Datasheet

System Management
The central management server is a
key service responsible for maintaining
a database of information about Crystal
Reports Server. Data in the central
management server includes informa-
tion on users and groups, security lev-
els, and reports. This information is
used to enforce access rights to Crys-
tal Reports Server and the types of
tasks users can perform. The central
management server also manages
access to the report repository and
auditing databases.
Repository, Storage, and Retrieval
Crystal Reports Server stores reports
in a central repository database.
Although this repository database
stores specific information about the
objects published to it – including
users, security, groups, folders, and
parameters – it does not actually store
physical copies of the reports. It con-
tains pointers to the physical reports,
thereby making report retrieval faster.
The repository database is maintained
by using the provided MySQL database
or a Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle
database, or IBM DB2 database. The
database structure can be created
automatically during setup of Crystal
Reports Server or configured on a
different database.
Auditing
Crystal Reports Server records signifi-
cant events in an auditing database,
allowing administrators to report
against these events and answer ques-
tions about user and system activity.
Scheduling and Alerting
The report job server provides schedul-
ing functions for Crystal Reports.
There are many options available,
including scheduling based on a speci-
fied time, a recurring schedule, or a
business calendar. Reports can also be
scheduled to output in different formats
such as Crystal Reports, Microsoft
Excel, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word,
and text – allowing further user interac-
tion. And you can schedule reports to
different destinations, including e-mail,
printer, or file server. You can also com-
bine report scheduling with user role–
based security, allowing IT and end
users to deliver the right information to
the people or groups that need it. The
scheduler in Crystal Reports Server
(see Figure 7) enables you to schedule
reports for automatic distribution to
external locations, such as file transfer
protocol (FTP) servers, e-mail distribu-
tion lists, printers, and file servers.
When used in conjunction with securi-
ty, a single report can be run once and
distributed with personalized data for
specific individuals or groups.
Publishing
Publishing lets you make documents
publicly available for mass consumption
(see Figure 8). Users can create a pub-
lication by defining source documents,
selecting recipients, tailoring the infor-
mation that user groups will see, and
scheduling the publication to multiple
destinations and in multiple delivery for-
mats. Your users can also subscribe to
or unsubscribe from publications. You
can extend data-driven report delivery
beyond your Crystal Reports Server
deployment by distributing personalized
content to dynamic recipients. These
recipients are outside the Crystal
Reports Server system. Using a cus-
tom data provider, such as a database,
LDAP, or active directory, you can
define these external recipients and
distribute publications to both internal
and external recipients simultaneously.
Figure 7: Central Management Console Scheduling Window
10 SAP Functions in Detail – Crystal Reports Server