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Q: What’s in the ReportSCHEDULER Guide?
Q: Why not just use the Windows task scheduler?
Q: What’s in the ReportSCHEDULER Guide A: This guide contains the following:
Q: Which databases can I use for ReportSCHEDULER? A: Here we're talking about the small database required by ReportSCHEDULER itself, not the database(s) you are reporting on. We recommend Microsoft Access (no extra software required), which can be set up automatically during the installation. However you can use Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server (including Express edition) if necessary, in which case you must create the database and ODBC connection before you install ReportSCHEDULER. Q: Do I need Crystal Reports installed on my computer? A: To automate and run your reports using ReportSCHEDULER, you need to install the supplied run time version of Crystal Reports on your computer. If you already have Crystal Reports installed on the same computer, the run time installation will simply configure it for use with ReportSCHEDULER. You will, of course, need your development version of Crystal Reports installed somewhere to create your report definitions, but you don't need to install ReportSCHEDULER on the same computer. In fact it's often best to keep your production reports separate from your development reports. Q: What version of Crystal Reports can I use with ReportSCHEDULER? A: The supplied run time version of Crystal Reports (v10) works with report definitions created with Crystal 8.5 and above. Q: Does ReportSCHEDULER work on Vista or Windows 7? A: Yes, both these operating systems are now supported in v4.2. Q: Is there a more affordable way to use ReportSCHEDULER, to help my cash flow? A: Yes, you can now use ReportSCHEDULER on a monthly rental, which you can cancel at any time. You will still get the first month free, for evaluation. Rent now.
Q: Why not just use the Windows task scheduler? A: Windows has a built in task scheduling capability that allows applications to be run at specifiable times and intervals; however there are limitations in what it can achieve. ActivitySCHEDULER from BadgerNT allows jobs to be linked together so that the completion status of a job can determine which job will be started next. Multiple jobs can be started when one completes, and not necessarily on the same computer. ActivitySCHEDULER has multiple notification methods to inform you if a job does not complete as expected. For example, an email message could be sent if the overnight system backup fails, giving the reason. Another major benefit of ActivitySCHEDULER is the ease with which you can track each job that has run, and know its completion status. ActivitySCHEDULER allows jobs to be grouped together so that can they can be re-used and nested to any level. The interface used to define jobs is very intuitive and allows you to define jobs by browsing for applications and setting any required command line parameters. Once a job is defined it can be incorporated into one or more groups, or used as-is. ActivitySCHEDULER has a full API that allows software developers to add scheduling capabilities to their products very easily. The API is very easy to use from Visual Basic and C/C++. We are constantly developing new sample schedules for handling problems such as the build up of files in temporary directories and the running of system backups. Q: Does ActivitySCHEDULER work on Vista or Windows 7? A: Yes, both these operating systems are now supported in v4.2. A: A policy is a collection of activities that have been combined into a single entity that can be scheduled, for example every 2 hours, once a week, on the last Friday of each month, or just on demand. A policy may contain just a single activity, or it may be a complex structure of many related activities and activity sets. Activities and activity sets within a policy (its children) are linked together according to their dependencies. For example, activities A and B run concurrently at the start of the policy, then activity C only runs if A completes with status "Ok". Notification messages can be sent at any point in a policy, by a variety of methods. A policy has its own starting conditions (Resources), for example, file F must exist but the policy should wait for up to 2 hours if it doesn't. A maximum execution time can also be defined for each policy. The completion status of a policy is defined in terms of how its child activities complete. For example, the above policy has a status "Ok" if its child activity C completed with status "Ok", otherwise it should have a status of "Failed". Once you have designed a policy in the Policy Designer, you "enable" it so that its execution can be managed from the Policy Manager. When a policy runs, it automatically produces a log file and a customized report, which you can view from the Policy Manager. The design of a policy can incorporate customized messages for the report at any point in the policy. The completion status and severity are displayed on the main Policy Manager screen, so that you can see at a glance how successful your policies have been. A: Basically, an activity is any program that can be run from a command line on a specified computer, by a specified user. But in ActivitySCHEDULER, an activity offers you so much more than that! An activity can have starting conditions (Resources) such as the existence of a file, or freespace on a disk, and if you wish, it can wait for these conditions before starting. You can also specify that files should be deleted or copied (across the network if necessary) both before and after running an activity. An activity can have its own timing conditions, such as a delay before starting and a maximum execution time. For example, always wait for 10 minutes before starting, and abort if still running at 8:30 the next morning. Of course, you can configure the status codes that you expect an activity to complete with, and give meaningful names to each combination of numeric values. But if the activity completes with an unexpected status, you can still deal with it in the policy, using the special "Undefined" status. A: An activity set is a collection of related activities that you want to treat as a single entity in a policy. It has many of the attributes of an activity (e.g. starting conditions) but its constituent (child) activities are linked in the same way as those in a policy. Its completion status is also determined in the same way as for a policy, as a function of its child activities. The greatest strength of activity sets is that they can be nested. In this way you can build up very complex policies in which each level is easy to understand and design. Activity sets can be used to implement policies in which the next action to be performed depends on the outcome of a number of previous actions. For example, only run activity C if activities A and B both completed with status "Ok". In this case, you would put activities A and B into an activity set whose completion status is defined as "Ok" if both A and B complete with "Ok". The parent policy (or activity set) would then only contain the activity set and activity C, linked appropriately. Of course, the logic could be much more complex, with more activities and status codes involved. Q: Can I schedule and automate GUI applications? A: There are many freeware and shareware products available that allow you to automate a sequence of menu options, button presses and text entry within any GUI application. One shareware product that we have successfully used with ActivitySCHEDULER is KeyText, available from http://www.mjmsoft.com/keytext.htm . There are certain restrictions with using this particular product:
Q: How do I schedule interactive applications? A: When creating the activity template for your application, simply check the Interactive box on the Execution tab. When the activity runs, the application window will appear on the screen. If no-one is currently logged on to the activity node when the activity runs, it will still run until any user interaction is required - the application will then appear on screen as soon as someone logs on. This facility should be used with care, as it allows anyone who can log on to interact with your application, which will be running with the privileges of the specified activity user. Q: How do I implement event driven scheduling? A: There are a number of ways in which you can implement event-driven scheduling with ActivitySCHEDULER, depending on the type of event and how you want to deal with it.
Q: How do I automate my regular reports? A: ActivitySCHEDULER provides a run-time version of Crystal Reports v10 (at no extra cost). If you already have the full Crystal Reports product, installing the run-time version will simply ensure that it is configured for use with ActivitySCHEDULER. The Report Wizard allows you to generate any of the pre-defined reports, as well as any of your own, and to automate them using ActivitySCHEDULER. Each report can be saved to file (in many different formats), printed or emailed, and can be generated on a different schedule as required - either on a calendar basis, at intervals through the day, or on demand (via the Policy Manager).
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