Using the Printer Distribution Option


The report formats that support printing are DOC, PDF (when you configure ReportCaster to enable PDF to print and the printer has the appropriate driver), PS, and WP.

Note:

  • You must be authorized to distribute to a Printer in order to create a schedule that uses Printer distribution.
  • Problems may occur in printed output if the distributed reports contain UTF-8 characters.
  • Since a Printer schedule will not work unless the report output format is a valid print format, ReportCaster always sets the format of a schedule with distribution to a printer to a valid format. If the default configuration of PDF as a valid print format is in place, the override format is set to PDF. Otherwise, the override format is set to DOC. You can change this format on the Task tab.

Procedure: How to Use the Printer Distribution Option

Note: You can use parameters (amper variables) when specifying a value for the Printer Name field of a schedule. These parameters can be system variables, such as &YYMD, or any amper variable for which a value is returned by the Reporting Server when the scheduled procedure is executed. To use the dot file extension separator after a variable, terminate the variable with the '|' character (for example, &YYMD|.htm). Similarly, to use the ampersand character itself, follow the ampersand with the '|' character (for example, Smith&|Jones). If a value for a parameter specified in a schedule is not returned by the Reporting Server when the procedure executes, the schedule will fail with a "No report to distribute" error. If the scheduled task is burst, you can also use the '%BURST' symbol to include the burst value.

  1. Right-click a report procedure (FEX), point to Schedule, and then click Printer.

    The Basic Scheduling tool appears.

  2. Click the Distribution tab.
  3. From the Type drop-down menu, select the method in which you will provide the file names to distribute to the printer. The options are:
    • Distribution List. The report will be sent to all printers in the selected Distribution List. To select a Distribution List, click the icon next to the Distribution List field.
    • Distribution File. Type the full path and file name of the external distribution file you want to use for this schedule. The path and file must be accessible to the ReportCaster Distribution Server.
    • Printer Name. Specify the printer using the following format. 
      queue@printserver

      where:

      queue

      Is the name of the printer queue.

      printserver

      Is the host name or IP address of the printer.

      ReportCaster can differentiate between the printer queue and the printer host name or IP address due to the presence of the '@' separator. Although ReportCaster supports specifying only the host name or IP address of the printer, we recommend that you specify both the printer queue and host name or IP address when distributing ReportCaster output to a printer. The maximum length of this field is 800 characters.

    • Dynamic Distribution List. A Dynamic Distribution List enables you to return in memory either a list of burst values and destinations, or only a list of destinations from a data source (for example, a flat file, SQL database, FOCUS data source, or LDAP).
  4. If you select Distribution List, click the Name button, which will display the Open dialog box to allow you to select a Distribution List. If you select Distribution File, specify in the Name field the fully qualified path and file name where the external Distribution File is located. If you select Printer, specify the printer name in the Name field.
  5. Select the Notification tab to specify whether to send an email notification of the schedule job status. If you select Always or On Error, then you must specify the Reply Address, Subject, Brief Message To, and Full Message To.
  6. Select the Properties tab to specify the Title, Priority, whether to delete the schedule if it will not run again, and whether the schedule is enabled to run.
  7. Select the Recurrence tab to specify how often to run the schedule. If you want the schedule to run on the current day, set the Start Date and Start Time to values later than the current time.
  8. Click Save & Close to save your changes.