Organizing the Web Desktop


There are many ways to organize and view folders and their associated reports in the Web Desktop. Not only will CE security determine what folders and objects you can and cannot see, but there are different ways of displaying those folders and objects that you can see.

The Favorites Folder

As discussed briefly earlier in the chapter, a special folder is created for each Crystal Enterprise user when that user is initially defined. This Favorites folder is viewable only by you (and system administrators). This is in contrast to the Home view, which shows all public top- level folders on the CMS (depending on your security settings, you will only see certain top-level folders).

When you log on with your own user ID, you may see the set of top-level CMS folders, or your Favorites folder (you can make the choice in General Preferences). The Favorites folder is a personal, customizable view of folders and reports. You can alternate between your Favorites folder and general CMS folders by clicking them in the Folder Navigation Tree at the top of the Web Desktop. The Organize function in the Web Desktop is used to customize the contents of the Favorites folder, adding your own folders and copying other folders and existing reports into your Favorites folder for easy access (your CE administrator may also customize your Favorites folder for you).

Using the Organize Function

The Organize function allows you to create folders within your own Favorites folder on the Web Desktop. You can create folders to hold objects, and you can store copies of objects or object shortcuts (links) in those folders, in whatever organizational structure you prefer. You may also use the Organize function to organize other folders on the CMS.

Once you ve logged in to the Web Desktop with your own user ID (you cannot use the Guest account), click the Organize button in the toolbar to start the Organize function. The Organize Folders dialog box will appear.

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The top drop-down list on the dialog displays the CMS s top-level folders, including your individual Favorites folder. Below is a list box showing all subfolders and objects contained in the currently selected folder. To control how you want to organize your desktop, you may select folders or objects in this list. As with many other Web Desktop lists, you can CTRL-click or SHIFT-click to select multiple folders or objects within the list.

Once you ve selected folders or objects in the list, use buttons to the right of the object list:

  • Expand Expands the selected folder in the list, showing any subfolders and objects contained within it. The folder you expanded is displayed in the drop- down list at the top of the dialog.

  • Copy To Copies the selected folder or object to a new location on the CMS.

  • Move To Moves the selected objects or folders to a different folder.

  • Shortcut Creates a shortcut, or link, to the selected object in another folder (you can t create a shortcut to another folder).

  • Rename Renames the selected folder or object.

  • Delete Deletes the selected folder or object.

In order to activate the action buttons, you have to select a folder or object first. Depending on what you have selected (a folder or object), or whether you have multi-selected folders or objects, some buttons may be disabled. When you click a button, a dialog box prompts you for complete information on the action you wish to take. For example, if you choose to move an object or folder, the dialog box will prompt you for the destination folder to place the objects in.

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Note  

Your CE administrator may have limited the right to create, modify, or delete folders or objects on the CMS. If you are unable to perform actions that you need, contact the administrator for assistance.

You can navigate through the folders by double-clicking a folder to open it, by clicking a folder and clicking Expand, by selecting another folder from the drop-down box, or by clicking the Up-Folder button at the top of the dialog. When you see the object or folder you want, select it and then click the desired action button to the right.

Creating New Folders

The first thing you ll initially want to consider when organizing your Favorites folder is whether you wish to create your own folder structure within it. You may want to create a few folders to hold different categories of reports for logical access. To create a new folder within the Favorites folder (known as a subfolder ), select the Favorites folder in the drop-down list. Then, click the New Folder button to the right side of the drop-down list. The Add New Folder dialog box is displayed.

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Type the desired folder name in the text box and click the Add button. The folder is added to whichever folder is currently selected in the drop-down list. If the resulting folder ends up being created in the wrong location, use the Move function to adjust it.

Deleting Folders and Objects

If you determine that you no longer need a particular folder or object, select it (or multi-select items) and click the Delete button. A confirmation dialog will appear before the folder is actually deleted.

If you delete a report or program object, all related instances will be deleted along with it. If you delete a folder, all objects in the folder, and their instances, will be deleted. Deleting objects or folders is a permanent action ”there is no Undo capability. Therefore, you ll want to make sure you really want to delete items before doing so. Also, you ll want to ensure that your Crystal Enterprise administrator has a reasonable backup plan in place to restore items that may be deleted by mistake.

Creating Shortcuts

The whole purpose of the Favorites folder is to organize your individual reports and objects into an efficient organization just for you. Once you ve created folders in which to store them, you may copy or move reports or other objects from other folders on the CMS.

While you could use the Copy function to copy the entire object to your Favorites folder from another folder, you will be taking up extra space on the CE servers to keep both copies of the same object. Furthermore, if the originator of the first object in the original folder changes the object (maybe they update a source report), those changes won t be reflected in the copy you ve made to your Favorites folder.

Crystal Enterprise provides a much better way to deal with this situation. The Shortcut option creates a shortcut, or link, to the original object. When you schedule the shortcut, the instances you create are accessible in the History lists in the original folder where the object is located. And when other users schedule the object, you will see those instances in the History list within your Favorites folder. Much as with Windows itself, a Web Desktop shortcut is merely a pointer to the source object in another location.

To create a shortcut, select the source object in the original location and click the Shortcut button. A dialog similar to the Copy and Move dialog boxes appears. On the right side, select the folder where you wish to have the shortcut placed, and click the Link To button on the lower-left side.

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The new shortcut will be created in the destination folder with the words Shortcut to preceding the object name. Remember that if you later organize the destination folder, you can safely delete the Shortcut to object without deleting the original object in the original folder.

Note  

While the Organize function allows you to create and delete folders and objects, as well as copying and moving objects from other locations, you cannot add new objects to the Web Desktop. This must be done with other tools that are not part of the Web Desktop. Chapter 26 contains complete information on adding objects with the Crystal Management Console, Crystal Reports, the Crystal Publishing Wizard, or the Import Wizard.




Crystal Reports 10
Crystal Reports 10: The Complete Reference
ISBN: B005DI80VA
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 223
Authors: George Peck

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