Report Scheduler

REPORT SCHEDULER

Scheduled reporting in Communicare is utilised when a specific report is required on a regular basis. After setting the desired report parameters, Communicare will deliver the report to the email addresses entered on the schedule that is set. Each night that the report is scheduled to be run, it will run and will be delivered on completion. It will run continuously unless manually altered.

The Report Scheduler will run a report every 3 minutes between 8:30pm and midnight each night, this means a maximum of 70 reports can be run. If any reports take more than 3 minutes to run, the number of reports that will run will be less than this. It is possible to extend this time period.

<color Red>Note</color>: No report can run more than 30 minutes as any report than runs for more than 30 minutes will be terminated.

SETTING UP REPORT SCHEDULING

Before this function can be used, your mail server must be defined in System Parameters and an e-mail address allocated for the exclusive use of the Communicare server. See the EMail Server section of the Organisation Maintenance help.

TO SCHEDULE REPORT

  • Go to Tools > Scheduled Reports
  • Add new report (+)
  • Select the desired report from the Report dropdown list.
  • Depending on the report, further report parameters such as dates must be entered Parameters for SQL Reports.

Note: When entering the parameters for SQL reports, take care when entering literal values for the date range.

1. Be aware that if you enter an exact date range, fully specifying the dates, then Communicare will continue to use these dates for each subsequent generation of the report. For example, if you want a report to run each month, and the report is set up to capture data from between 01/01/2012 and 31/01/2012, it will continue to report data from this date range, no matter what month the report is generated in. To report on data relative to the current date, relative parameters must be entered, such as 'First day of last month' and 'Last day of last month'.

2. Be aware that if you enter a literal value for a day of month in a date parameter, the report will only be generated for months that contain this day. For example, if you want a report to be run each month and capture data from the previous month, date parameters of '1st day of last month' to '31st of last month' will only be valid when the previous month had 31 days. To ensure the report runs for all months of the year 'First day of last month' and 'Last day of last month' should be used instead.
  • Select a format for the report. Formats available are:-

HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language (default) - this is the format used by web pages

RTF - Rich Text Format - a format which virtually all word processors can read

TXT - plain text - plain, unformatted text

XLS - Microsoft Excel format - a spreadsheet format, also readable using OpenOffice

CSV - comma delimited - a common format for sending data extracts

XML - eXtensible Markup Language - a relative of HTML used for sending data (extracts) between computer systems (The 'simple' version implemented here has a root (XML_ROOT) with 'lines' (XML_LINE) containing a node for each column returned by the query. The root and line node names can be specified by returning columns named XML_ROOT and XML_LINE containing the names of these nodes)

If the report you have chosen has an output parameter set to "RWS_", then this format is ignored.
  • Enter Recipient(s) report is to be sent to - must have minimum of one address entered
    • When 'Send Securely' is checked, the recipient must be selected from the address book. Only one secure recipient can be selected.
  • If required enter Reply to address - this is optional, a maximum of one address to be entered - this address will receive any replies the recipients may send
  • Enter Subject email is to go out under
  • Enter text regarding explanation of why report is being sent out (NB normal email is not secure so this facility should not be used for confidential reports)
  • Daily reports - select Weekly from drop down box, tick whatever days desired. Multiple days can be selected.
  • Weekly reports - select Weekly, tick day desired (NB if you would like the report first thing in the morning, ensure the day before is selected as the report runs at night; eg Tick Sunday for Monday morning delivery). Multiple days can be selected.
  • Monthly reports by day - select numerical date. If you would like this report to run on the final day of the month, select 31 as this will ensure it will run on the final day regardless of actual date.
  • Monthly reports by position (e.g. the first Monday of every month) - select desired options.
  • Annually - day of month, as per monthly note that if you would like the final day of any month please specify 31st as date to ensure it captures all months.

Note: Microsoft Outlook's settings default to remove additional line spaces from the email sent. If this is confusing to the recipient they may change this setting in Outlook by going to Tools > Options > Preferences > email options and then unselect Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages. For more information please refer to your email program.