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Applying Dynamic Names for Published Report Files
This topic describes how you can use dynamic file names and dynamic directory paths to save report outputs when you publish reports to disk or to email.
If you schedule to publish a report periodically with a fixed name, then Server only keeps the last generated report output. To save the output generated every time, you need to use a dynamic file name. Similarly, you can use a dynamic directory path to avoid report management difficulties, since for a fixed directory path too many outputs might be generated in a single folder.
Server provides you with the following defined strings to form a dynamic name:
Naming rules
- The defined strings are case-sensitive.
- You must enclose defined strings by square brackets ([ ]) which must appear in pairs, for example, [yyyy].
If the string is not a defined string but enclosed by square brackets, Server will display an error message. For example, if you use myHTMLResult_[yy]$[YYYY][MM]M[dd]D[ABCD] $name$cls[cls].html as the report file name, you will get an error message saying Invalid file name, since ABCD is not defined, but appears in square brackets.
- You should never use square brackets to enclose strings that are not defined in the preceding table. Strings that are not in square brackets will be directly used as (part of) the file name.
- If you want the square brackets and the strings enclosed by them to appear in the file name exactly as they are, that is, not to be parsed as defined strings, you can add a dollar sign ($) before the string. For example, if the string is $[yyyy], the report file name will be [yyyy], instead of a specific year, such as 2006.
If you want to keep the dollar sign ($) together with the square brackets and the strings, you should add another dollar sign ($). For example, if the string is $$[m], the report file name will be $[m], and if the string is $$$$[m], the report file name will be $$$[m].
- You can use more than one defined string in the dynamic report file name, except for the ordinal number (z), such as [m][name], [yyyy].[MM].[dd], [region][yy].
- You can add characters between different defined strings. For example, if the string is [yy]Year[MM]Month, the result could be 02Year2thMonth.
- The number of digits of the ordinal number is determined by the total number of "z"s. For example, zzz indicates 001, 002, and so on, and zz indicates 01, 02, and so on.
See the following examples of dynamic report file names:
| Sample Name | Report File Name |
|---|---|
| myTXTResult_[yyyy].[MM].[dd].[hh].[mm].[ss].txt | myTXTResult_2003.10.30.05.14.45.txt |
| myTXTResult_[MM-1].[param_pCountry].[param_pDate].[param_pTime].txt | myTxtResult_05.China_USA.29.param_pTime.txt |
| myPDFResult_CT[zone][language][region]my$$[1].pdf | myPDFResult_CTGMT-05.00enUSmy$[1].pdf |
| myRSTResult_[pathcat][CLS].rst | myRSTResult_SampleReports.SampleReports.catEmployee Information List.cls.rst |
| myRSTResult_[zzz].rst | myRSTResult_001.rst, myRSTResult_002.rst, ... |
| myHTMLResult[cat]_[cls]_[zz].html | myHTMLResultSampleReports_Corporate Overview_01.html, myHTMLResultSampleReports_Corporate Overview_02.html,... |
| myHTMLResult_[yy]$[YYYY][MM]M[dd]D$name$cls[cls].html | myHTMLResult_02[YYYY]06M21D$name$clsCorporate Overview.html |
- There are two differences between the naming rules of dynamic report file name and the dynamic directory name:
- Server only supports the string "z" in the naming report file, but not in the naming dynamic directory. For example,
C:\folder[zz]\folderis incorrect because Server does not support the sequence for directory. - Server replaces "/" by "." in the naming report file. However, for naming a dynamic directory, this rule does not apply.
- Server only supports the string "z" in the naming report file, but not in the naming dynamic directory. For example,
- When you publish a report to email, the string "z" is not dynamic. For example, zzz only indicates 001 and zz only indicates 01.