This module will allow each end workstation the ability to view any custom Crystal Report that has been compiled into an executable and loaded into the User Defined Report Setup screen. The desktop, for manexSQL includes the Crystal Reports viewer, so custom reports created in Crystal Reports can be controlled and distributed through the software, without Crystal Report software being installed on the machine in use. manex has several Crystal Reports available that allow users to modify the report according to their needs. These reports can provide completion percentages, AVL availability, and production notes.
Note:
1. Crystal Reports must not be designed using live manex DBFS tables. Data will be corrupted in manex if any of the tables used for the design are accessed and changed while the design is in progress. To use Crystal Report Designer, create a copy of the DBFS and use a copy to design the report.
2. manex has no reason to believe that running a previously designed Crystal Report using live manex files will cause any problems. It should not matter if the report was designed using Crystal Report Designer or written as a custom executable.
3. However, when using Crystal Report Designer or running a pre-existing Crystal Report, the user's workstation should be using "absolute" paths (do not use "relative" paths) to the DBFS files in use, i.e., X:\Manex\DBFS\xyz.dbf not \\Manex\DBFS\xyz.dbf, Where “X” is the absolute drive letter. Therefore, workstations using shortcuts to manex using relative addressing (for security reasons) should not be used to run Crystal Reports.
* Normally manex suggests that users use the manex shortcuts with relative addressing (not mapped to the server) to keep users from accessing the manex server files in Windows Explorer.
4. If you accidentally corrupt the manex DBFS files using Crystal Report Designer or relative addressing, get all users off of manex and reindex two times. The first reindex clears the incorrect End of File table, and the second writes a corrected index.
5. Thus, as long as you do not design on a live database and you use "absolute" mapping to the server, using Crystal Reports to look at the live data after the report is designed should not be a problem.