ReportCaster 7.1.3 Advanced Feature Techniques

By Vincent Lam

As an advanced ReportCaster administrator, have you ever wished that you could limit certain features in the GUI? How about adding the ability to schedule a parameterized report on the fly? ReportCaster 7.1.3 introduces several new techniques and features that make this possible.

Limiting Library Access Options

ReportCaster 7.1.3 introduces the ability to suppress the "access options" and "e-mail for library" options that appear in the Distribution tab of the ReportCaster Scheduler when distributing scheduled output to the Report Library.

An example of a situation in which this would be useful is when you have a schedule that distributes to the Report Library with public access. If the e-mail for library option is enabled, every user will receive an e-mail whenever the schedule runs. In 7.1.3, you can remove the option completely. Thus, the e-mail for library option can be removed from the GUI and e-mails will not be sent.

ReportCaster 7.1.3 introduces a new file named frontend.cfg for these GUI behavior modifications. This file stores two keys: LIBRARY_ACCESS and LIBRARY_EMAIL. LIBRARY_ACCESS limits the access options that appear in the Distribution tab. Available options are as follows:

	ALL: All access options (owner, public, access list) appear. This is the default value.
	OWNER: Only the owner option appears.
	OWNER&ACCESSLIST: Only the owner and access list options appear.

LIBRARY_EMAIL limits to whom the e-mail for library option is available in the Distribution tab. Available options are as follows:

	ON: E-mail for library option is available for all access options (owner, public, access list). This is the default value.
	OFF: E-mail for library option is removed for all access options.
	OWNER: E-mail for library option is available only when the owner access option is selected.
	OWNER&ACCESSLIST: E-mail for library option is available only when the owner or access list option is selected.

The changes made in frontend.cfg are universally applicable to ReportCaster and affect both the HTML and applet scheduling tools.

Adding a Schedule Button for Reports

Wouldn't it be nice if you could add a "schedule" button in Developer Studio to your forms? ReportCaster 7.1.3 introduces an advanced technique for adding schedule capability to HTML Layout forms.

The great thing about this technique is that we provide all the code and documentation on how to implement this feature. For many customers, the default layout and options will be perfect. For customers that want to enhance or modify the GUI or logic, the files are documented and commented to facilitate this. Customers can customize this feature to suit their needs.

Behind the scenes, this feature takes advantage of the existing Java™ API of ReportCaster. What this means is that you have the functionality of the entire ReportCaster engine at your disposal.

Think of the possibilities! On the GUI end, all the Web interfaces are implemented using Java Server Pages (JSPs). Any developer familiar with Java should be immediately familiar with these industry standards.

ReportCaster's new 7.1.3 feature set opens up the ability to customize ReportCaster even further. With the ability to limit features in the current out-of-the-box GUI, or even to create your own, customers have the flexibility to tailor ReportCaster to their environments. We can't wait to hear about the applications you'll make with these features!