Scheduling reports
Yes, scheduling Reports is possible in the i4connected portal! Check out this article for more details about this functionality.
Users having the Schedule reports permission enabled, can schedule Reports in the Report schedule panel.
i4connected automatically sends the reports to the users having the reports assigned, by means of Entity role assignments, considering the calendar settings. The report is delivered via the selected format (PDF or Excel), to the specified email addresses.
Warning
The report delivery may be delayed with several minutes due to various reasons, such as the rendering time or the time interval used by the server to check for scheduled reports.
Assigning Reports to users
When creating a new Report definition it will be automatically assigned to the creator user, hence becoming owner of that Report. Further on, users having the View users and Manage users permissions enabled can assign reports to other users, as well.
This can be done by a system administrator, in the Users panel, by selecting a user in detailed view mode and selecting the Reports tile.
User's Reports tile
As soon as the Reports tile has been selected, the Reports panel is opened. In this view, the system administrator can manage the Reports assigned to a user.
By clicking the Change button the Select Reports panel is opened, listing all the Reports available for the currently logged in user.
The Select reports panel
Note
All the Reports assigned to a user, under the user profile, will be available for scheduling, regardless if the user has view permissions enabled for them or not.
Report schedules
The Report schedule panel is available for all users having the Schedule reports permission enabled. As earlier indicated, only the reports assigned under a user's profile will be available for scheduling.
The Report schedule is presented as monthly calendar, where by default the current month is selected. In this view, the already existing schedules can be viewed, updated or deleted.
The Report schedule panel
In this view, the user can switch from the Calendar view to the List view, by toggling between the respective buttons.
Enable the list view
The scheduler date can be also changed using the Calendar option, allowing the user to jump to another month of the current year, the past year(s) and even future year(s).
The Calendar selector
Existing schedules are represented as colored dots in the calendar view. Clicking on a day where the report bubble is displayed, the calendar is expanded to show the full report name(s) and the exact delivery time.
Expand calendar to view scheduled reports
It is also possible to define new Report schedules by clicking the Add toolbar button, in the Report schedule panel.
The Add Report schedule button
The Add button opens the Add Report Schedule panel which allows the user to select an existing report and customize its scheduling parameters.
Add report schedule panel
Using the Add Report Schedule panel the user can define the schedule by means of the following parameters:
Color - sets the color marking the schedule, in the calendar. Selection is done from the color picker tool.
Report - sets the Report that will be scheduled.
By clicking the Report button, the Reports list will be opened, allowing the user to select the desired report to be scheduled. In this view, the Reports list will display only the reports assigned to the user.
Select report for the schedule
Supported output type - sets the format type supported by the current report. The user can select the format type from the drop-down list. The supported format types are PDF or Excel.
Supported output type
Distribution list - allows the scheduler user to add the email addresses of other user(s), to which the scheduled report will be sent.
The Distribution list is a free text field that expects one or multiple valid email addresses. When introducing multiple email addresses, these should only be separated by the semicolon ; symbol, as whitespaces are not permitted.
Distribution list
Select schedule - the actual schedule from chronological point of view can be:
the Daily report delivery can be scheduled to occur at exact time (Start time), on every weekday or at specific daily intervals, during a predefined period of time (Start date / End date).
the Weekly report delivery can be scheduled to occur at exact time (Start time), on predefined days of the week, during the specified period of time Start date / End date).
the Monthly report delivery can be scheduled to occur at exact time (Start time), on predefined days of the month, during the specified period of time (Start date / End date).
the Yearly report delivery can be scheduled to occur at exact time (Start time), on a predefined day of the month, during the specified period of time (Start date / End date).
Report parameters - this area is enabled only after a report has been added to the schedule. This option allows the user to valuate the parameters of the selected report, by selecting one or multiple entities, acting as object filters for the new report schedule.
Example of Report parameters area
Custom report parameters - this area is enabled only after a report has been added to the schedule. This option allows the user to configure values for the custom parameters available for the selected Report. This area will show all the custom parameters defined for the currently selected Report, allowing the user to manually fill in the desired values.
Example of Custom report parameters area
To save the new Report schedule the user can click the Save button or the Save and Archive button.
Tip
For more details about the Report archives please also check the next article.
A scheduled report can be opened in edit mode by selecting it in the expanded calendar view. When editing a Report schedule the user can change all the report schedule properties and the values of the Report parameters and Custom report parameters.
The Edit Report schedule panel
The deletion of report schedules follows the same method as any other object inside the i4connected portal. Clicking the Delete button opens the Delete Report Schedule panel. Here, the confirmation code can be typed, in order to confim the deletion operation. Once deleted, the schedule will no longer be visible in the Report Schedule calendar.
Note
Deleting a Report schedule will NOT delete the Report definition itself. To delete the report, use the delete functionality from the Reports panel.
The Delete Report schedule panel