Scheduling Crystal Reports® to Print to PDF-eXPLODE™

Scheduling a Crystal Reports report to print to PDF-eXPLODE requires additional software that can print a report according to a schedule. PDF-eXPLODE users are successfully using the two approaches described below.

Crystal Reports Server, available from Business Objects SA, provides this capability and more. With a starting price of around $6,500 for 5 concurrent user licenses, it enables you to create, manage, and deliver reports over the web or embedded in enterprise applications. To learn more about Crystal Reports Server and download a free trial version, click the product image below.

If Crystal Reports Server does not fit your budget or requirements, a more affordable solution is to either download a free trial of some good 3rd party Crystal Reports viewer with scheduling capability (some restrictions apply in terms of how many user reports can be run). Prices for the 3rd party software range from FREE to USD $100 for Desktop licenses. Where a server license is provided by the Vendor, it will cost more. Most viewers come with a Crystal Report runtime time license version UNDER V12 and do not support specific V12 or V13 features, albeit they support all standard Crystal features.

We don't recommend any one Viewer-Scheduler. However, here are a suggested few, which are inexpensive and easy to use:

• Crystal Corral by Groff Automation
  3 versions - FREE ($0)/ Standard (USD$30)/ PRO (USD$45) - No support for the FREE version
• Logicity Free Viewer-Scheduler
  2 versions - FREE ($0) / PRO (USD$85 per User)

These versions shown above are Desktop versions and may cost more for the Network license.

Approach A: Using Crystal Reports Server

The general procedure for scheduling a report with Crystal Reports Server involves the following steps.

1. Publish a report to Crystal Reports Server.
2. Navigate to the report in the Central Management Console.
3. On the Process tab, select the Printer Setup page.
4. Select the Print checkbox and specify the PDFeXPLODE printer. (Note: there is no hyphen in the printer name "PDFeXPLODE".)
5. Select the Schedule tab and enter a recurrence pattern.

Approach B: Using a 3rd Party Viewer - Scheduler

If you decide to use either of the two Viewer-Scheduler, then the following instructions are irrelevant to you. However, if you choose a Viewer only (capabale of refreshing and running a Crystal Report but do not have a 'Scheduler' - incapable of actually running the report unattended at some defined date and time), then it is possible to schedule the report provided the Viewer can be run as a command-line instruction.
The general procedure for scheduling a report run inside a command-line 3rd party viewer, involves the following steps.

1. Navigate to the Windows Scheduled Task folder. From the Start menu, select:
   • Accessories
   • System Tools
   • Scheduled Tasks
2. Click Add Scheduled Task to use the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Select and enter the schedule, user name and password.
4. Before clicking Finish, select the checkbox labeled Open advanced properties.
5. In the Run: box, enter a command line in the format advised by your command-line Viewer Help. Generally the command line would take this format:
   

       VIEWER.EXE /Print /InFile Path to RPT /PrinterName printername

   For example (all on one line):
   [Note - HammerLaunch product has been withdrawn from the market and is used here only as an example of command-line]

       "C:\Program Files\HammerLaunch\HammerLaunch.exe" /Print /InFile C:\Program Files\PDF-eXPLODE\HammerLaunch\MyReport.rpt /PrinterName PDFeXPLODE

For more information, contact Info@PDF-eXPLODE.com .

Business Objects, the Business Objects logo and Crystal Reports are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects SA or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries. HammerLaunch and the HammerLaunch logo are trademarks of Hammerman Associates, Inc.