SIMS corrupt report template

[TimH]

Have tried supportnet and they say they've never been able to produce what I'm about to describe there, actually, might as well paste what I asked...

 

Has anyone else had the same problem ?

 

TIA tim

 

More a case of information than solution, I am aware of KB59311 which just says start again.

 

I have a (fairly trivial) report which when revisiting now gives the unable to load reportform.rtf error, it worked fine when last used. Nobody has changed the report, I can find the linked template document on the document server, which still has a modified date of when I created the report, i.e. Windows file system says it's the same file.

 

The only thing that has happened in between is that we have applied the latest update (Autumn 2009?). Is there any way that either the update could have damaged the file (no change in modified date though) or that the current version of SIMS.net is unable to decrypt whatever encryption was used on the document server file when created ?

 

(This is an aside to frequently losing reports when using "Save As" to create a public copy of a privately created report, despite saving at each stage SIMS loses track of the template - there really does need to be a global report manager tool in SIMS, changing private to public should be a trivial tweak in the database.)

[Sivadam]

Some time ago I worked very closely with one of the Capita staff to replicate this scenario and did demonstrate that it exists. If one of the fields in the Report is modified by an Upgrade then you can get the problem. A further issue comes when somebody edits an RTF Template when duplicating/cloning a Report i.e. they are using your report to produce another similar one.

 

The trick is to export the original Report to Backup Folder. Then do the editing of the original Report and a 'Save As'. The original report will then have lost it's original Template. You then just re-import it back in again from your Backup Folder and then do another 'Save As' to convert it back from an imported Report to your own. Then fianlly delete the imported report. I always keep duplicate reports as private because there are a number of staff who do edit reports and break them as a result of the issue. I can then easily re-instate them.

When I am experimenting with an RTF Report I always 'Save As' with the result that there are many variations of the same report, which I then delete off when I have got the report to my satisfaction.

Edited March 5, 2010 by Sivadam

[TimH]

A further issue comes when somebody edits an RTF Template when duplicating/cloning a Report i.e. they are using your report to produce another similar one.

 

Thanks, yep, I didn't think it was this but it was.

 

I donned my Poirot hat, had a rummage in a backup of the database and found a newer report with a similar name to mine, it was private so I hadn't seen it in live SIMS. I made it public, had a look and the report title was exactly the wording of my original.

 

 

The trick is to export the original Report to Backup Folder. Then do the editing of the original Report and a 'Save As'. The original report will then have lost it's original Template. You then just re-import it back in again from your Backup Folder

 

Trouble is that we are trying to encourage people to create their own reports, SIMs allows us to break reports but provides no tool for managing them, pah !

 

I've tried reproducing the problem, as you say it occurs when doing "Save As" but have failed, I've tried to be oh so careful, save close, reopen etc. when creating clones and *have* had the problem, ho hum.

 

tim

[Sivadam]

Personally, I do not want Capita to waste resources on sorting this now being as a new Reporting Engine is on the horizon. As long as the guidelines above are followed then we can get round the issues!

[TimH]

Personally, I do not want Capita to waste resources on sorting this now being as a new Reporting Engine is on the horizon. As long as the guidelines above are followed then we can get round the issues!

 

It's just a shame that we have to work around the issue, being new to SIMS I'd hoped they'd not have such problems that need working around !

 

I'd seen mention of new reporting, any idea on a time scale, I was told nothing drastically new when I queried with Capita/SIMS - unless they misinterpreted my question.

 

tim

[Sivadam]

The New Reporting based on SQL Server 2008 was originally scheduled for this March but it appears to have now disappeared off the Roadmap!

So now I do not know the timescale.