SIMS Report with Current Date Report with Current Date

[kerlj001]

Hi,

Does anyone know a way of automatically inserting today's date into a SIMS report filter of a scheduled report?

Also, can the predefined reports (those below create & build) be run via commandreporter.exe? My Local Support say both are not possible and wont be until schools move to SQL 2008 which wont happen until 2010!!!

If correct, this is quite unacceptable and I feel a move to CMIS or a.n other MIS as SIMS is sadly falling out-of-touch with what we need to be able to do with OUR data!

Thoughts please (Phil)?
Jody

[PhilNeal]

PreDefined Reports can be run via the commandreporter.exe.

I'm told that some reports require runtime parameters which will have to be provided as a string or in an input filename parameter as part of the command line.

The report generator is extremely powerful and I would recommend asking on SupportNet as you will find there are many experts on the SIMS Report Generator that are willing to assist.

You could also ask your support team to log a specific question and that way it will find its way to an expert.

[kerlj001]

PreDefined Reports can be run via the commandreporter.exe.

I'm told that some reports require runtime parameters which will have to be provided as a string or in an input filename parameter as part of the command line.

The report generator is extremely powerful and I would recommend asking on SupportNet as you will find there are many experts on the SIMS Report Generator that are willing to assist.

You could also ask your support team to log a specific question and that way it will find its way to an expert.

Thanks for that Phil.

My support team said it couldn't be done. Can we not have some official documentation please?

Jody

[ben]

Here is a way I found to do this:

First run CommandReporter with the /PARAMDEF switch to find out the parameter ID and subreportfilter

commandreporter /user:username /password:password /report:"reportName" /paramdef

• Parameter id - will look something like this: Ve6cDUFcKeKRuIB/nxAf9w==
• subreportfilter - will be either True or False

This information can then be used in a (very long) command line to run the report

I use Windows PowerShell to do this, because it has the get-date cmdlet which makes it easy to get the current date in a format that CommandReporter understands.


$a = (get-date).tostring('s')
commandreporter /user:username /password:password report:"reportName" /PARAMS:"<?xml version ='1.0' encoding= 'utf-8'?><ReportParameters><Parameter id='Ve6cDUFcKeKRuIB/nxAf9w==' subreportfilter='True'><Values><Date>$a</Date></Values></Parameter></ReportParameters>" /output:"c:\test.csv"


Obviously replace the green text with your own values.

[PhilNeal]

Your support unit can request a copy of the manual for you.

[PhilNeal]

Someone has pointed out to me that the documentation is actually available on EduGeek at

SIMS 3rd Party Access Documentation

[kerlj001]

Hiya

None of our custom made reports give the details:

• Parameter id - will look something like this: Ve6cDUFcKeKRuIB/nxAf9w==
• subreportfilter - will be either True or False

CES Reports do? Any ideas people?

TIA

Here is a way I found to do this:

First run CommandReporter with the /PARAMDEF switch to find out the parameter ID and subreportfilter

commandreporter /user:username /password:password /report:"reportName" /paramdef

• Parameter id - will look something like this: Ve6cDUFcKeKRuIB/nxAf9w==
• subreportfilter - will be either True or False

This information can then be used in a (very long) command line to run the report

I use Windows PowerShell to do this, because it has the get-date cmdlet which makes it easy to get the current date in a format that CommandReporter understands.


$a = (get-date).tostring('s')
commandreporter /user:username /password:password report:"reportName" /PARAMS:"<?xml version ='1.0' encoding= 'utf-8'?><ReportParameters><Parameter id='Ve6cDUFcKeKRuIB/nxAf9w==' subreportfilter='True'><Values><Date>$a</Date></Values></Parameter></ReportParameters>" /output:"c:\test.csv"


Obviously replace the green text with your own values.

[ben]

Not sure

I have used this method successfully with custom reports made in Report Designer.

A couple of things to check:

• In Report Designer, under your filter, make sure "Prompt at runtime" is ticked
• Does the user specified in the /user parameter belong to SIMS group(s) that have access to the data you're trying to export? (There is a "SIMS permissions spreadsheet" showing which groups can access which information.)
• What output does CommandReporter produce when it is run with the /paramdef switch? Does it display an error message?

Hope this helps

[Mcshammer_dj]

Phil is it possible to run any of the specific module reports from command line? I like the look of the attendance reports and would like to use then scheduled to allow for schools that are using online attendance, but can't easily see a way of doing this as the advise states that the report must be in a the favorite of the user named to run the report