Creating a transmittal sheet report definition
A transmittal or submittal usually includes a transmittal sheet that lists the documents that are being sent, their revision numbers, and other information. The typical transmittal sheet also lists the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of the sending and receiving parties. The sender of a transmittal may include a message or instructions on the transmittal sheet that describe the purpose of the transmittal, a response request, and sometimes, a due date.
Meridian Transmittal Management Module transmittal sheets can be generated by two methods:
- Standard Meridian Enterprise report definitions
- An external reporting application, such as Microsoft Reporting Services
Both methods are associated with the briefcase templates that are used by the transmittal and submittal document types.
To create a transmittal sheet report definition:
- If you want to use a standard Meridian Enterprise report definition, create a report definition in Configurator as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise Configuration Guide. The report definition should include all of the properties that you want to appear on the transmittal sheet for each document contained in the transmittal or submittal. Test and refine the report definition with sample vault documents until you are satisfied with the results before proceeding.
Or
- If you want to use an external reporting application, create a report in that application using the data in the transmittal database. The report definition should include all of the properties that you want to appear on the transmittal sheet for each document contained in the transmittal or submittal. Test and refine the report definition until you are satisfied with the results before proceeding below to configure the report definition to be used automatically by the briefcase template.
Then proceed:
- Open Configurator, expand Environment in the left pane, and select Application Link Settings. The Application Link Settings pages appear in the right pane.
- Select the Briefcases page. The Briefcases configuration settings appear.
- Click the Edit button to modify the settings.
- In the [Settings] section at the top of the page, locate the name of the briefcase template used by your transmittal or submittal document type. The name should appear in the BriefcaseTemplates setting, similar to ContractorBrc in the following example.
[Settings]
; Lists all the BriefCase templates in the INI file
BriefcaseTemplates=ContractorZip,ContractorRar,ContractorBrc,ContractorFolder,ClientZip
If your template is not listed, append its name to the end of the list after a comma.
- Below the Templates definitions header, locate the group of settings for your briefcase template, similar to [ContractorBrc] in the following example.
[ContractorBrc]
Name=Contractor's brc
Settings=OutgoingSubContractor 'brc - predefined format to use .brc file
Format=brc
If no section for your template exists, create the settings in the Templates definitions section of the page.
This group of settings configures the options described in the following table.
Template definition settings
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Name
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The name of the template as it should appear to users in the list of available briefcase templates.
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Settings
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The name of a group of settings listed in the Settings definitions section of the page, which further defines the characteristics of this template.
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Format
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The name of the briefcase format defined in the Formats definitions section of the page to use for this template.
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- Below the Settings definitions header, locate the settings group that corresponds to the value of Settings found above, such as [OutgoingSubContractor] in the following example.
[OutgoingSubContractor]
;Transmittals
OutgoingDocType=Transmittal
OutgoingReport=TransmittalList
RefreshOnAdd=Y
;PropertyMappings
Custom.Title = Title,WO
Custom.Comments = Comments,RW
If a settings group for your template does not exist, create the settings in the Settings definitions section of the page.
This group of settings configures the options described in the following table.
Template settings
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OutgoingDocType
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The name of the document type to assign to the transmittal report. If this setting is cleared, the report will not be imported into the vault as an independent document.
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OutgoingReport
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A VBScript expression that specifies the name of an Meridian Enterprise report definition (for example, TransmittalList above) or the URL of a custom external reporting application that includes any parameters that the application requires. For example, the following URL generates a transmittal sheet using a custom Microsoft Reporting Services report project by retrieving transmittal data from the transmittal database for the selected document:
"http://<ReportServerName>/<ReportServerVirtualFolder>?/
Report/Transmittal&rs:Command=Render&rs:Format=Excel&Vault=
"+Vault.Path+"&Transmittal="+Mid(Document.GlobalID,2,36)"
|
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RefreshOnChange
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If this setting is Y, the transmittal sheet is rebuilt whenever changes to the contents of the briefcase occur. If this setting is N, the transmittal sheet is not rebuilt.
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ReportFormat
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This setting can be specified in one of three ways:
- If the transmittal sheet should use the format of the Meridian Enterprise report definition specified in OutgoingReport, type the report definition name.
- If OutgoingReport specifies a URL, type URLReport.
- Type XLS, MDB, or TXT to use one of those formats.
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<PropertySet.PropertyName>=
<BriefcaseProperty>,<Attributes>
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Document property values to add as briefcase properties, where <PropertySet.PropertyName> is the name of a document property value to add and <BriefcaseProperty> is the name of the corresponding briefcase property. <Attributes> defines the directionality of the data exchange between the vault and the briefcase:
RO = Read Only
WO = Write Only
RW = Read/Write
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- Set RefreshOnChange to your preference.
- Click OK to save your changes.
- Test your transmittal sheet report by creating a transmittal sheet as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Transmittal Management Module User's Guide.