Report Generation

All reports in roomMaster except two types (HTML Confirmation Letters and RTF Confirmation Letters) are generated by the Clarion Runtimes in the following way  (Standard Reports).

Standard Reports (including ISQL reports)

The system generates each report, PAGE by PAGE, by creating an image of that page as a WMF (Windows Meta File).   There is ONE file per page.

These files/pages are created as cla*.tmp files inside the Users Temp Directory  So, if the report being generated is a 10 page report, there will be 10 temp files in the Users Directory. (cla001.tmp through cla010.tmp)

Once the report finishes being generated, the roomMaster system will preview that report.   When you see the Report Preview inside roomMaster, all you are seeing is simply the system showing you a single image file.  As you hit page up/page down, the print preview screen is just changing from image to image.   When you hit Print, the system then simply prints each image to the printer page by page, dumping each WMF image one at a time.

When you finish that job, (cancel on Print Preview or you print the report to printer) the system then goes out and deletes each of those temp files.

There are many times where these files end up in the TEMP folder, undeleted for a number of reasons.  Mostly say the system freezes after the report is generated, while it is being generated, permissions or whatever.  Over time, there could be hundreds or thousands of these image/pages in the User’s Temp folder. 

Usually when people freeze with reports, this folder has hundreds or thousands of temp files, and the system just gets caught up in itself.   Maybe because one of the temp page names already exists from days or weeks ago, or they now have a limitation/quota on their temp folder, or the harddrive is out of diskspace, or the allocation table for the directory in window has so many files in it, it can’t handle it.   The best thing to do when people have any REPORT issue is to close out of RM, and clean/empty their temp folder, and empty trash. 

Two ways:

1. Manually by (start / run / cmd / set <enter>) and looking at the temp folder, navigating to it, and deleting all in there by DEL *.*
2. Using the Windows Disk Cleanup utility – and taking the option to clean the temp folder.

By default, it’s not checked:

I will make it easier in V16 RMCONFIG to do this as well and have that on my list of things to do. 

You can always add *.TMP files to a users’ Virus Scanning as well.  (*.TPS, *.DAT, *.TCF and *.TMP)  -- remember, if you add RM directory to the exclusion, the TMP files as well as all the backups (tps,dat) will still get scanned.  No issue putting directory AND extension exclusions into their virus detection.

So, report issues, clean this folder and reboot!!

If you see No print preview / report showing:

If a user generates a report and the report  preview is blank (they see nothing), chances are they don’t have permission to write/read to the temp folder, so the WMF image files are not being created or read properly.  That’s not a space issue but more of a permissions issue probably.  Signin as Administrator and show them now that reports work --- and the issue is the Windows User they are signing in as that needs corrections to the TEMP folder.  Sometimes maybe a Cloud Server didn’t give them temp folder permissions.

HTML Confirmation Letter Printing

This does not use any of the WMF/Clarion runtimes, but uses the IE Browser. (Internet Explorer) so any PRINTING issues with HTML confirmation letters, simply install all Windows Updates, put in the latest version of IE in and reboot.   That’s it.

RTF Confirmation Letter Printing

This does not use any of the WMF/Clarion runtimes either, but uses an OCX I wrote in Visual BASIC that is installed by the Active-X controls.   This control is installed into the \windows\system32 folder.   So, any of these issues, the issue is most likely ACTIVE-X controls needing to be installed or permissions to install the OCX into \windows\system32 or permissions to read the OCX in \windows\system32.  The name of the file is IQRTFCtl.ocx – so you can check the permissions.

Remember, RMCONFIG will always show you how the user is signed into that workstation:

Support things to keep in mind and make sure staff is doing:

1. Report printing issues, clear TEMP folder and reboot
2. Freezes during the night audit, it will help for me to see the Dayend Close Results.  As you know, the system always keeps the current and the last Dayend Close results file – so you have TWO days/chances to get me that file.  It is helpful so we can see if it always freezes in the same spot to make roomMaster better.  (iqaudit.log and iqaudit_old.log)
3. Assertion or database errors – JK or KB should get into that system after the issue is resolved (or during) and see if they are running the latest version of SQL Anywhere.  Try and put these clients to the latest version.
4. Sybase database assertion/corruption issues are usually attributed to:
5. Not the latest EBF/Version
6. Not having a UPS on the server (always double check)
7. Not having enough disk-space where .db is
8. Hard-drive physical issues – usually shows up in their Windows Event Log
9. Having Windows Update rebooting the server – V15.59 should resolve this by turning off auto updates automatically.
10. Free/Available Memory (RAM) – as the database keeps having to swap out to disk.  (See “Available Memory” in above screen shot – it should be at least 500MB on all servers, if not far more)

Many issues are resolved by clearing temp folders, putting in latest EBF’s and Windows Updates and rebooting!