Report objects and instances overview

This section explains how to manage report objects and schedule report instances through the Crystal Management Console (CMC).

This section contains two parts:

• Report object management

  This section describes managing report objects at the general level. It describes general object management concepts that apply to all objects, such as moving, copying, deleting objects, and so on.

• Managing a report object and its instances

  This section outlines the steps involved for managing a selected report object and its instances. This section provides information on scheduling a report, selecting the output format and destination, setting the object rights, and so on. There is also information on scheduling a report with events in this section.

Note:    When you update a report object from the CMC, your changes affect users who schedule and view reports through Crystal Enterprise; for instance, if you change the parameter settings for a report object, when users schedule and view reports through a web-based client such as ePortfolio or a custom web application, the parameter information will be changed for them as well. As such, if you don't want to change the settings of a report object and its instances permanently, then schedule reports through ePortfolio or a custom web application. For information on ePortfolio, see the Crystal Enterprise ePortfolio User's Guide.

What are report objects and instances?

A report object is an object that is created using a Crystal designer component (such as Crystal Reports or Crystal Analysis). Report objects contain report information (such as database fields). When you schedule a report, Crystal Enterprise generates an instance or instances of the object. A report object can be made available to everyone or to individuals in selected user groups.

Note:    When you publish a report object to Crystal Enterprise, only the structure of the report (the template information) is saved; that is, the published report object contains no saved data.

Crystal Enterprise creates report instances from report objects—that is, an instance is created when a report object is processed by the Job Server. Essentially, an instance is a report object that contains report data that is retrieved from one or more databases. Each instance contains data that is current at the time the report, query, or program is processed.

Typically, report objects are designed such that you can create several instances with varying characteristics. You can schedule a report object to have several instances. For example, if you run a report object with parameters, you can schedule one instance that contains report data that is specific to one department and schedule another instance that contains information that is specific to another department, even though both instances originate from the same report object.

Changes that are made to the report object affect the scheduled instances. These changes also affect instances that users schedule through a Crystal Enterprise application, such as ePortfolio or a custom web application.

The sections that follow explain how to manage either a report object or an instance of a report object.