Printing Crystal Reports on the Server

Anonymous user · ‎2021-06-09

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It is possible to configure the system such that Crystal Reports can be printed by the server either on demand or on a schedule. This is different to selecting the print option in the report, or from the File - Print option in the ViewX menus.

Note that when printing a Crystal Report at the server, the printing always takes place at the Main server.

Configure Windows User Account

Create a Windows user account (or choose an existing Windows user account). You can create a local user or a domain user (if a domain is available). The user account that you create needs to have sufficient privileges to access printers, but does not need any other specific security settings. In fact, on many systems, a user account is created specifically for printing at the server and has very low level security privileges.

If you create a local user account, you will also need to create local user accounts on the other servers in the system (if any).

If you create a domain user account, you can use the same user account on all of the servers in the system.

Log on as the Windows user that you created in step 1.
Add one or more printers to the Windows user account.
Log off as the Windows user and then log on as a Windows user that has administrator level privileges.
Enable the Log On as a Service Privilege for the Windows User Account
Configure the Printing Settings in the Server Configuration Tool
Select or Schedule the Print Report action in ViewX.

The final three steps are described in more detail below.

Enable Log On as a Service

In Windows, run the Local Security Policy applet from the Control Panel (select Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Local Security Policy).

Expand the Local Policies branch, then select the User Rights Assignment group.
Scroll down to the 'Log on as a service' policy, and double-click on it to display the Log on as a service Properties dialog (Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server) or the Local Security Policy Setting dialog (Windows 2000).
If you are using Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server, select the Add User or Group button to display the Select Users or Groups dialog. Proceed to step 5.
If you are using Windows 2000, select the Add button to display the Select Users or Groups dialog. Proceed to step 8.
In the text entry field at the bottom of the Select Users or Groups dialog, enter the first few letters of the Windows user account (that you configured to have access to the printer), then select the Check Names button. Your Windows username should be displayed.
Select the Windows user, then select the OK button. If required, select the OK button again to return to the Group Policy window.
Check that the selected Windows user is shown in the Security Setting column next to the Log on as a service policy, then close the Group Policy window. You can now proceed to Configure the Printing Settings via the Server Configuration Tool. (You do not need to proceed with steps 8 -12 of this procedure).
On the Select Users or Groups dialog, locate the Windows user that that you associated with one or more printers prior to enabling the Log On as Service privilege (if you cannot see the Windows user name in the list, use the Look In combo-box to select the Entire Directory option - the Windows user name should be included in the directory).
Select the Windows user name from the list, then select the Add button. The Windows user name is added to the list at the bottom of the display.
Select the OK button to close the Select Users or Groups dialog and return to the Local Security Policy Setting dialog.
On the Local Security Policy Setting dialog, select the Windows user name and ensure the Local Policy Setting checkbox is ticked. If there is an Effective Policy Setting option, it means the computer is part of an Active Directory domain and an administrator level Windows user needs to allocate the Windows account the Log On as a Service privilege from another computer. Contact an administrator for assistance.
When the Windows user name has the Local Policy Setting checkbox enabled, select the OK button to close the Local Security Policy Setting window. You can now proceed to Configure the Printing Settings via the Server Configuration Tool.

Configure the Printing Settings in the Server Configuration Tool

When you have enabled the Log On as a Service privilege for the Windows user account, you need to configure the printing settings in the Server Configuration Tool:

Run the Server Configuration Tool, and expand the System Configuration branch, then select Printing.
Enter the Windows user name details in the fields on the Printing section (Username, Password, and Domain). The details you enter should be those for the Windows user you configured to have access to the printers.
Close the Server Configuration Tool.
If the server is the Main server, restart the Crystal Reports driver (or restart the server) to put the changes into effect. You do not need to restart any Standby servers.
Repeat this procedure for each server in the system (except any permanent standby servers).

Select or Schedule the Print Report action in ViewX

When you have created a Windows user, added a printer, enabled the Log On as a Service privilege, and configured the printing settings in the Server Configuration Tool, you can use the server to print a Crystal Report. To do this, you need to select the Print Report action or create a schedule that executes the Print Report action at selected times.

The Print Report action is available via the context-sensitive menu that is displayed when you right-click on a Crystal Report item in the Database Bar in ViewX (and is also available from other displays that provide access to the object menus for Crystal Reports).

For information on associating the Print Report action with a schedule, see the schedule documentation in the ClearSCADA Help.

The method you would use in a schedule to print the crystal report is "Print". See the database schema for more information.

Printing a Report from a ViewX Client

If you want to print a previously generated Crystal Report from a ViewX client, all you need to do is display the report and select the File menu then the Print option. Of course, the report can only be printed out if the Windows user account on the ViewX client PC has one or more printers.

When you select the Print option, the standard Windows Print dialog is displayed which you can use to select the printer and define other printing options.

For more information, see the Crystal Reports driver documentation in ClearSCADA Help.

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Printing Crystal Reports on the Server