Creating Crystal Report Instances

Report Instances are a simple way to view historical snapshots of a report and are incredibly easy to implement using Logicity.  Simply schedule a Logicity Solution that saves your report out as a Crystal Reports file, using whatever runtime variable matches the frequency with which you will be running the solution.  This process saves the data with the RPT file so it can be used even if the end user doesn't have database access.  Plus Logicity gives user all of the Crystal Reports features like drill-downs, group trees, etc. 

Over time, this directory will fill up with RPT files that contain saved data for their respective time period.   Share this directory out to your users and they can simply navigate to this folder, double-click the RPT file of the instance they want to view, and Logicity desktop will allow them to view the report instance.

 Instructions

1. Open Logicity Solution Builder.

2. Click the NEW button. This starts the process of creating a new solution.

3. Click the ADD ACTION button. This starts the Logicity Solution Builder Wizard.

4. Logicity Solution Builder Wizard

   1. Display Name Screen - Enter a “Display Name” & click the NEXT button.

   2. File Name Screen - Click the BROWSE button and find the Crystal Report you want to run. Click the NEXT button

   3. Database Info Screen – If there is a database login, enter that information. Click NEXT button to continue.

   4. Parameters Screen – If there are parameter on this report, check “Specified” and then select the parameters that you want to automatically entered. When ready to continue, click the NEXT button. 

   5. Action Screen - Select SAVE from the drop-down screen. Select the file format from the drop-down menu, enter a destination directory, and enter a filename.  Using the Professional version, right click in the “File Name” field to add a date/time runtime variable that will be used to create a unique filename everytime the report is saved.  Click the NEXT button.  See the screenshot below for more details.
      

   6. Logging Screen – With Logicity Professionals, you can log user activity by checking the “Enable Logging” box and then completing the rest of the required information. Click the FINISH button.

5. Schedule the report to run automatically by clicking the SCHEDULE button. This will open the Schedule Solution window. Select the frequency from the drop-down list and then select the time and day you want the task to start.

6. Click the SAVE button and enter a filename.

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