Printing and publishing the WebReports

Optiva reports use IIS. The report is created for a printer associated with the developer’s machine but run on a printer for the web server. Printers on both systems must match. This is especially true when the report requires a custom size for the report, such as a small label format. If the web server does not have the same printer as the report requires, it uses a default printer. The default printer for the web server can be configured with different properties than the printer for the report and the printout is not satisfactory.

This section describes how to configure the printers when non-default settings are required, such as for a small label size.

Adding a custom size printer to the Web server

The developer’s machine can have a custom printer, such as the Zebra brand for labels. Add the custom printer, required by the report, to the web server.

  1. Create a new user account for administrative purposes only on the web server.
  2. Log into the new account on the web server.
  3. Using the Add Printer wizard, add a printer such as the Zebra brand label printer, in addition to the standard 8.5” x 11” printer.

Matching printer names

Crystal saves the name of the printer that the report was built against in the RPT file. At run time, if the exact same name for the printer is not found on the web server, the web server’s default printer is used instead. This can result in unsatisfactory printout results.

If the names on the web server do not match the names in the report:
  1. Log into the web server with the new account.
  2. Open the RPT file with Crystal Reports.
  3. Open the Printer Setup dialog.
  4. Select a printer that matches the RPT file.

Matching the printer preferences

Configure the printer on the web server to use the same printing preferences, such as size, as on the machine where the RPT was developed.
  1. Right-click the printer icon in the Printers list, for example, the Zebra printer.
  2. Select Printing Preferences.
  3. From the Document tab, select the Paper/Output tree node then click on Paper Size.
  4. Select User Defined from the drop-down list from Paper Size.
  5. Click Customize to open the Paper Size Setup dialog.
  6. Specify the page size, such as 2.75" x 1.5".
  7. Click OK until all of the windows are closed.