Scheduling a report to a destination (FTP, SMTP, Disk, Printer)

When you schedule a report in Crystal Enterprise, you can cause the instance of that report to be sent to a particular destination. This section will demonstrate how to schedule a report to four different destinations. Before reading this section, it is recommended that you read Lesson 3d: Scheduling reports. The four types of destinations are supported by Crystal Enterprise:

• FTP

  The instance can be copied to a server using FTP.

• SMTP

  The instance can be emailed to a person.

• Unmanaged disk

  The instance can be copied to the local disk or somewhere on the network.

• Printer

  The instance can be printed to a local or network printer.

Note:    Printer is a report-specific destination. All other destinations are generic and can apply to any format type supported by Crystal Enterprise.

Before you read this section, it is recommended that you read both the Tutorial and the chapter on Architecture.

These options, with the exception of the printer, are provided through the SchedulingInfo interface when you schedule a report. The printer options are set using the Report object. The functionality for each destination, again with the exception of the printer, is provided through the appropriate destination plugin and must be installed and enabled before they can be used. The printer does not use a destination plugin but rather the report plugin. Also note that with SMTP, FTP and disk, you can choose the format of the report; when you choose to schedule to the printer, the RPT format is used.

• Use the PluginManager interface to install plugins. For more information, see PluginManager Object
• The easiest way to enable each destination (except the printer) is to use the Crystal Management Console's Job Server properties.

Once you have the plugins installed and enabled, go to the next section, Scheduling to SMTP, FTP, and Disk. If you choose, you can skip this section and go directly to Setting scheduling options for the printer.