maybe i can add some facts here:
1) prep-process-report is AE (wp) function and using SQL to read data from the DB
2) a job messenger is not sending any report
2.1) the report is sent by the agent - if store in db is used
2.2) the report transfer is triggered by the AE (wp)
3) because of 1) this will only work if 2.1) is used
4) prep-process-file is exactly the script function what is doing the expected (working with file content on agents)
4.1) but keep in mind if the data is stored on the disk - someone must remove these files
4.2) i can remember lots of customer tickets in the past - where this kind of logic filled the disk in a very short time...
5) the UI/AWI is able to display the data because of the feature to look into running job outputs
5.1) but this is not touching the AE (wp) at all
5.2) this simple get-file function is going from the UI/AWI to the connected CP and is routed from that CP to the CP where the agent is connected and requesting a file - this file is then passed back from the agent through the CP's to the UI to display the content
5.3) as mentioned before this feature was implemented that a user can have a look inside the output of long-running tasks - where/what is within the output - no need to login to this box and look into the report in question.
6) if the report is stored in file and a prep-process-report would do the transfer implicit what is the benefit -> still the data must be transferred to the DB and if all jobs have this command it makes no difference if the flag is set or not - data is stored in DB for processing
7) the only thing that might make sense is to enhance the prep-process-report with a flag - if the report is not within DB use prep-process-file - but this can already be achieved today with a simple if - do the report function or the file function
7.1) but still the data is then transferred from the agent to the DB again for further processing
7.2) this logic will only reduce the data to be transferred - but data is still written to DB
7.3) as written here counts are searched - so data will always be transferred - the benefit would not be too big...
7.4) if just counts are needed - use the :REGISTER-VARIABLE function and no need to transfer any report
8) but the file version might lead than very often into 4.2)
9) 4.2) leads in a complete outage of the app server
...
hope this helps and can be passed on to your uc4-scripting developers
holli