eG Reporter
 

eG Reporter - Save Schedules

The eG Reporter provides a useful report scheduling capability that automates the process of printing and/or mailing specific reports (to specific individuals) at pre-defined intervals. This page appears when the icon in a reports page is clicked. Using this page, you can schedule the printing and/or mailing of the reports displayed in the reports page. You can even save the report to a booklet and schedule the printing and/or mailing of the booklet.

  1. First, specify whether this report is a single report or a booklet (group of reports generated as per your choice). If this report is a single report, select the Regular option. If you wish to schedule generating a booklet, then select the Schedule Booklet option.

  2. If the Schedule Booklet option is chosen, then a Schedule Booklet Name list will appear listing all the booklets that have been created in your environment. By default, New Booklet will be chosen from this list. If you wish to create a new booklet, then specify the name of the booklet name in the Booklet name text box.

  3. The Need to Merge list will appear only if the Schedule Booklet option is chosen. If multiple reports are combined in the same booklet, then, when mails are sent to the administrators, you can either view all the reports in the booklet as separate PDFs or view all the reports as a single PDF in a single mail. If Yes is chosen from this list, then, all the reports scheduled in the booklet would be generated as a single PDF booklet and sent as a single email whereas if No is chosen, then, every report that is combined in the booklet would be generated as a separate PDF and all the PDFs would be sent to the recipient in a single mail.

  4. Then, provide a Schedule Name.

  5. Next, to indicate how often the report/booklet would have to be mailed to a specific recipient, select a frequency from the Mail list box. The options provided therein include: Hourly, Daily, Day(s) of the week, Weekly, Monthly, WeekEnd, and MonthEnd.

    Note:

    • You cannot SCHEDULE the automatic printing/mailing of reports with an Any timeline.

    • By default, WeekEnd reports are mailed every Sunday. This default setting can however, be modified by editing the eg_services.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory). The ScheduleMailWeekend parameter in the [MISC_ARGS] section of this file is set to Sunday, by default. If you so wish, you can specify any other day of the week against this parameter, as shown below:

      [MISC_ARGS]

      ScheduleMailWeekend=Friday

    • Say, on January 24, 2007 (Wednesday), a report was generated with a Timeline of 2 weeks; later that day, the same report was scheduled to be mailed Weekly. This means that on the first day of the following week (which is Sunday - January 28, 2007), the report will be automatically generated based on the performance data collected during the last 2 weeks (i.e., for the period spanning January 14 to January 28), and mailed to the specified recipients. Note that, if a report is set to be mailed ‘Weekly’, such a setting only ensures that the report is mailed once a week; it does not alter the Timeline of the original report. The same applies to ‘Monthly’ schedules.

      Now, let us take another example. Assume that on January 24, 2007 again, a report with a Timeline of 2 weeks was scheduled to be mailed every WeekEnd (which is say, Sunday). This means that on January 28, 2007 (Sunday), the report will be automatically generated for a Timeline of 1 week (spanning January 22 to January 28), and mailed to the specified recipients. Note that ‘WeekEnd’ schedules not only affect the frequency with which reports are mailed, but also override the ‘Timeline’ of the original report. The same philosophy applies to “MonthEnd” schedules.

    • By default, scheduled mails are sent before trend computation begins. However, if need be, you can push schedule execution below trend computations - i.e., you can instruct the eG Enterprise system to mail reports after trend calculations are done. To ensure this, you will have to edit the eg_services.ini file in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory. In the [MISC_ARGS] section of the file, a ScheduleReportsBeforeTrend flag exists that is set to yes, by default. Change this to no, so that schedules are implemented after trending is completed.

      • Summary reports will not be generated properly if this option is set. Reports with measure graph, zone reports, comparison reports, etc., will be unaffected.

  6. If you select the Weekly or Day(s) of the week option from the Mail list, you even get to select the exact day of the week on which you want the report mailed/printed, from the Mail On list.

  7. If you select the Monthly option from the Mail list, you can select the exact date of the month on which you want the report to be mailed/printed, from the Mail On list.

  8. If the report is to be mailed to a specific recipient, then mention the Mail ID of the recipient.

    Note:

    • Before emailing reports, ensure that the SMTP mail host and eG Administrator mail ID are properly configured in the eG administrative interface (using the MAIL SERVER SETTINGS page which can be accessed through the Alerts -> Mail Settings -> Server Settings option).

    • By default, the Receiving Type of the mail is Inline which implies that when reports are sent by email, the body of the email will contain the reports so sent in HTML format. You can, if you so desire, send the report as an attachment by choosing the Attachment option from the Receiving Type list.

  9. If a generated data report is scheduled for printing/mailing separately or within a booklet, an additional Schedule Format list box will appear in the SAVE SCHEDULES page. By default, the PDF option is selected which implies that the generated report will be mailed to the recipient in the PDF format. To mail the report in CSV format select the CSV option from this list box.

  10. Then, indicate the Schedule Type. You can indicate when report/booklet scheduling is to occur by picking an option from the Schedule Type list. To generate schedule reports/booklets at the end of every day, pick the Day-End option from this list. To generate schedule reports/booklets at a configured time every day, pick the Anytime option from this list, and then indicate the exact time of generation using the Schedule At time controls that then appear.

  11. To modify the report for which you have set a schedule, click on the Modify Selection button which is available below the Details of Your Selection section. Upon clicking this button, you will be redirected to the report where you can alter the specifications that you have provided for generating the report. Once done, clicking on Save option will once again lead you to the SCHEDULES page.

  12. In addition to the Save button in the Save Schedules page, a View button is provided to enable you to visualize the report that is scheduled. This option is more useful when you wish to modify the scheduled report as you can view the report then and there.

  13. By default, eG Reporter does not allow users to schedule the automatic printing of reports. If you want to schedule report printing, then set the EnableSchedulePrint parameter in the [MISC_ARGS] section of the eg_services.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) to true (default is false). Once this is done, then, a Print list will additionally appear in the SAVE SCHEDULES page. Indicate the frequency with which the report is to be printed by selecting an option from the Print list box. Here again, selecting None would ensure that the report is not printed.

    14. Note:

    • If a network printer is used for printing the reports, then ensure that the Tomcat service of the eG manager is configured to use a domain user's account. If only a local printer is used, then the Tomcat service can run using the default local system account.

  14. By default, the details of the report for which you have scheduled printing/mailing will be listed under the Details of Your Selection section. If you wish to modify your selection for scheduling, then you can click on the Click here to modify your selection hyperlink provided in this section. This will take you back to the concerned report where you can once again modify your selection and schedule the report.

  15. Finally, click on the SAVE button to register the schedule.
A message indicating that the schedule has been successfully saved will then appear. Click on the Schedules link in this message to go to the SCHEDULES page that lists all the schedules that have been created till date.