How to: |
To facilitate the creation and scheduling of Alerts, the Alert Assist tool guides you through a series of windows that complete the following tasks:
If you are logged on to Managed Reporting as a Managed Reporting developer, you can access Alert Assist through a Published Content or Private Content folder or subfolder within the tree.
When you use InfoAssist through the browser to create an Alert test, a subset of the tabs and options is available, because the Alert test is used only to state the conditions or rules, of the test. Users do not see this report. This is a simple report that states the selection criteria and includes an ON TABLE HOLD command.
When an Alert test is evaluated and the result is true, a report (the Alert result, which is the second report that you create) is run. This is the report that users see. Therefore, you can add styling to this report. More options are available in InfoAssist when you are creating an Alert result.
When you create an Alert result report, it is not shown to the Managed Reporting end user by default, since all content is Private by default.
When you select a new Alert from the BI Portal or BI Dashboard, the WebFOCUS Alert Assist tool opens for the creation of components. Alert Assist is a Bindows™ application that is launched in a separate browser window.
The browser tab uses the generic name Alertn, where n is an index number starting at 1. All subsequent Alerts increase by 1. If you save the Alert, the dialog box is automatically set up with this generic name. However, you can change the name as desired.
As you use Alert Assist to create reports, you may see messages that state Report Saved. Your changes to the report have been saved, but they are not written to the WebFOCUS Repository until the Alert is saved. If you exit Alert Assist before you click Finish, the Alert is not saved.
The following steps provide options for accessing Alert Assist from a browser to create an Alert.
The Tool Setup dialog box opens, as shown in the following image. It provides options for selecting a Reporting Server and Application Paths.
Note: User access to the Tool Setup dialog box to specify Reporting Server properties is controlled by a WebFOCUS security privilege. For information on WebFOCUS security privileges, see the WebFOCUS Security and Administration manual.
The WebFOCUS Alert Assist opens.
Note: The scaled-down version of InfoAssist is used to create basic TABLE requests with HOLD (not PCHOLD FORMAT) statements. It generates procedure syntax that is written to the Alert the same way as in earlier WebFOCUS releases. The Edit option on the ribbon allows you to open the editor and manually enter the procedure code or edit existing procedure code. When the test is saved from the editor, the syntax needs to be validated as having an ON TABLE HOLD statement, a prerequisite for an Alert test.
Testing a folder for existence is also valid. Type the full path to the folder accessible to the Reporting Server. If the file is located, the Alert is triggered (true) and the Alert result report is run. Proceed to step 11 to create the Alert result.
InfoAssist opens, and you can create the report that will be run when the Alert test is triggered (true).
The Open dialog box closes and the selected report appears under the Result node.
The Alert result is automatically run if the Alert test report is triggered (true). If you are authorized to schedule reports for distribution, you can optionally schedule the Alert. If you would like to schedule the Alert, proceed to step 20.
The ReportCaster Basic Scheduling tool opens in a new browser window, as shown in the following image. For more information on the Basic Scheduling tool and distribution options, see the ReportCaster manual.
The Alert Options dialog box opens, as shown in the following image.
As you complete the creation of the schedule, remember to consider the burst option to distribute specific report values, instead of the entire report. When a report is burst, the distribution information must be provided in a distribution list, distribution file, or dynamic list for email distribution and an access list for library distribution. The email and library distribution options are the most effective for Alert reports because of the push versus pull notification through email. For more information on using the burst option in ReportCaster, see the ReportCaster manual.
For more information on Recurrence options, see the ReportCaster manual.
The schedule report now appears in the tree, as shown in the following image.
WebFOCUS |