When a user runs a Crystal Report from the home page of Ripplestone, the report is displayed within the users web browser. They have the option to manually save the report by exporting the report output to a file or they can print the report. But if they would like the report saved to a file every time the report is run they can take advantage of the Send To feature.

The Send To feature is used to either create and save a file of the report or to email a copy of the report via email. This action will be performed each time the report is run on demand from the home page of Ripplestone.

This can be useful when you need a physical copy of the report or another system will be looking for a copy of the report. Perhaps in an Excel or CSV format.

Export to a File

The Export to a file section allows you to select the file type to be saved.  The available formats are:

• pdf
• Excel
• Word
• RTF
• CSV
• Text
• Tab Separated
• Crystal Report

The location for the file can be on the local Ripplestone server or on another server using a UNC style path. You also have the option of selecting a pre-defined location from the drop down. These can be setup in the Saved File Locations page. The file name can be any valid file name and can also use the following tokens to change the name at runtime.

• [Date] - Formats the date in yyyy_MM_dd
• [DateTime] - Formats the date in yyyy_MM_dd hhmmss
• [Date:] - Allows you to enter the date and time in a custom format
• [FileName] - Uses the document file name without the extension
• [Title] - Uses the title of the document
• [DocID] - Uses the internal ID for this document
• [ParameterX] - Uses the value of the parameter that was entered when the report is run. Replace the X with a number.

There are two options for what to do if the file already exists.  You can select to have the file replaced if there is a file with the same name already in the folder; or you have the option to append a number to the end of the file name. 

Send to Email

The Send to Email section allows you to have a copy of the report emailed to one or more people. If using multiple email addresses separate them with a semi-colon.

The from address needs to be a valid email address for most SMTP servers. 

When exporting from the Crystal Reports Runtime Engine, some reports will have a smaller font size when exported to pdf.  This can also happen when printing a report since browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Edge will first export the report to pdf and then print the pdf file.  Internet Explorer can either print using an ActiveX control or by also first exporting to a pdf file.  When using the ActiveX control the fonts retain the correct size.

To force the engine to maintain the font size you will need to make a change to the Windows Registry.  To make the change open the Registry Editor by typing RegEdit.exe in the Run dialog box.

Once the Registry Editor is open, find the Crystal Reports key using the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Crystal Reports

Most likely you will need to add two new keys.  First add a key called Export and then a new key called Pdf if they are not there.  The final structure will look like this:

In the Pdf key add a new DWORD called ForceLargerFonts 

In the new DWORD, change the value to a 1 and save the value. 

Once complete, the new value should look like below: 

Close the Registry Editor and test opening a report in Ripplestone and export it to a pdf file.

When trying to send a Crystal Report directly to a printer from the Ripplestone scheduler, you will need to change some settings to allow the scheduler service to have permissions to the printer.

Changing the Login for the Service

By default the Ripplestone scheduler runs as a local system account.  This account usually doesn’t have permissions to print to network printers.

To allow the service to have permissions to print, change the Log On to a user that does have permissions.  This will require a re-start of the service.

Install the Printer on the Ripplestone Server

To make sure that the server has the correct driver you will need to install the printer on the Ripplestone server.

By installing the printer, you should also get the printer to display in the drop down list of available printers.  If the printer doesn’t display in the list you can type in into test box to the right of the drop down.

Make the Printer the default printer

If the Crystal Report has the No Printer option selected on the Page Setup dialog box, then the printer on the Ripplestone server will need to be selected as the default printer.

If you cannot make the printer the default printer, then the No Printer option will need to be un-checked and the report will need to be re-published to Ripplestone.  Once the report has been re-published it can be printed to any printer.  This seems to be a limitation within the Crystal Reports Runtime Engine

Using Crystal Reports Designer

Using Ripplestone