Report Writer: Automated Report Distribution

Kevin Suer

Feature Summary

Release: Winter '10

Author: Kevin Suer

 

Overview:

This feature provides the ability for you to schedule your Report Writer Report Results to run periodically at a frequency and duration you choose.  With this feature, you are also able to share your scheduled reports with selected administrators, even those who do not have specific reporting permissions configured ahead of time.

 

Key Features:

• Report Schedules: Report Schedules are a new option in Report Writer when running a report.  You can choose to run a report at a selected date and time in the future, or on a selected recurring schedule including daily, weekly, monthly, or on a custom interval.
• Share Report Results: When creating a Report Schedule you will have an option to share scheduled report results with a list of selected administrators called Report Recipients.  Any administrator on the Convio site will be available for selection as a Report Recipient.
• Report Result Email Notifications: New optional email notifications can be configured when you run Report Writer reports to let you know that a report has completed running and is available for viewing or download.
• Schedule Reports List: A new user interface provides a listing of all scheduled reports on your site.
• Cancel Report Schedule: Administrators who have created a scheduled report have the ability to cancel any of their report schedules at any time.
• New Permission: Recurring/Shared Reports: A new permission type called “Recurring/Shared Reports” enables administrators with the ability to either share report results, or share and schedule recurring report in Report Writer.  By default, all Site Administrators will have this new permission when upgraded to the Winter ’10 release.
• Report Schedule Being Paused Email Notification: If the report result of a scheduled report has not been viewed within 60 days of when it was originally run, and no subsequent results of that same scheduled report have been viewed, then send an email notification to the administrator indicating the scheduled report will be paused in 7 days unless a supplied link is clicked in the email.

 

Unique Terminology:

• Report Scheduler: A client administrator who has permission to schedule report results.
• Report Recipient: A client administrator who is selected to receive shared report result(s).

Screen Captures:

 

Figure 1: New step 1.c. enables setting a Report Schedule in Report Writer.

 

Figure 2: Configure the time of day that you would like your scheduled report to run; choose off-peak hours to improve report performance.

 

Figure 3: Choose from one of four recurrence intervals.

 

Figure 4: There are literally hundreds of scheduling options for your reports.

 

Figure 5: Select which administrators to share your report results with by using a Group navigator.

 

Figure 6: A “Schedule” list displays all Scheduled Reports.

 

Figure 7: Choose to receive a notification email when your report result is ready for viewing.

 

Limitations and Out of Scope Features:

The following are limitations to this new feature capability being introduced in the Winter ‘10 product release.

• Site Scheduling Limits: There is a limit to the total number of reports that you can schedule on your Convio site.  There are four different limits based on schedule recurrence interval and these are listed below.
  • Maximum number of daily scheduled reports: 5
  • Maximum number of weekly scheduled reports: 20
  • Maximum number of monthly scheduled reports: 25
  • Maximum number of custom interval scheduled reports: 25

 

The following are related features that were considered with this new capability in the Winter ’10, but not included and will be considered in the future.

• Report Scheduling for TeamRaiser Event Managers: In Winter ’10, TeamRaiser Event Management Center Managers will not be able to schedule report results.
• Email Report Result as an Attachment: When using the Report Result Ready Email Notification, all report results are linked to from the email.  There is not currently the ability to include an attachment of report results.
• Center Scheduling Limits: In Winter ’10, there is no ability to configure the maximum number of scheduled reports that an individual Center can create.  All limits are Site-wide and permissions assigned to Center Managers must be made with this in mind.

 

Site Data Parameters:

There were no new Site Data Parameter(s) added as part of this project.

 

Client Impacts:

All clients will receive this feature at no additional cost.  All Site Administrators will notice this feature at time of upgrade.  All other client administrators must be granted “Recurring/Shared Reports” permissions in order to be able to utilize this feature.

 

FAQ:

 

What are the different scheduling frequency options for Report Schedules?

 

There are numerous options for scheduling reports.  Below is an outline of the various options that are available for each schedule type.

• Daily: With the daily recurrence interval, reports can be scheduled to run:
  • Every day
  • Every weekday
  • Every Monday, Wedneday,  and Friday
  • very Tuesday and Thursday
  • Every other day
  • Every 3 days
  • Every 4 days
  • Every 5 days
  • Every 6 days
  • Every 7 days
  • Every 8 days
  • Every 9 days
  • Every 10 days
  • Every 11 days
  • Every 12 days
  • Every 13 days
  • Every 14 days
• Weekly: With the weekly recurrence interval, reports can be schedule to run in any of the 70 combinations as indicated in the matrix below.

 

on Sundayon Mondayon Tuesdayon Wednesdayon Thursdayon Fridayon SaturdayEvery weekXXXXXXXEvery other weekXXXXXXXEvery 3 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 4 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 5 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 6 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 7 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 8 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 9 weeksXXXXXXXEvery 10 weeksXXXXXXX

 

• Monthly: With the monthly recurrence interval, reports can be scheduled to run in any combination of the following two criteria.

 

Day of MonthRecurrenceThe 1stof every monthThe 2ndof every other monthThe 3rdof Jan, Apr, Jul, OctThe 4thof Feb, May, Aug, NovThe 5thof Mar, Jun, Sep, DecThe 6thof Jan, May, SepThe 7thof Feb, Jun, OctThe 8thof Mar, Jul, NovThe 9thof Apr, Aug, DecThe 10thof every fifth monthThe 11thof every sixth monthThe 12thof JanuaryThe 13thof FebruaryThe 14thof MarchThe 15thof AprilThe 16thof MayThe 17thof JuneThe 18thof JulyThe 19thof AugustThe 20thof SeptemberThe 21stof OctoberThe 22ndof NovemberThe 23rdof DecemberThe 24th The 25th The 26th The 27th The 28th The 29th (or 28th) The 30th (or 29th or 28th) The 31st (or 30th, 29th, or 28th)   

 

 

• Custom Interval:

 

RecurrenceDay of WeekRecurrenceThe firstDayof every monthThe secondWeekdayof every other monthThe thirdWeekend Dayof Jan, Apr, Jul, OctThe fourthSundayof Feb, May, Aug, NovThe lastMondayof Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec Tuesdayof Jan, May, Sep Wednesdayof Feb, Jun, Oct Thursdayof Mar, Jul, Nov Fridayof Apr, Aug, Dec Saturdayof every fifth month  of every sixth month  of January  of February  of March  of April  of May  of June  of July  of August  of September  of October  of November  of December

 

 

Will any admin who has access to Report Writer be able to share report results?

No.  Aside from Site Administrator, in order for Report Writer administrators to be able to use this feature, you will explicitly need to grant permissions for sharing to your reporting administrators.

 

What data is included in shared report results?

The contents of the shared report result will be the same for all Report Recipients (regardless of Report Recipient permissions) and include all data the Report Scheduler who originally created the scheduled report was permitted to see in the scheduled report result(s).

 

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