Report Master
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Report Master
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| · | Automatic batch printing of everyday reports. For example, a prep sheet report could be scheduled to run every night which sends all the hire lists going out the next day to the appropriate printer. A more refined strategy in the report's record selection formula could direct outputs to different warehouse printers depending on categories of equipment or warehouse locations.
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| · | Automatic Emailing of reports. Management Reports, job lists, crew schedules, quotes to chase, etc., can be emailed to multiple recipients on a scheduled basis.
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| · | Automatic uploading of report outputs to an FTP site. Invaluable for updating web pages with your stock list, price lists etc.
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| · | Automatic exporting of reports to files. For example you may have a financial report which you need to export to Excel once a week.
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| · | Saving of Eclipse licences. Some users often only need to log into Eclipse to run a report; but with the Report Master, these users can call on almost all the reporting power that they have in Eclipse, without needing Eclipse installed at all.
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| 1. | A printer, which you can specify from a list of printers available to your PC.
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| 2. | A file on your PC or network.
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| 3. | An email. You can specify the e-mail's subject and message for each report. Moreover, you can send it to multiple recipients simply by separating email addresses with commas. The output format for the email attachment can be specified, with Adobe Acrobat (PDF) giving the most faithful reproduction of your report's layout.
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| 4. | An FTP folder on your ftp site. You would most likely specify HTML as your output format for your report here.
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| Manual Mode
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| Here you simply run the programme like any other. You can then either:
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| i).Search for a report in you local database and run it. It will output to a format that you have configured for it. If you have specified "email" as your output then you will be prompted with an email message form with the details already filled in and you can amend as necessary before sending.
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| ii) Run all the reports in one go which have been configured with the "Auto" flag on (see main screen above)
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| The Auto flag is primarily for running the Report Master in Automatic Mode (see below), but you may want to "manually" run all these reports. For example, maybe your mail server crashed overnight and scheduled reports were not sent; in this case you would want to run them all first thing when you got into work the next day.
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| Automatic Mode
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| If a command line switch called AUTO is added to the shortcut for the Report Master, then the programme will run invisibly and output all of the reports which have been configured with the "Auto" flag on. The programme automatically closes when it has completed all of its reports. This means that the Report Master is ideal for running under the Windows Scheduler. To set this up go to your Control Panel | Scheduled Tasks and add a new task. Select ReportMaster.exe as the programme you wish to run and specify "Everyday" as the frequency (see more on this later). When the Wizard for creating a new task is complete, double click your entry for the Report Master to bring up its properties. This will allow you to add the AUTO command line switch as in the example below (note the space before the word AUTO).
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| Remember, we specified that the Windows Scheduler should run the programme everyday; this was because if more control is needed as to when a report runs, then the Report Master allows you to configure this on a report by report basis. For example you may want your Prep Sheets to print everyday, but an emailed management report should only be sent at the end of the month. You configure this by clicking the label next to the "Auto" flag to invoke this form:
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| When the Report Master scans through all of its "Auto" reports it checks to make sure that the reports it finds can be run before performing the task (or not).
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| i) Reports Tab
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| · | Navigation Buttons - use these to add, remove, search for and delete report entries. Be sure to update changes you make to existing entries with the "tick" button.
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| · | Copy Icon - use this to quickly clone a current report entry. For example you may want the same report both emailed and printed.
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| · | Report - use this search dialog to browse to and select the report you wish to run. It does not have to be on your PC but your PC always needs to be able to access it.
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| · | Set Data Location - You normally want this option checked and you will also need to set the path to where the report will look for its data. However, there may be instances where you do not want it set; for example, say you have a report which pulls its data from a contact database AND Eclipse. In this case you will want the data locations as specified in the report to be left untouched because the report already knows where the data is and it is in more that one place on the network.
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| · | Output - when you specify your output additional information will be expected and the appropriate controls in the Output Options box will be enabled. If a control is disabled, the report ignores its data.
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| · | Auto flag - when setting this use it in conjunction with the Scheduler, invoked by clicking on the label next to the checkbox.
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| · | Printer and copies - set as required.
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| · | Format - this needs to be set if any option other that Printer is selected.
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| · | Path - this is where exported data is saved to. It automatically set for you if E-mail or FTP are selected so you only need to specify this if you are exporting a report to a File.
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| · | File - this is the name of any file exported, file emailed or file uploaded to an FTP site. You do NOT need to type in the file extension.
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| · | Email To - enter the name of all recipients separated by comma if more than one, e.g. paul@navigator.co.uk,david@navigator.co.uk
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| · | Subject - enter the subject of the emailed report
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| · | Message - click the button to enter / edit / view the message you wish to accompany your report.
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| · | FTP folder - you will already have set-up your FTP site details on the Internet tab (see below). However, you will need to specify which folders on your ftp site to upload your file to, e.g. /pub/pub/eclipse/
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| ii) Summary Tab
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| This simply displays all the report entries in the database you have set up with all the fields.
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| iii) Internet Tab
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| If any reports are going to be E-mailed or uploaded to an FTP site then you will need to fill in this page
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| · | Connection - although a modem connection is supported it is NOT recommended, particularly if running in Automatic mode. If you have to use a modem then select a DUN service from the drop down. If you leave Auto Dial unchecked then you will manually need to make a connection to the internet before using the programme, which is clearly not viable in Automatic mode.
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| · | E-mail - you can get your SMTP and SMTP port (if required) settings from your email package, which will also need this information in order to send mail.
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| · | Authentication Required - if yous ISP offers (or requires) authenticated email then tick this option and supply your Username and Password.
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| · | Your Name - this is who your addressee will see the e-mail as being from
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| · | Reply To - this is the address your addressee will reply to. If you tick "cc to Reply To Address" then a copy of the email will be sent to this address as well
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| · | Encoding - you should normally select MIME
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| · | Character Set - US-ASCII is normally used
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| · | FTP Address - this is the main address of your FTP site. You specify the actual folder to upload to on a report by report basis.
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| · | FTP Port - normally 21 but you can set otherwise.
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| · | Username and Password - normally you will need one to be able to upload files so the Anonymous Login option is rarely used
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| · | Proxy Server - check this option if you connect to the internet via a server which hides your network from internet hackers. You will need to specify a Proxy Address and Port. Refer to your IT Dept. for more details.
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| · | Proxy Type -If you use a proxy server you need to specify this. We support two kinds of FTP proxy servers: so called User with No Logon (used e.g. by Wingate proxy server), and Proxy Open (used e.g., by CProxy). You have to make sure that your proxy type is set properly, otherwise your connection will not work correctly. Refer to your IT Dept. for more details.
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| · | Use Passive Mode - This option is sometimes required by certain proxy servers. Usually, when an FTP client initiates the data transfer with the server, it is sending the information about the address and the available port of the local computer, and then it waits until the server connects to the specified address. This is the normal mode and is called "Active Mode". If you select Passive Mode then the server will not initiate the connection itself, it will wait until the client does it.
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| Logs Tab
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| Each time you run reports a log is kept of when you did it and what report was run. This information can be useful if you are experiencing connection difficulties or if you need to check when last a report was run.
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