Creation and distribution PDF reports

PDF reports can be created and delivered in several different ways, as described as follows: 

• Manually creating PDF reports—The operator can click the Reports > PDF screen, click a Report link, and then create the PDF report that can then be downloaded to a computer system or viewed directly in PDF capable web browsers. This furnishes a method to easily specify a non-standard reporting interval: start date, span days, or summary mode.

• E-Mailing PDF reports—The administrator can configure the Reports > E-Mail facility to e-mail PDF reports (possibly in compressed format) in a fashion identical to other types of reports. In this case, the reports are e-mailed at the scheduled interval at midnight, either Daily, Weekly or Monthly.

• Distributing PDF reports using RSS—The administrator can specify the Publish RSS function for individual reports (using the AddNew or Edit screens of the PDF facility) necessary to distribute reports using standard RSS. This furnishes a method for users to collect reports using an RSS aggregator without relying on e-mail.

  Example

  Modern Microsoft Outlook browsers can be configured with RSS feeds that permit easy access to PDF reports. 

• Creating reports using the CReptPDF command-line utility—As a special API to the report generator, a PDF report can be generated at a command-line using the cli-bin\CReptPDF.exe program. This program is a standard BMC Defender utility that can be executed in a batch file in order to create a PDF report and save it to the disk. This supports batch file programming of reports and distribution systems. More information on command-line utilities is available from documentation available at each BMC Defender Server installation.

Each of the preceding techniques can be used to generate and distribute PDF reports.