Batch File Reporting in Cradle

Publishing Reports

Do you want to run your reports faster or wish you could run them overnight or at weekends so they are ready when you arrive at work in the morning? With batch file reports, you can do this quickly and easily.

What is a Batch File?

A batch file contains a series of DOS commands, and is commonly written to automate frequently performed tasks including publishing reports and documents. Instead of typing the same commands over and over in a Command Prompt, you can simply double-click the batch file or use Windows Task Scheduler to set it running during down times e.g. over night or weekends which then creates all the reports you require.

The following report will show you how to create a batch file for these reports.

How to Write a Batch File for Reporting

Using a plain text application like Notepad, you need to first set the folder the application to be used is in. In this case, it is in the same place all Cradle applications are held, the command does need to be surrounded by quotes

“%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe”

You then need the login information to the project that you would normally would when using a Command Prompt.

-login admin,ADMIN,demo or -login reqman,REQMAN,demo

After these 2 necessary parts, you need the options for the report; you can find these options in our online Help System for c_table. If you are already in the Command Prompt in the correct location then just type in c_table and you will see the Information popup.

Information on command options for c_table to use in batch file reporting
C_Table Command Options

Once you have finished writing you batch file, the command should look something like this:

"%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe" -login reqman,REQMAN,demo -file "C:\Temp\Project_Setup_Demo.rtf" -report Project_Setup -rloc project -format rtf

You can use c_table to publish data from a matrix:

"%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe" -login reqman,REQMAN,demo -file "C:\Temp\Coverage.htm" -matrix "Requirement Coverage" -mloc project -format html

Metrics can be published in the same way:

"%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe" -login reqman,REQMAN,demo -file "C:\Temp\Project Analysis.htm" -metric "Project Analysis" -metloc project -format html

Graphs can be displayed in html, rtf or svg

"%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe" -login reqman,REQMAN,demo -file "C:\TempVerified Requirements.htm" -graph "Verified requirements" -gloc project -gprint batch -gprloc project -format html

You can publish queries using different views:

"%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe" -login reqman,REQMAN,demo -file "C:\Temp\Requirements All.rtf" -query "Requirements - All" -qloc project -view "Requirement - Complete" -vloc project -format rtf

You can also publish comma separated data into a csv file:

"%CRADLEHOME%\bin\exe\windows\c_table.exe" -login reqman,REQMAN,demo -file "C:\Temp\Requirememts_All.csv" -query "Requirements - All" -qloc project -view "Requirement - Complete" -vloc project -format csv

Remember to put quotes around any options with spaces in them e.g. “Requirements – All”

Save this file using the DOS extension of .bat e.g. batch file reports.bat

How to Run a Batch File for Reports

Running a batch file is simple, as long as all the options in the commands are correct; just double click on the .bat file. You will see a Command Prompt open and as each report finished, the next will begin.

Command prompt with some of the command lines used in the Batch File Reports
Command Lines for Batch File Reporting
Showing some of the reports from the batch files within the set folder. The folder in this case is the Temp folder on the C drive
Reports in the Temp Folder

As you will see running batch file reports is quicker and easier. You can also then add any reports you require to the file. The newly added reports are then also published the next time you run the batch file.

If you wish to use Task Scheduler for out of hour’s usage, you can find information here on the Microsoft website.

You can also use batch files for import and exporting through the c_io, publishing documents through Document Publisher  and converting CSV information into a Cradle import/export file for loading into a Cradle PDB using the CSV Converter Utility.

Linux or Windows

Spot the difference

Cradle is supported on whichever platform your business uses. Cradle WorkBench will run on Linux/Windows  Cradle Database Server (CDS) is equally at home on a Linux or Windows box. Of course Web Access is available wherever you browser runs. As you can see from the screenshots there is no need for users to learn a new UI between versions.

Screenshots in Linux and Windows
Windows or Linux

Convert Later?

Yes absolutely you can convert between versions. That’s great news for your IT department, if they decide to change the server machine they’ll need to port the data across to the new installation and then chat to salesdetails@threesl.com to obtain a new licence.

Continue reading “Linux or Windows”

Installation Issue With Windows C Runtime

During installation, some customers see messages that the Visual Studio 2015 C++ Runtime cannot be installed, or cannot be found, or they cannot install their Security Code, or none of the Cradle servers or tools will start. All of these issues mean that the Windows C runtime is not installed and runnable. All parts of Cradle use this library. The library will only install and run if all the necessary Windows updates are installed. However, the library does not ‘tell Windows’ which updates it needs.

Solution

To fix these issues, you must install Windows updates. Since updates may allow other updates to install, you repeatedly install all Windows updates until no more will install. See the figure. Your installation may not display exactly as shown. You may have multiple versions of the library installed.

You can view your Windows updates. If you want a list of updates, start PowerShell as Administrator and paste this code:

Get-WmiObject -Class “win32_quickfixengineering” | Export-Csv c:\temp\updates.csv
Select-Object -Property “Description”, “HotfixID”,
@{Name=”InstalledOn”; Expression={([DateTime]($_.InstalledOn)).ToLocalTime()}}

which creates a list of all Windows updates in the file: c:\temp\updates.csv

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Uninstall or change a program

Environment Variables and Windows 10

Environment variables are user-defined strings whose values can be read by applications. The environment variables used by Cradle are:

• CRADLEHOME, specifies where Cradle has been installed
• CRADLE_CDS_HOST, specifies the IP address or hostname of the Cradle server
• CRADLE_UI_LANG, specifies the language to be shown in the Cradle UI. It can be used if Cradle has not detected your local language, or you want to force Cradle to use one language on a computer whose default is a different language.
• CRADLE_ERRORSTACK, used to get more detailed information from Cradle error logs

On Windows, there are system and user environment variables. A user environment variable will over-ride a system environment variable, if both exist.

On Windows, you can set environment variables by:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Choose User Accounts
3. Click: Change my environment variables

On Windows 10 this only works for users in an administrator group. This bug is fixed in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update released on 2nd August 2016. So, if you want to set or change environment variables on Windows 10, please apply this update.

To set or change environment variables on Windows 10 without this update you need write access to the Windows registry, and then you:

1. Press Windows+R to open the Run dialog, enter: regedit and click OK
2. Navigate to the registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Environment
3. Define the environment variable that you want to add and its value, or change the value of an existing environment variable
4. Close the Registry Editor
5. Log-off and log-on, or reboot

This only affects environment variables when you login, which means that this method is inconvenient. But, it may be your only choice. The only good news is that you will not need to make these changes very often.

Missing api-ms-win-crt-stdio-l1-1-0.dll

Recently, we have received reports from some customers who have been installing Cradle-7.1, or upgrading to Cradle-7.1, and have seen messages saying that the file:

api-ms-win-crt-stdio-l1-1-0.dll

is missing or is not available.

These messages have been seen in installations on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2012, but could potentially affect other versions of Windows. The messages have only been seen in a small number of Cradle installations. If you want to see more detail, please search for this filename in your favourite search engine, such as DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Baidu, Bing, Yahoo or Google.

In all cases, the solution to these problems is to install Windows updates. Sometimes, you may have to do this more than once, since installing Windows updates may install a pre-requisite for a later Windows update. So, please repeatedly install Windows updates and reboot and keep doing this until there are no more updates to install.

When you have installed the Windows updates, uninstall the Cradle-7.1 that you were trying to install and install it again.

Everything will then be OK.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Cradle-7.1 Platforms Announced!

We are pleased to announce that the following platforms will be supported by Cradle-7.1:

– Linux. Any variant with a version 2.6.32 or later kernel

– Windows:
– Windows 7 (SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit)
– Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)
– Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)
– Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
– Windows Server 2008 (SP2, 32-bit and 64-bit)
– Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit)
– Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
– Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)

– Office:
– 2007 (SP3, 32-bit)
– 2010 (SP2, 32-bit and 64-bit)
– 2013 (SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit)
– 2016 (32-bit and 64-bit)
– Office 365

The changes from Cradle-7.0 are that we have dropped support for Windows Vista and added support for Windows 10, Office 365 and Office 2016. In fact, Cradle-7.0 already runs on Windows 10 and Office 365, but they were not officially supporting by Cradle-7.0. The Cradle-7.1 release adds formal support for these products, and introduces support for Office 2016.

We hope that this is helpful as you plan your migration to Cradle-7.1 and as you consider how Cradle’s platform support fits into the overall Linux/Windows/Office strategy in your organisation.