ReportWorks and Windows Vista

ReportWorks Version 12.1 release is supported on both Vista Home and Vista Business.

We have tested ReportWorks Version 12.1 under both Vista Home and Business 32 bit versions and have found no significant problems that should prevent ReportWorks from operating in these Vista environments.

The notes below describe solutions to several issues that Vista users may encounter while trying to install or run ReportWorks along with information on how ReportWorks interacts with the operating system environment.

Our technical support department is available to answer any additional questions or concerns that you might have in configuring ReportWorks under Vista.

System requirements

Any machine that is capable of running Vista will support the minimum system requirements to run ReportWorks. The only additional requirement for ReportWorks is an default printer so that reports may be previewed and printed. We are not currently aware of any printers or display devices that will not work with ReportWorks under Vista.

Installation

Both workstation and server installations of ReportWorks are supported under Vista.  When you run SETUP.EXE, Vista's user account control will warn you that "An unidentified program wants access to your computer" and will show the publisher as an unidentified publisher. You can safely choose to run the program. The installer will allow you to perform a typical or a custom install where you can select individual components. You can also select the folder where the program will be installed. If you are not an administrator, the installer will prompt you to log in with an administrator account to complete the installation. Once the install completes, you will be able to run ReportWorks under your normal user account.

Folder and file permissions

To execute the Report Designer (RRW.EXE/RSW.EXE) write privileges to the file RRW.LIC/RSW.LIC that is in the ReportWorks program folder are required. If the Report Librarian or Data Dictionary is active, Report Designer will update files in the \RL subfolder.

PDF Printer Driver

The Amyuni printer (R&R PDF Export)  that ships with ReportWorks is an earlier version of that driver and is not compatible with Vista. To disable this driver you can either remove or rename the file CDINTF.DLL or you can add the line PDFDRIVER=0 to the [DEFAULTS] section of your RRW.INI and RSW.INI file. There are a variety of alternative low cost PDF printer drivers that are available (such as Pdf995) for use on Windows Vista machines.

If you do not disable the driver, when you exit the Report Designer you will get a Program Compatibility Assistant error stating "Windows Detected that this program did not run correctly". Vista will then set the appropriate compatibility behind the scenes and the next time you run Report Designer, you should not see this error again.

INI files

ReportWorks uses INI files to set the working enviroment. The ReportWorks setup program initially creates an INI file in the root system folder on the install machine for both the Xbase (RRW.INI) and the SQL (RSW.INI) versions. Vista then automatically makes copy of the INI in the folder:

\ users\{USERNAME}\appdata\local\virtualstore\windows

for the current user. It is this user version of the INI file that is used by ReportWorks. Users can view and edit these local INI files to change default file locations and behavior. More information on INI files can be found in Appendix B of the ReportWorks User Guide.

Temp Files

ReportWorks creates a number of different temp files. Temp file may be required if your report contains sorts, totals or Flexlink indexing. If the Data Dictionary or Report Librarian is active, temporary files are also written to the temp folder and to the \RL folder. Under Vista, temp files are found in the folder:

 \ users\{USERNAME}\appdata\local\TEMP

Help Files

The help files that ship with R&R use .HLP help files. Starting with Vista, Microsoft no longer includes WinHlp32.exe. To view our on line help files, Vista users can download WinHLP32.exe from the Microsoft website. The full text of our help is also available in PDF format on the R&R installation CD.

Data Dictionary

The ReportWorks Data Dictionary program works behind the scenes to archive data file information as you work within the Report Designer. There is currently an issue in the dictionary update routines that prevents dictionary field and index information from being updated. We are currently working to find and address the cause of this problem.

FlexLink indexing

FlexLink indexing allows reports to build indexes on the fly when required. Reports using Flexlink indexing may be run from both the Report Designer and from runtime. Flexlink indexing is performed by the executable file FASTIDX.EXE. Should you receive an error that says that FASTIDX.EXE has stopped working, verify that the file msvcr70.dll is available on the machine. You can place this file in the same folder as FASTIDX.EXE to ensure that it can be found.

Last updated on 03/05/2008 01:28:36 PM