I was just doing my batch posting process when I had a nirvana moment and realized I could automate the process by which I run the "Reprint Posting Report" report for a whole range of consecutive posting numbers by loading the runs into the report server queue and having it do the report and save as PDF for me.
Has anyone done anything like this before?
Hi Nick,
I'd love you know how you went about doing this?
CheersSarah
Hi Sarah,
I actually ended up writing a utility and stored procedure that does this. It's effectively a Reprint Posting Report Batch Print-to-PDF utility. For my needs, it prints ranges of consecutive posting numbers, but the concept could be repurposed to nonconsecutive sets of postings as well. The outcome is that my biweekly procedure of running reprint posting report and saving to PDF fifteen times in a row is reduced to the following (presuming everything is already posted):
- Set the parameters for my batch utility according to my desired range of posting numbers, and the summary or detail mode I want for the report output--then set it running in a "new window" mode.
- After the utility has finished running (about 15 minutes in my case), I go collect my PDFs from the network share identified by the FILESAVE REPORT PATH T_DEFAULTS setting.
- Bonus: I use the actual output from the utility in conjunction with a batch file rename application to rename the saved PDFs according to their posting date.
So all in all, it turns a few hundred repetitive keystrokes into two or three distinct actions. The scary stuff in the middle is where the utility, while it is running, actively schedules reports for running on the report server in "File-PDF" mode, then monitors them as the report server processes them, and then cleans up after itself when it's done. If the Report Server was more reliable, this could all be done in 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes, but the only way to be reasonably sure that you get the report output you want (due to the report server just being completely weird and nonsensical) is by limiting the report server to one concurrent job -- meaning if your polling rate is every 60 seconds, it will take a full minute to run each reprint posting report in the batch. And I still make sure to give the PDFs a once-over to make sure a report didn't get duplicated or something. In terms of speed, the manual repetitive keystrokes are actually much faster from start to finish (for me, at least), but when I have the utility do it for me I can multitask or get a cup of coffee or whatever.
So that's it! I met someone at TLCC who also had a similar situation of needing to do batch prints of posting reports, but I'm not yet sure if the appeal for this is broad enough that I should publish it on the code share. If it turns out a lot of people would use the consecutive posting numbers option, I could actually upload it to the code share as-is, but if most people would just be changing it to do something different for their organization, I'd probably opt instead to just put the code on my profile for other people to play with.
Hi Nick
I think you were at the Open Source/collaborative development discussion session in Orlando?
Anyway, one point that several people made there is that the tools that have been set up in the Network Developer site and used mostly by web developers would be just as useful for working collaboratively on SQL or other projects. Perhaps this work of yours would be a good place to start? Ie add the code to bitbucket, and share that way. Would probably also help to raise awareness of the existence of the Community Code Repository toolkit.
?
Ken
That's exactly what I had in mind, Ken!
I've actually got a couple of things on that platform already. The only reason I didn't put this up already is because I wanted to get a feel for how people would use it. If it was just going to be more of a hack, I'd simply share the code on my forum profile, but if we're solving a business need for a lot of people, it's absolutely worth it to add some documentation and polish for the code share.
Thanks for the comprehensive response Nick. I'd definitely be interested in seeing the code - our finance team could definitely use a utility like the one you've outlined.
Hi all,
Sorry for the delay -- just pushed my utility up to the Bitbucket share:
https://bitbucket.org/TN_WebShare/posting-report-batch-utility
If you don't yet have access to that team, you'll need to create an account for yourself on bitbucket.org and then send an email to web_dev@tessituranetwork.com with your account name so they can grant you access. I've included what I think is a descriptive readme on installation and usage.