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.
Page 3
Contents
Chapter 1: Welcome to Crystal Enterprise
What is Crystal Enterprise? ............................................................... 2
Who should use this guide? ............................................................... 2
About this guide ................................................................................ 2
Information Flow ............................................................................ 64
What happens when you view a report? .............................................................. 64
What happens when you schedule a report? ....................................................... 66
Choosing between live and saved data ............................................ 67
Live data ............................................................................................................. 67
Saved data ........................................................................................................... 68
Index .................................................................................69
viCrystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 7
Welcome to Crystal Enterprise1
This chapter briefly describes Crystal Enterprise and outlines
the contents and the intended audience of this Getting StartedGuide. Product registration and technical support
information is also included, along with a brief description of
the document conventions used within this guide.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide1
Page 8
What is Crystal Enterprise?
What is Crystal Enterprise?
Crystal Enterprise is a flexible, scalable, and reliable solution for delivering
powerful, interactive reports to end users via any web application—intranet,
extranet, Internet or corporate portal. Whether it is used for distributing weekly
sales reports, providing customers with personalized service offerings, or
integrating critical information into corporate portals, Crystal Enterprise delivers
tangible benefits that extend across and beyond the organization. As an integrated
suite for reporting, analysis, and information delivery, Crystal Enterprise provides
a solution for increasing end-user productivity and reducing administrative efforts.
Who should use this guide?
This guide is intended for anyone who wants to get Crystal Enterprise up and running
quickly. Common tasks and general overviews are provided throughout for users and
administrators who are new to Crystal Enterprise. If you are evaluating Crystal
Enterprise, this guide should provide you with a useful introduction to the product’s
general features and functionality. You’ll learn the basics of how to install, how to add
users and reports to the system, and how to view reports in Crystal Enterprise.
For more information about the product, consult the Crystal Enterprise
Administrator’s Guide, the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide, and the Crystal
Enterprise User’s Guide. Online versions of these guides are included in the
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 basic installation information and serves as a general
introduction to Crystal Enterprise, the Crystal Management Console, the Crystal
Publishing Wizard, and the overall product architecture.
Chapter contents
The following list provides a short description of each of the remaining chapters in
this guide.
Chapter 2: What’s New in Crystal Enterprise
Crystal Enterprise 10 continues to extend the market-leading scalability, reliability,
and flexibility of the Crystal Enterprise system, cementing it firmly as a premium
enterprise reporting system. Crystal Enterprise 10 delivers significant productivity
gains across enterprise reporting deployments, by helping both IT and end users
use the system more effectively. This chapter provides a high-level overview of
new features and enhancements.
2Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 9
1: Welcome to Crystal Enterprise
Chapter 3: Planning Your Installation
This chapter provides general details about performing a preliminary installation of
Crystal Enterprise in a Windows environment. It also provides details about
performing a preliminary installation in a UNIX environment. For complete
installation procedures, consult the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
included with your product distribution.
install.pdf
Chapter 4: Using Crystal Enterprise
This chapter serves as an introduction to working with Crystal Enterprise and
viewing reports with the Crystal Report Viewer.
Chapter 5: Managing Accounts
This chapter focuses on the Crystal Management Console and provides you with
information about how to create and change user accounts.
Chapter 6: 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
the Crystal Enterprise web desktop or to your custom web desktop; it also
describes alternative ways of adding objects to the Crystal Enterprise environment.
)
Chapter 7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
This chapter provides an overview of the Crystal Enterprise architecture, describes
the different components, and identifies how they work together to distribute
reports over the web.
Online help
Access the online help in Crystal Enterprise by clicking Help. The online help
contains all of the information found in this guide.
Product registration
There are several ways you can register your product:
• Fill out the Product Registration form on the Crystal Decisions web site at:
http://www.crystaldecisions.com/register/
• Print the Product Registration form and fax it to the registration fax number
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.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide3
Page 10
Customer Handbook
Registration fax numbers
USA/Canada +1 (604) 681-5147
United Kingdom +44 (0) 20 8231 0601
Australia +6 2 9955 7682
Germany +49 (0) 69 9509 6182
Hong Kong +852 2893 2727
Singapore +65 777 8786
Registering the product ensures that you are kept up-to-date with product
advancements.
Customer Handbook
For the latest details about product registration, maintenance, support, and
services, visit our web site and download the Customer Handbook that
corresponds to your region:
If a Crystal Decisions Customer Handbook is not available for your region, please
refer to the rest of this Welcome chapter, or contact your sales or support
representative for complete details
Crystal Care technical support
For information on accessing your Crystal Care support specialists, contact the
technical support administrative team, your sales representative, or the regional
office nearest you. Contact details are available at:
Whether you’re a developer, information technology professional, or business
user, we offer a wide range of Crystal 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/
1: Welcome to Crystal Enterprise
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 on which 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
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide5
If Sales > 1000 Then crRed
webserver
Page 12
Document conventions
http://
webserver
/crystal/enterprise/
6Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 13
What’s New in Crystal Enterprise2
Crystal Enterprise 10 extends the robust information
infrastructure provided by earlier versions of Crystal
Enterprise. Crystal Enterprise 10 brings together features
from across the Crystal product line to meet the diverse
needs of users, from presentation-quality reporting to indepth data analysis. This includes a variety of major
enhancements spread across our data access methods,
administration capabilities, and report design options. This
chapter provides a high level overview of the new features
and enhancements as they pertain to end-users, report
designers, developers, and IT professionals.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide7
Page 14
End-user experience
End-user experience
Crystal Enterprise 10 brings powerful analytic reporting tasks and capabilities to
the average business user. Power users and analysts can also use Crystal
Enterprise as a central repository for accessing accurate data to conduct analyses,
to create spreadsheets and presentation-quality reports, and to share information
across the enterprise.
Microsoft Office integration
Crystal Enterprise 10 provides a range of integration points with the Microsoft
Office system. To complement the Excel Add-In for Crystal Enterprise, Crystal
Enterprise 10 can store and manage Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files. This allows
you to associate background information, proposals, and other documents with
existing reports in the Crystal Enterprise system, providing a single source for
information on various projects.
Ad Hoc reporting and analysis
Crystal Enterprise 10 provides a broad range of interactive reporting and analysis
capabilities. These capabilities are available through updated out-of-the-box tools
and our Smart Reporting Software Development Kit (SDK), which allows custom
development.
Scheduling
The Crystal Enterprise 10 web interfaces have been updated to increase usability
and accessibility. Common operations, such as scheduling and printing, have been
simplified with the introduction of new features, such as calendars and DHTML
printing.
• Calendars
Calendars simplify scheduling. You can now run reports based on predefined
calendars that include key business events, such as the close of quarter,
holidays, and data warehouse refresh days. This eliminates the complex data
and time selections that are often required to set up recurring jobs. For example,
you might want to schedule a report to run on the first morning of each week.
Because of holidays, this event might fall on a Monday, Tuesday, or even
Wednesday. Rather than scheduling each instance of the report individually, or
manually selecting the run days, you can set the report to run against a business
calendar that provides a pre-defined schedule of run days.
• Notification
You can now set scheduling options that automatically send notification when
an object instance succeeds or fails. For example, you may have a large number
of reports that run a new instance every day. You need to check each instance
to make sure it ran properly, and then send out emails to the users who need to
know that the new report is available. With thousands of reports, it would take
too much time to manually check the reports and contact the users who need the
8Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 15
information. Using notification settings in Crystal Enterprise, you can set each
object to automatically notify you when the report fails to run properly, and you
can automatically inform users when new report instances run successfully.
Report design
Crystal Enterprise 10 provides greater fluidity between reports and between data
sources through the new Crystal Business Views, through the Crystal Repository,
and through new report navigation features.
Simplified data access
Crystal Business Views, a new feature of Crystal Enterprise 10, offers a new data
abstraction layer that simplifies the process of connecting to enterprise data
sources. This new central data access model exposes predefined, domain-specific
data sources, which reduces the need for complex joins, filters, or formulas within
individual report designs. Using Crystal Enterprise, you can integrate data from
disparate sources. You can also bring together data from multiple data collection
platforms and application boundaries so that the differences in data resolution,
coverage, and structure between collection methods are eliminated.
Integrated report component repository
Through the Crystal Repository, Crystal Business Views also provides centralized
access to common report components, which makes it easier to share useful
components with other report designers. You store these components in the
Crystal Repository through Crystal Enterprise and access them through either the
Crystal Reports designer or through Crystal Business Views.
2: What’s New in Crystal Enterprise
Report hyperlinking
You can use hyperlinks in Crystal reports (RPT and CAR files) to tie together
information on multiple reports and to enhance navigation for end users. These
hyperlinks pass data context, allowing you to specify a dynamic path between two
specific pieces of information. This functionality is implemented as a Hyperlink in
Crystal Reports and as an Action in Crystal Analysis. You can use Hyperlinks to
link between reports published to an object package in Crystal Enterprise, or to a
specific instance of a report stored in the object history. Use Actions in Crystal
Analysis reports to link between Crystal reports and to other key information.
Developer flexibility
Crystal Enterprise 10 allows you, the developer, to take advantage of the powerful
capabilities Crystal Enterprise platform with minimal coding or application
redesign. New features accelerate the process of creating new applications and
they provide a more seamless migration of application built on small components
of the Crystal Enterprise platform.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide9
Page 16
System administration
.NET Server Controls
The .NET Server Controls allow you to rapidly incorporate content and
functionality from Crystal Enterprise into Microsoft Visual Studio.NET
applications. Crystal Enterprise 10 provides visual and non-visual controls that
contain the logic for common operations, such as authentication, folder listing, and
report viewing. You can manipulate these controls in the Visual Studio.NET
environment and insert them seamlessly into applications.
Application migration and upsizing
You can use Crystal Enterprise 10 to centralize and scale existing stand-alone
applications created using the products from the Crystal family. Available in the
Report Application Server (RAS) and Crystal Reports for Visual Studio.NET
Server, a new feature allows you to easily upsize applications to run on a full
Crystal Enterprise deployment with multiple servers.
System administration
Crystal Enterprise 10 helps administrators streamline system management by
delegating tasks and automating regular operations. Crystal Enterprise 10 also
provides cross-platform support, comprehensive data management, and detailed
usage auditing capabilities.
Security
Crystal Enterprise 10 extends Active Directory and LDAP functionality to support
a broader set of security scenarios.
• Active Directory (native mode)
Active Directory support allows you to authenticate Crystal Enterprise users
against and Active Directory server. You can also map Active Directory users
and groups to Crystal Enterprise, simultaneously implementing object, folder,
and data-level security.
• LDAP (secure socket layer)
The extension of LDAP support in Crystal Enterprise 10 provides a secure
channel for communication between Crystal Enterprise and a directory server,
through which all authentication and authorization requests between Crystal
Enterprise and the LDAP server flow. This feature supports both server
authentication and mutual authentication.
Object Management
Crystal Enterprise 10 increases your ability to centralize critical information and
distribute it consistently to users. Crystal Enterprise 10 allows you to manage and
secure a broad range of information and objects, including spreadsheets, text files,
10Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
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2: What’s New in Crystal Enterprise
programs, reports, and hyperlinks. An updated publishing tool and anew object
packaging feature round out this broad set of object management capabilities.
• Hyperlink Objects
Hyperlink objects provide a standard mechanism for accessing information from
external systems. You can use these objects to provide a URL connection to legacy
reports, web services, or other information resources hosted in third party systems,
and you can apply Crystal Enterprise security to these objects. This allows
customers to standardize on managing relevant business intelligence content in
Crystal Enterprise—delivering and securing the content in a common interface.
• Object packages
Object packages simplify administration by allowing you to schedule, secure
and manage a set of related reports and programs as a single object. This
ensures that each instance of a package provides a consistent and synchronized
snapshot of a set of related data. The new managed report navigation feature
provides a means to link reports in an object package so that end users can
easily move between related report instances.
• Third party object support
The third party object support available in Crystal Enterprise 10 allows you to
distribute additional information associated with core operational reports (for
example, closely related documents or legacy reports). With the Crystal Enterprise
10 security model and user interface you can distribute Microsoft Word, Microsoft
PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat, rich text, text, and program files.
• Unified Publishing Wizard
The Crystal Enterprise 10 Publishing Wizard allows you to publish a number
of objects, such as reports, Microsoft Office documents, and other files, to
Crystal Enterprise simultaneously.
System Management
Crystal Enterprise 10 allows you to decentralize the administration of large
deployments, for example you can delegate or automate specific tasks.
Additionally, you can use the new auditing capabilities to monitor system usage.
• Delegated administration
Delegated administration allows you, the system administrator, to distribute
administration tasks to application administrators or IT resources in specific
business units. The IT group can configure the system and ensure server health,
while each business unit gains responsibility for object management and security.
While in previous versions of Crystal Enterprise, delegated administration
capabilities were available only through the Software Development Kit (SDK),
Crystal Enterprise 10 directly exposes these capabilities in its primary
management tool, the Crystal Management Console (CMC).
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide11
Page 18
System administration
Delegated administration is based on three types of Crystal Enterprise
administrators:
• Global administrators
A global administrator manages the entire Crystal Enterprise deployment.
This person can assign specific users and groups to be managed by specific
application administrators.
• Application administrators
An application administrator can manage folders, reports, and cubes for
specific business unit, but cannot see objects of other business units. An
application administrator can implement an application-level security
model by assigning users and groups to objects.
• Server administrators
A server administrator can mange the addition, removal, and/or
modification of Crystal Enterprise servers.
• Notification
Notification is an object-level trigger, primarily designed to help you catch critical
job failures or notify users when new information is available. Based on the
success or failure of an individual object instance, you can send notification via:
• An email to an administrator, the object owner, or other users.
• An event that triggers a program or report object to run.
• An audit file, stored in the Crystal Enterprise auditing database.
• Program objects
Program objects are executables, scripts, or Java programs that you can
schedule to run regularly or based on an event. Crystal Enterprise 10’s new
program object features allow you to automate a wide range of administrative
tasks, making Crystal Enterprise a self-managing environment. Additionally,
you can use program objects to trigger external processes, thus integrating
Crystal Enterprise into a broader work flow.
The following is an example of how program objects can be incorporated into
the administration of a Crystal Enterprise system:
A reconciliation process runs nightly and populates a database. On completion,
nightlybatch.txt
a file—
—is created, with a batch number. A file event in Crystal
Enterprise detects the file creation and runs five reports against the reconciliation
data from that night. The completion of these five report jobs triggers a program
object. This program object runs a script that moves
nightlybatch.txt
to another
directory, which launches another process in another system.
• Auditing
New auditing capabilities in Crystal Enterprise 10 provide you, the administrator,
with a detailed historical view of user and object interaction, and of system usage.
This allows you to fine-tune system performance, retire unused reports, and
provide business units with a comprehensive snapshot of their usage patterns.
Servers in Crystal Enterprise are now designed to record pertinent statistical
metrics to an auditing database. (System administrators specify whether or not
12Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
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2: What’s New in Crystal Enterprise
to audit metrics and the time interval of the audit for each server.) The auditing
cache file is periodically passed to the Crystal Management Server (CMS),
where the auditing sub-system maintains a database that stores the information.
You can compile and present this data using performance sample audit reports,
supplied with Crystal Enterprise or your own custom Crystal report.
Data access, security and management
Crystal Business Views, a metadata service that is part of Crystal Enterprise 10,
allows you to better manage reporting across multiple data sources. You can
efficiently abstract and organize data for end-users, while managing query
efficiency and data-level security. Additionally, Crystal Business Views facilitates
the migration of reports between various versions of an underlying database, for
example, development, testing, and production databases.
Platform support
Crystal Enterprise 10 allows flexibility in choice of operating systems, platforms, and
programming languages, based on individual application requirements. This ensures
that each business unit or application use its existing resources most efficiently.
• Operating systems
Crystal Enterprise 10 provides comprehensive support for all server functions—
including reporting and analysis—on Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, and IBM
AIX. You can deploy Crystal Enterprise 10 across any mixture of these platforms
to meet the specific needs of various business units or applications.
• Crystal Enterprise web desktop
Crystal Enterprise’s standard web interface now supports both COM and Java
environments.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide13
Page 20
System administration
14Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 21
Planning Your Installation3
This chapter provides general details about performing a
preliminary installation of Crystal Enterprise in a Windows
or a UNIX environment. For complete installation
procedures, consult the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide
install.pdf
(
) included with your product distribution.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide15
Page 22
Installation overview
Installation overview
Crystal Enterprise offers a completely customizable and scalable solution by
providing a number of distinct client and server components that can be distributed
in various ways across a number of machines. However, for the purposes of this
introductory guide, the product’s diverse components are grouped together as
“Crystal Enterprise” and treated whenever possible as a single application.
This chapter recommends several preliminary installation scenarios that enable
you to get Crystal Enterprise up and running quickly. The scenarios described here
are ideal for individuals and organizations who are interested in familiarizing
themselves with the features and functionality of Crystal Enterprise in a Windows
or a UNIX environment.
The full stand-alone installation on Windows is generally the quickest to perform,
and it provides you with all the functionality you will require to proceed through
the remaining chapters in this guide. The UNIX installation is also highly
automated, but it is recommended that you attempt this installation only if you
have some administrative experience on your UNIX system.
For complete installation procedures, consult the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
install.pdf
) included with your product distribution.
Installing Crystal Enterprise on Windows
This chapter describes two preliminary installation scenarios that enable you to get
Crystal Enterprise up and running quickly. For information on more advanced
deployment scenarios, including information on selecting the best scenario for the
deployment of custom applications, see the section on planning your installation
in the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
distribution.
Before you install Crystal Enterprise on Windows, consider which of the following
scenarios is best for you:
• Full stand-alone installation
In this scenario, you install Crystal Enterprise on a single machine that is
already running as a web server. This provides the quickest way to install
Crystal Enterprise.
For details, see “Full stand-alone installation” on page 17.
• Server-side installation connected to a web server
In this scenario, you maintain separation between Crystal Enterprise and your
web server by running them on separate machines. Once you’ve installed
Crystal Enterprise on one machine, you install and configure the Web
Connector on the web server machine.
This scenario is also ideal if you have a single UNIX server that is running as
your dedicated web server. You retain the use of your UNIX web server, and
you can still install Crystal Enterprise on Windows.
install.pdf
) included with your product
16Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 23
For details, see “Server-side installation connected to a web server” on page 17.
Note: For more installation options, such as custom and expanded installations,
consult the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
product distribution.
System requirements
3: Planning Your Installation
install.pdf
) included with your
For a detailed list of tested environments, consult the
with your product distribution. This file includes specific version and Service Pack
requirements for supported web servers, web browsers, databases, and operating
systems. Generally, however, the following components must be installed and
configured correctly before you install Crystal Enterprise:
• Windows NT/2000
• Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator
• Web server software
Crystal Enterprise requires a database to store information about the system and
its users. However, the Setup program can install its own Microsoft Data Engine
(MSDE) database by default.
Full stand-alone installation
This installation scenario offers the quickest way to install Crystal Enterprise. Once
you have set up your web server software, run the New installation from the
Crystal Enterprise Setup program.
When you perform this default installation, all of the client and server components
are installed on the local machine. The Crystal Management Server (CMS)
automatically creates its own database. The Web Connector is automatically
configured to allow communication between Crystal Enterprise and the web
server software that you have already installed. Default user and group accounts
are created, and sample reports are published to the system. When the installation
is complete, the server components are started as services on the local machine.
Note: For explicit procedural details covering this installation scenario, consult
the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
distribution.
install.pdf
Platforms.txt
) included with your product
file included
Server-side installation connected to a web server
A server-side installation connected to a web server is a quick way to integrate
Crystal Enterprise with your existing web server—without installing the core
Crystal Enterprise components on the web server itself.
First, on the machine that you have set aside for use by Crystal Enterprise, run the
New installation from the Crystal Enterprise Setup program. Then, install and
configure the appropriate Web Connector on your web server machine.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide17
Page 24
Installing Crystal Enterprise on UNIX
• If the web server is running on Windows, you can select the Web Connector by
running the Custom installation from the Crystal Enterprise Setup program.
• If the web server is running on UNIX, you will need to run the Web Connector
installation (the
additional configuration. For details, see the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide
(
install.pdf
When you perform this installation, the client and server components are installed,
the default user and group accounts are created, and the sample reports are
published to the system. When the installation is complete, the server components
are started as services on the local machine.
Note: For explicit procedural details covering this installation scenario, consult
the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
distribution.
webconn_install.sh
).
script) on that machine and perform
install.pdf
Installing Crystal Enterprise on UNIX
Crystal Enterprise allows you to run all server components on a UNIX server.
Users then connect to Crystal Enterprise over the Web with Internet Explorer or
Netscape Navigator. The installation can place the necessary run control scripts in
the relevant directories for automated startup (requires root privileges). Or you
can confine the installation to a particular directory. Once you’ve finished the
installation and setup procedures, the various server components run as daemons.
Before you run the interactive installation shell script (
recommended that you consult the appropriate sections of the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide (
and configuration procedures.
Note: If you install the Crystal Enterprise server components on a UNIX machine,
you can connect remotely to Crystal Enterprise with the Crystal Publishing
Wizard and the Crystal Import Wizard. However, these client applications must
be installed on Windows.
install.pdf
). There you will find complete set up, installation,
) included with your product
install.sh
), it is strongly
System requirements
For a detailed list of tested environments, please consult the
included with your product distribution. This file includes specific version and
patch-level requirements for supported web servers, application servers, web
browsers, and operating systems. Generally, however, the following components
must be installed and configured correctly before you install Crystal Enterprise:
• Java SDK and a Java application server
• Database software that is compatible with the Crystal Management Server
• Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator
• 256 MB RAM
• 700 MB free disk space
18Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Platforms.txt
file
Page 25
3: Planning Your Installation
Note: Crystal Enterprise requires a database to store information about the
system and its users. For details, see the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide
install.pdf
(
).
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide19
Page 26
Installing Crystal Enterprise on UNIX
20Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
Page 27
Using Crystal Enterprise4
This chapter serves as an introduction to working with
Crystal Enterprise and viewing reports with the Crystal
Report Viewer.
Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide21
Page 28
Crystal Enterprise web desktop overview
Crystal Enterprise web desktop overview
Crystal Enterprise comes with a standard web desktop. Think of it as a window to
a broad range of useful business information around your company, including
Crystal Reports, Crystal Analysis reports, spreadsheets, and other documents.
The features available in the Crystal Enterprise web desktop vary by content type,
but in general, you can view information in your web browser, export it to other
business applications (such as Excel), and save information to your local machine.
This chapter provides a quick introduction to some of the Crystal Enterprise web
desktop’s key features. For more information, see the Crystal Enterprise User’s Guide.
Note: The tasks that you can perform in the Crystal Enterprise web desktop are
determined by the rights you have been granted on the system by your
administrator.
Working with Crystal Enterprise
To give you a better idea of how Crystal Enterprise can be used at your company,
a Guest user account is provided. There may also be sample objects installed on
your system.
When the Guest account is enabled, Crystal Enterprise logs you on automatically
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 Crystal Enterprise that includes your
desktop settings and favorite objects. For details, see “Signing up for your own
Enterprise account” on page 23.
Accessing Crystal Enterprise
There are two ways to access Crystal Enterprise: type the URL for your Crystal
Enterprise web desktop directly in your web browser, or select Crystal Enterprise
User Launchpad from the Program group on the Windows Start menu.
To access Crystal Enterprise
1 Choose one of the following options:
• Go to the Crystal Enterprise User Launchpad:
http://
webserver
Replace
Enterprise. You may need to check with your administrator for the web
server name or exact URL to enter.
• If you have any Crystal Enterprise client tools installed locally on your
machine, in Windows, click Start > Programs > Crystal Enterprise > Crystal
Enterprise User Launchpad.
22Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
webserver
/crystal/enterprise10/
with the name of the web server that is set up for Crystal
Page 29
2 On the Crystal Enterprise User Launchpad, click the Crystal Enterprise link.
The Crystal Enterprise web desktop appears. You are logged on as a guest. (If
your administrator has disabled guest logon, you must type a user name and
password.)
3 Choose a log on option.
When accessing Crystal Enterprise, you will either be automatically logged on
to your existing account, prompted for your log on information, or logged in as
a guest user.
• If prompted for your log on information, enter your user name and
password as assigned by your administrator.
• If you are logged on as a guest but have an existing account, you can log on
by clicking Log On in the upper right corner of the Crystal Enterprise web
desktop and entering your user name and password as prompted.
• If you are logged on as a guest and are a new user you can view Crystal
Enterprise with limited access as determined by your administrator, or you
can sign up for your own Enterprise account.
Signing up for your own Enterprise account
If Crystal Enterprise’s Sign Up feature is enabled, you can create your own user
account.
4: Using Crystal Enterprise
To sign up for your own account
1 Click the Sign Up button in the upper right corner of the Crystal Enterprise
web desktop.
Note: If the Sign Up button is not present, then the feature is currently
disabled. For details, see “Allowing guest users to create Enterprise accounts”
on page 36.
2 On the Sign Up page, provide your Full Name.
3 Type a User Name for your new account.
4 In the Password and Confirm Password fields, type a password.
5 Click Sign Up.
Crystal Enterprise creates your new account and logs you on to the Crystal
Enterprise web desktop.
Locating and viewing objects
When you access Crystal Enterprise as a guest user, you are presented with a list
of folders, reports, and other objects that your administrator has made publicly
accessible. Depending on your system, you may see the Report Samples folder
and/or other folders and reports that have been added to the system.
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Working with Crystal Enterprise
When you log on to Crystal Enterprise with your own user account, you also have
access to your Favorites folder. To view files that you put in your Favorites folder,
click the Favorites folder under the Home icon in the upper left corner.
Click the name of any folder to view its contents. Or use the “Search” field and its
list of options to search for objects by title, description, folder title, or all fields.
Hold the mouse over any object’s thumbnail or title to see its title and summary
information, if available.
To view an object
1 Click any object’s link.
2 On the shortcut menu, click View or View Latest Instance.
If you click a report object, it opens in the appropriate Crystal Report Viewer.
Crystal Report Viewers also allow you to navigate through multiple pages,
refresh data, drill down to see details behind charts and summarized data,
select parameters, and so on. Viewers also include printing and exporting
capabilities.
Note: 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.” You may also
need to schedule the object first, in order to generate an instance.
Creating and modifying reports
You can create and publish new reports to Crystal Enterprise. To create a new
report, click the New Report button on the title bar. The New Report Wizard
appears. Click the Help link (located at the top-right corner) for more information.
Note: Your Crystal Enterprise license key and your user rights determine whether
or not you can create new reports or modify existing reports. Depending on your
license key, the New Report button may not be visible, and the Modify shortcut
may not be available.
You can also modify an existing report in Crystal Enterprise. Modify a report by
clicking its link, and, on the shortcut menu, click Modify. The Modify Report Wizard
appears. Click the Help link (located at the top-right corner) for more information.
In order to create or modify a report, you must have at least View On Demand rights
and edit rights. Contact your Crystal Enterprise administrator for more information.
Scheduling objects
Scheduling an object lets you run it automatically at specified times. When a
scheduled object runs successfully, an instance is created. An instance is a version
of the object containing the data available at the time it was run—instances created
later contain more recent data.
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4: Using Crystal Enterprise
You can see a list of instances by looking at an object’s history, and you can click
the link to any historical instance. If you have the rights to view objects 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 you have the latest information
available for viewing, printing, and distributing. For example, you can schedule a
report object to run every night so it’s available for you first thing in the morning.
Note: Before scheduling objects, check your time zone setting on the Preferences
page in Crystal Enterprise. The default time zone is local to the web server that is
running Crystal Enterprise, not to the Crystal Management Server (CMS)
machine(s) that each user connects to. By setting your time zone, you ensure that
your scheduled objects 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.
To schedule an object
1 Click the object you want to schedule.
2 On the shortcut menu, click Schedule.
The Schedule page appears.
The “Customize your options” list contains the choices you can make while
scheduling. The area below the list contains items specific to the schedule
option you choose.
Schedule options
Schedule
The Schedule parameters specify a time for running a scheduled object. Each
parameter in the “Run report” list has its own specific data entry requirements. For
instance, if you select Once, you will be prompted to provide the date and time
when you want to run the object.
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Working with Crystal Enterprise
Database Logon
Some objects 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
object’s data source.
Parameters
Some objects use the parameters feature. Parameters prompt the user to enter
information. For report objects, this information may determine 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 object you schedule does not
contain parameters, you will not be able to choose this option in the “Customize
your options” list.
Filters
If a report object 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.
Destination
These options allow you to send a scheduled object directly to a particular
destination once it has been processed. You can have Crystal Enterprise save the file
to disk, email it to a predetermined list of recipients, or upload it to an FTP server.
Format
Use this option to specify the file format for scheduled report objects. The default
format is Crystal Report, but you can choose from a variety of popular formats
including Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel and Word, Rich Text, and so on.
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 and orientation (regardless of whether the report instance is printed or not).
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Viewing an object’s history
Crystal Enterprise tracks scheduled object instances—you can see a list of instances
by looking at an object’s history, and you can click the link to any historical instance.
To view an object’s history
• Click the object’s link; then click History.
Viewing a report’s alerts
Crystal Enterprise tracks report instances that trigger alerts. Alerts are custom
messages created in Crystal Reports that appear when certain conditions are met
by report data. Alerts may indicate action to be taken by the user or information
about report data.
To view a report’s alerts
• Click the report’s link; then click Alerts.
Exporting reports
The Crystal Report Viewers allow you to export reports to several reporting
formats as well as to popular word processor and spreadsheet formats. This makes
the distribution of information easier. Depending on which Crystal Report Viewer
you use, the steps detailed below may be different; however, the general principles
remain the same.
Tip:
• You can select the page range for the report that you want to export.
• For reports in which you can drill down, you can export the drill-down view.
4: Using Crystal Enterprise
To export a report
1 View any report in a Crystal Report Viewer.
2 On the viewer’s Standard toolbar, click Export Report.
The Export Report dialog box appears.
3 From the Export format list, select an export format type.
4 In the “Page Range” area, select either All or Pages. For the latter, specify the
page range.
5 Click Export.
Your browser may prompt you for security information. If you choose to save
the report to your computer, the Save As dialog box appears (see step 6);
otherwise the report opens, unsaved, in the specified application and the export
process is complete.
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Working with Crystal Enterprise
6 In the Save As dialog box, browse the Save in list to navigate to the folder in
which you want to save the report, and next to File name enter a name for the
report.
7 Click Save.
The Exporting Report dialog box appears, displaying the progress of your
report. When the report has been exported, a message appears asking if you
would like to open it.
8 Click Open to open the exported report or Open Folder to navigate to the
report; otherwise, click Close.
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 an export to Excel
attempts to preserve the look and feel of your original report, while an export
to Excel (Data only) exports only the data, with each cell representing a field.
Printing reports from the Crystal Report Viewers
This procedure shows how to print a report to a printer that is accessible from your
local machine.
To print a report from a viewer
1 View any report in a Crystal Report Viewer.
2 On the viewer’s Standard toolbar, click Print Report.
Tip: If the Print Report button is unavailable, export the report to a printable
local file, or use your browser’s Print command.
The Print dialog box appears.
3 In the “Print Range” area, select all pages or a specific range of pages.
4 In the copies area, select the number of copies for the report.
5 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, then prints the
second copy.
6 Click OK.
The Printing Records dialog box appears, displaying the progress of your print job.
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Managing Accounts5
This chapter focuses on the Crystal Management Console
and provides you with information about how to create and
change user accounts.
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Administration overview
Administration overview
Administration can be thought of as all of the tasks that are required to make sure
that everyone who requires access to your Crystal Enterprise content has an
account, belongs to the appropriate group, has sufficient privileges, and has a
report to access. These tasks are usually performed by System Administrators or
Information Technology Specialists.
In most implementations, administrators will use three applications to manage
Crystal Enterprise:
• Crystal Management Console
• Crystal Publishing Wizard
• Crystal Configuration Manager
This chapter focuses on how to create and modify user accounts with the Crystal
Management Console (CMC), the largest of the three administration applications.
See the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide for in-depth information about
administration tasks. You can access the guide by clicking the Administrator’s
Guide link in the Crystal Enterprise Admin Launchpad.
Administration tasks
This section describes how to perform several different administrative tasks. These
tasks range from accessing the Crystal Management Console to changing
password settings. Each task includes the relevant procedural information.
As you proceed through the steps, you will create your own administrative
account that you can use to log on to the system.
Logging on to the Crystal Management Console
There are two ways to access the CMC: type the name of the machine you are
accessing directly into your browser, or select Crystal Enterprise Admin
Launchpad from the program group on the Windows Start menu.
To log on to the CMC
1 Choose one of the following two options:
• Go to the following page:
http://
webserver
On Windows, replace
has the Web Connector component installed. If you changed this default virtual
directory on the web server, you will need to type your URL accordingly.
On UNIX, replace
application server.
30Crystal Enterprise Getting Started Guide
/crystal/enterprise10/admin/
webserver
webserver
with the name of the web server machine that
with the name and port number of your Java
Page 37
• If you have Crystal Enterprise installed locally on your machine, in
Windows, click Start > Programs > Crystal Enterprise > Crystal Enterprise
Admin Launchpad, and then click the Crystal Management Console link.
2 When the Log On page appears, select Enterprise in the Authentication Type
list.
Windows NT, Windows AD, and LDAP authentication may all appear in the
list; however, you must map your third-party user accounts and groups to
Crystal Enterprise before you can use these types of authentication.
3 Type your User Name and Password.
For this example, type
account does not have a password until you create one. For details, see “Setting
the Administrator password” on page 35.
If you’re using LDAP, Windows AD, or Windows NT authentication, you may
log on using an account that has been mapped to the Crystal Enterprise
Administrators group.
4 Click Log On.
The CMC Home page appears.
Administrator
as the User Name. This default Enterprise
Navigating within the Crystal Management Console
Because the CMC is a web-based application, you can navigate through its areas
and pages in a number of ways:
• Click the links on the Home page to go to specific “management areas.”
• Select the same “management areas” from the drop-down list in the upper-left
corner of the console. Click Go if your browser doesn’t take you directly to the
new page.
• Click hyperlinks and icons that let you to jump to other areas.
Once you leave the Home page, your location within the CMC is indicated by a
path that appears above the title of each page. For example,
indicates that you’re on the New User page. You can click the hyperlinked
User
portions of the path to jump quickly to different parts of the application. In this
Home
or
Users
example, you could click
to go to the corresponding page.
5: Managing Accounts
Home > Users > New
Logging off of the Crystal Management Console
When you have finished using the Crystal Management Console, end the session
by logging off. Log off is located in the upper right corner of the console.
Creating a user account
To add a new user, you can go to the Users management area. This example sets
up a new account that you can use for the remainder of this guide.
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Administration tasks
To create a new Enterprise account
1 Log on to the Crystal Management Console and click Users.
This takes you to the Users management area of the CMC.
2 Click New User.
The New User’s Properties tab appears.
3 In the Account Name field, type a name for the new account.
For this example, type your own name.
4 Use the optional Full Name and Description fields if you want to include
extra information about the account.
5 In the Password and Confirm fields, type a password for your new account.
The maximum password length is 64 characters.
6 Select from the additional password options:
• Password never expires
Select the check box if you want to enable this option.
• User must change password at next logon
This check box is selected by default. If you do not want to force users to
change the password the first time they log on, clear the check box.
• User cannot change password
Select the check box if you want to enable this option.
7 Select the connection type.
• Concurrent User
Choose Concurrent User if this user belongs to a license agreement that
states the number of users allowed to be connected at one time.
• Named User
Choose Named User if this user belongs to a license agreement that
associates the account with the name of the user. Named user licenses are
useful for people who require access to Crystal Enterprise regardless of the
number of other people who are currently connected.
8 Click OK.
The new account is added to the system. You can now add the user account to
one or more groups.
Adding the user account to a group
Use this procedure to specify the groups that a particular user belong to. This
example adds your new user account to the Crystal Enterprise Administrators
group.
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5: Managing Accounts
To add a user account to a group
1 Once you’ve added a new user account, click the Member of tab.
Tip: If you’ve left the account’s Properties page, first select Users from the list
of management areas. Then click the Account Name of the user account that
you want to change.
2 Click the Member of button to view the available groups.
There are three default groups available:
• Administrators
Administrators are able to perform all tasks in all applications.
• Everyone
The Everyone group is the default group for all new users, including those
who use Crystal Enterprise’s Sign Up feature to create their own account.
• New Sign-Up Accounts
Users who create new accounts using Crystal Enterprise’s Sign Up feature
are automatically made members of the New Sign-Up Accounts group. Thus,
administrators will be able to determine whether a user is a new user or not.
3 In the Available groups list, select Administrators; then click the > arrow.
4 Click OK.
You can now use this account to log on to Crystal Enterprise and the Crystal
Management Console with full administrative rights.
Modifying a user account
Use this procedure to modify a user’s properties or group membership
information, or to temporarily disable an account. The changes will take effect the
next time the user logs on.
To modify a user account
1 Go to the Users management area of the CMC.
The Users page appears.
2 Click the Account Name of the user whose properties you want to change.
3 On the Properties page, make your changes to the account information,
password settings, connection type, and so on.
Tip: You can temporarily disable a user’s account by selecting the “Account is
disabled” check box.
4 Click Update.
5 To change the group membership for the account, click the Member of tab,
and then click the Member of button.
The “Modify Member of” page appears.
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Administration tasks
6 Select a group or groups and click the appropriate arrow to change the
account’s group membership.
7 Click OK.
Deleting a user account
Use this procedure to delete a user’s account permanently. The user account will
not be available the next time the user tries to log on. If you think the user might
require the account again, use the disable feature instead. See “Modifying a user
account” on page 33 for more information.
To delete a user account
1 Go to the Users management area of the CMC.
The Users page appears.
2 Select the check box associated with the user you want to delete.
3 Click Delete.
The delete confirmation dialog box appears.
4 Click OK.
The user account is deleted.
Note: If your implementation supports the sign-up feature, users who have
had their accounts deleted are able to create a new account for themselves in
the Crystal Enterprise web desktop.
Changing password settings
Within the Crystal Management Console, you can change the password settings
for a specific user or for all users in the system. These procedures show how to
modify the default password settings and how to change the password for the
default Administrator account.
To change user password settings
1 Go to the Users management area of the CMC.
The Users page appears.
2 Click the user whose password settings you want to change.
The Properties page appears.
3 Select or clear the check boxes associated with password settings.
The available options are:
• Password never expires
• User must change password at next logon
• User cannot change password
4 Click Update.
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5: Managing Accounts
To change password settings
1 Go to the Authentication management area of the CMC.
2 Click the Enterprise tab.
3 To enable a password restriction, select its check box and, if applicable, enter a
value related to the password setting.
The table below lists the available restrictions, and identifies the minimum and
maximum values where applicable:
Password SettingMinimum
Must contain at least N characters0 characters 64 characters
Must change password every N day(s)1 day100 days
Cannot reuse the N most recent password(s)1 password 100 passwords
Must wait N minute(s) to change password1 minute100 minutes
Disable account after N failed attempts to log on1 failed100 failed
Reset failed logon count after N minute(s)1 minute100 minutes
Re-enable account after N minute(s)1 minute100 minutes
4 Click Update.
Setting the Administrator password
As part of the installation, Crystal Enterprise creates an Administrator account and
a Guest account that do not have passwords. Log on to the Crystal Management
Console (CMC) with the Administrator account and use the following procedure
to create a secure password for the Administrator account.
Note: Do not create a password for the Guest account if you plan to use the
anonymous Single Sign On or the Sign Up features available in the Crystal
Enterprise web desktop. For details, see “Allowing guest users to create
Enterprise accounts”.
To change the Administrator password
1 Go to the Users management area of the CMC.
2 Click the link for the Administrator account.
3 In the Enterprise Password Settings area, enter and confirm the new password.
4 If it is selected, clear the “User must change password at next logon” check box.
5 Click Update.
Recommended
Maximum
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Administration tasks
Allowing guest users to create Enterprise accounts
By default, Crystal Enterprise logs users on with the system’s Guest account. With
this account, users actions are somewhat restricted. Without a dedicated user
account, users cannot create their own folders, organize their favorites, or set their
preferences. By enabling Crystal Enterprise’s Sign Up feature, you allow these
Guest users to create their own Enterprise accounts.
Note: By default, new Sign Up accounts are added to the Everyone group and the
New Sign-Up Accounts group.
To enable Crystal Enterprise’s Sign Up feature
1 Go to the Authentication management area of the CMC.
2 Click the Enterprise tab.
3 Select the “Guest” users can create their own Enterprise accounts check box.
4 Click Update.
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Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise6
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 (RPT and CAR
files) and other objects to the Crystal Enterprise web
desktop or to your custom web desktop; it also describes
alternative ways of adding objects to the Crystal Enterprise
environment.
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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. There are
several types of objects that you can publish to Crystal Enterprise: reports (RPT and
CAR files), programs, Microsoft Excel files, Microsoft Word files, Microsoft
PowerPoint files, Adobe Acrobat PDFs, rich text format files, text files, and hyperlinks,
as well as object packages, which consist of report and/or program objects.
When you publish an object to Crystal Enterprise, an entry is made in the Crystal
Management Server (CMS) database. The Input File Repository Server stores the new
object below the
schedules an instance of any object, Crystal Enterprise queries the CMS 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
directory.
Note: Only reports, programs, and object packages can be scheduled. Thus, only
these three types of objects have instances.
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 39.
• 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 47.
• Save directly to your Enterprise folders when you are:
• Designing reports with Crystal Reports.
• Using the Crystal Analysis Application Designer.
• Creating other objects with Crystal Enterprise plug-in components.
For details, see “Saving objects directly to the CMS” on page 49.
Note: Crystal Enterprise supports reports created in versions 6 through 10 of
Crystal Reports. Once published to Crystal Enterprise, reports are saved,
processed, and displayed in version 10 format.
\Enterprise\FileStore\Input\data\
directory. When a user
\Enterprise\FileStore\Output\data\
Publishing options
During the publishing process, you specify how often an object is run. You can
choose to set a schedule (recurring), or you can choose to let users set the schedule
themselves (on demand).
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6: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise
For RPT report files, this affects when data is refreshed and what data users see
(You cannot schedule Crystal Analysis reports (CAR files)):
• 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 report 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 page is cached separately. 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. For example, the settings for
parameters and schedule format do not appear when you publish Crystal Analysis
applications. This section of the guide features a series of procedures to help you
through the Crystal Publishing Wizard.
Once the object has been published, it will appear in the folder you specified in the
Crystal Enterprise web desktop (or other web desktop) and in the Objects
management area of the CMC.
Note: Depending on the rights assigned by your Crystal Enterprise administrator,
you may not be able to publish objects using the Crystal Publishing Wizard.
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Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard
Logging on to Crystal Enterprise
1 From the Crystal Enterprise 10 program group, click Crystal Publishing
Wizard.
2 Click Next.
3 In the System field, type the name of the CMS to which you want to add
objects.
4 In the User Name and Password fields, type your Crystal Enterprise
credentials.
5 From the Authentication list, select the appropriate authentication type.
6 Click Next.
The Select A File dialog box appears.
Adding objects
1 Depending on the type of object you are adding, click either Add Files or Add
Folders.
2 Navigate to and select the object you want to add.
If you are adding a folder, you can choose to also add its subfolders by selecting
the Include Subfolders check box.
Tip: Ensure the appropriate file type is listed in the Files of type field; by default
this value is set to Report (*.rpt).
3 Repeat steps 1and 2 for each of the objects you want to add.
4 Click Next.
The Folder Hierarchy dialog box appears if it is needed.
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 CMS.
1 Click Yes or No.
Click the Yes button to have all of the folders and subfolders recreated on the
CMS as they appear on your hard drive.
Click the No button to have all of the objects placed in a single folder.
2 Click Next.
The Specify Location dialog box appears.
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6: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise
Creating and selecting a folder on the CMS
To add the selected objects, you must create or select a folder on the host CMS.
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 CMS, select a parent folder and then click the New
Folder button. The new folder appears and can be renamed.
To add a new object package to the CMS, select a parent folder and then click
the New Object Package button. The new object package appears and can be
renamed.
To delete a folder or object package, select the item and click the Delete Folder
button.
Note: From the wizard, you can delete only new folders and object packages.
(New folders are green; existing folders 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.
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Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard
Moving objects between folders
1 Move objects to the desired folders by selecting each object and then clicking
Move Up or Move Down.
You can also add folders and object packages by selecting a parent folder and
clicking the New Folder or New Object Package button. To delete a folder or object
packages, select it and click the Delete button. 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 if it is needed.
Changing scheduling options
The Schedule Interval dialog box allows you to schedule each report, program,
and/or object package that you are publishing to run at specific intervals.
Note: This dialog box appears only for objects that can be scheduled.
1 Select the object you want to schedule.
2 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 object once when you’ve finished publishing it. The
object is not run again until you reschedule it.
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• at the specified date and time
This option runs the object once at a date and time you specify. The object is
not run again until you reschedule it.
• Let users update the object
This option does not schedule the object. Instead, it leaves the task of
scheduling up to the user.
• Run on a recurring schedule
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.
3 Click Next after you have set the schedule for each object you are publishing.
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.
Note: This dialog box appears only when you publish report objects.
6: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise
To enable repository refresh
1 Select a report, and then select the Use Object Repository when refreshing
report 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.
Selecting a program type
1 In the Program Type dialog box, select a program.
2 Specify one of three program types:
• Binary/Batch
Binary/Batch programs are executables such as binary files, batch files, or
shell scripts. They generally have file extensions such as: .com, .exe, .bat,
.sh. You can publish any executable program that can be run from the
command line on the machine where the Program Job Server is running.
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Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard
• Java
You can publish any Java program to Crystal Enterprise as a Java program
object. They generally have a .jar file extension.
• Script
Script program objects are JScript and VBScript scripts.
3 Once you have specified the type of each program you are adding, click Next.
The Program credentials dialog box appears.
Note: For details about program objects and program object types, see the Crystal
Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
Specifying program credentials
1 In the Program Credentials dialog box, select a program.
2 In the User Name and Password fields, specify the user credentials for the
account for the program to run as.
The rights of the program are limited to those of the account that it runs as.
3 Once you have specified the user credentials for each program to run as, click Next.
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 without modifying properties.
2 Click Next through the wizard’s remaining dialog boxes.
If you want to review or modify objects before publishing:
1 Select Review or modify properties.
2 Click Next.
The Review Object Properties dialog box appears.
Changing object properties
1 In the Review Object Properties dialog box, select the object you want to modify.
2 Enter a new title or description.
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3 Select the Generate thumbnail image check box if you want users to see a
thumbnail of a report object before they open it.
Tip: The “Generate thumbnail image” check box is available only if the object
is an RPT file and was saved appropriately. To display thumbnails for a 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
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.
6: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise
2 Select the database and change the logon information in the appropriate fields.
If the database does not require a user name or password, 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 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.
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Publishing with the Crystal Publishing Wizard
Setting parameters
Some objects contain parameters for data selection. Before such an object can be
scheduled, you must set the parameters in order to determine the 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 If you want to set the prompts to contain a null value (where possible), then
click Set Prompts to NULL.
4 Click Next after you have finished editing the prompts for each object.
The Schedule Format dialog box appears.
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 Extra files for Program dialog box appears if it is needed.
Adding extra files for programs
Some programs require access to other files in order to run.
1 Select a program.
2 Click Add to navigate to and select the necessary file.
3 Once you have added all necessary extra files for each program, click Next.
The Command line for Program dialog box appears.
Specifying command line arguments
For each program, you can specify any command-line arguments supported by
your program’s command-line interface. They are passed directly to the
command-line interface, without parsing.
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6: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise
1 Select a program.
2 In the Command line area, type the command-line arguments for your
program, using the same format you would use at the command line itself.
3 Once you have specified all necessary command-line arguments for each
program, click Next.
The final dialog box appears.
Finalizing the objects to be added
1 After ensuring all the objects you want to publish have been added to the list,
click Next.
The objects are added to the CMS, scheduled, and run as specified. When the
processing is done, you are returned to the final screen of the Crystal 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 Object.
The New Object page appears, with the Report properties displayed.
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Publishing with the Crystal Management Console
3 On the left side of the page, click the type of object you want to add.
4 Enter the object’s properties.
The properties that appear vary according to the type of object you are adding:
PropertyObject TypesDescription
File nameReport, Program, Microsoft
Excel, Microsoft Word,
Type the full path to the object, or click Browse to
perform a search.
Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe
Acrobat, Text, Rich Text
TitleObject Package, HyperlinkType the name of the object.
DescriptionObject Package, HyperlinkType a description of the object.
Generate
thumbnail for
the report
ReportIf you do not want the user to see a thumbnail
preview of the report in Crystal Enterprise, clear
the “Generate thumbnail for the report” check
box.
Tip: To display thumbnails for a 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.
Use Object
Repository when
refreshing report
ReportSelect this option to automatically refresh an
object's repository fields against the repository
each time the report runs.
Program TypeProgramSelect Executable, Java, or Script.
Tip:
• Run Java programs as Java program objects.
• Run JScript and VBScript programs as Script
program objects.
• Run all other programs as Executable
program objects.
URLHyperlinkType the URL address of the page you want the
hyperlink object to link to.
5 Ensure that the correct folder or object package name appears in the
Destination field.
Tip:
• To expand a folder, select it and click Show Subfolders.
• To search for a specific folder or object package, use the Look For field.
Note: Only report and program objects can be published to object packages.
6 Click OK.
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When the object has been added to the system, the CMC displays the Properties
screen. If necessary, you can 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 CMS
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 Analysis, click Save As on the File
menu. In the Save As dialog box, click Enterprise Folders; then, when prompted,
log on to the Crystal Management Server (CMS). Specify the folder where you
want to save the report and click Save.
6: Publishing Objects to Crystal Enterprise
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Saving objects directly to the CMS
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Crystal Enterprise Architecture7
This chapter provides an overview of the Crystal Enterprise
architecture, describes the different components, and
identifies how they work together to distribute reports over
the web.
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Architecture overview and diagram
Architecture overview and diagram
Crystal Enterprise is a multi-tier system. Although the components are responsible
for different tasks, they can be logically grouped based on the type of work they
perform. If you are new to Crystal Enterprise, use this chapter to gain familiarity
with the Crystal Enterprise framework, its components, and the general tasks that
each component performs.
In Crystal Enterprise, there are five tiers: the client tier, the application tier, the
intelligence tier, the processing tier, and the data tier. To provide flexibility, the
components that make up each of these tiers can be installed on one machine, or
spread across many.
The following diagram illustrates how each of the components fits within the
multi-tier system. Other Crystal products, such as Crystal Analysis and Smart
Reporting Technology, plug in to the Crystal Enterprise framework in various
ways. This chapter describes the framework itself. Consult each product’s
installation or administration guides for details about how it integrates with the
Crystal Enterprise framework.
The “servers” run as services on Windows machines. On UNIX, the servers run as
daemons. These services can be “vertically scaled” to take full advantage of the
hardware that they are running on, and they can be “horizontally scaled” to take
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Client tier
7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
advantage of multiple computers over a network environment. This means that
the services can all run on the same machine, or they can run on separate machines.
The same service can also run in multiple instances on a single machine.
For example, you can run the Crystal Management Server and the Event Server on one
machine, while you run the Page Server on a separate machine. This is called
“horizontal scaling.” If the Page Server is running on a multi-processor computer, then
you may choose to run multiple Page Servers on it. This is called “vertical scaling.” The
important thing to understand is that, even though these are called servers, they are
actually services and daemons that do not need to run on separate computers.
Note: Crystal Enterprise Standard requires all of the components, except for the
Web Connector, to be installed on one machine.
The remainder of this chapter describes each tier, the key Crystal Enterprise
components, and their primary responsibilities.
Tip: When you are familiar with the architecture and want to customize your
system configuration, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
Note: Crystal Enterprise supports reports created in versions 6 through 10 of
Crystal Reports. Once published to Crystal Enterprise, reports are saved,
processed, and displayed in version 10 format.
The client tier is the only part of the Crystal Enterprise system that administrators
and end users interact with directly. This tier is made up of the applications that
enable people to administer, publish, and view reports and other objects.
Crystal Enterprise web desktop
Crystal Enterprise comes with a web-based interface that end users access to view,
schedule, and keep track of published reports. Each Crystal Enterprise request that
a user makes is directed to the Crystal Enterprise application tier. What happens
next depends upon which Crystal Enterprise Software Development Kit (SDK)
your system uses. In a Windows installation with the COM SDK (the default
Windows option), the web server passes the user request to the Web Connector.
The Web Connector then forwards the request to the WCS for processing. In an
installation that uses the Java SDK, the web server forwards the user request
directly to an application server where the request is processed by components
built on the Crystal Enterprise SDK.
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Client tier
The Crystal Enterprise web desktop also serves as a demonstration of the ways in
which you can use the Crystal Enterprise Software Development Kit (SDK) to
create a custom web application for end users. For more information about the
SDK, see the Web Developer’s Guides available from the Crystal Enterprise
Launchpad.
Crystal Management Console
The Crystal Management Console (CMC) allows you to perform user management
tasks such as setting up authentication and adding users and groups. It also allows
you to publish, organize, and set security levels for all of your Crystal Enterprise
content. Additionally, the CMC enables you to manage servers and create server
groups. Because the CMC is a web-based application, you can perform all of these
administrative tasks remotely. For more information, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
The CMC also serves as a demonstration of the ways in which you can use the
administrative objects and libraries in the Crystal Enterprise SDK to create custom
web applications for administering Crystal Enterprise. For more information about
the SDK, see the Web Developer’s Guides available from the Crystal Enterprise
Launchpad.
Crystal Configuration Manager
The Crystal Configuration Manager (CCM) is a server-management tool that
allows you to configure each of your Crystal Enterprise server components. This
tool allows you to start, stop, enable, and disable servers, and it allows you to view
and to configure advanced server settings. On Windows, these settings include
default port numbers, CMS database and clustering details, SOCKS server
connections, and more. In addition, on Windows the CCM allows you to add or
remove servers from your Crystal Enterprise system.For more information, see the
Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
Crystal Publishing Wizard
The Crystal Publishing Wizard is a locally installed Windows application that
enables both administrators and end users to add reports to Crystal Enterprise. By
assigning object rights to Crystal Enterprise folders, you control who can publish
reports and where they can publish them to. For more information, see “Publishing
overview” on page 38 and the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
The Crystal Publishing Wizard publishes reports from a Windows machine to
Crystal Enterprise servers running on Windows or on UNIX.
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Crystal Import Wizard
The Crystal Import Wizard is a locally installed Windows application that guides
administrators through the process of importing users, groups, reports, and folders
from an existing Crystal Enterprise or Info implementation to Crystal Enterprise.
For more information, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
The Crystal Import Wizard runs on Windows, but you can use it to import
information into a new Crystal Enterprise system running on Windows or on UNIX.
Application tier
The application tier hosts the server-side components that are needed to process
requests from the client tier as well as the components that are needed to
communicate these requests to the appropriate server in the intelligence tier. The
application tier includes support for report viewing and logic to understand and
direct web requests to the appropriate Crystal Enterprise server in the intelligence tier.
Because Crystal Enterprise is designed to support a variety of web development
platforms, the components included in your application tier will vary.
7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
Windows COM platform
The default installation of Crystal Enterprise on Windows uses the Crystal
Enterprise COM SDK. It includes a Web Connector and a Web Component Server,
and requires the use of a web server.
Web Component Server
Crystal Enterprise systems that use the Windows COM SDK include a Web
Component Server (WCS), and a Web Connector. The WCS is the gateway
between the Web Connector on the web server and the rest of the components in
Crystal Enterprise. The WCS is responsible for processing requests from your
browser, including Crystal Server Pages (.csp files), which are used to customize
your access to Crystal Enterprise. As a result, this server also acts as an application
server. For further information on CSP, see the Web Developer’s Guides available
from the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad.
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Application tier
In addition to processing CSP requests, the WCS also handles other types of
requests. These include requests from the CMC and the handling of prompts and
database logon requests.
If you are running multiple Cache Servers, the WCS automatically load-balances
reporting requests across the available servers.
Note: There is no WCS in UNIX installations of Crystal Enterprise, or in Windows
installations that use the Crystal Enterprise Java SDK. The functionality of the
WCS is provided by the Web Component Adapter (WCA).
Web Connectors
Crystal Enterprise systems that use the Windows COM SDK include a Web
Connector. In these systems, the web server uses the Web Connector to forward
user requests to the Web Component Server. Crystal Enterprise includes different
Web Connectors for different operating systems and web servers.
If you are running multiple WCS machines, the Web Connector automatically
balances the load across the available servers. For details about how the Web
Connector handles communications with the WCS, especially with respect to
security issues, see of the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
For details on installing and configuring Web Connectors, see the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide.
Note: There is no Web Connector in UNIX installations of Crystal Enterprise,or in
Windows installations that use the Java SDK. In these systems the web server
communicates directly with the application server that hosts the Crystal
Enterprise SDK. Web connectors are still available for UNIX web servers that
communicate with a Windows WCS.
Java platform
All UNIX installations of Crystal Enterprise and all Windows installations
configured to use the Crystal Enterprise Java SDK include a Web Component
Adapter. In this configuration, a Java application server is required to host the Web
Component Adapter and the Crystal Enterprise Java SDK. The use of a web server
is optional as you may choose to have static content hosted by the application server.
Application server and Crystal Enterprise Java SDK
Crystal Enterprise systems that use the Crystal Enterprise Java SDK run the SDK
on a third party application server. See the
product distribution for a complete list of tested application servers and version
requirements.
The application server acts as the gateway between the web server and the rest of
the components in Crystal Enterprise. The application server is responsible for
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file included with your
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7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
processing requests from your browser, sending Crystal Server Pages (.csp files) to
the Web Component Adapter, and using the Java SDK to interpret Crystal
components in Java Server Pages (.jsp files). The application server also supports
Java versions of the Crystal Enterprise web desktop and other Crystal applications,
and uses the SDK to convert report pages (.epf files) to HTML format when users
view pages with a DHTML viewer.
The application server replaces the Web Component Server (WCS) in Crystal
Enterprise installations that run on UNIX, and in Windows installations that use
the Crystal Enterprise Java SDK. See the Web Developer’s Guides available from
the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad for more information.
Web Component Adapter
In UNIX installations of Crystal Enterprise, or in Windows installations that use a
Java SDK, there is no WCS and no Web Connector. Instead, the web server
communicates directly with the application server that hosts the Crystal Enterprise
SDK. The Web Component Adapter (WCA) runs within the application server and
provides all WCS services that are not directly supported by the Java SDK. Because
the WCA runs on an application server, it is not necessary to have a Web
Connector on the web server. The web server passes requests directly to the
application server, which then forwards the requests on to the WCA.
In this environment the WCA has two primary roles: it processes Crystal Server
Pages (.csp files), and it also supports Crystal applications that formerly relied upon
the WCS. These applications include the Crystal Management Console (CMC) and
Crystal report viewers (that are implemented through viewrpt.cwr requests).
Windows .NET platform
Crystal Enterprise installations that use the .NET Framework include Primary
Interop Assemblies (PIAs) that allow you to use the COM Crystal Enterprise SDK
with ASP.NET, and a set of .NET Server Components that you can optionally use
to simplify the development of custom applications. This configuration requires
the use of a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web server.
You do not need a Web Connector, Web Component Server, or a Web Component
Adapter for custom ASP.NET applications.
Web application environments
Crystal Enterprise supports Crystal Server Pages (.csp), Active Server Pages (.asp),
and Java Server Pages (.jsp). Crystal Enterprise includes web applications developed
in .csp and .jsp such as the Crystal Enterprise web desktop and the sample
applications available via the Crystal Enterprise Launchpads. It also supports the
development of custom web applications that use .csp, .asp, .jsp, and ASP.NET pages.
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Intelligence tier
Crystal Server Pages (.csp) provide functionality similar to that provided by
Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (.asp). Java Server Pages (.jsp) allow you to
develop cross-platform J2EE applications that use Crystal objects in conjunction
with your own custom objects, or a wide variety of objects from third parties.
Crystal Enterprise also includes Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs) that enable
you to use the Crystal Enterprise SDK and Report Application Server SDK with
ASP.NET. It also includes a set of .NET Server Components which simplify
development of custom Crystal Enterprise applications in ASP.NET.
See the Crystal Enterprise Web Developer’s Guide for more information.
Intelligence tier
The intelligence tier manages the Crystal Enterprise system. It maintains all of the
security information, sends requests to the appropriate servers, manages audit
information, and stores report instances.
Crystal Management Server
Note: In previous versions of Crystal Enterprise, the Crystal Management Server
(CMS) was known as the Automated Process Scheduler (APS).
The CMS is responsible for maintaining a database of information about your
Crystal Enterprise system; the other components can therefore access that data as
required. The data stored by the CMS includes information about users and
groups, security levels, Crystal Enterprise content, and servers. The CMS also
maintains the Crystal Repository, and a separate audit database of information
about user actions. This data allows the CMS to perform its four main tasks:
• Maintaining security
By maintaining a database of users and their associated object rights, the CMS
enforces who has access to Crystal Enterprise and the types of tasks they are
able to perform. This also includes enforcing and maintaining the licensing
policy of your Crystal Enterprise system.
• Managing objects
The CMS keeps track of the location of objects and maintains the folder
hierarchy. By communicating with the Report and Program Job Servers, the
CMS is able to ensure that scheduled jobs run at the appropriate times.
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• Managing servers
By staying in frequent contact with each of the servers in the system, the CMS is
able to maintain a list of server status. Report viewers access this list, for instance,
to identify which Cache Server is free to use for a report viewing request.
• Managing auditing
By collecting information about user actions from each Crystal Enterprise
server, and then writing these records to a central audit database, the CMS acts
as the system auditor. This audit information allows system administrators to
better manage their Crystal Enterprise deployment.
Typically, you provide the CMS with database connectivity and credentials when
you install Crystal Enterprise, so the CMS can create its own system database and
Crystal Repository database using your organization’s preferred database server.
For details about setting up CMS databases, see the Crystal Enterprise Installation Guide, and the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide. See the
included with your product distribution for a complete list of tested database
software and version requirements.
Note:
• It is strongly recommended that you back up the CMS system database, and
the audit database frequently. The backup procedure depends upon your
database software. If you are unsure of the procedure, consult with your
database administrator.
• The CMS database should not be accessed directly. System information should
only be retrieved using the calls that are provided in the Crystal Enterprise
Software Development Kit (SDK). For details, see the Web Developer’s Guides
available from the Crystal Enterprise Launchpad.
• You can access the audit database directly to create custom audit reports. See
the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide
On Windows, the Setup program can install and configure its own Microsoft Data
Engine (MSDE) database if necessary. MSDE is a client/server data engine that
provides local data storage and is compatible with Microsoft SQL Server. If you
already have the MSDE or SQL Server installed, the installation program uses it to
create the CMS system database. You can migrate your default CMS system
database to a supported database server later.
For details about configuring the CMS, its system database, and CMS clusters, see
the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide. For more information about Auditing,
see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
for more information.
Platforms.txt
file
File Repository Servers
There is an Input and an Output File Repository Server in every Crystal Enterprise
implementation. The Input File Repository Server manages all of the report objects
and program objects that have been published to the system by administrators or
end users (using the Crystal Publishing Wizard, the Crystal Management Console,
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Intelligence tier
Event Server
the Crystal Import Wizard, or a Crystal designer component such as Crystal
Reports). The Output File Repository Server manages all of the report instances
generated by the Report Job Server and the program instances generated by the
Program Job Server.
Tip: If you use the Crystal Enterprise SDK, you can also publish reports from
within your own code.
The File Repository Servers are responsible for listing files on the server, querying
for the size of a file, querying for the size of the entire file repository, adding files
to the repository, and removing files from the repository.
Note:
• The Input and Output File Repository Servers cannot share the same
directories. This is because one of the File Repository Servers could then delete
files and directories belonging to the other.
• In larger deployments, there may be multiple Input and Output File Repository
Servers, for redundancy. In this case, all Input File Repository Servers must
share the same directory. Likewise, all Output File Repository Servers must
share a directory.
• Objects with files associated with them, such as text files, Microsoft Word files,
or PDFs, are stored on the File Repository Server.
The Event Server manages file-based events. When you set up a file-based event
within Crystal Enterprise, the Event Server monitors the directory that you
specified. When the appropriate file appears in the monitored directory, the Event
Server triggers your file-based event: that is, the Event Server notifies the CMS that
the file-based event has occurred. The CMS then starts any jobs that are dependent
upon your file-based event.
After notifying the CMS of the event, the Event Server resets itself and again
monitors the directory for the appropriate file. When the file is newly created in the
monitored directory, the Event Server again triggers your file-based event.
Note: Schedule-based events, and custom events are managed by the Crystal
Management Server.
Cache Server
The Cache Server is responsible for handling all report viewing requests. The
Cache Server checks whether or not it can fulfill the request with a cached report
page. If the Cache Server finds a cached page that displays exactly the required
data, with data that has been refreshed from the database within the interval that
you have specified as the default, the Cache Server returns that cached report page.
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If the Cache Server cannot fulfil the request with a cached report page, it passes the
request along to the Page Server. The Page Server runs the report and returns the
results to the Cache Server. The Cache Server then caches the report page for future
use, and returns the data to the viewer. By storing report pages in a cache, Crystal
Enterprise avoids accessing the database each and every time a report is requested.
If you are running multiple Page Servers for a single Cache Server, the Cache
Server automatically balances the processing load across Page Servers.
For more information, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
Processing tier
The processing tier accesses the data and generates the reports. It is the only tier
that interacts directly with the databases that contain the report data.
Report Job Server
7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
A Job Server processes scheduled actions on objects at the request of the CMS. You
can configure a Job Server to process either report objects or program objects when
you add it to your Crystal Enterprise system. If you configure a Job Server to
process report objects, it becomes a Report Job Server.
The Report Job Server processes scheduled reports, as requested by the CMS, and
generates report instances (instances are versions of a report object that contain
saved data). To generate a report instance, the Report Job Server communicates
with the database to retrieve the current data.
Program Job Server
A Job Server processes scheduled actions on objects at the request of the CMS. You
can configure a Job Server to process either report objects or program objects when
you add it to your Crystal Enterprise system. If you configure a Job Server to
process program objects, it becomes a Program Job Server.
Program objects allow you to write, publish, and schedule custom applications,
including scripts or Java programs that run against, and perform maintenance
work on, Crystal Enterprise.
The Program Job Server processes scheduled program objects, as requested by the
CMS. To run a program, the Program Job Server first retrieves the files from storage
on the Input File Repository Server, and then runs the program. By definition,
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Processing tier
Page Server
program objects are custom applications. Therefore the outcome of running a
program will be dependent upon the particular program object that is run.
Unlike report instances, which can be viewed in their completed format, program
instances exist as records in the object history. Crystal Enterprise stores the
program’s standard out and standard error in a text output file. This file appears
when you click a program instance in the object History.
The Page Server is primarily responsible for responding to page requests by
processing reports and generating Encapsulated Page Format (EPF) pages. The
EPF pages contain formatting information that defines the layout of the report. The
Page Server retrieves data for the report from an instance or directly from the
database (depending on the user’s request and the rights he or she has to the report
object). When retrieving data from the database, the Page Server automatically
disconnects from the database after it fulfills its initial request and reconnects if
necessary to retrieve additional data. (This behavior conserves database licenses.)
The Cache Server and Page Server work closely together. Specifically, the Page
Server responds to page requests made by the Cache Server. The Page Server and
Cache Server also interact to ensure cached EPF pages are reused as frequently as
possible, and new pages are generated as soon as they are required. Crystal
Enterprise takes advantage of this behavior by ensuring that the majority of reportviewing requests are made to the Cache Server and Page Server. (However, if a
user’s default viewer is the Advanced DHTML viewer, the report is processed by
the Report Application Server.)
The Page Server also supports COM, ASP.NET, and Java viewer Software
Development Kits (SDKs).
Report Application Server
The Report Application Server (RAS) processes reports that users view with the
Advanced DHTML viewer. The RAS also provides the ad hoc reporting
capabilities that allow users to create and modify reports over the Web.
The RAS is very similar to the Page Server: it too is primarily responsible for
responding to page requests by processing reports and generating EPF pages.
However, the RAS uses an internal caching mechanism that involves no
interaction with the Cache Server.
As with the Page Server, the RAS supports COM, ASP.NET, and Java viewer
SDKs. The Report Application Server also includes an SDK for report-creation and
modification, providing you with tools for building custom report interaction
interfaces.
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Data tier
7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
The data tier is made up of the databases that contain the data used in the reports.
Crystal Enterprise supports a wide range of corporate databases.
See the
list of tested database software and version requirements.
Platforms.txt
Report viewers
Crystal Enterprise includes report viewers that support different platforms and
different browsers in the client tier, and which have different report viewing
functionality. (For more information on the specific functionality or platform
support provided by each report viewer, see the Crystal Enterprise User’s Guide or
the Crystal Reports Developer’s Guide.)
All of the viewers fall into two categories: client-side viewers, and zero client
viewers. Client-side viewers are downloaded and installed in the users’ web
browser while the code to support zero client viewers resides in the application tier.
client-side viewerszero client viewers
Active X viewerDHTML viewer
Java viewerAdvanced DHTML viewer
All report viewers help process requests for reports, and present report pages that
appear in the user’s browser.
Zero client viewers reside on the application server. When a user requests a report,
the application server processes the request, and then retrieves the report pages in
.epf format from the Crystal Enterprise framework. The SDK creates a viewer
object on the application server which processes the .epf and creates DHTML
pages that represent both the viewer controls and the report itself. The viewer
object then sends these pages through the web server to the user’s web browser.
Client-side viewers are downloaded and installed in the user’s browser. When a
user requests a report, the application server processes the request, and retrieves
the report pages in .epf format from the Crystal Enterprise framework. The
application server then passes the .epf file to the client-side viewer, which
processes the .epf files and displays them directly in the browser.
file included with your product distribution for a complete
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Information Flow
If they haven’t already done so, users are prompted to download and install the
appropriate viewer software before the report is displayed in the browser. The
Active X viewer is downloaded the first time a user requests a report, and then
remains installed on the user’s machine. You will be prompted to reinstall the
ActiveX viewer only when a new version becomes available on the server.
Information Flow
This section describes the interaction of the server components in order to
demonstrate how report-processing is performed. This section covers two
different scenarios:
• “What happens when you view a report?” on page 64
• “What happens when you schedule a report?” on page 66
What happens when you view a report?
This section describes the viewing mechanisms that are implemented in the Crystal
Enterprise web desktop. The description of processing flow covers both the case
where the web desktop is implemented with Crystal Server Pages and uses the Web
Component Server (WCS) as its application server, and the case where the web
desktop is implemented in Java Server Pages and runs in a generic application server.
The processing flow for custom ASP, JSP, and ASP.NET applications may differ.
When you view a Crystal report (.rpt file) through Crystal Enterprise, the
processing flow varies depending upon your default report viewer, the type of
report, and the rights you have to the report. In all cases, however, the request that
begins at the web server must be forwarded to the application server.
The actual request is constructed as a URL that includes the report’s unique ID.
This ID is passed as a parameter to a server-side script that, when evaluated by the
application server, verifies the user’s session and retrieves the logon token from
the browser. The script then checks the user’s Crystal Enterprise web desktop
preferences and redirects the request to the viewing mechanism that corresponds
to the user’s default viewer.
Different report viewers require different viewing mechanisms:
• The zero-client DHTML viewer is implemented through
viewreport.jsp
When evaluated by the application server, this script communicates with the
framework (through the published SDK interfaces) in order to create a viewer
object and retrieve a report source from the Cache Server and Page Server.
• The zero-client Advanced DHTML viewer is implemented through
viewreport_ia.csp or viewreport_ia.jsp
When evaluated by the application server, this script communicates with the
framework (through the published SDK interfaces) in order to create a viewer
object and retrieve a report source from the Report Application Server.
.
viewreport.csp
.
or
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7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
• The client-side report viewers (the ActiveX and Java viewers) are implemented
through
The Crystal Web Request is executed internally through viewer code on the
application server. The viewer code communicates with the framework in order
to retrieve a report page in .epf format from the Cache Server and Page Server.
If they haven’t already done so, users are prompted to download and install the
appropriate viewer software.
viewrpt.cwr
, hosted by the WCA or WCS.
Report viewing with the Cache Server and Page Server
Upon receiving a report-viewing request, the Cache Server checks to see if it has
the requested pages cached. Cached pages are stored as Encapsulated Page Format
(.epf) files. If a cached version of the .epf file is available, the Cache Server checks
with the Crystal Management Server (CMS) to see if the user has rights to view the
report. If the user is granted the right to view the report, the Cache Server sends
the .epf file to the application server.
If a cach ed vers ion of t he .ep f file i s unavailable, the Cache Server requests new .epf
files from the Page Server. The Page Server retrieves the report from the Input File
Repository Server, first checking with the CMS to see if the user has rights to view
the report.
If the report is an instance, and the user only has View rights, the Page Server will
generate pages of the report instance using the data stored in the report object. That
is, the Page Server will not retrieve the latest data from the database. If the report
is an object, the user must have View On Demand rights to view the report
successfully (because the Page Server needs to retrieve data from the database).
If the user has sufficient rights, the Page Server generates the .epf pages and
forwards them to the Cache Server. The Cache Server then caches the .epf files and
sends them to the application server.
If the initial request was made through a Crystal Server Page (
viewer SDK (residing on the application server) is used to generate HTML that
represents both the DHTML viewer and the report itself. The HTML pages are then
returned through the web server to the user’s web browser. If the initial request
was made through a Crystal Web Request (
forwards the .epf pages through the web server to the report viewer software in the
user’s web browser.
viewrpt.cwr
viewreport.csp
), the application server
), the
Report viewing with the Report Application Server
Upon receiving a report-viewing request, the RAS checks to see if it has the
requested report data in cache. (The RAS has its own caching mechanism, which is
separate from the Cache Server.) If cached report data is available, the RAS checks
with the CMS to see if the user has rights to view the report. If the user is granted
the right to view the report, the RAS returns .epf pages to the application server.
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Information Flow
If a cached version of the page is unavailable, the RAS retrieves the report from the
Input File Repository Server, first checking with the CMS to see if the user has
rights to view the report. The RAS then processes the report and returns the .epf
pages to the application server.
If the user is granted View rights to the report object, then the RAS will only ever
generate pages of the latest report instance. That is, the RAS will not retrieve the
latest data from the database. If, however, the user is granted View On Demand
rights to the report object, then the RAS will refresh the report against the database.
Note: The interactive search and filter features provided by the Advanced
DHTML viewer are available only if the user has View On Demand rights (or
greater) to the report object.
When the application server receives the .epf pages from the RAS, the viewer SDK
is used to generate HTML that represents both the Advanced DHTML viewer and
the report itself. The HTML pages are then returned through the web server to the
user’s web browser.
What happens when you schedule a report?
When you schedule a report, you instruct Crystal Enterprise to process a report
object at a particular point in time, or on a recurring schedule. For example, if you
have a report based off of your web server logs, you can schedule the report to run
every night on a recurring basis.
Tip: Crystal Enterprise also allows you to schedule jobs that are dependent upon
other events. For details, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
When a user schedules a report using the Crystal Enterprise web desktop, the web
desktop sends the request to the application tier.
• In a Crystal Enterprise system that uses the COM SDK, the web server passes
the web desktop request to the Web Connector. The Web Connector then
passes the request to the Web Component Server (WCS), which communicates
with the rest of Crystal Enterprise. Since the request was to schedule a report,
the WCS passes the request to the Crystal Management Server.
• In a Crystal Enterprise system that uses the Java SDK, the web server passes
the web desktop request directly to the application server. The request is
evaluated by the Java SDK. Since the request was to schedule a report, the SDK
passes the request to the Crystal Management Server.
When the CMS gets the request, it checks to see if the user has sufficient rights to
schedule the report. If the user has sufficient rights, the CMS schedules the report
to run at the specified time(s). When the time occurs, the CMS passes the job to the
Report Job Server. The Report Job Server retrieves the report from the Input File
Repository Server and runs the report against the database, thereby creating an
instance of the report. The Report Job Server then saves the report instance to the
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Output File Repository Server, and tells the CMS that it has completed the job
successfully.
Tip: For details about multiple time zones, see the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s
Guide.
Note:
• The Cache Server and the Page Server do not participate in scheduling reports
or in creating instances of scheduled reports. This can be an important
consideration when deciding how to configure Crystal Enterprise, especially
in large installations. See the section on scaling your system in the Crystal Enterprise Administrator’s Guide.
• When you schedule program objects or object packages, the interaction
between servers follows the same pattern as it does for reports. However,
program objects are processed by the Program Job Server.
• Users without schedule rights on an object will not see the schedule option in
Crystal Enterprise.
Choosing between live and saved data
When reporting over the Web, the choice to use live or saved data is one of the
most important decisions you’ll make. Whichever choice you make, however,
Crystal Enterprise displays the first page as quickly as possible, so you can see
your report while the rest of the data is being processed.
7: Crystal Enterprise Architecture
Live data
On-demand reporting gives users real-time access to live data, straight from the
database server. Use live data to keep users up-to-date on constantly changing data,
so they can access information that’s accurate to the second. For instance, if the
managers of a large distribution center need to keep track of inventory shipped on a
continual basis, then live reporting is the way to give them the information they need.
Before providing live data for all your reports, however, consider whether or not
you want all of your users hitting the database server on a continual basis. If the
data isn’t rapidly or constantly changing, then all those requests to the database do
little more than increase network traffic and consume server resources. In such
cases, you may prefer to schedule reports on a recurrent basis so that users can
always view recent data (report instances) without hitting the database server.
For more information about optimizing the performance of reports that are viewed
on demand, see the “Designing Optimized Web Reports” section in the Crystal Reports User’s Guide (version 8.5 and later).
Tip: Users require View On Demand access to refresh reports against the database.
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Choosing between live and saved data
Saved data
Report instances are useful for dealing with data that isn’t continually updated.
When users navigate through report instances, and drill down for details on
columns or charts, they don’t access the database server directly; instead, they
access the saved data. Consequently, reports with saved data not only minimize
data transfer over the network, but also lighten the database server’s workload.
You can schedule these reports within Crystal Enterprise so that they automatically
refresh from the database on a predetermined basis. For example, if your sales
database is only updated once a day, or once a week, then you can run the report
on a similar schedule. Sales representatives then always have access to current sales
data, but they are not hitting the database every time they open a report.
Tip: Users require only View access to display report instances.