Installation Checklist
The following checklist summarizes the steps to complete the installation of Rock-Pond Information Center, Rock-Pond Connect and load all of the Rock-Pond Reports. Click on a checklist item to see more details of the step.
Installation Checklist
Rock-Pond Information Center
The Information Center is the client application that users will use to find, organize, run, print and export Rock-Pond Reports. It requires direct read-only access to the Rock-Pond Connect (see below) main folder either by utilizing a local path, mapped network drive, or a UNC path.
Rock-Pond Information Center requires .NET 4.0 (Full or Client Profile) to be installed on the target system. In some cases, the .NET 4.0 installation will require a reboot, so you will want to plan this accordingly.
Crystal Reports Runtimes
The Crystal Reports runtimes are required by the Rock-Pond Information Center to run and view the reports. The runtimes install directly onto the system and users won’t know they are there. Each installation of Rock-Pond Information Center will require the Crystal Reports runtimes to be installed.
Rock-Pond Connect
Rock-Pond Connect installs as a Windows Service and is responsible for obtaining report templates and settings from Rock-Pond Solutions. It is centrally installed only once and scheduled to check for new reports and updates on a frequent (usually 15 minutes) basis.
Rock-Pond Connect works simply by comparing your local reports folder (also known as the Rock-Pond Connect Main Folder) to Rock-Pond’s central reports repository. Anything that is different is synchronized to you locally. This happens quickly and consumes only a small amount of bandwidth.
Most people install Rock-Pond Connect on a file server so that the main folder can easily be shared to the clients. Due to Rock-Pond Connect’s efficient design, the system and network resources consumed is minimal.
Users will not require access to Rock-Pond Connect as it is a “back end” component that powers the Information Center. Rock-Pond Connect requires .NET 2.0 to be installed on the target system.
Refer to the following installation requirements page for more information about the system and network requirements for Rock-Pond Connect and Rock-Pond Information Center:
Rock-Pond Information Center was designed to be compatible with a variety of deployment methods:
- Local workstation installation – In this case, Rock-Pond Information Center would be installed on each user’s workstation.
- Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services – In this case, Rock-Pond Information Center would be installed once on a Windows Server where users will launch it either from a remote desktop, or by utilizing “Remote Apps”.
- Citrix Server – In this case, Rock-Pond Information Center would be installed once per Citrix server in the farm, and then published to the users who will require access to run reports.
Regardless of which deployment method is used, the installation is the same. In some cases, depending on your security settings, there may be some additional configuration settings that will need to be defined in the Information Center once it is installed. See the Frequently Asked Questions and the Install Guide for more details.
Before you begin your installation process you will need the following:
- Rock-Pond Connect installation file.
- Rock-Pond Information Center installation file.
- Crystal Reports Runtime installation file.
- Microsoft .Net installation file (if the machines do not have .Net on them already).
- Username and password from Rock-Pond Solutions.
- Printed copy of the Installation Guide.
Complete explanations and the links to download these files are in the Installation Guide. You will receive the username and password via email from Rock-Pond. We recommend you read through this installation checklist completely to understand the process at a high level, download the necessary files and receive the user name and password and then follow the step by step instructions in the installation guide to complete the installation. Feel free to contact us prior to starting the installation if you have any questions or would like a quick review before you begin.
If you are an existing Rock-Pond customer and are performing a fresh install, you’ll want to make sure to remove older version of Rock-Pond’s software, such as DataLink Viewer or first generation versions of Rock-Pond Connect.
If DataLink Viewer is being utilized for other purposes, such as with your pharmacy system’s reports, then it can remain installed and will not conflict with Rock-Pond Information Center.
Determine where you want to install Rock-Pond Connect (we recommend a file server) and how you want it to perform updates (manually or automatically). After installing Rock-Pond Connect, perform an initial update and ensure that the Rock-Pond Connect main folder gets installed properly.
If you want to use automatic updates, install the service and start it once you confirm everything is working properly. The service will start up with the system after a reboot which will ensure that reports are always being kept up to date.
On each system (workstation, terminal server, or citrix server) that will be using the information center, first install the Crystal Reports runtimes, and then the Information Center. Launch the information center as administrator and point it to your Rock-Pond Connect main folder that was setup in checklist item 3. Depending on where this folder exists, you will either specify a local path, a path on a mapped network driver, or a UNC path.
Important Installation Note: If the target system has User Account Control (UAC) enabled, you will need to launch the Information Center using forced administrative privileges before you can configure its settings. This can be done by right-clicking the desktop icon, and choosing “Run as Administrator”. Refer to the installation guide for more information.
After the Rock-Pond Information Center has been installed and pointed to the Rock-Pond Connect main folder, you will need to setup connections to your database where the reports will get the data from. Click the application menu in the top left hand corner, and choose “Connection Manager”. In here, you can setup one or more new connections, or choose existing connections to use.
You must assign a default connection before you run reports. If you want to securely store the username and password for a connection so that it doesn’t ask every time a report is run, click “Save Credentials”. This is only required if Windows Authentication is not being used.
Important Configuration Note: If the target system has User Account Control (UAC) enabled, you will need to launch the Information Center using forced administrative privileges before you can configure its settings. This can be done by right-clicking the desktop icon, and choosing “Run as Administrator”. Refer to the installation guide for more information.
Click on “Rock-Pond Reports” in the explorer bar on the left hand side of the Information Center, and then select “Browse Reports by Category”. Choose a report and double-click it to run. Ensure that the report properly displays.
Common Problem: If you get an error message when you try to launch a report, you may have forgotten to install the Crystal Reports runtimes. Make sure you have completed that installation and try to run the report again.
If you have problems during the installation, review the Frequently Asked Questions on this page. Chances are someone else has already had the same problem. The installation guide is also extremely detailed and is a good place to make sure you didn’t miss an important step. If you can’t find an answer to your question, feel free to give us a call and we’ll make sure you get up and running as quickly as possible.
The following frequently asked question will help answer some of the most commonly asked question relating to the installation and configuration of Rock-Pond Connect and Rock-Pond Information Center. Click on an FAQ to see more details.
Rock-Pond Connect FAQ’s
Installation
Rock-Pond Connect does not require a reboot after it has been installed. The only exception to this would be if you didn’t already have .NET 2.0 installed and the .NET 2.0 installation required a reboot.
Yes, if you have several locations where you would like to house Rock-Pond Connect locally, you may install it at each location and then point each local instance of Rock-Pond Information Center to each local “Main Folder”. This is typically not necessary due to the minimal amount of network traffic taking place between Rock-Pond Connect and Rock-Pond Information Center.
Note: Each instance of Rock-Pond Connect must point to a unique “Main Folder”. Pointing two instances of Rock-Pond Connect to the same “Main Folder” could cause corruption in the file / folder structure.
Rock-Pond Connect is designed to be centrally installed one time on an “always on” server. We recommend that you install Rock-Pond Connect on a file server where you can easily share the folder that it will create and manage to all Rock-Pond Information Center users. Users will not require access to the Rock-Pond Connect application.
Configuration
In order to save the settings, Rock-Pond Connect will first verify that it can make a connection to Rock-Pond’s Internet based servers. If this connection cannot be made, then you will receive an error stating “There was a problem establishing a connection with the Rock-Pond servers.”.
Refer to the Installation Requirements or the Installation Guide for specific information on the network connections that need to be made.
The “Main Folder” is the folder that Rock-Pond Connect will download report templates and settings to. If you are installing Rock-Pond Connect for the first time, you should create a new folder, named whatever you’d like, share it read-only to all clients that will be using Rock-Pond Information Center, and then set the “Main Folder” setting in the Rock-Pond Connect control panel to that path.
The “Main Folder” needs to exist local to the Rock-Pond Connect installation, which means you cannot set the “Main Folder” setting to a mapped network drive path or a UNC path.
Make sure that you have performed at least one manual update by clicking the “Update Now” button in the Rock-Pond Connect control panel prior to starting the Automatic Update Windows Service. This will ensure the folder structure is created so that the Automatic Update Windows Service can automatically maintain it.
If you have already tried this, make sure you have given the “Local System Account” read/write access to the “Main Folder”. This is the account that the Automatic Update Windows Service runs under.
If you are still having trouble starting the Windows service, make sure that you can update manually by clicking “Update Now”. If this is functioning, check the Windows Event Viewer for more detailed system error messages that may be preventing the Automatic Update Windows Service from starting.
You can define advanced network settings that will apply to both Rock-Pond Connect and Rock-Pond Information Center by opening the Rock-Pond Connect control panel, and then choosing “File –> Advanced Network Settings”. This will allow you to define alternate MySQL and SubVersion ports that will be used for connections to Rock-Pond’s Internet based servers.
Yes, the username and password are case sensitive, and should not contain any leading or trailing white space.
The “Update Interval” defines how often Rock-Pond Connect will connect to Rock-Pond and check if reports and settings need to be downloaded or updated. We recommend every 15 minutes as this will ensure that new and modified reports are available to Rock-Pond Information Center users in a reasonable amount of time.
General
Yes, Rock-Pond Connect does not transfer any sensitive information. For this reason connections are unencrypted by default. SSL encryption is available if this requirement exists at your organization, contact Rock-Pond Solutions for more information about this feature.
For each software application you write reports for, you were assigned a report prefix. The report prefix begins with @ and is followed by a two digit number and an underscore. The following are an examples of valid report codes:
@10_1000, @10_1000a, @10_commission
The following are examples of an invalid report code
@1000, @1000a, @commission_reports
If you are unsure of what your assigned report prefixes are, please contact Rock-Pond.
Upgrading
A typical upgrade of Rock-Pond Connect involves:
- Taking note of all settings
- Creating a backup of the “Main Folder”
- Stopping and uninstalling the Automatic Update Windows Service
- Uninstalling the old version of Rock-Pond Connect
- Downloading and installing the new version of Rock-Pond Connect
- Re-applying Rock-Pond Connect’s configuration
- Manually updating to ensure everything is working properly
- Installing and starting the Automatic Update Windows Service
In some cases, the upgrade of Rock-Pond Connect might require coordination with Rock-Pond Solutions, so be sure to check the specific upgrade notes for the specific version you are updating to.
Rock-Pond Connect is a stable product that doesn’t require releases very often. Our main goal in the development of this software is for it to maintain a small footprint, consume a minimal amount of resources, and never fail to keep you up to date with the latest Rock-Pond Reports collection. Occasionaly, Rock-Pond may find ways to further meet these goals and a new release would be published for you to download and upgrade to.
Rock-Pond Information Center FAQ’s
Installation
If your network does not meet the requirements of the Information Center, or your Internet connection could not establish a connection to Rock-Pond Solutions, you will see this errror. At this point, you will be unable to search for or browse the Rock-Pond Reports library.
Refer to the “Network Requirements” section on the Installation Requirements page for detailed information.
Once you have ensured that your network meets the requirements, restart the Information Center and determine if this problem still exists.
There is no specific requirement for one or the other to be installed first. If you forget to install the Crystal Reports runtime, the viewer will crash when attempting to run a report.
Rock-Pond Information Center itself doesn’t require a reboot, and neither does the Crystal Reports run times, but on occasion, the installation of .NET 4.0 will require a reboot. For this reason, we suggest that you plan accordingly when installing on a server that does not already have .NET 4.0 installed.
The answer to this question is based entirely on the types of deployment methods you currently have available to you. Rock-Pond Information Center is compatible with a variety of deployment method. Refer to the following step in the installation checklist to read about your options:
Step 3 – Determine Where Rock-Pond Information Center Will Be Installed.
Configuration
When the Information Center is started, the “Customer Resource Center” is loaded. The Customer Resource Center is an embedded web page that is only accessible from within the Information Center. If your network has a web proxy in place that requires user authentication, y0u will need to configure this in the settings screen under the “Proxy Settings” tab. This will allow you to enter the web proxy’s credentials so that the Information Center does not prompt the user each time it starts.
Yes, if a connection is setup to use “SQL Server Authentication” and you don’t want to force the user to enter the credentials each time they run a report, then you can save the connection’s credentials in the “Connection Manager”. Simply select the connection and click the button labeled “Save Credentials”.
Credentials are saved in an encrypted format.
This happens when you either select a folder that wasn’t created using Rock-Pond Connect, or you configured Rock-Pond Connect and haven’t performed at least one update. Make sure you Rock-Pond Connect “Main Folder” is up to date, and you are pointing the Information Center to this same folder.
Enabling “Safe Mode” in the settings screen accomplishes two things:
- Removes the user’s ability to configure the Information Center’s settings, connections, and prevents the user from accessing the in-application update feature.
- Causes the Information Center to operate under the assumption that limited system access is available, therefore no registry functions are performed.
There are 3 scenarios in which you would want to enable “Safe Mode”:
- If User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, “Safe Mode” must be enabled.
- If the Information Center is deployed centrally on a Terminal Server or Citrix Server, enabling “Safe Mode” prevents users from tampering with the application’s configuration.
- If the user has limited access to their workstation, or you want to prevent the user from tampering with the application’s configuration.
Once “Safe Mode” has been enabled, it can be disabled by launching the information center with the “/admin” switch in the shortcut or using the command line, then disabling “Safe Mode” in the settings screen.
When the Information Center launches, it checks the registry to make sure that specific settings are in place that the application requires to run. In some environments, registry access may be limited. The following two scenarios are most likely causing this issue:
User Account Control (UAC)
If User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, the Information Center must be configured using administrative privileges. To do this, hold down the “Shift” key, right-click the desktop icon, and choose “Run as Administrator”. Configure the connections, and any other settings while in administrative mode, then enable “Safe Mode” in the settings screen. “Safe Mode” must be enabled if User Account Control (UAC) is enabled.
Limited Registry Access (Usually Terminal Services / Citrix Server)
If the user running the Information Center has limited access to the registry, you will need to configure the Information Center using administrative privileges. Once the Information Center has been fully configured, enable “Safe Mode” in the settings screen. This will ensure that the Information Center understands that there is limited access and will account for this scenario.
As of Rock-Pond Information Center 2.0.2.1, you now have the option to specify where you would like user data to be stored. User data consists of default report views, user-defined views, and report history for use in the “Recently Run Reports” menu within the Information Center.
The default location is the users’ Documents folder. To specify an alternate location, access the Settings screen. Under the “General” tab, change the “User Data Storage Location” to “Other” and then click the browse button and select the location you wish to have user data stored in. The setting does not take effect until the Information Center is restarted. If multiple users are accessing a centralized installation, then each user would need to restart.
When choosing an alternate location, it should be a location that is specific to the user. For example, if each user has a mapped network drive H: that is specific to them, then you would set the alternate location to H:. Each user would then have their own “H:\Rock-Pond Information Center” folder and would be able to maintain their own report views. The “Rock-Pond Information Center” folder and its sub-directories will automatically be created by the Information Center if it doesn’t already exist.
If you are making this change in an environment where users have already created report views, then you will need to manually copy their “Rock-Pond Information Center” folder from their Documents folder to the new location. Specifying an alternate location will not automatically copy their old data into the new location.
General
The default connection is used any time you simply double-click a report to run. If more than one connection is setup, you would specify the connection to be used by default when a user double-clicks a report. Other connections can be accessed by right-clicking the report, choosing “Run” and then selecting the connection.
To set a connection as default, open the Connection Manager, select the connection, and click the button labeled “Set As Default”.
If you have access to multiple applications, there must be a default connection assigned for each application you have connections setup for.
This is usually caused by having forgotten to install the Crystal Reports runtimes during the installation of the Information Center, or having installed the wrong version of the Crystal Reports runtimes. Refer to the installation checklist and installation guide to make sure you’ve installed each required component.
When a report is run it is displayed on the screen formatted for the default printer. In the image below, the default printer is a label printer which results in the report being cut off.
To resolve this, change your default to an 8 1/2 x 11 printer. An easy way to do this without exiting the Rock-Pond Information Center is to start to print the report. When you see the list of printers you’ll see that the default printer is a label printer. Find the printer you want it to go to. Right-click on this printer and set it to the default. DO NOT PRINT FROM HERE without refreshing the screen image or it will be cut off on the printed copy as well. Cancel out, rerun the report and it will look correct.
This is a common problem when you are accessing the Rock-Pond Information Center via Citrix or a Terminal Server. You may have to ask your IT staff to reset the defaults on your Citrix or Terminal server so you do not have to do this again.
One of the great features of the Rock-Pond Information Center is that you can run any report against any data source that is set up as a connection in your application. When the data sources (connections) are set up, a default connection is defined. This is the data source that is used when you double-click on the report name. If you right-click on the report name you will be able to choose which data source you want to run the report against. If you don’t see the connection you are looking for, contact your system administrator and have them set it up for you.
This is very useful when you want to run reports against a reporting data base, a month or year end backup, a testing database you are using to test out a new software release or a training database.
Citrix / Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services
The current version of the Crystal Reports runtimes has an issue that will prevent reports from being run if your system drive is not the typical “C” drive. This is usually the case on Citrix servers where typically the system drive is something like “M”. Apply the following registry setting and restart the Information Center to resolve this issue:
32-bit Operating Systems
- Using regedit, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Report Application Server\InprocServer\LocalConnectionMgr
- Add a new string value named “ReportDirectoryPath” and set it to your system drive letter (I.E. M:\)
64-bit Operating Systems
- Using regedit, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Report Application Server\InprocServer\LocalConnectionMgr
- Add a new string value named “ReportDirectoryPath” and set it to your system drive letter (I.E. M:\)
Each Citrix server in the farm must get a full installation and configuration of the Information Center. This includes Rock-Pond Information Center, the Crystal Reports runtimes, and all settings and connections to be setup. This will ensure that the Information Center is fully operational regardless of which server is accessed when a user launches it.
In addition, the user’s “My Reports” index and all user-defined “Views” are stored in their “Documents” environment variable. If their Citrix profile isn’t set to a centralized “Documents” folder, then they would have different views depending on which server is access when a user launches the Information Center. Generally, roaming profiles or folder redirection is in place to solve this issue on multi-server Citrix farms.
Upgrading
Rock-Pond Information Center 2 is Rock-Pond’s second generation release of the product and brings improvements in speed, stability, reporting capabilities, and usability. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the second generation product as it will allow Rock-Pond to deliver a more powerful than ever reporting experience to its customers.
Here are some key benefits that you will experience after your upgrade is complete:
- Version 2 now utilizes the Crystal Reports 2010 Service Pack 1 runtimes, which were recently released by SAP. Along with this release come new reporting capabilities that Rock-Pond will begin utilizing in their reports, such as in report sorting and the ability to quickly and easily change parameters without re-running reports. In addition, the new runtimes bring improved data access to increase speed and reduce resource consumption as well as correct bugs that exists in prior runtimes.
- Version 2 has been optimized to provide faster browsing and searching for reports, organizing them into views, as well as enabling the ability to see a report description and preview.
- The Customer Resource Center is now full screen which allows Rock-Pond to deliver dynamic content more clearly than ever.
- Bugs affecting product stability that were discovered in the generation 1 product are now resolved.
- Enhancements were made to allow the Information Center to operate in a Citrix / Terminal Services environment with a minimal footprint.
- Rock-Pond Connect has been re-worked to ensure that automatic updating never stops allowing you to be confident you have the most recent versions of all the Rock-Pond Reports that you rely on every day.
Take a look at the Installation Checklist, Frequently Asked Questions, and the full Installation Guide to find out more information and get upgraded!
No, user’s views are stored in their “Documents” folder and will persist if the Information Center is re-installed or upgraded.
Depending on which version you are on, the simplest way to upgrade is by using the in-application update feature available in the main menu of the Rock-Pond Information Center. When selected, it will check with Rock-Pond’s servers to see if you are on the latest version. If you are not, and you are on a version that supports updating this way, then it will present you with that option. The in-application update feature should typically be done using administrative privileges.
In some cases, the in-application update feature may not be available. In the event that this is the case, then the Information Center will need to be manually uninstalled, and then the new version will need to be manually installed and configured. Make sure you take note of all settings in the prior version so you may easily re-configure it.
