Web server application with Clarion reports installed as service on WIN 2008

[Rob Kolanko]

I have built a NetTalk web server application that has Clarion reports and is installed as service using Self Service on WIN 2008 server. If anyone else has made an application with this environment, I would love to hear from you on how you installed the application. Also if anyone notices an error in my logic, please comment. 
Web serving works fine, however reports have a security issue. Clarion reports require print driver to properly format the report, even if the report is sent to PDF.  Even on a regular standard clarion WIN32 program, if the user running the program does not have a default printer, the clarion report created will have crazy layout that clips the bottom quarter of the page. As soon as a printer is assigned to the user the clarion report layout is fixed . The problem arises is that the local system user used in a Windows 2008 service will not accept a printer via “printer{PROPPRINT:Device}”. Thus all the clarion report created by the NetTalk server application have a crazy layout. Now if I change the NetTalk server application service run with a normal user, then the clarion report layouts are fine. In Windows 2003 server this is not a problem, as the local system profile can be assigned a printer.

I am hoping there is a way to assign the Windows 2008 local system user a local printer, or solve the printer requirement  for clarion reports or anything to prevent the requirement for a custom user for my web application service. Am I missing something? You may think that why is this such a big deal. It is because I sell my products to corporations. The buyer/user will select my products based on features and value over the competition. But the corporate IT manager will throw up a stink because he will have to manage the issue of a user profile for the service.  I love outsource IT departments, because they just a charge the cost of installing the software, without any bias opinions.

Thank-you,
Rob

[Bruce]

Hi Robert,

The short answer is, I think you're out of luck.

>> I am hoping there is a way to assign the Windows 2008 local system user a local printer,

We spent a bit of time on this last year for one of our apps, and could not find a way to do this. I'd love someone to prove me wrong.

>> But the corporate IT manager will throw up a stink because he will have to manage the issue of a user profile for the service.

I know how you feel on this one. On the up side it's fairly easy to document the requirement, and ultimately it's unlikely to affect the sale. But it's a pain, and not really your, or even Clarions, fault. Perhaps we could lobby SV to tweak the default report parameters to something more useful if no printer is installed, but one can understand the logic that reports are generated "for a printer" so there may be some dependencies.

Cheers
Bruce