About Report Formats and Utilities

On the Options, Report form, under Output List, you may specify which of several lists you want to have displayed in the Format/Utilities list box. You may display the names of report formats from one particular library of Crystal Formats, a set of processes, a Batch file of your own creation, or a set of standard Millennium reporting utilities.

Crystal Formats

Report formats take the raw data in the export worktable and manipulate it into its final output form. Formats are created using the third party software, Crystal Reports. When Millennium is delivered, it includes a large number of standard formats which are used with the standard templates in the construction of report criteria. These were created using Crystal Reports and are stored in a specific Formats (or OracleFormats) directory structure, based on the Millennium standard report libraries: Biographical, Comparison, Daily, Events, Financial, Mailing, Membership, Pledge, and Prospect.

If you are creating a new report from one of the standard report libraries, then the report formats (.rpt files) that are available are those that are specific to the report library that you selected. For example, if you are creating a new report based on a template from the Daily library, then the Crystal formats that are listed in the Format/Utilities list box are all of the formats that are stored in the Formats/Daily (or OracleFormats/Daily) directory.

You can also construct and save your own formats into these same standard directories, or you may save them into a different location. To have available a list of report formats from a location other than the default library location, you must first specify the location by using the Options, Report, Report Path text box. When the Options, Report Form, Output List Crystal radio button is activated, the Format/Utilities list will display the Crystal Formats that are found in that library/directory.

To edit the choice of a Format name and use another Format in the same directory, display the list and click one to choose it. To edit the choice to a Format that is in another library/directory, click the Option, Report menu items and edit the Report Path text box to show the location of the desired directory.

Batch File

The MR provides the means of automatically launching an executable program (a batch file) of your own construction from within the Millennium Reporter. When the Batch File Output List option is activated, the Format/Utilities list in the report form will display a list of all files (regardless of type) from the Report Path location identified via Options, Report, Report Path. While this feature was designed with the expectation that this would be a batch file, it may also list files of other types.

Utilities

When the Utilities Output List option is activated, the Format/Utilities list box will display the names of the standard Millennium utilities that are designed to be launched from the MR, using a generic worktable to identify constituents or specific data rows that should be considered for the action of the utility.