How to create a report with selection screen that can run in background

Question

Sorry to ask these basic questions but I am knew to ABAP Programming.
To keep it simply, I am attempting to create a report that has a simple parameter driven selections screen with one field.  That field takes in a folder path from the user.  The user executes the report.  The report creates a simply BDC that goes into SE16, gathers data from a table, and exports the results to a text file using the folder path provided.  I created a variant for the folder path field in the selection screen hoping to use it while executing the report in the background.  The report is not exporting the file as it did when run in the foreground for some reason.
I am wondering what event is triggered when a report is executed in the background.  In the foreground (or when I execute the program via SE38->Execute->With Variant) the user needs to execute the program by hitting the execute button once the variant has populated the folder path field.  It works then, so I am trying to get the same to work in the background.  I am thinking I didn't put the program together correctly to accommodate the running in the background.  How can you create a report that can accept user input via variant into a selection screen and then run in the background?
Please, any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks you all for reading this!!!

Answer 1

Ok, finally I understand what you're doing. Initially you lost me with the SE16 reference...
Not sure what you're trying to achieve overall, but apart from the fact that you cannot export/download a file to a user's PC via background job (unless you have a mapped network share on the server or something like an FTP server on the user's PC, but both are pretty hypothetical scenarios and unlikely to occur).
Also, the BDC approach to get data via SE16 is pretty awkward. Note that SE16 is guarded by some authorization checks and often users won't have access in production (which might not matter if you intend to always run your program in background via dedicated batch user). However, I have no clue why you wouldn't want to use [open SQL|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABENOPEN_SQL_READING.htm] to read the data. You could then save it on the application server or if you really have to get it to the user you can consider e-mailing the file (extracts should be compressed before sending). For the latter you'll find plenty of references here, basically it's the [business communication services|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/2d/1c5d3aebba4c38e10000000a114084/frameset.htm] that you'd need to look at.