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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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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.
A window opens displaying the properties of the selected Distribution List, as shown in the following image.
To exit the editing window without making changes, click Close.
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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 If the folder is subsequently unpublished, all items in that folder are unpublished.
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.
The Set Sharing dialog box displays, as shown in the following image.
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.
From the Resources tree or ReportCaster Explorer, you can unpublish a Distribution List or folder.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
The following are guidelines and limitations that apply to the burst feature:
[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.
[regexp]:[bcr]at = values that are bat, cat, or rat.
[regexp]:[^bcr]at = any value that is not bat, cat, or rat.
[elsesend] = reports for burst values not contained in the Distribution List will be sent to the named recipient.
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:
ON primarysortfield SUBHEAD
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:
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.
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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