRS log a PDF of every report run? I'd like to store the output (preferrably a PDF) somewhere of every report. I need to store what was visually presented to them, not just the parameters that were passed in.
Can SSRS do this out of the box somehow? If it can't, I'll have to log a copy via code on each call we make to the server, which I'm worried will slow down our application. Our reports are run from front-end code calling into SSRS, if that matters.
Thanks in advance for any help!
I don't think its possible out of box. Its a very unique requirement.
Possible solution is to create a report which will be using ReportServer.dbo.ExecutionLog table to generate report of execution. Once your report is ready you can configure it to generate PDFs. You can refer to http://blogs.wrox.com/article/creating-a-report-server-usage-report-with-sql-server-reporting-services/ for creating such report.
I have MS Access reports that needs to be displayed in a crystal report in .net windows application. Is there any way to do it or some alternatives?
I am not sure about the right approach to complete this, can anybody help here?
Hum, I don’t think this is possible. I not aware that access reports can be converted or transferred to crystal reports anyway.
Remember, access reports have event code, and even can have code run in the report for EACH line of detail that displays. In other works, not only are access reports amazing, but they are fully programmable with VBA code embedded INSIDE of the report.
Because of this issue, you need ms-access running and loaded for those reports to work correctly (the VBA is required, and functions, and also that of sql queries..of which a report can be based on SEVERAL data sources and several tables all at the SAME TIME).
Even more worry is that there is not any kind of code or report converter here from ms-access to crystal reports. So, you never could in any way easy way transfer reports from ms-access to crystal reports.
You could attempt to embed ms-access as a com object, but all kinds of problems like page numbering etc. can’t really be controlled here if the report is to appear inside of the crystal report.
I STRONLY recommend that if you need some reports in crystal reports, then have the appropriate reports built in crystal and you avoid this whole mess. And, you avoid having ms-access in the mix. Or, dump crystal, and only use ms-access here.
Attempting to embed word, excel, pdf, or other com objects such as ms-access inside of some crystal report is formula for VERY unreliable applications. This is likely not possible, but even if it was, I would not let loose an application of this type. Heck, embedding pdf’s in a access report can’t even reliable work (they break after some stupid pdf update gets issued automatic). This type of mixed up systems near guarantee break when one or the other system has some automatic update occurring!
You start mixing up several applications and it will cost you buckets support trying to keep that mess running.
If you MUST take different reports from several different systems, then send out all the reports to pdf, and then use some pdf tools to combine them into one final pdf document.
Don’t try t mix reporting systems at the application level. It not reliable even if this was possible..
I need to create a report(rdl) in SQL reporting services 2008. In that I need to create in runtime. The report has chart. I will specify the type of chart, font, alignment and all those stuff in runtime.
Is there any option for using this in SSRS 2008.
An rdlc is just an xml file so you can manipulate it at runtime, it's not a trivial undertaking though. You can find the rdl spec at http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/5/7/6575f1c8-4607-48d2-941d-c69622e11c32/RDL_spec_08.pdf.
There's a downloadable example of creating an rdlc for a table and a matrix dynamically, as well as lots of other useful report viewer info at http://www.gotreportviewer.com/.
You can generate the RDL however you want, it is just an XML file. But you will only be able to run the report locally. To run on the server you would need to deploy the report first, as the server does not run the RDL files directly.
I suppose this is still possible, but it would be pretty slow, and the report would not appear in the report manager or anything before hand.
However, your probably making this problem more complicated than it needs to be. I have work on projects where we generated the RDL and deployed daily with a custom application, and it is almost always not worth it. There is usually a better way.
You can set almost all the parameters of the chart using expressions. The only thing that can't be set is the chart type, but there are ways to get around that as well. Like having all the chart types you need created on the page, but making all except the one you want visible.
Yes...
to do so, you will need to either have an existing rdl file to modify, or you need to completely generate it from code.
All the SSRS xml is stored in the database in a table called catalog. You'll have to use the GUID of that report to access it, or insert a new row creating a new report.
once you're done swapping out your report server xml, the report server will have a "new" report that you can then call via your web page, or via SSRS url parameters.
past that clean up the catalog table if you see the need to.
I'll be honest with you though, this is very far from best practice, best practice that I'm aware of would be to embed the data you need to display in your web page in the form of a widget.