Maintaining Distribution Lists

Topics:

A Distribution List is an easy way to distribute content to multiple recipients by specifying the name of a list stored in the Repository that contains the individual recipients rather than entering each recipient separately into a schedule. A Distribution List can be made available to other users by sharing it or changing its ownership to be managed or published.

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Editing and Deleting a Distribution List

How to:

If you are authorized to access the Distribution List tool, you can view and edit the Distribution Lists of which you are the owner. If the Distribution List is owned by a group or is published, you have to be authorized to edit it.

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Procedure: How to Edit a Distribution List
  1. From the Resources tree, select the Distribution List you want to edit, right-click and click Edit. Optionally, you can double-click the distribution list to open it.

    A window opens displaying the properties of the selected Distribution List, as shown in the following image.

    edit distribution list

  2. From this window, you can perform the following:
    • Change the name of the Distribution List by typing a new name in the Title field.
    • Change the Distribution Method.
    • Click Add New or double-click within the area below the Burst Value column to add a New Member to the Distribution List below Burst Value and Email. The Add New Member dialog box appears, as shown in the following image.

      add new member

    • Delete a Distribution List entry by selecting the item to be deleted, then click Delete.
  3. When you have completed your changes, click Save & Close.

    To exit the editing window without making changes, click Close.

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Accessing Distribution Lists

How to:

Sharing your private Distribution Lists allows you to permit groups and users to see its content and use it in schedules while you retain ownership. Authorized users can share their private Distribution Lists with groups and users with whom they are permitted to share. The Distribution List can be accessed by users authorized to access the folder in which the shared Distribution Lists are located.

Authorized users can publish and unpublish Distribution Lists to make them available to users authorized to access the folder in which they are located. Publishing requires the folder the item is located in to be published in order to publish an item within the folder. If the folder is subsequently unpublished, all items in that folder are unpublished.

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Procedure: How to Share a Distribution List

From the Resources tree, if you are authorized to share your private content, you can share a Distribution List with users authorized to access the folder in which the Distribution List is located by right-clicking the folder or Distribution List in the Resources tree and selecting Share.

Note: In order to share a Distribution List in the BUE, it must reside in the My Content folder. If you have created the Distribution List in a different folder, simply drag the Distribution List into the My Content folder to enable the sharing options that are available to you.

If you are authorized for advanced sharing, you can share your private content with specific groups and users with whom you are authorized to share by performing the following steps.

  1. In the Resources tree, select the Distribution List you want to share.
  2. Right-click the Distribution List and select Share with.

    The Set Sharing dialog box displays, as shown in the following image.

    set sharing dialog box

  3. Use the left and right arrow buttons to select which Groups will have access to the Distribution List.
  4. Use the left and right arrow buttons to select which Users will have access to the Distribution List.
  5. Click OK.
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Procedure: How to Publish Distribution Lists

The following steps allow you to publish a Distribution List or folder.

Note: A folder must be published in order to publish items within it. Published items or folders display in color. Those that are unpublished display in black and white.

  1. From the Resources tree or ReportCaster Explorer, select the Distribution List or folder that you want to publish.
  2. Right-click the folder or Distribution List and select Publish.
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Procedure: How to Unpublish Distribution Lists

From the Resources tree or ReportCaster Explorer, you can unpublish a Distribution List or folder.

  1. From the Resources tree or ReportCaster Explorer, select the Distribution List or folder that you want to unpublish.
  2. Right-click the published folder or item that you want to unpublish and select Unpublish.
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Bursting a Report

Topics:

Instead of distributing an entire report from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), you can use the ReportCaster burst feature to break the report into sections to be distributed separately to the same or different destinations. Bursting enables you to target relevant sections of a report to individual users. Each report section is saved to a separate file.

If you are distributing a burst tabular report, the burst value is determined by the first BY field. If you are distributing a burst graph report, the burst value is determined by the second BY field. The burst value is automatically determined by the internal matrix, which is a memory area that stores each database field value and calculates values referenced by the TABLE or GRAPH request.

You can send several report sections to one recipient by specifying the destination of that recipient (email addresses and files or printers) for each section you want to send. You can also send several report sections to one destination. The burst values you specify in the Distribution List must exist in the data source you are reporting against.

Note: If you want to burst a report, you must enable the bursting option within the Task for a schedule. The burst values specified in the Burst Value column in the Distribution List are ignored unless the Task specifies to burst the report.



Example: Specifying Burst Values in a Distribution List

You can specify sort field burst values and destinations (email addresses or printers) when creating or editing a Distribution List. The following image shows burst values and the destination email addresses specified in the Distribution List window.

distribution list

Using the primary sort field values (Northeast Sales, South Sales, and Midwest Sales), the email address of each representative is associated with the relevant sales report data. Since Chuck Hill needs only the data for the Northeast branch, the sort value Northeast is listed in the Burst Value column and is associated with his email address in the E-mail column.

However, Tom Gregory works in both the Midwest and South regions. Since he requires data for both regions, his email address is listed in the E-mail column twice, next to a Burst Value column entry for each region.

Note: You can click on a column heading to sort the data in that column.

Tip: You can specify multiple email addresses on a single Address line. For details, see Specifying Multiple Email Addresses.

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Bursting Guidelines and Limitations

This section provides detailed information to assist you in defining burst values.

When a schedule task specifies to burst a report procedure (FEX), all data values generated for each burst section are returned to the Distribution Server.

  • For the Repository distribution method, each burst section is distributed to the repository. The owner of the schedule must have write access to the repository folder specified in the schedule when the scheduled job runs for the report output to be successfully distributed. Access to the report sections is controlled by the repository security rules that are created when the report is distributed.
  • For the email and printer distribution methods, specific burst sections are distributed based on the burst values specified when creating the Distribution List or Single Address used by the schedule.

The following are guidelines and limitations that apply to the burst feature:

  • Case. Burst values are case-sensitive.
  • Keywords. Burst values can contain the following keywords:
    • Wildcard Characters. Use an asterisk (*) and a question mark (?) as wildcards to represent characters at the beginning, end, or middle of the burst values. The asterisk represents one or more characters, while the question mark represents any single character. Precede each instance of a burst value using a wildcard with the wildcard keyword enclosed in brackets followed by a colon, [wildcard]:, as shown in the following examples.

      [wildcard]:abc* = all values that start with 'abc'.

      [wildcard]:a?c = all three-character values that start with 'a' and end with 'c'.

      [wildcard]:a?c* = all values that start with 'a' and have a 'c' as the third character.

    • Java Regular Expressions. Use to identify strings of text. Precede each instance of a burst value using a Java regular expression with the regular expression keyword enclosed in brackets followed by a colon, [regexp]:, as shown in the following examples.

      [regexp]:[bcr]at = values that are bat, cat, or rat.

      [regexp]:[^bcr]at = any value that is not bat, cat, or rat.

    • Default Distribution. You can provide a default destination for burst values that are not specified in the Distribution List. To do this, enter the following in the burst value column of the Distribution List.

      [elsesend] = reports for burst values not contained in the Distribution List will be sent to the named recipient.

    • '%BURST' Syntax. You can include a burst value in the name of a distributed file by using the '%BURST' syntax in the name. The use of '%BURST' is not supported in a zip file name when the Packet email setting is Yes.

    The following are example entries in an email Distribution List that illustrate the use of the wildcard and default distribution keywords in burst values.

    Burst Value

    Address

    [wildcard]:*an*

    sml@company.com

    England

    ray@company.com

    [elsesend]:

    jt@company.com

    Using a scenario where the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX) is burst on the Country field that contains values of Germany, USA, France, Canada, Italy, Chile, England, and Japan, then:

    • Report information for Germany, France, Canada, England, and Japan will be delivered to sml@company.com.
    • Report information for England will be delivered to ray@company.com.
    • Report information for USA, Italy, and Chile will be delivered to jt@company.com.
  • Formats. All formats support bursting except XML and EXCEL. Each burst section of the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX) will be named burstvalue_filename.format (for example, Northeast_Sales.pdf).
  • ACROSS command. This command is not evaluated as a primary sort field. To burst report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), you must also include a BY field. Bursting occurs on the BY field.
  • TABLEF. No internal sort processing is performed. The specification of a BY field requires that the data already be sorted in the data source.
  • ON TABLE SUBHEAD/ON TABLE SUBFOOT. Creates a SUBHEAD for only the first page of the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), and a SUBFOOT for only the last page of the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX). When bursting report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), the SUBHEAD and SUBFOOT should occur for each sort break. Therefore, specify the primary sort field in place of TABLE in the ON command. For example:
    ON primarysortfield SUBHEAD
  • A n V field types. Bursting is not supported on a field with the AnV (where n is an integer value) field type.
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Specifying Multiple Email Addresses

When creating a schedule or Distribution List, you can specify multiple email addresses within a single field, row, or record.

When creating a schedule or Distribution List, you can separate each email address with a comma (,) or a semicolon (;).

The multiple email addresses will appear in the To line of a single email when the scheduled output is distributed.

Note:



Example: Specifying Multiple Burst Email Addresses

If you are using the default configuration (Packet Email = YES), one email is distributed for multiple burst values specified for the same email address. The email address values specified on each row are treated as a string that is a key. If there are multiple rows with the same address value (key), one email is distributed with all the burst values. For example, consider the following Distribution List:

Burst Value Address

A            user1@abcd.com;user2@abcd.com
B            user1@abcd.com
C            user1@abcd.com

In this example, user1@abcd.com receives two emails when the scheduled output is distributed. In the first email, user1@abcd.com; user2@abcd.com appears in the email To line and one attachment is distributed for burst value A. In the second email, user1@abcd.com appears in the To line and two attachments are distributed, one for burst value B and one for burst value C.

If you are using the configuration that specifies to distribute a single email for each row (Packet Email = NO), then the following behavior occurs for our example. Three separate emails are distributed. In the first email, user1@abcd.com; user2@abcd.com appears on the To line and one attachment is distributed for burst value A. The second email is sent to user1@abcd.com with one attachment for burst value B. The third email is sent to user1@abcd.com with one attachment for burst value C.

If a schedule has Packet Email = BURST, then for each burst value the output for each task is combined and distributed. In our example, three separate emails are distributed. In the first email, user1@abcd.com; user2@abcd.com appears on the To line and all output from the tasks for burst value A are distributed. The second email is sent to user1@abcd.com with all output from all tasks for burst value B. The third email is sent to user1@abcd.com with all output from all tasks for burst value C.

Another consideration is when using the default configuration (Packet Email = YES) and the same burst value is specified multiple times for the same Address (key) value. For example, consider the following Distribution List:

Burst Value Address

A          user1@abcd.com;user2@abcd.com
B          user1@abcd.com
B          user1@abcd.com

In this Distribution List, only two emails are distributed for user1@abcd.com. In the first email, user1@abcd.com; user2@abcd.com appears in the To line and the attachment is for burst value A. In the second email, user1@abcd.com appears in the To line and the attachment is for burst value B. The third row in the Distribution List is ignored since it contains the same key and the same burst value, B, as the second row.

As a best practice, be sure to review your distribution information to make sure you have not duplicated the same burst and address value pairs.



Example: Specifying Multiple Non-Burst Email Addresses

Consider the following sample Distribution List, which does not contain burst values:

Address

user1@abcd.com;user2@abcd.com
user1@abcd.com
user2@abcd.com
user3@abcd.com
user1@abcd.com;user2@abcd.com;user3@abcd.com

In this Distribution List, an email is distributed for each address line regardless of whether Packet Email is set to YES or NO. This is because each address value is unique. For the first email, user1@abcd.com; user2@abcd.com appears in the To line and the attachment is for the full report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX). The second email is distributed to user1@abcd.com, and so on.

If one of the address lines is repeated in the Distribution List (for example, if user3@abcd.com is added as the sixth line in the example Distribution List), the behavior would work as follows. If Packet Email = YES, only one email is distributed for user3@abcd.com. However, if Packet Email = NO, two separate emails are distributed to user3@abcd.com.


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