Business objects CRSYTAL ENTERPRISE 9 EPORTFOLIO User Manual

Crystal Enterprise™ 9
ePortfolio User’s Guide

Crystal Decisions, Inc.

895 Emerson St.

Palo Alto

California, USA 94301

© 2002 Crystal Decisions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Issue 1.

No part of this documentation may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or
reproduced in any way, except in accordance with the terms of the applicable
software license agreement.This documentation contains proprietary information
of Crystal Decisions, Inc., and/or its suppliers.

Trademark Acknowledgements

Crystal Decisions, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, Crystal
Services, Crystal Care, Crystal Assist, Crystal Applications, Info and Holos are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Crystal Decisions, Inc. in the U.S. and/or
other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks referenced are the
property of their respective owners.

Contents

Chapter 1: Welcome to Crystal Enterprise

What is ePortfolio? ........................................................................... 2

Who should use this guide? ............................................................... 2

About this guide ................................................................................ 2

Chapter contents ................................................................................................... 3

Online help ........................................................................................................... 3

Product registration .......................................................................... 3

Crystal Care technical support .......................................................... 4

Crystal Training ................................................................................. 4

Crystal Consulting ............................................................................. 4

Document conventions ..................................................................... 5

Chapter 2: Using ePortfolio

ePortfolio overview ........................................................................... 8

ePortfolio main page ............................................................................................. 8

Getting started .................................................................................. 9

Accessing ePortfolio .............................................................................................. 9

Logging on to ePortfolio ...................................................................................... 10

Logging on to ePortfolio Mobile .......................................................................... 12

ePortfolio views .............................................................................. 13

Guest .................................................................................................................. 13

Public ................................................................................................................. 14

Favorites ............................................................................................................. 17

Working with ePortfolio ................................................................. 20

Choosing the report type ..................................................................................... 20

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide i

Sorting reports ..................................................................................................... 20

Searching for reports ........................................................................................... 20

Viewing the last five reports ................................................................................ 21

Navigating through folders .................................................................................. 21

Creating folders ................................................................................................... 22

Working with reports on ePortfolio ................................................ 22

Creating new reports ........................................................................................... 23

Modifying reports ................................................................................................ 23

Scheduling reports ............................................................................................... 23

Looking at report history ...................................................................................... 29

Looking at Alerts ................................................................................................. 30

Launching reports in a Report Viewer .................................................................. 31

Chapter 3: Viewing Reports

The default Crystal Report Viewers ................................................. 34

ActiveX viewer .................................................................................................... 35

DHTML viewer ................................................................................................... 36

Interactive DHMTL viewer .................................................................................. 36

Java viewer .......................................................................................................... 38

Java Plug-in viewer ..............................................................................................39

Navigator Plug-in viewer ..................................................................................... 40

Crystal Offline Viewer ......................................................................................... 41

Viewing reports ............................................................................... 42

Report viewing activities ..................................................................................... 42

Distributing reports ......................................................................... 43

Printing reports .................................................................................................... 43

Exporting reports ................................................................................................. 44

ii Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Chapter 4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

Publishing overview ........................................................................ 46

Publishing options ............................................................................................... 46

Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard ................................ 47

Adding objects/folders ......................................................................................... 48

Adding multiple objects ...................................................................................... 48

Selecting the APS ................................................................................................ 49

Duplicating the folder structure ........................................................................... 49

Creating and selecting a folder on the APS .......................................................... 50

Moving objects between folders .......................................................................... 51

Changing scheduling options .............................................................................. 51

Enabling repository refresh .................................................................................. 52

Changing default values ...................................................................................... 52

Changing object properties ................................................................................. 53

Entering database logon information ................................................................... 53

Setting parameters ............................................................................................... 54

Setting the schedule format ................................................................................. 54

Finalizing the objects to be added ....................................................................... 55

Publishing with the Crystal Management Console .......................... 55

Saving objects directly to the APS ................................................... 56

Index ................................................................................ 57

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide iii

iv Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Welcome to Crystal Enterprise 1

This chapter briefly describes ePortfolio and outlines the
contents and the intended audience of this User’s Guide.
Product registration and technical support information is
also included, along with a brief description of the
document conventions used within this guide.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 1

What is ePortfolio?

What is ePortfolio?

Welcome to the ePortfolio User’s Guide. The focus of this guide is ePortfolio—what
it is, what you can do with it, and the report viewers it supports.

ePortfolio is your main user interface for working with reports through Crystal
Enterprise. The desktop runswithin your web browserand gives you theability to
view, export, and print reports; you can also schedule reports if you have the
necessary rights. Recognized users of ePortfolio can customize a personalized
version of the desktop.

ePortfolio supports the viewing, printing, and exporting of reports without the
need of installing Crystal Reports on your local machine. Report viewing is
supportedthrough differentviewers compatiblewith thefeaturesof ActiveX, Java,
and DHTML.

Typically, the reports you view are created using Crystal Reports. Your Crystal
Enterprise administratormay alsodeploy other forms of reports or objects, such as
analytical applications designed with Crystal Analysis, or other objects created
using CrystalEnterprise plug-in components.If youhave thenecessary rights,you
can access these reports or objects using ePortfolio.

Who should use this guide?

This guide is intended for users who work with reports over the Web through
Crystal Enterprise. The interface in ePortfolio is designed to facilitate intuitive
navigation—you can easily schedule and view reports. Your Crystal Enterprise
administrator is generallyresponsible forconfiguring, managing,and maintaining
a Crystal Enterprise installation, which includes ePortfolio.

For more information about the product, consult the Crystal Enterprise

Administrator’s Guide, Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide,andtheCrystal
Enterprise Installation Guide. Online versions of these guides are included inthe

directory of your product distribution. Once you install Crystal Enterprise, they
are also accessible from the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad, along with the Web
Developer’s Guides.

doc

About this guide

This guide provides you with informationand procedures foraccessing and using
ePortfolio and its report viewers.

Note: The appearance of ePortfolio can be customized to suit your company’s
needs. Even though your desktop may look different from the one in this guide,
you can still apply many of the procedures described throughout.

2 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Chapter contents

The following listprovides a shortdescription of each ofthe remaining chapters in
this guide.

Chapter 2: Using ePortfolio

This chapter describes how to access and log on to ePortfolio and provides
information about choosing report types, navigatingthrough folders, andcreating
new folders. The chapter then shows how to work within ePortfolio to schedule
reports, look at report history and Alerts, and launch reports in a Report Viewer.

Chapter 3: Viewing Reports

This chapter provides you with information about the Crystal Report Viewers
(including the Crystal Offline Viewer) and how to view reports from them. It also
includes instructions for distributing reports using one of two methods: printing
or exporting.

Chapter 4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

This chapter focuses on the publishing process: it introduces the Crystal
Publishing Wizard and tells you how you can use it to add Crystal reports and
other objects to ePortfolio or to your custom web desktop; it also describes
alternative ways of adding objects to the Crystal Enterprise environment.

Online help

Access the online help in Crystal Enterprise by clicking Help. The online help
contains all of the information found in this guide.

1: Welcome to Crystal Enterprise

Product registration

There are several ways you can register your product:

• Fill out the Product Registration form on the Crystal Decisions, Inc. web site at:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/register/

• PrinttheProductRegistrationformandfaxittotheregistrationfaxnumber

closest to you. Crystal Decisions will then fax you a registration number that
can be entered into the product the next time you use it.

Registration fax numbers

USA/Canada [phone]
United Kingdom [phone]
Australia [phone]
Germany [phone]
Hong Kong [phone]
Singapore [phone]

Registering the product ensures that you are kept up-to-date with product
advancements.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 3

Crystal Care technical support

Crystal Care technical support

To access Crystal technical support specialists, you must:

1 Register your software online at:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/register/

2 Complete and return your Crystal Care Registration Form.

For assistance with your Crystal Care Registration Form, contact the technical
support administrative team, your sales representative, or the regional office
nearest you. Contact details are available at:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/contact/offices.asp

To find out about the technical support programs available for Crystal Enterprise:

• Go to our support web site at:

http://support.crystaldecisions.com/crystalcare/

• Contact your regional office. For details, go to:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/contact/offices.asp

Crystal Training

Whether you’re a developer, information technology professional, or business
user, we offer a wide range ofCrystal Enterprise training courses designed to build
or enhance your existing skills. Courses are available online, at certified training
centers, or at your own site:

• For a complete list of training courses and special offers, visit:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/training/

• Or contact your regional office. For details, go to:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/offices/

Crystal Consulting

Our global team of certified consultants and consulting partners can guide you
through a corporate-wide solution—including strategy, design, integration and
deployment—for the fastest results, maximum performance, and increased
productivity.

• To learn more, visit:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/consulting/

• Or contact your regional office. For details, go to:

http://www.crystaldecisions.com/offices/

4 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Document conventions

This guide uses the following conventions:

• Commands and buttons

For easy recognition within procedures, User Interface (UI) features appear in
bold type. For example: On the File menu, click New.

• Keyboard shortcuts

Delete means the Delete key, or the Del key on your numeric keypad. Enter
means the Enter, Return, or CR key,depending onwhich of these keys appears
on your keyboard.

• Key combinations

CTRL+KEY, SHIFT+KEY, and ALT+KEY are examples of key combinations.
Hold down the first key in the combination and, at the same time, press the
second key in the combination (designated above as KEY). For example:
CTRL+C means hold the Control key down and press the letter C on your
keyboard (CTRL+C is the Windows Copy command).

• Key terms are italicized when first defined.

• Monospaced font indicates data that you enter using your keyboard. For

example: In the Formula Editor, type

• Monospaced, italicized font indicates variable data that you must replace with

data appropriate to your current settings, environment, or task. For example,
in the following URL, you would replace

http://

webserver

/crystal/enterprise/

1: Welcome to Crystal Enterprise

If Sales > 1000 Then crRed

webserver

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 5

Document conventions

6 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Using ePortfolio 2

This chapter describes how to access and log on to
ePortfolio and provides information about choosing report
types, navigating through folders, and creating new
folders. The chapter then shows how to work within
ePortfolio to schedule reports, look at report history and
Alerts, and launch reports in a Report Viewer.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 7

ePortfolio overview

ePortfolio overview

CrystalEnterprise comeswith acustomizable web desktop calledePortfolio. Thinkof
it as awindow to Crystal Reports on your company’s existing intranet or Internet site.
When you use Crystal Enterprise, you can choose ePortfolio or a web desktop
designed by someone in your company. ePortfolio helps organize your reports into
logical groups—using folders—and allows you to search for and view reports. You
can also configure yourown personal desktop settings and save your favorite reports.

Once you have found the reports you want to look at, ePortfolio offers report
viewers with printing and exporting capabilities.

Note: Typically the reports you view are created using Crystal Reports. Your
Crystal Enterprise administrator may also deploy other forms of reports or
objects, such as analytical applications designed with Crystal Analysis, or other
objects created using Crystal Enterprise plug-in components. If you have the
necessary rights, you can access these reports or objects using ePortfolio.

To useePortfolio, you need to have one ofthe following webbrowsers installed on
your machine:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer

• Netscape

ePortfolio main page

With its default settings, the main page of ePortfolio contains information on
folders, reports, and so on.

Thepageismadeupofanumberofareas:

• Title bar

This area contains the desktop logo, a message displaying your user account
name, and your current options.

8 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

• Menu bar

This area contains functions relevant to your place in the structure of folders
and reports. It also contains a list of recently viewed reports.

• Navigation bar

This area displays the entire pathyou’ve taken while moving through ePortfolio.

• Top-level folder bar

This area displays the top-level folder you’re working with to aid you in
navigation.

Note: By default, this area is not displayed.

• Folders area

This area displaysthe subfolders that are available inthe folder you’re working
with.

• Reports area

This area displays the reports connected with a specific folder or subfolder.

The main page is the foundation for working with ePortfolio. Other pages are
introduced from the main page.

The folders and reports you can see on ePortfolio, the rights you have to schedule,
the viewer you see, andso on, are dependent on theaccount you log on with. You
can log on as a guest, or as yourself—once you’ve created an account. Users with
accounts can create subfolders and organize their reports.

Note: Depending on your Preferences settings, your main page may look different.

Getting started

InordertogiveyouabetterideaofhowaCrystalEnterprisewebdesktopcanbe
usedat yourcompany, ePortfolioprovides a guest user accountand samplereports.

ePortfolio logs you on as a guest without an administered account. You can use
this default view, but you won’t be able to customize the desktop with your
personal settings. If you sign yourself up as a new user, you can create a view of
ePortfolio that includes your desktop settings and favorite reports.

When reading through this guide, you can use sample reports from ePortfolio to
illustrate procedures.

Accessing ePortfolio

There are two ways to access ePortfolio: type the URL for your ePortfolio site
directly in your web browser, or select Crystal Launchpad from the program
group on the Windows Start menu.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 9

Getting started

To access ePortfolio

1 Go to the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad:

http://

webserver

Replace webserver withthenameofthewebserverthatissetupforCrystal
Enterprise. You may need to check with your administrator for the web server
name or exact URL to enter.

Tip: If you have any Crystal Enterprise client tools installed, you can also click
Start > Programs > Crystal Enterprise 9 > Crystal Launchpad.

2 On the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad, click the ePortfolio link.

ePortfolio appears. You are logged on as a guest. (If your administrator has
disabled guest logon, you must type a user name and password.)

/crystal/enterprise9/

Logging on to ePortfolio

Sinceguests are offered limited access to ePortfolio and its reports,you maywant
to log on with your own account. If you have been assigned an account by your
Crystal Enterpriseadministrator, log on as an existing user. Otherwise, sign up as
a new user and create your account.

To log on to ePortfolio as an existing user

1 Access ePortfolio, as outlined in “Accessing ePortfolio” on page 9.
2 In the top-right section of the title bar, click Log On.

The Log On page appears.

10 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

3 In the Existing User area, type your user name and password.
4 Click the Authentication list to select Enterprise, LDAP, or NT Authentication.

Enterprise authentication requires a user name and password that is
recognized by Crystal Enterprise.

LDAP authentication requires a user name and password that is recognized by
an LDAP directory server.

Windows NT authentication requires a user name and password that is
recognized by Windows NT.

Note: Enterprise authentication is the default method. LDAP and NT
Authentication requires special set up. For more information, see “Managing
User Accounts and Groups” in the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.

5 Click Log On.

Thehomepagereappearsandyouareloggedonwithyourownaccount.

To log on to ePortfolio as a new user

1 Access ePortfolio, as outlined in “Accessing ePortfolio” on page 9.
2 On the title bar, click Sign Up.

Note: “Sign Up” is not available if the Crystal Enterprise administrator has
disabled “Guest users can create their own Enterprise accounts” in the Crystal
Management Console, or if the guest password has been changed.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 11

Getting started

TheSignUppageappears.

3 In the Profile Information area, in the Full Name field, type your name.
4 In the Account Information area, in the User Name field, type a user name.
5 In the Password and Confirm Password fields, type a password.
6 Click Sign Up.

The program confirms that your passwords match. It then saves your profile
information and logs you on to ePortfolio with your own account.

To log off ePortfolio

When you log onto ePortfolio using anaccount otherthan guest, thelog offoption
is available.

1 On the title bar, click Logoff.

A prompt appears asking if you are sure you want to log off.

2 Click OK.

Logging on to ePortfolio Mobile

Using a mobile device (such as a WAP-enabled phone, web-enabled PDA, and so
on), you can access reports through ePortfolio Mobile, as long as your web server
is configured to support mobile devices. Contact your Crystal Enterprise
administrator for more information.

To access ePortfolio Mobile through the Launchpad

1 Go to the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad:

http://

webserver

12 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

/crystal/enterprise9/

Replace webserver withthenameofthewebserverthatissetupforCrystal
Enterprise. You may need to check with your administrator for the web server
name or exact URL to enter.

2 On the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad, click the ePortfolio Mobile link, which

is located in the “Mobile Samples” area.
ePortfolio Mobile appears.

3 Complete the User Name and Password fields, select your authentication

method from the Authentication list, and click Logon.

To access ePortfolio Mobile directly

1 Go to the following URL:

http://

Replace webserver withthenameofthewebserverthatissetupforCrystal
Enterprise. You may need to check with your administrator for the web server
name or exact URL to enter.

2 Complete the User Name and Password fields, select your authentication

method from the Authentication list, and select Logon.

ePortfolio views

webserver

2: Using ePortfolio

/crystal/enterprise9/websamples/en/mPortfolio/start.csp

ePortfolio views are made up of the reports and folders you can see when logged
on. Views are controlled by user accounts—the views your account allows
determine what you can see and do in ePortfolio.

You can use any of these views:

• Guest

• Public

• Favorites

Guest

The guest view is ePortfolio’s default view. When you first access ePortfolio, you
are automatically logged on to the guest view.

The guestview is controlled by the rightsthe Crystal Enterprise administrator has
assigned to the Guest account. Guests can access ePortfolio and perform basic
reporting tasks without logging on. The administrator remains responsible for
maintaining ePortfolio, including taskssuch as making reports accessible to guest
users and customizing the appearance of the desktop.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 13

ePortfolio views

Public

In ePortfolio, a guest user can:

• Search for reports by specified criteria.

• Retrieve reports by type.

• Viewthelastfivereportsaccessed.

• Navigate between existing report folders.

• View report details.

If the necessary rights are assigned, guest users can also:

• View the latest instance of a report.

• Schedule reports to run.

• View a report on demand.

• View scheduling history of report instances.

Other activities, such as printing and exporting, are available once a report is
launched in a viewer.

A public view can offer more options and control over reports, depending on the
rights assigned by the Crystal Enterprise administrator. As a logged on
(registered) user, you can create new folders, determine the color scheme of the
desktop, or copy reports of interest into your Favorites folder.

Signing on to a public view of ePortfolio

Before you can sign on to a public view of ePortfolio, you must complete the sign­up form. This information about your profile and account, along with the settings
you define, is stored on the server and becomes your user account.

For information on how to access and complete the sign-up form, see “To log on to

ePortfolio as a new user” on page 11.

Selecting your public view preferences

This procedure shows how to modify your own ePortfolio preferences. If you
administer other users’accounts, you can set theirePortfolio preferencesas well. To
change another user’s preferences, use the ePortfolio Preferences Manager, which
is located in the Administrator Samples area of the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad.

Note: You musthave your own account on the system in order to set your
preferences.

To select your preferences

1 Log on to ePortfolio using your new profile.
2 On the title bar, click Preferences.

The User Preferences page appears.

14 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

3 In the “Initial view” area, click the option corresponding to the folder level

you’d like your view to begin with.
For example, if you choose Other andthen select Report Samples, the nexttime

you log on the Report Samples folder will be displayed as your initial view.

4 In the “Top-level folder bar” area, click hide or show.

This option displays the top-level folder name on ePortfolio to help your
navigation.

5 In the “On my desktop, show me” area, select how you want reports to be

listed. Choose from one of the three options:

• Thumbnail view

• List view

• Action view

Where applicable, click the list ortype anumber to select the maximumnumber
of reports to be displayed on one page.

Note: Thumbnail images are available only if the appropriate option was
chosen when the report was created in Crystal Reports.

6 In the “Display my reports” area, determine whether you want one browser or

multiple browsers to display your reports.

7 In the “For each report, show me” area, select the summary information you

want your reports to show:

• description

• owner

• date

• thumbnail (if applicable)

• instance count

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 15

ePortfolio views

Note: Thumbnail images are available only if the appropriate option was
chosen when the report was created in Crystal Reports.

8 Inthe“Showmenuas”area,selecthowyouwantthemenutobedisplayed:

• buttons with text

• buttons only

• text only

9 In the “Display my desktop with this color scheme” area, select a color scheme

foryourdesktop.

10 In the “View my reports using the” area, select the report viewer you want to

use when you display a report:

• ActiveX viewer

• DHTML viewer

• Interactive DHTML viewer

• Java viewer

• Java Plug-in viewer

• Navigator Plug-in viewer

Note: The ActiveX viewer is selected by default for Internet Explorer browsers.
The Java viewer is the default for Netscape browsers.

11 In the “Preferred measuring units for report page layout is” area, select inches

or millimeters.

12 In the “My current time-zone is” area, select the appropriate time zone.

Note: Before scheduling reports, check your time zone setting. The default
time zone is local to the web server that is running Crystal Enterprise, not to
the Automated Process Scheduler (APS) machine(s) that each user connects to.
By setting your time zone, you ensure that your scheduled reports are
processed in accordance with the time zone in which you are working.

13 Click Apply.

Changing your account settings

You can change your own password on the My Password page.

To change your password

1 From the title bar on the User Preferences page, click My Password.
2 On the My Password page, type your old password.
3 Type your new password, confirm it, and click Submit.

Your new password takes effect the next time you log on to ePortfolio.

16 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Favorites

2: Using ePortfolio

Think of thefavorites view as yourown personalized version of ePortfolio. It’s this
view thatdisplays only the folders (those you selected or created) and reports you
selectedontheOrganizeFolderspage.

Accessing your favorites view

1 From the title bar on the public view page, click Favorites.
2 Return to the public view page by clicking Public on the title bar.

Organizing your favorite reports

You can organizereports froma public view bycopying or linking them to afolder
of your choice. You can create new folders at the same time. By carrying out these
tasks, you create your own favorites view on ePortfolio. You can also move,
rename, or delete reports and folders from your favorites view.

When you copy reportsto your personal folders, you can schedule and view them
independently of other users. You can copy reports individually, or you can copy
an entire folder to your favorites view. When you link reports by creating
shortcuts, you share the reports with other users.

You can create new folders and subfolders, copy folders and reports, and create
shortcuts to folders and reports only as long as you have the necessary rights.

To work with the contents of your favorites view

1 From the title bar on the Favorites page, click Organize.
2 Click the Contents list and select the Favorites folder.

The reports that belong to the folder appear below the Contents list.

Note:

• If there are subfolders, highlight the folder you want to view reports from

and click Expand.

• From this list, you can use the options to move, rename, or delete reports

and folders from your favorites view. You can also create new folders for
your favorites view. For more information on creating folders, see

“Creating folders” on page 22.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 17

ePortfolio views

To copy reports to your favorites view

1 From the title bar on the public or favorites page, click Organize.

The Organize Folders page appears.

2 Click the Contents list and select a folder to copy a report from.

The reports that belong to the folder appear below the Contents list.

3 If there are subfolders, highlight the folder you want to copy reports from and

click Expand.

4 Click a report or use CTRL-click or SHIFT-click to select a number of reports.

You can either copy reports from the folder or copy the entire folder to your
favorites view.

5 Click Copy To.

TheCopypageappears.

6 Click the Folders list and select the Favorites folder.

If there aresubfolders inyour Favorites folder, highlight the folder you want to
copy reports into and click Expand.

7 Click Copy.

A copy of the report, reports, or folder is placed in the Favorites folder.
Note: Copying a report to your favorites view gives you control over

scheduling the report; any instances created are visible only to you through
your Favorites folder. In contrast, when you create a shortcut, you share
scheduling and instances with all other users of the public view.

18 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

To create shortcuts to reports

1 From the title bar on the public or favorites page, click Organize.

The Organize Folders page appears.

2 Click the Contents list and select a folder to create a shortcut to a report.

The reports that belong to the folder appear below the Contents list.

3 If there are subfolders, highlight the folder you want to view reports from and

click Expand.

4 Click a report or use CTRL-click or SHIFT-click to select a number of reports.

You can either create shortcuts to individual reports in the folder or create a
shortcut to the entire folder.

5 Click Shortcut.

TheLinkTopageappears.

6 Click the Folders list and select the Favorites folder.

If there are subfolders in your Favorites folder, highlight the folder where you
want the shortcut to appear and click Expand.

7 Click Link To.

A shortcut to the report, reports, or folder is placed in the Favorites folder.
Note: When you create a shortcut, a report isn’t copied or moved. A link to the

report appears in your Favorites folder; you share scheduling and instances
with all other users of the public view.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 19

Working with ePortfolio

Working with ePortfolio

Once you have logged on to ePortfolio, you can start to work with reports. This
section of the guide describes the following tasks:

• Choosing the report type

• Sorting reports

• Searching for reports

• Viewing the last five reports

• Navigating through folders

• Creating folders

Choosing the report type

By default, ePortfolio shows you all the reports you have the rights to see in your
view. If you want to temporarily limit the type to make searching easier, you can
choose:

• All

This option displays all reports you have rights to view regardless of type.

• Report

This option displays only Crystal report (.rpt) files.

• Analytical Report

This option displays only Crystal Analytical report (.car) files.

To change the report type

1 In the folders area on any view, click the Type list.
2 Selecttheoptionforthetypeofreportyouwanttosee.

Sorting reports

By default, reports are sorted alphabetically by title. Reports can also be sorted by
owner.

To sort reports

1 In the folders area on any view, click the Sort By list.
2 Select Title or Owner.

Searching for reports

You can do astructured search to find reports onePortfolio. Type theexact phrase
and select a search field, such as report title or report description.

The reports displayed depend on how your Crystal Enterprise administrator has
set up your account privileges. For example, users in Marketing may see reports

20 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

that differ from those seen by the users in Human Resources. For more
information, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.

Note: A search includes all public folders you have rights to as well as your
favorites folder.

To search for a report

1 In the Look for box on the menu bar of any view, type the keywords that

describe the report you’re searching for.

2 Click the list next to the search box to select a search field.

The available search fields are:

• title

• description

• folder title

• all fields

3 Click Search.

A list of reports meeting your search parameters appears in the Reports area.
Tip: If you need more informationto identifya report, movethe mouseover the

report’s link. The report’s ePortfolio path, title, and summary information (if
available) are displayed.

4 To view an instance of the report, click the report link and, in the shortcut

menu that appears, select View or View Latest Instance.
Note: Depending on the rights given to you by your administrator, you may

be unable to select “View”and/or “View LatestInstance.” In addition, if there
are no instances on the system, you may need to schedule the report first.

Viewing the last five reports

Once you view a report, it is added to the list of recently viewed reports on the title
bar. Up to five reports are remembered until you end your session with ePortfolio.
Items in the list are links to previously viewed reports. You don’t need to find the
reportagain toview it—justclick the link in the list and thereport viewer reappears.

Navigating through folders

Folders and subfolders are used to organize reports. Although these folders look
different from thoseused in someweb applications, they function in the same way.

To navigate through folders

1 Access ePortfolio, as outlined in “Accessing ePortfolio” on page 9.
2 Drag your mouse over the list of bulleted subfolders.

The subfoldersyou can selectturn a differentcolor as themouse passes overthem.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 21

Working with reports on ePortfolio

Note: The color feature is available only when you use Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer as your browser.

3 Click the subfolder of your choice.

The appropriate folder page appears.
Note: You can use the path information on the Navigation bar to navigate

through ePortfolio.

Creating folders

Normally, folders and subfolders are created for you by your Crystal Enterprise
administrator, but you can also create folders for your favorites view.

Note: You can create new folders and subfolders in any folder, as long as you
have the necessary rights.

To create a folder

1 LogontoePortfoliowithyourownaccount.

See “Signing onto a publicview of ePortfolio” on page 14 for more information
on how to do this.

2 From the title bar on the public view or favorites view page, click Organize.
3 In the Contents area, select the Favorites folder and click Create a new folder.
4 On the Add New Folder page, type a folder name in the name field and click

Add.
You are returned to the Organize Favorites page and your new folder appears

in the Favorites contents area. You can move reports to the new folder as
described in “Organizing your favorite reports” on page 17.

Working with reports on ePortfolio

Once you’ve accessed and logged on to ePortfolio, you can begin to work with
reports. You can do many things depending on the permissions set for youby your
Crystal Enterprise administrator:

• Schedule reports.

• Review the scheduling history of reports.

• Create and modify reports.

• Launch reports in one of the Crystal Report Viewers.

Note:

• Your ability to perform any of these tasks is determined by the rights assigned

to you by your Crystal Enterprise administrator.

• Your Crystal Enterprise license key and your rights determine whether or not

you can create and modify reports.

22 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Creating new reports

You can create and save new reports to Crystal Enterprise. While creating a new
report, you can specify the fields, groups, filters, charts, style, and so on.

Note: Your Crystal Enterprise license key and your user rights determine whether
or not you can create new reports.Depending on your license key, the New Report
button may notbe visible.You must have at least View OnDemand rights and edit
rights in order to create reports. Contact your Crystal Enterprise administrator for
more information.

To create a new report

1 On the title bar, click the New Report button.

The New Report Wizard appears.

2 Specify the settings and options displayed on each page (where relevant), and

click Next.Or,atanypoint,clickFinish or Cancel.
Tip: Click the Help link (located at the top-right corner of the New Report

Wizard) for detailed information.

Modifying reports

You can modify an existing reportin ePortfoliothrough theModify ReportWizard.
Note: Your Crystal Enterprise license key and your user rights determine whether

or not you can modify existing reports. Depending on your license key, the
Modify link may not be available. You must haveat least View On Demand rights
and edit rights in order to create reports. Contact your Crystal Enterprise
administrator for more information.

2: Using ePortfolio

To modify an existing report

1 Click a report’s link; then click Modify.

The Modify Report Wizard appears.

2 Specify the settings and options displayed on each page (where relevant), and

click Next.Or,atanypoint,clickFinish or Cancel.
Tip: Click the Help link (located at the top-right corner of the New Report

Wizard) for detailed information.

Scheduling reports

Scheduling a report lets you run it automatically at specified times. When a
scheduled report runs successfully, an instance is created. An instance is a version
of the report containing the data available at the time it wasrun—instances created
later contain more recent data.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 23

Working with reports on ePortfolio

You cansee a listof instances by lookingat a report’shistory, and you can click the
link to any historical instance. If you have the rights to view reports on demand,
you can view and refresh any instance to retrieve the latest data from the database.

By scheduling and viewing instances, you can ensure youhave thelatest information
available for viewing, printing, and distributing. For example, you can schedule a
report to run every night so it’s available for you first thing in the morning.

Note: Before scheduling reports, check your time zone setting on the Preferences
page in ePortfolio. The default time zone is local to the web server that is running
Crystal Enterprise, not to the Automated ProcessScheduler (APS) machine(s) that
each user connects to. By setting your time zone, you ensure that your scheduled
reports are processed in accordance with the time zone in which you are working.
You must have your own account on the system in order to set your preferences.

Depending on the report you are scheduling, you might want to customize your
scheduling options. You can set:

• Schedule parameters

• Database logon information

• Parameters

• Filters

• Destination locations

• Format

• Print settings

Note: For some scheduling options, the settingsthat the administrator has specified
for the report will be displayed when you choose that option. You can schedule a
report with these options or customize your options.

To schedule a report

1 Click any report link available on ePortfolio.

2 Click Schedule.

24 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

TheSchedulepageappears.

The “Customize your options” list contains the choices you can make while
scheduling.

The area below the listcontains items specific tothe schedule option you choose.

Schedule parameters

The Schedule parameters specify a time for running a scheduled report. Each
parameter in the “Run report” list has its own specific data entry requirements.

Note: For every parameter listed below (except for the “Now” parameter), in
addition to specifying a start date and time, you can also specify an end date and
time.

The following parameters are available:

• Now

When you click Schedule, the report runs once (immediately).

• Once

This option requires a start time parameter. The report runs once at the time
specified.

• Hourly

This option requires information in hours and/or minutes for how frequently
the report should run. Instances are created regularly to match the parameters
you entered. The first instance is created at the start time specified.

• Daily

This option requires a start time parameter.The reportruns eachday atthe time
specified.

• Weekly

This option requires a start time parameter. The report runs each week at the
time specified.

• Monthly

This option requires a start date and time, along with a recurrence interval in
months. The report runs on the specified date and time, every N months.

• Nth Day of Month

This option requires a day of the month the report should run on. Instances are
created regularly eachmonth on theday you entered, atthe start time specified.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 25

Working with reports on ePortfolio

• 1st Monday of Month

This option requires a start time parameter. An instance is created on the first
Monday of each month, at the time specified.

• Last Day of Month

This option requires a start time parameter. An instance is created on the last
day of each month, at the time specified.

• Nth X of the Month

This option requires a start time parameter. An instance is created monthly, on
a specified day of a week.

To schedule a report using Schedule parameters

1 In the Customize your options list, click Schedule.
2 In the Run report list, click the parameter of your choice.
3 Select a date and/or start time, if necessary.
4 On the title bar, click Schedule.

Note: If you want to set other options, do not click Schedule until you have
made all your selections.

Database logon information

Some reports require you to log on to a database before you can schedule them
successfully. You can do this on the Schedule page if you have credentials for the
report’s data source.

To schedule a report with database logon information

1 In the Customize your options list, click Database Logon.
2 Change information as necessary for your report’s database.
3 On the title bar, click Schedule.

Note: If you want to set other options, do not click Schedule until you have
made all your selections.

Parameters

Some reports use the Crystal Reports parameters feature. Parameters prompt the
report user to enter information. This information determines what data appears
in the report. For example, in a report used by sales, there might be a parameter
that asks the user to choose a region. The report returns the results for the specific
region instead of returning the results for all of the regions.

You can set parameters on the Schedule page. If the report you schedule does not
containparameters,youwillnotbeabletochoosethisoptioninthe“Customize
your options” list.

26 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

To schedule a report with parameters

1 In the Customize your options list, click Parameters.
2 Select the parameter you need for your report and click Add.

Note: TheappearanceoftheparameterpromptsontheSchedulepagemay
differ from report to report depending on how the parameter field was created
in Crystal Reports.

3 On the title bar, click Schedule.

Note: If you want to set other options, do not click Schedule until you have

made all your selections.

Filters

If a report includes a record or group selection formula, you can modify it before
you schedule the report. Selection formulas help determine what data appears in
a report and may improve performance by eliminating unwanted records. For
more information on selection formulas, see the Crystal Reports User’s Guide.

To schedule a report with a record selection formula

1 In the Customize your options list, click Filters.
2 Change the record or group selection formula as necessary.
3 Click Update.
4 On the title bar, click Schedule.

Note: If you want to set other options, do not click Schedule until you have
made all your selections.

Destination locations

You can schedule a report instance to be sent to a specific destination on your
computer or network, to a default filelocation, to email, or to FTP. For destination
options other than Default, you can choose the preset settings (as determined by
your administrator) or enter specific requirements for the destination.

You can choose from the following destination locations:

• Default

If you select the Default option, the report is scheduled to (and saved on)
Crystal Enterprise.

• Unmanaged Disk

If you select Unmanaged Disk, the report is saved to the file location that you
specify.

• Email (SMTP)

If you select Email (SMTP) as your destination, the administrator has to have
the server information set up on the Job Server.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 27

Working with reports on ePortfolio

• FTP

If you selectthis option, youcan select the FTP server setup by your administrator,
or you can specify your own.

If the administrator has specified a particular destination for the report, this
destination option will be displayed. You may be able to update the fields for this
destination, or select a different destination. For many of these destinations, you
must provide additional information.

To schedule a report to a specific destination

1 In the Customize your options list, click Destination.
2 In the Destination list, click the format of your choice.
3 Where applicable, select either Usethe Crystal Job Server’s defaults orSet the

values to be used at schedule time here.
Choose the first option if you want to use the settings that your administrator

has specified. Choose the second option if you want to specify the destination
settings. Complete the necessary fields as required.

4 Click Update.
5 On the title bar, click Schedule.

Note: If you want to set other options, do not click Schedule until you have
made all your selections.

Format

When scheduling a report, the instance is created and saved using the Crystal
Report format (.rpt),unless you choose a differentfile format.You canchoose from
the following:

• Crystal Report

• Excel

• Excel (Data Only)

• Word

• Acrobat

• Rich Text

• Plain Text

• Paginated Text

• Tab-separated Values

• Character-separated Values

An instance of a report scheduled to one of the available formatsis created in that
format. For some of these formats, you can specify properties for the report.

Note:

• When you schedule a report to a file format other than Crystal Reports format

(.rpt), you may lose some or all of the formatting that appears in your report.

28 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

However, the program attempts to preserve as much formatting as the export
format allows.

• The difference between Excel and Excel (Data only) is that Excel attempts to

preserve the look and feel of your original report, while Excel (Data only)
saves only the data, with each cell representing a field.

To schedule a report using a format

1 In the Customize your options list, click Format.
2 In the Report Format list, click the format of your choice.

Where applicable, update the format properties information and click Update.

3 On the title bar, click Schedule.

Note: If you want to set other options, do not click Schedule until you have

made all your selections.

Print settings

You can choose to print a report instance when scheduling it; report instances are
always printed in Crystal Reports format. When printing a report, you can set the
number of copies and the page range.

The Print Settings page contains two areas: the first area specifies whether or not a
report instance is printed, and if printed, the number of copies and the page range;
the second area specifies the printer, and custom layout settings for changing the
page size andorientation (regardless ofwhether thereport instanceis printed ornot).

To set the print settings for a report

1 In the Customize your options list, click Print Settings.
2 In the Report Format list, click the format of your choice.
3 If you want to print a report instance, select Printacopyofthereportin

Crystal Reports format when scheduling.
Specify the number of copies, and the page range.

4 Specifythe report’s pagelayoutby choosinga setting from the Set layout to list.

Youcanchoosetousethedefaultlayout,choosewhethertouseadefault
printer or not, and choose to use standard or custom layout settings.

Looking at report history

Crystal Enterprise saves a history of report instances for scheduled reports that
have been run. The history list is arranged chronologically (with the most recent
instances first) and contains information such as:

• Instance Time

• Run By

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 29

Working with reports on ePortfolio

• Parameters

• Format

• Status

The Instance Time for a successful instance becomes a hyperlink to that instance.
You can view the instance by clicking the hyperlink.

Tip:

• Sort instances chronologically by clicking the “Instance Time” column

heading. Click the column again to reverse the sort order. Or, sort instances by
owner (alphabetically and reverse-alphabetically) by clicking the “Run By”
column heading.

• Use the Delete, Pause, and Resume buttons in the History page to delete a

selected report, to pause the publication of a report, or to resume a paused
report. Choose a report from the “Selected” columnand click either the Delete,
Pause, or Resume button.

To view report history

1 Click any report link that is available on ePortfolio.
2 Click History.

The History page appears.

3 Move the mouse over the Instance Time of a successful instance.

The instance link changes color.
Note: The color feature is available only when you use Microsoft’s Internet

Explorer as your browser.
You can see detailed status information for recurring and failed instances by

clicking the link(s) under the Status column.

4 Click the link(s) under the Instance Time column tolaunch the report instance

in a Crystal Report Viewer.

Looking at Alerts

ePortfolio tracks report instances that trigger Alerts. Alerts are custom messages
created inCrystal Reportsthat appear whencertain conditions are metby report data.
Alerts may indicate action tobe taken by the user or information about report data.

30 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

2: Using ePortfolio

To view Alerts

1 Navigate to a desired report and click its link; then click Alerts.

TheAlertspageappears.

Note: You can only click the Alerts link for reports that contain Alerts.

2 Move the mouse over an Alert.

The instance link changes color.
Note: The color feature is available only when you use Microsoft’s Internet

Explorer as your browser.

3 Click the link to launch the report instance in a Crystal Report Viewer.

Launching reports in a Report Viewer

To launch a report in a Crystal Report Viewer, select the report and click “View”
or “View Latest Instance.” Depending on the rights given to you by your
administrator, you may or may not be able to select “View” and/or “View Latest
Instance.”

Tip: You select“View” when you want toview a report on demand; thatis, Crystal
Enterprise runs the report and updates the report data with the most current
information from the database. If you select “View Latest Instance,” the most
current successful instance is displayed.

If you want to view an instance other than the most recent one, look at the report
history and select a previous instance. For more information, see “Looking at

report history” on page 29.

To launch a report in a Crystal Report Viewer

1 Click any report’s link available on ePortfolio.
2 Click View orView Latest Instance.

The report opens in a viewer.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 31

Working with reports on ePortfolio

32 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Viewing Reports 3

This chapter provides you with information about the
Crystal Report Viewers (including the Crystal Offline
Viewer) and how to view reports from them. It also
includes instructions for distributing reports using one of
two methods: printing or exporting.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 33

The default Crystal Report Viewers

The default Crystal Report Viewers

The default Crystal Report Viewers allow you to view reports, navigate through
multiple pages,refreshdata,drill downto seedetailsbehindchartsand summarized
data, select parameters, and so on. As well, the viewershave powerful printingand
exporting capabilities.

TheonlineCrystalReportViewerssupportActiveX,Java,andDHTML.Your
Crystal Enterprise administrator can select the viewer type best suited to your
company’s needs. You can also manually select your preferred viewer type
through the Preferences page. For more information, see “Selecting your public

view preferences” on page 14. The selected viewer is launched each time you

choose to view a report.
You can view your reports using any of the following online Crystal Report Viewers:

• “ActiveX viewer” on page 35

The ActiveX viewer is for Microsoft Internet Explorer versions that support
ActiveX controls.

• “DHTML viewer” on page 36

The DHMTL viewer is a zero-client viewer for browsers that support Dynamic
HTML.

• “Interactive DHMTL viewer” on page 36

In addition to providing all of the features found in the DHTML viewer, the
Interactive DHTML viewer is a zero-client viewer that provides an Advanced
Search Wizard (for advanced searches using Boolean operators).

• “Java viewer” on page 38

This viewer is designed for web browsers that support the Java Virtual
Machine.

• “Java Plug-in viewer” on page 39

The Java Plug-in viewer is accessed using a web browser that supports the Sun
Java VM Plug-in.

• “Navigator Plug-in viewer” on page 40

The Navigator Plug-in viewer is designed specifically for users of Netscape
Navigator.

You canalso view yourreports when notconnected to Crystal Enterprise by using
the “Crystal Offline Viewer” on page 41.

Note:

• Some features of the Crystal Report Viewers may be disabled by your Crystal

Enterprise administrator. Contact your administrator for more information.

• In addition to these default viewers, other custom viewers may be available.

Contact your administrator for more information.

34 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

ActiveX viewer

The ActiveX viewer is accessed using Microsoft Internet Explorer versions that
support ActiveX controls. You can view your reports, refresh them, print them,
and export them in a variety of formats.

3: Viewing Reports

In addition to the functions provided on the browser’s standard toolbar, the
ActiveX viewer has the following extra functions on its custom toolbar:

• Close current view

• Print report

• Export report

• Refresh

• Toggle group tree

• Zoom

• Go to first page

• Go to previous page

• Page number

• Go to next page

• Go to last page

• Stop loading

• Search text

Place the mouse pointer over any of the buttons on the custom toolbar to see the
associated tool tip.

Note: If a report is created using a different type of printer than the one available
from your system, you may experience formatting problems when attempting to

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 35

The default Crystal Report Viewers

print a report displayed by the ActiveX viewer. The Report Viewer Print button
uses printer settings saved with the report file. If you experience problems
printing a report, contact your Crystal Enterprise administrator.

DHTML viewer

TheDHTML vieweris accessedusing a webbrowser thatsupportsDynamicHTML.
You can view your reports, refresh them, and export them in a variety of formats.

In addition to the functions provided on the browser’s standard toolbar, the
DHTML viewer has extra functions on its custom toolbar:

• Toggle group tree

• Export report

• Print report

• Drilldown view name

• First page

• Previous page

• Page number

• Next page

• Last page

• Go to page

• Search for text

• Zoom

Interactive DHMTL viewer

The Interactive DHTML viewer is accessed using a web browser that supports
Dynamic HTML. You can view your reports, refresh them, and export them in a
variety of formats. In addition, the Interactive DHTML viewer provides an

36 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

3: Viewing Reports

Advanced Search Wizard, which enables you to perform a search on your report
data using Boolean operators.

In addition to the functions provided on the browser’s standard toolbar, the
DHTML viewer has extra functions on its custom toolbar:

• Drilldown view name

• Show/Hide group tree

• First page

• Previous page

• Page number

• Next page

• Last page

• Go to page

• Export report

• Print report

• Search for text

• Zoom

• Refresh report

• Help

• Show/Hide Advanced Search Wizard

Note:

• The Interactive DHTML viewer contains its own help file—click the Help

button on the custom toolbar for detailed information on the viewer’s extra
functions, and on using the Advanced Search Wizard.

• In order to use the Advanced Search Wizard, you must have at least View On

Demand rights or higher, as the search wizard access the report’s data source.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 37

The default Crystal Report Viewers

• In some cases, you may not have the Advanced Search Wizard available in

your viewer. This will depend on how your Crystal Enterprise administrator
has set up the report.

Java viewer

The Java viewer is accessed using a web browser that supports the Java Virtual
Machine. Youcan view your reports, refresh them, print them, and export themin
a variety of formats.

In addition to the functions provided on the browser’s standard toolbar, the Java
viewer has the following extra functions on its custom toolbar:

• Close current view

• Go to first page

• Go to previous page

• Current and last page numbers

• Go to next page

• Go to last page

• Stop

• Print report

• Export report

• Refresh data

• Show/hide group tree

• Magnification factor

• Text to search for

• Find next

Whenyou placethe mousepointer over abuttonon thecustom toolbarthe associated
description appears in the bottom left-hand side of the browser’s status bar.

Note: You may experience minor problems scrolling through reports in the Java
viewer. Such problems are a result of the Java Virtual Machine implemented in
certain web browsers and cannot be accounted for by the Java viewer. If you

38 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

experience problems, click repeatedly on the scroll buttons to scroll. Do not hold
the scroll buttons down.

Java Plug-in viewer

The Java Plug-in viewer is accessed using a web browser that supports the Sun
Java VM Plug-in (consult the Sun Microsystems web site at
for a list of browsers that support the Java Plug-in). You can view your reports,
refresh them, print them, and export them in a variety of formats.

In addition to the functions provided on the browser’s standard toolbar, the Java
Plug-in viewer has the following extra functions on its custom toolbar:

• Close current view

• Go to first page

• Go to previous page

• Current and last page numbers

• Go to next page

• Go to last page

• Stop

• Print report

• Export report

• Refresh data

• Show/hide group tree

• Magnification factor

• Text to search for

• Find next

Whenyou placethe mousepointer over abuttonon thecustom toolbarthe associated
description appears in the bottom left-hand side of the browser’s status bar.

3: Viewing Reports

http://www.sun.com

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 39

The default Crystal Report Viewers

Navigator Plug-in viewer

The Navigator Plug-in viewer has the same capabilities as the ActiveX viewer,
enabling you to use it with a browser that supports plug-ins, but may not support
ActiveX. For example, when you use this report viewer with Netscape Navigator,
you can take advantage of all of the printing capabilities associated with ActiveX.

In addition to the functions provided on thebrowser’s standard toolbar, this report
viewer has extra functions on its custom toolbar:

• Close current view

• Print report

• Export report

• Refresh

• Toggle group tree

• Zoom control

• Go to first page

• Go to previous page

• Page number

• Go to next page

• Go to last page

• Stop loading

• Search text

40 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Crystal Offline Viewer

The Crystal Offline Viewer is a report viewer installed locally on your computer.
You can use this viewer to look at Crystal reports you’ve downloaded without
being connected to ePortfolio or Crystal Enterprise.

3: Viewing Reports

Using the Crystal Offline Viewer, you can:

• Print or export your report

• Select the data you want to view

• Drill down for more detail in the report

• Sort the data in the report you want to view

• View multiple reports

The Crystal Offline Viewer functions similarly to Crystal Reports. For information
on the tasks you can perform with the Crystal Offline Viewer (selecting records,
sorting records, graphing, choosing Top N values, and so on), access the online
help from the Crystal Offline Viewer Help menu.

Note: The Crystal Offline Viewer is not supported on Windows XP.

Installing the Crystal Offline Viewer

The Crystal Offline Viewer can be installed from the Crystal Enterprise
Launchpad. Once it is installed, it resides locally as a client-side viewer.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 41

Viewing reports

To install the Crystal Offline Viewer

1 In your browser, type the following:

http://

webserver

Note: Check with your Crystal Enterprise administrator for the web server
name or exact URL to enter.

The Crystal Enterprise Launchpad page appears.

2 Click Crystal Offline Viewer.
3 Select Run this program from its current location and click OK.

You can save the program to your hard drive if you’d like. If you save it, you
must find the file and launch it in order to start the installation.

4 If you receive a security warning, click Yes to continue the installation.

The Wise Installation Wizard appears.

5 Follow the instructions on your screen accepting the default values when possible.
6 When the installation is done, click Finish.

/crystal/enterprise9/

Launching the Crystal Offline Viewer

The Crystal Offline Viewer is launched when you select a report (.rpt) and double­click it.

Note: If Crystal Reports is installed on your computer, it takes precedence over
the Crystal Offline Viewer and displays your reports by default.

Viewing reports

Once you choose a report on ePortfolio, you can view it in its entirety. If you click
the report linkand selecteither “View” or “View Latest Instance,” thereport opens
in a Crystal Report Viewer. See “Launchingreports ina ReportViewer” onpage 31
for more information.

Report viewing activities

Depending on which Crystal Report Viewer you are using, there are a number of
activities you can carry out when reviewing a report. For more information on
what activities are available in each browser, see “The default Crystal Report

Viewers” on page 34.

Refresh

Click Refresh to obtain the most up-to-date report data from the report’s data
source. You need to have the proper rights to run this report and the report must
contain the necessary data source information before you can refresh the report.

42 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

3: Viewing Reports

Find

Click Find to launch the Search dialog box. You can type the search criteria you
want to find in the report.

Toggle Group Tree

Click Toggle Group Tree to show or hide the report’s group tree. When the Group
Tree is displayed, you can use it to navigate through your report’s data.

Drill down

You can drill down on report data to show the data beneath charts and summarized
groups. Double-click the chart or summarized data to see a drill-down view.

Zoom

Select a magnification factor from the drop-down list to zoom in or out on a report.

Scroll through pages

Use the scroll bars or First Page/Previous Page to move through the pages of a
report. Go to First Page and Go to Last Page options are also available.

Set parameters

When you launch a report that contains data selection parameters, or when you
refresh its data, you are prompted to select a value. The values and/or value
ranges you can choose differ from report to report, depending on how the
parameter was created in Crystal Reports.

Distributing reports

Using the Crystal Report Viewers, you can distribute reports using one of two
methods: printing or exporting.

Tip: If you have the rights to schedule reports, you can also distribute reports by
scheduling directly to a disk location, email, FTP, or printer. For details, see

“Destination locations” on page 27.

Printing reports

Successful instances of reports can beprinted. Dependingon which Crystal Report
Viewer you use, the steps detailed below may be different; however, the general
principles remain the same.

1 On the viewer’s toolbar, click Print Report.

The Print dialog box appears.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 43

Distributing reports

2 In the Print range area, select all pages or a specific range of pages.
3 In the Copies area, select the number of copies for the report.
4 If you select the Collate check box, the report prints each page in order.

For example, if you are printing two copies of a report with four pages, your
report prints page one, two,three, and four of the first copy, andthen printsthe
second copy.

5 Click OK.

The Printing Recordsdialog box appears displaying theprogress of your print job.

Exporting reports

Successful instances of reports can be exported to several reporting formats, as
well as to popular word processor and spreadsheet formats. This makes the
distribution of information easier. For example, you may want to export data that
projects sales trends to an Excel spreadsheet before you email it to the sales team.

Tip:

• You can select the page range for the report that you wish to export.

• For reports in which you can drill down, you can export the drill-down view.

Format types

Crystal Enterprise provides you with several export format types. They include:

• Crystal Reports

• Microsoft Excel

• Microsoft Excel (Data only)

• Microsoft Word

• Rich Text Format

• Adobe Acrobat

Note:

• When you export a report to a file format other than Crystal Reports format

(.rpt), you may lose some or all of the formatting that appears in your report.
However, the program attempts to preserve as much formatting as the export
format allows.

• The difference between Excel and Excel (Data only) is that Excel attempts to

preserve the look and feel of your original report.

• The Crystal Offline Viewer provides other formats for exporting. For more

information about these formats, see the Crystal Reports User’s Guide.

44 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise 4

This chapter focuses on the publishing process: it
introduces the Crystal Publishing Wizard and tells you
how you can use it to add Crystal reports and other objects
to ePortfolio or to your custom web desktop; it also
describes alternative ways of adding objects to the Crystal
Enterprise environment.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 45

Publishing overview

Publishing overview

Publishing is the process of adding objects such as Crystal reports to the Crystal
Enterprise environment and making them available to authorized users. The
objects that you publish may be individual reports created with Crystal Reports,
analytical applications designed with Crystal Analysis, other objects that you’ve
created using Crystal Enterprise plug-in components, or directories containing
multiple objects.

When you publish an object to Crystal Enterprise, an entry is made in the
Automated Process Scheduler (APS) database. The Input File Repository Server
stores the new object below the
When a user schedules an instance of any object, Crystal Enterprise queries the
APS for the location of the object file; the appropriate server component then
retrieves and processes the object file from the Input File Repository. The
processed instance is stored by the Output File Repository Server below the

\Enterprise\FileStore\Output\data\

You can publish objects to Crystal Enterprise in three ways:

• Use the Crystal Publishing Wizard when you:

• Have access to the locally installed application.

• Are adding multiple objects or an entire directory.

For details, see “Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard” on page 47.

• Use the Crystal Management Console (CMC) when you are:

• Publishing a single object.

• Taking care of other administrative tasks.

• Performing tasks remotely.

For details, see “Publishing with the Crystal Management Console” on page 55.

• Save directly to your Enterprise folders when you are:

• Designing reports with Crystal Reports.

• Creating other objects with Crystal Enterprise plug-in components such as

Crystal Analysis.

For details, see “Saving objects directly to the APS” on page 56.

Note: Crystal Enterprise supports reports created in versions 6 through 9 of
Crystal Reports. Once published to Crystal Enterprise, reports are saved,
processed, and displayed in version 9 format.

\Enterprise\FileStore\Input\data\

directory.

directory.

Publishing options

During the publishing process, you specify how often the data in the report is
updated. You can choose to force users to see specific instances based on a
schedule that you determine (recurring), or you can choose to let users set the
schedule themselves (on demand).

46 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

Specifying the data that users see (recurring)

This option is recommended for objects that are accessed by a large number of
people and that do not require separate database logon credentials.

Benefits

• Users view the same instance of the report, reducing the number of times the

database is hit (and thus system resources are used more effectively).

• The report instance is static (contains saved data) and is stored on the Cache

Server, allowing multiple users to access the report at the same time.

Drawbacks

• The instance the users see is based on the selection criteria (parameters and

record selection formulas) and schedule set by the administrator.

Allowing users to update the data in the report (on demand)

This option is recommended for smaller reports that use parameters and selection
formulas, require separate database logon credentials, or have frequent data changes.

Benefits

• Users are able to determine the frequency in which the data in the report is

updated.

Drawbacks

• Multiple users generating reports at the same time increases the load on the

system and the number of times the database is hit.
Each unique report pageis cachedseparately. It’s possible that the Cache Server

can contain many copies of the cached report, each of them being generated by
hitting the Page Server and database.

Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard

The Crystal Publishing Wizard is a locally installed, 32-bit Windows application.
The wizard is made up of a series of screens. Only the screens applicable to the
objects or folders you are publishing appear. This section of the guide features a
series of procedures to help you through the Crystal Publishing Wizard.

Note: Use this version of the Crystal Publishing Wizard to publish .rpt files only.
Once the object has been published, it will appear in the folder you specified in

ePortfolio (or other web desktop) and in the Objects management area ofthe CMC.
Note: Depending on therights assigned by yourCrystal Enterpriseadministrator,

you may not have access to the Crystal Publishing Wizard.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 47

Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard

Adding objects/folders

1 From the Crystal Enterprise 9 program group, click Crystal Publishing Wizard.
2 Click Next.
3 Enter the path for the object you want to add.

If you’re not sure of the location, click Find File to search.

Adding multiple objects

1 Select the Add multiple reports check box.
2 Click either Find Directory or Find File.

Use the Find Directory button to specify a directory that contains a number of
objects you want to add.

Use the Find File button to specify a single object.

3 After selecting a directory, click Add Directory. Or, if you have already

selected a file, click Add File.
All of the objects contained in the directory you specified are added to the file

list. If you selected the “Include subfolders” check box, all the objects inall the
subfolders are also added.

Note: If the directory or file you entered cannot be found by the wizard, the
Add Directory button is disabled.

4 Select the check boxes associated with the objects you want to publish.

Click the Select All button if you have a large number of files and want to add
them all.

5 Click Next.

The Select an APS dialog box appears.

48 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Selecting the APS

You must log on to an APS in order to publish the objects you selected.

1 Select the authentication type associated with your account.

• Enterprise authentication requires a user name and password that is

• Windows NT authentication requires a user name and password that is

• LDAP authentication requires a user name and password that isrecognized

2 Enter the name of your APS.

Note: If you cannot connect by specifying the APS name, provide the APS IP
address and port (for example,

3 EnteryourusernameandpasswordfortheAPSyouselected.

recognized by Crystal Enterprise.

recognized by Windows NT.

by your LDAP user database.

172.30.6.20:6400

4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

).

4 Click Next.

The Creating Objects dialog box appears, indicating the progress of the object
creation process.

If it ispossible toduplicate the folder structure, the Folder Hierarchy dialog box
appears. Otherwise, the APS Folder dialog box appears when the processing is
complete.

Duplicating the folder structure

If you are adding multiple objects from a directory and its subdirectories, you are
asked if you want to duplicate the existing folder hierarchy on the APS.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 49

Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard

1 Click Yes or No.

Click the Yes button to have all of the folders and subfolders recreated on the
APSastheyappearonyourharddrive.

Click the No button to have all of the objects placed in a single folder.

2 Click Next.

Creating and selecting a folder on the APS

To add the selectedobjects, you mustcreate orselect a folder on the host APS. Only
the folders that you have full control access to will appear.

1 Click the folder you want to add the objects to. Click + to the left of the folder

to view the subfolders.
To add a new folder to the APS, select a parent folder and then click the New

Folder button. The new folder appears and can be renamed.
To delete a folder, select the folder and click the Delete Folder button.

Note: You can delete only folders added manually (folders added manually
are green; those added by the wizard are yellow).

If you are adding multiple objects and want to place them in separate
directories, you can do so in the next section.

2 Click Next.

The Location Preview dialog box appears.

50 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Moving objects between folders

1 Move objects to the desired folders by selecting each object and then clicking

Move Up or Move Down.

You canalso addand delete folders byselecting aparent folder and clicking the
New Folder or Delete Folder buttons. You can drag-and-drop objects to place
them where you want. And you can right-click objects to rename them.

By default, objects are displayed using their titles. You can display the objects’
local file names by clicking the “Show file names” button.

2 Click Next when you are finished.

The Schedule Interval dialog box appears.

4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

Changing scheduling options

The data in reports added to ePortfolio or your custom web desktop can be
refreshed at intervals you select.

1 Select one of three intervals:

• Run once only

Selecting the “Run once only” option provides two more sets of options:

• when finished this wizard

This option runs the report once when you’ve finished publishing it. The
report is not refreshed again until you reschedule it.

• at the specified date and time

Thisoptionrunsthereportonceatadateandtimeyouspecify.Thereport
is not refreshed again until you reschedule it.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 51

Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard

• Let users update the object

This option does not schedule the report. Instead, it leaves the task of
scheduling up to the user.

• Runonarecurringschedule

Once you have selected this option, click the Set Recurrence button to set
the scheduling options.

The “Pick a recurrence schedule” dialog box appears.
The options in this dialog box allow you to choose when and how often the

report runs. Select the appropriate options and click the OK button.

2 Click Next after the schedule has been set.

The Repository Refresh dialog box appears.

Enabling repository refresh

The Crystal Repository is a central location which stores shared report elements
such as text objects, bitmaps, custom functions, and custom SQL commands. You
can choose to refresh an object’s repository fields if the object references the
repository. To complete this task, the Crystal Publishing Wizard needs to connect
to your Crystal Repository database from the local machine. For details, see the
Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.

To enable repository refresh

1 Select an object, and then select the Enable repository refresh check box if you

want to refresh it against the repository.
Tip: Click the “Enable All” button if you want to refresh all objects that

reference the repository; click the “Disable All” button if you want to refresh
none of the objects.

2 Click Next when you are finished.

The Change Default Values dialog box appears.

Changing default values

You can choose to publish objects without changing any of the default properties,
or you can go through the remaining screens and make changes.

Note: If you use the default values, your object may not schedule properly if the
database logon information is not correct, or if the parameter values are invalid.

If you want to publish objects without making modifications:

1 Select Publish reports without modifying properties.
2 Click Next through the wizard’s remaining dialog boxes.

52 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

If you want to review or modify objects before publishing:

1 Select Review or modify report properties.
2 Click Next.

The Review Report Properties dialog box appears.

Changing object properties

1 Select the object you want to modify.
2 Enter a new title or description.
3 Select the Generate thumbnail image check box if you want users of

ePortfolio to see a thumbnail of the object before they open it.
Tip: The “Generate thumbnail image” check box is available only if the report

was saved appropriately. Todisplay thumbnails fora report, open the report in
Crystal Reports and click Summary Info on the File menu. Select the “Save
preview picture” check box and click OK. Preview the first page of the report
and save your changes.

4 Click Next.

The Database Logon Information dialog box appears if it is needed.

Entering database logon information

4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

Some objects use data sources that require logon information. If objects you are
adding are of this type, follow these steps.

1 Double-click the object, or click + to the left of the object to expose the database.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 53

Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard

2 Select the database and change the logon information in the appropriate fields.

If the database does not require a user name orpassword, leave the fields blank.
Note: Enter user name and password information carefully. If it is entered

incorrectly, the object cannot retrieve data from the database.

3 Select the Apply this information to all reports check box if you have a

number of objects requiring logon to the same database.

4 Once you have completed the logon information for each object using a

different database, click Next.
The Set Report Parameters dialog box appears if it is needed.

Setting parameters

Some objects contain parameters for data selection. Before such an object can be
scheduled, you mustset the parametersin order to determinethe default prompts.

1 Select the object whose prompts you want to change.

The object’s prompts and default values appear in a list on the right-hand side
of the screen.

2 Click Edit Prompt to change the value of a prompt.

Depending on the type of parameter you have chosen, different dialog boxes
appear.

3 Ifyouwanttosetthepromptstocontainanullvalue(wherepossible),then

click Set Prompts to NULL.

4 Click Next after you have finished editing the prompts for each object.

Setting the schedule format

You can choose a schedule format for each report that you publish. For some of the
formats, you can customize the schedule format options.

1 Select the object whose schedule format you want to change.
2 Select a format from the list (Crystal Report, Excel, Word, and so on).

Where applicable, customize the schedule format options. For example, if you
select Paginated Text, enter the number of lines per page.

3 Click Next.

The final dialog box appears.

54 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

4: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise

Finalizing the objects to be added

1 After ensuring all the objects have been added to the list, click Next.

The objects are added to the APS, scheduled, and run as specified. When the
processingis done,you are returnedto thefinal screenof theCrystal Publishing
Wizard.

2 To view the details for an object, select it from the list.
3 Click Finish to close the wizard.

Publishing with the Crystal Management Console

If you have administrative rights to Crystal Enterprise, you can publish objects
over the Web from within the CMC.

To add an object with the CMC

1 Go to the Objects management area of the CMC.
2 Click New Report.

The New Report page appears.

3 In the File name field, type the full path to the report.

If you do not know the path, click Browse to perform a search.

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 55

Saving objects directly to the APS

4 If you do not want the user to see a thumbnail preview of the report in

ePortfolio, clear the “Generate thumbnail for the report” check box.
Tip: Todisplay thumbnails for a report,open the reportin Crystal Reports and

click Summary Info on the File menu. Select the “Save preview picture” check
box and click OK. Preview the first page of the report and save your changes.

5 If the report references objects in your Crystal Repository, select the Enable

repository refresh check box to update these objects now.

6 Ensure that the correct folder name appears in the Destination field.

Tip: To expand a folder, select it and click Show Subfolders.

7 Click OK.

When the objecthas been added to the system,the CMC displays the Properties
screen. Ifnecessary, youcan now modify the object’s properties, such as its title
and description, the database logon information, scheduling information, user
rights, and so on.

Saving objects directly to the APS

If you have installed one of the Crystal designer components, such as Crystal
Reports or Crystal Analysis, you can use the Save As command to add objects to
Crystal Enterprise from within the designer itself.

For instance, after designing a report in Crystal Reports, click Save As on the File
menu. In the Save As dialog box, click Enterprise Folders; then, when prompted,
log on to the Crystal Enterprise Automated Process Scheduler (APS). Specify the
folder where you want to save the report and click Save.

56 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide

Index

A

accessing ePortfolio ............................................... 9

account settings, modifying ................................. 16

ActiveX viewer .................................................... 35

Alerts, viewing..................................................... 30

audience, intended................................................ 2

B

button conventions ................................................ 5

C

choosing, report type ........................................... 20

CMC, publishing objects with.............................. 55

conventions

button ............................................................. 5

command........................................................ 5

control ............................................................ 5

copying reports, to favorites folder....................... 17

creating folders .................................................... 22

Crystal Analysis, saving objects to APS ................ 56

Crystal Offline Viewer ......................................... 41

installing ....................................................... 41

launching...................................................... 42

Crystal Publishing Wizard.................................... 47

adding

folders ...................................................... 48

multiple reports ........................................ 48

reports...................................................... 48

changing

default values ........................................... 52

report properties....................................... 53

creating folder on APS................................... 50

database log on............................................. 53

duplicating folder structure ........................... 49

moving reports between folders .................... 51

repository refresh .......................................... 52

scheduling reports ......................................... 51

selecting

folder on APS ........................................... 50

the APS .................................................... 49

setting report parameters ............................... 54

Crystal Report Viewers. See Report Viewers

Crystal Reports, saving objects to APS.................. 56

customizing ePortfolio......................................... 14

D

data

allowing users to refresh ................................47

refreshing on a schedule ................................47

designer, saving objects to APS ............................56

desktop. See ePortfolio

DHTML viewer ....................................................36

directories, publishing ..........................................47

distributing reports ...............................................43

E

ePortfolio ...............................................................8

accessing .........................................................9

favorites view.................................................17

guest view......................................................13

logging on......................................................10

public view....................................................14

views .............................................................13

ePortfolio Mobile, logging on ...............................12

exporting

format types for..............................................44

reports ...........................................................44

F

favorites view .......................................................17

fax numbers, registration ........................................3

folders

creating..........................................................22

navigating through .........................................21

G

guest view............................................................13

H

help

online ..............................................................3

product registration..........................................3

technical support .............................................4

history, viewing....................................................29

I

Interactive DHTML viewer ...................................36

Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide 57

J

Java Plug-in viewer .............................................. 39

Java viewer .......................................................... 38

K

key combinations................................................... 5

keyboard shortcuts .................................................5

L

LDAP authentication ............................................10

logging on ePortfolio............................................10

logging on ePortfolio Mobile................................ 12

M

modifying

account settings............................................. 16

passwords......................................................16

N

navigating, through folders................................... 21

Navigator Plug-in viewer ..................................... 40

NT authentication ................................................10

O

objects

publishing ..................................................... 45

multiple .................................................... 47

options .....................................................46

with CMC ................................................. 55

saving directly to APS ....................................56

online help ............................................................ 3

options, publishing .............................................. 46

P

printing reports ....................................................43

product registration ................................................3

public view

settings ..........................................................14

signing on......................................................14

publishing ............................................................ 46

from the designer...........................................56

options ..........................................................46

reports and objects ........................................45

with CMC ...................................................... 55

with Crystal Publishing Wizard...................... 47

R

report history, viewing ......................................... 29

report type, choosing ........................................... 20

Report Viewer, launching ....................................31

Report Viewers

ActiveX..........................................................35

Crystal Offline Viewer................................... 41

installing .................................................. 41

launching ................................................. 42

DHTML......................................................... 36

Interactive DHTML ....................................... 36

Java ............................................................... 38

Java Plug-in................................................... 39

Navigator Plug-in .......................................... 40

reports

copying to favorites folder ............................. 17

creating ......................................................... 23

distributing.................................................... 43

exporting....................................................... 44

modifying...................................................... 23

printing ......................................................... 43

publishing ..................................................... 45

multiple.................................................... 47

options ..................................................... 46

with CMC................................................. 55

saving directly to APS.................................... 56

scheduling .................................................... 23

searching for ................................................. 20

sorting ........................................................... 20

viewing ......................................................... 42

S

scheduling........................................................... 23

database log on............................................. 26

parameters .................................................... 26

run time parameters ...................................... 25

selection formulas ......................................... 27

settings, public view ............................................ 14

shortcuts, keyboard................................................ 5

signing on, public view........................................ 14

sorting reports...................................................... 20

support

product registration ......................................... 3

technical ......................................................... 4

web site .......................................................... 4

T

technical support ................................................... 4

V

viewing

Alerts ............................................................ 30

last five reports .............................................. 21

report history................................................. 29

reports..................................................... 31

, 42

W

web desktop. See ePortfolio
web sites

consulting ....................................................... 4

training ........................................................... 4

58 Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User’s Guide