The Report Application Server can access both
unmanaged and managed report files. The managed access is designed to allow
users to modify report objects that are managed by the BI platform InfoStore,
whereas unmanaged access is designed for modifying report files (*.rpt) that reside on a local file
system. When you open and save reports, you need to specify which reports to
open and the folders where you want them to be saved.
Reports and folders are identified as follows:
To identify report objects that are managed by
the BI platform, provide a reference to an InfoObject.
To identify reports and folders when using a
Report Application Server to access report files, provide a file path.
The Report Application Server SDK provides an
application programming interface for all Report Application Server
distributions; hence, it supports both ways of identifying objects. For
example, the method signature of the
saveAs method
of the
ReportClientDocument class is
as follows:
public void saveAs(java.lang.String displayName, java.lang.Object parentFolder, int options)
The second parameter specifies a folder where the
report will be saved. This parameter can be one of the following:
A
String object that
gives a file path.
An InfoObject that represents a folder in the
BI platform.
Specifying a report file path
The Crystal report (.rpt) files you want to access by
a file path through the Report Application Server must be in the folder
designated as the Report Directory for the Report Application Server. The
Report Application Server can open and save reports only to this folder and its
subfolders. Attempting to write to folders other than this results in an
"access denied" error.
Set the Report Directory using the Central
Configuration Manager.
During the default installation process, the sample
reports folder is set as the Report Directory.
To improve performance, it is highly recommended
that you use a local folder on the Report Application Server machine for the
Report Directory. Reports stored outside the Report Application Server machine
slow down performance, because they must be serialized and sent to the Report
Application Server for processing each time they are accessed.
Note: Typing an asterisk (*) in the
Report Directory field lets you access any report anywhere on your local
machine.
You can specify reports several ways:
Using the
ras prefix.
You can use the
ras prefix as
follows:
ras://c:\directory\reportname.rpt .
This string gives the location of
reportname.rpt on the Report
Application Server machine.
Note: The
ras prefix is
not necessary as it is assumed by default.
c:\reportname.rpt is assumed to be
a path relative to the Report Application Server machine.
Using the
rassdk prefix.
You can use the
rassdk prefix as
follows:
rassdk://c:\directory\reportname.rpt .
This string provides the location of a report named
reportname.rpt on the machine
where the Report Application Server SDK is running. This is typically the web
application server.
Note: For performance reasons, it
is not recommended that you store reports on the machine running the Report
Application Server SDK, or on any machine other than the Report Application
Server.
Without using a prefix.
You can specify a report without using a
prefix. When you do so, it is assumed that the report is on a local folder on
the Report Application Server. For example,
c:\directory\reportname.rpt is the
location of
reportname.rpt on the
C drive of
the Report Application Server. This format is equivalent to specifying
ras://c:\directory\reportname.rpt.