Creating a Hyperlink to a Crystal Report

You can create hyperlinks to Crystal Reports. This is useful when you need a Mimic to provide access to information that is stored in a report, such as statistics.

To create a hyperlink to a Crystal Report:

1. Display the Mimic that is to contain the new hyperlink. You need to display the Mimic in Design mode (see Displaying a Mimic).
2. Use the Pick Action Wizard to create a hyperlink to the Crystal Report:
   1. Set the pick action to Hyperlink then select the Next button.
   2. In the URL field, select the browse button then select the Link to Object option.
   3. Use the browser window to select the required Crystal Report item.
   4. Adjust the entry in the URL field as follows:

      For the latest report, add the following to the end of the URL entry:

      ?latest


      For a report generated on a specific date, add the following to the end of the URL entry:

      ?file=<date> <time>

      

      Where:

      <date> is the date on which the report was generated and has to use the following format:

      dd/MM/yyyy

      <time> is the time at which the report was generated. The <time> has to be in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and has to use the following syntax:

      HH/mm/ss.SSS

      

      Do not enter the angle brackets < >. You need to use the forward slash character instead of the colon character when separating the time elements.

      NOTE: The time and date hyperlink can only be used if the Crystal Report has Historic enabled in its configuration. If Historic is not enabled, the Mimic can only contain a hyperlink to the latest report.

      Example:

      If the Crystal Report item was named 'Electricity Usage' and the latest report was required, the URL would be set to:

      • SCX:////CCrystalReport/Electricity Usage?latest

      This would create a hyperlink to the most recently generated report for the 'Electricity Usage' Crystal Report.

      If the user required a report that was generated at 10:16:35 on November 1st 2006, the URL would be set to:

      • SCX:////CCrystalReport/Electricity Usage?file=01/11/2006 10/16/35
   5. Proceed through the remaining steps of the Pick Action Wizard (see Using the Pick Action Wizard to Create a Hyperlink).
3. Save the Mimic.

You can also configure a hyperlink to a Crystal Report by using the animations feature (see Using Animations to Create a Hyperlink). To do this:

1. Enter the URL as the value for the 'trigger' object's PickParam property (as described in step iv in the procedure above).
2. Enter the PickType number that corresponds to the type of hyperlink you require. The numbers and types of hyperlink are explained in Using Animations to Create a Hyperlink.

Further Information

Time Zone Settings: see Time Zone Support in ClearSCADA in the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration.