Crystal Web Reports Server Administration

The Seagate Crystal Web Reports Server provides the Web Reports Server Configuration application for complete control over how reports are delivered and accessed over your web site. In addition to these settings, though, there are several issues you should consider when setting up the Web Reports Server and creating reports for distribution over an intranet or the internet. The following sections discuss configuration options and report design issues.

The following topics are discussed in this section.

The Web Reports Server Configuration Application, Page 16

Page Server Tab, Page 17

Image Server Tab, Page 20

Report Exporting Tab, Page 21

Server Mappings Tab, Page 22

Report Viewing Tab, Page 23

The Page Server and the Image Server, Page 26

Smart Navigation, Page 26

Drilling Down on Data, Page 27

Database Location, Page 27

The Web Reports Server Configuration Application

Although the Crystal Web Reports Server is installed with the most common settings selected (by default), an application is provided that allows changes and customization of the Web Reports Server. The Web Reports Server Configuration application (WEBCONF.EXE) is installed, by default, in the main application directory you specified for Seagate Crystal Reports during installation. An icon is also available in the Seagate Crystal Reports Program Group. When run, the application displays a tabbed dialog box. By making changes in this dialog box, you can customize the Crystal Web Reports Server according to your needs. The following sections describe the options available on each tab of the application dialog box. This information is also available as context sensitive Help for the application itself.

NOTE: All changes made in the Web reports Server Configuration utility are stored in the Windows Registry. Any changes made in webconf.exe will not be effective until the web server is stopped and restarted.

Page Server Tab

Use the Page Server Tab to specify the TCP/IP port used by the Seagate Crystal Web Page Server, and to specify the virtual directory where the ActiveX and Java viewers are located. The Advanced settings for this tab also allow you to specify the maximum number of threads and jobs that can be started by the Crystal WebPage Server, as well as a setting for the database refresh time (see Database Refresh Time, Page 19) and how long to wait before closing an idle job.

Server Port

Use this text box to specify a TCP/IP port number for the Page Server to listen for requests and to return information. For valid values for this port, refer to your web server software or TCP/IP documentation. The default port, if available, is 2000. This port must match the port specified for Report (.rpt) files in the Server Mappings Tab, Page 22.

Virtual Path

This setting specifies the virtual path for the ActiveX and Java versions of the Seagate Crystal Smart Viewers. When you install the Web Reports Server, this path is set to:

http://localhost/Viewer

by default. If this path is not available, you must specify a different virtual path using your web server administration software.

The default physical path for the Crystal Smart Viewers, when you install Seagate Crystal Reports, is:

C:\Program Files\Seagate Software\Viewers

Use your web server administration software to set the virtual path to this directory, then specify that virtual path on the Page Server Tab for the Web Reports Server Configuration application.

Advanced Settings

Click the Advanced Setting button to access the Page Server - Advanced Settings dialog box.

Use this dialog box to make changes to the advanced configuration options of the Page Server. This dialog box exposes the following options:

Threads

The Page Server is a multi-threaded application that generates a new thread for processing every request it receives. Threads consume system memory and resources, though, and large numbers of threads can slow down the overall performance of a system.

By specifying the maximum number of threads that can be generated by the Page Server, you control how much of the systems resources can be dedicated to responding to requests at any given time. If the number of requests received by the Page Server exceeds the number of threads specified, additional requests are held until threads are available.

When determining a maximum number of threads, you should consider the available memory on the server system and the size of the reports that are commonly accessed. The larger the report, the more time that is required, thus tying up threads for longer periods.

Jobs

This option refers to the maximum number of report jobs that can be generated by the Job Manager. Every time a new report is requested, a new job is created. Set this to the maximum number of jobs that the Web Reports Server can have open at one time. More jobs allows faster report processing. However, each job require more memory resources, thus slowing down overall system performance. A balance must be found that allows fast report processing without slowing down the system. As a result once the maximum number of jobs has been exceeded older jobs are removed according do a Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm.

Database Refresh Time

This setting controls how often the data in cached reports is refreshed by querying the database. If a report has been cached for a long period of time, the data in the report may be old and invalid. If the Database Refresh Time has passed since the report was first cached, the Web Reports Server can refresh the data in the cached report the next time a user requests it.

By controlling how often data in reports is refreshed, you can minimize the impact of client requests on the database. If clients are allowed to refresh the data themselves, they may put a large load on the database server. Instead, as the administrator, you can control how often data is refreshed.

Keep in mind that the Crystal Smart Viewers include a Refresh button by default. If you set a database refresh time, and a client uses the Refresh button in a Smart Viewer, the user will cause a refresh on the cached report, forcing a hit on the database. You may want to turn off the Refresh button (see Report Viewing Tab, Page 23) for Smart Viewers. If you set the Database Refresh Time to 0, then the data will be refreshed each time a report is requested.

Idle Time

Idle time is a period of time during which no actions occur. If a job, for instance, is unused for a large amount of time, it should be discarded by the Web Reports Server to allow those resources to be freed up for other jobs and requests. There are two types of idle time that you can set a maximum time for:

Close a job

A job refers to an actual report that has been generated and cached on the server. If no users request the report for the time specified, the report job will be closed and discarded. Thus, if someone requests the report after the job has been closed, a new job will need to be generated, causing an initial delay.

Close a client

Every request Id stored by the Page Server includes an Id for the client that made the request. If that client does not make any new requests or does not interact with an open report for the specified period of time, all requests corresponding to that client will be closed. If that client makes a new request after their client Id has been closed, they will experience a slight delay while the Page Server establishes a new request for them.