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Report Scheduler for Crystal Reports, SSRS Reports and more.

Top 5 Reasons PDF Bursting Is Better Than SSRS Data-Driven Subscription

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As defined by Microsoft, this is what an SSRS Data-Driven subscription is:

A data-driven subscription provides a way to use dynamic subscription data that is retrieved from an external data source at run time. A data-driven subscription can also use static text and default values that you specify when the subscription is defined. You can use data-driven subscriptions to do the following:

– Distribute a report to a fluctuating list of subscribers. For example, you can use data-driven subscriptions to distribute a report throughout a large organization where subscribers vary from one month to the next, or use other criteria that determines group membership from an existing set of users.

– Filter the report output using report parameter values that are retrieved at run time.

– Vary report output formats and delivery options for each report delivery.

PDF Bursting is similar to data-driven subscriptions in what it achieves as the end result however it is completely different in how it goes about getting the job done.

PDF and Excel Bursting is better than SSRS Data-Driven subscription in many ways

Here are the top 5 reasons PDF Bursting, and by extension, Excel Bursting, is better than SSRS Data-Driven Subscriptions.

  1. Considerably Cheaper: In order to use SSRS Data-Driven subscriptions, you must be using SQL Server Reporting Services Enterprise Edition and the cost for that tier is at minimum $3717. It will cost more if want to host it on a server with more CPU cores. In contrast, remiCrystal with PDF/Excel Bursting costs only $999.
  2. More Efficient: If your report has to be data-driven for 1000 rows of data, in the SSRS scenario, the report will need to be run 1000 times and each time taking up database, processing and network resources. For PDF Bursting, the report is run only once and then using our algorithm split up and bursted into separate reports for delivery.
  3. Much Faster: As the SSRS Report is run only once for PDF Bursting, the entire process is unbelievably faster. When we compared running a data-driven subscription of 100 records with that for PDF Bursting, the latter was up to 230% faster.
  4. Access To In-Report Variables and Formulas: When using PDF Bursting in remiCrystal, all you need to do is add a special bursting tag that will be read by the the application at run time. You can therefore include any formula or variable into the bursting tag so that it can be accessible by remiCrystal without having to recreate it outside the report.
  5. Data Consistency: When running a data-driven subscription, the report’s data is fetched for every report run and what this means is that if you are using a very active transactional dabatase as the source, the results may differ between the first record and the 1000th. With PDF Bursting, the report is run only once and the data represents a real snapshot of that moment in time regardless of whether it is the first or 1000th record being processed.
  6. Bonus: Easier Maintenance: When dealing with SSRS Data-Driven subscriptions, you have to maintain 2 sets of data; one or more for the report itself and another for the data-driver. You must always always make sure that these 2 sets of data correlate at all times otherwise you could run into unforeseen issues. Making changes to the report also means that you have to consider its effect of the data-driver recordset. With PDF Bursting on the other hand, you only need to worry about the datasets in the report itself.

As you can see, PDF (and Excel Bursting) can save you and your organization money, time and resources in real meaningful ways. To get started and see what a difference it will make, download the free unlimited trial of remiCrystal today.

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How to Password Protect Excel Files from Crystal Reports and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

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Microsoft Excel is one of the oldest and most powerful software packages that is still widely used today and the Excel formats (XLS and XLSX) is only second to PDF as the most common output format from Crystal Reports and SSRS Reports.

After all, Excel is used by the average person, businesses, government institutions, and millions of other folks all over the world.

remiCrystal now allows you to add password protection to both XLS and XLSX Microsoft Excel formats so that the data in your exported Crystal Reports or SSRS Reports remains secure and is only accessible by the right parties.

To illustrate this functionality, lets use an example where you have several project managers (employees) in your organization that you would like to send password protected Excel reports to and then follow up with a separate email containing the access password.
The Employees database table woud look like the following:

First, open remiCrystal and click the Create External Data Task button

from the remicrystal home screen, select external data task

Provide a name and description for the task and then go to the External Data tab

Connect to your database containing the Employees table using an ODBC DSN and then enter the query to select the employees data required

create your SQL selection criteria to data-drive your crystal reports and SSRS reports

Once the query is set, select the Primary Key column (the column that uniquely identifies each row in the Employees table). In this case, it is the EmployeeID column

Add your Crystal Report or SSRS Report by going to the Reports & Actions tab and clicking on the relevant button at the bottom.

Set up the report parameters as well as the login credentials and then go to the Output format tab and select any Excel format.

you can populate parameters with data-driven values

You will be presented with some Excel file format options, one of which will be the ExcelWorkbook password.

You can type in the desired password or you can pull it in from your Employees database table by going to the Function Picker window, selecting External Data from the dropdown and then dragging and dropping the ExcelPassword database field into the Excel Workbook Password field.

populate the excel password with data-driven value
You can drag and drop the password from the Employees table

Click Save to save the settings and return to the main screen.

Now that we have the report set up to export to Excel with password protection, we need to set up an Action to email the employees with their passwords.

Select Send Email from the Actions menu

Fill in the details of the email and Save. Once again, you can use fields from the Employees database table to populate all the emails fields

email custom action

You may now save the remiCrystal task and run it. Every employee in our SQL selection query will be emailed their report in Excel format and the file will be password protected. They will also receive a separate email containing their unique password to use to access the Excel file.

To get started with security your Excel reports from Crystal Reports and SSRS Reports, download remiCrystal today and enjoy the unlimited 14 day trial.

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How to Set Up PDF Bursting for SSRS and Crystal Reports

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In order to use PDF Bursting in remiCrystal, you only need to make a small modification to your report by adding a special Bursting Expression that remiCrystal will locate and read. A completed Bursting Expression looks something like this:

{burst:true|emailaddress:john.doe@company.com|project:Mesa Verde Bank Project|projectmanager:John Doe}
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PDF Bursting for SSRS and Crystal Reports

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What is PDF Bursting?

If a picture paints a thousand words, then a video must paint millions. Take a look at the video below to see the speed comparison between Crystal Report bursting and PDF bursting. 

PDF Bursting vs Crystal Report Bursting

The concept of report bursting is not new. In the Crystal Reports world, report bursting is typically handled by modifying the report’s group selection formula so that each group value gets a separate report. In the SSRS world, the only way to handle report bursting has been via data-driven-like techniques. In both scenarios, the report is rendered individually for every group value.

PDF Report Bursting allows a report to be run only once and then split up (exploded) and delivered to nominated recipients that are based on a special tag in the document. As the database is accessed only once for all the report recipients, PDF Report Bursting can increase report production and delivery speeds by more than 90% when compared to traditional report bursting methods.

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How to Password-Protect PDF Documents From Crystal Reports and SQL Server Reporting Services

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In the early 90’s, sharing reports was not as straightforward as it is today due to several factors. One of those factors was that the default format for sharing documents back then was Microsoft Word and it had some severe limitation including:

  • it was proprietary and required a license of Windows and Microsoft Office to read the documents
  • documents with images ended up being very large in size and therefore very hard to share via email (remember these way the days of floppy disks and 56k modems)
  • in order for fonts in the document to display correctly on the end-user, they needed to have the same fonts as the document owner
  • in regards to Crystal Reports, exporting to this format was slow and used up a lot memory 
[Read more…]

How To Schedule SSRS Reports to Email

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The ability to schedule SSRS reports to email can be a game changer for your business. Once your reports are scheduled, they are guaranteed to be delivered to the people that need the information when they require it.
Scheduling SSRS reports to run manually means that you don’t have to worry about forgetting to send the reports and that there is little to no chance for human error.

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Prevent Blank SSRS Subscription Reports From Being Sent

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One of the most common challenge that SSRS subscription users face is that their reports are sent out on schedule regardless of whether or not they contain data. As you are aware, SSRS reports are typically based on one or more datasets and sometimes these datasets can be empty. When using normal or data-driven subscriptions, the reports are executed and delivered even when the report is blank. This is undesirable as time is wasted by end-users who opens up these reports only to find that there is no data present.

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 remiCrystal is Reliable

remiCrystal utilizes the Windows Task Scheduling system for all its automation. This means that your reports will be delivered as long as Windows is running. No ifs or buts.

 remiCrystal is Easy To Use

With remiCrystal, you do not have to spend money on training your staff on how to use the software. We believe that if you can use MS Word, then you can use remiCrystal.

 remiCrystal is Cost-Effective

When you purchase remiCrystal, you will begin to realize the return on investment immediately. You will save time money and human resources. Automating your processes will reduce errors in your reporting immensely.

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