SAP Business Objects XI 3.1 Reports can be scheduled in Infoview, CMC and for Deski reports can be done through Desktop Intelligence tool.  Infoview and CMC are the powerful tools to do scheduling.

Below is the schedule scree where Desktop Intelligence tool is having Schedule option and there is a limitation to do schedule and it cannot be possible for event or calendar based schedule in Deski tool. This Deski tool is just to do normal report schedule.

Infoview Scheduler

There are two methods you can start schedule through Infoview and both of them lean into the same process and it’s common for both Deski & Webi reports.

Option 1: Select the report and right click and then select schedule.

Option 2: Select the report and select actions in the Menu and then select schedule.

Note: There is an extra PRINT option when you do Deski report schedule in Infoview and PRINT option won’t be available for Webi reports in the Scheduler.

Instance Title

By Default Instant Title would be same as the Report Name and the same will reflect in the Format & destinations section in scheduler. You can change the Instance Title and it won’t impact anything in the original / repository report Name.

Recurrence

Recurrence option is to set the time line when the report should run and to define the repeating recurrences. Below is the list of Recurrence is possible through Infoview scheduler.

Now – Report will run now (immediately after the submitting Schedule).

Once – Report will run only once based on the Start Time whatever you are setting up. Based on the below example, report will run only once @10 AM on 1/3/2014.  Start & End Date / Time will concept used when you go with event based schedule and will see in detail later.

Note: None of the report will run after the end time that you specify.

Hourly – Report will run every hour and Minutes specified in the schedule (0- 24 Hours schedule) and Start & End Date / Time would specify the from when the report should start and when to finish.

Daily – Report will run once every Number of days whatever you specified in the schedule. For example, if you mention 1, the report will run every one day based on Start Date / Time and it will not run after the end time. If you mention 5, report will run every 5 days once based on Start Date / Time and until the end Date / Time.

Weekly – Report will run every week on the following days (Monday – Sunday) based on the selection. If you select Monday, report will run every Monday based on the Start Date / Time. You can select either all seven Days or whatever the days you want to refresh the report in the days list.

Note: At least one day should be select in the list.

In the below example, report will run all the days in the week except Sunday.

Monthly – Report will run every Number of Months (1 (Jan) – 12 (Dec)). For example, if you select 1, report will every Year Feb (2) Month based on your Start & End Date. It will allow you to select only one Month in the selection.

Nth Day of Month – Report will run on the Nth day of each month. If you select 10, report will run every month date of 10 based on the Start Date. It will not run after the End Date.

1st Monday of Month – Report will run on the 1st Monday of each month based on Start Date.

Last Day of Month – Report will run on Last Day of each month based on Start Date.

X day of Nth Week of the Month – Report will run on any days between Monday to Sunday of any of the week (1- 5) of the month. If you want to run the report on every Wednesday on Second Week of every Month, below is the schedule method.

Calendar – Calendar is the option, where you can create your own calendar settings based on the business requirement and schedule the report based on that calendar time frames. Calendar creation can be done through CMC (BO admin) and should be made to available to the users.
Some of sample Calendars created in the CMC.

2nd Business Day of the Month – Admins has to create a calendar based on your company business and has to specify 2nd Business dates for each Month.

Business Day Calendar – It will specify all the Business Day dates of your Company and report will run only on those days. Example, these kinds of calendars will be used for Daily Sales revenue / Bank transaction Dashboard report refreshes.

Quarterly Calendar – Quarterly Calendar will be used to refresh the Quarterly reports and It will run the report after the Quarter Month Ends (March, June, October & December) and report will run first Business day of after the Quarter end.

Same way you can create your own Calendars based on your business requirements and its really help users / Admins to schedule the report on the particular day / time without manual intervention.

Prompts
Prompts section is an optional for the report and non-prompt based report won’t have this section in the schedule.

Formats and destination   

In this section will describe the output format of the report and how you want to deliver the reports to users.

Output Format and Destination

Webi and Deski reports are having different type of Output formats and below are Deski & Webi Reports available output formats.

Both Deski & Webi reports are having same delivery methods. Below is the list of reports delivery methods (destination).

Inbox – Send the reports to Users / groups of BO repository Inbox. User can access the reports from their BO repository inbox once they received the reports.

Setup the destination details for Inbox delivery as mentioned below.

•    By default “Use the Job Server’s defaults” check box will be selected. This option has to be done at server side and most of the cases, scheduling will be done based on the User specific and this check box should be removed to get the additional features.

File Location

When you selected File Location, the report should be saved in a particular file location which you have specify as mentioned below. Also the file location should have a permission from BO server to save the files.

FTP Server

FTP server option to transfer the reports into some other server. This should have Host name of the destination server, User Name, password, account details and Directory where you have to store the file in that server.

Email Recipients

Email Recipients options to send the report into specific users / group of users e-mail account. You can Specify From (who is sending the report), TO (who is receiving the report) and CC (whom you want copy the report instances). Also you can provide information / message about the report in details.

You have to select the check box “Add Attachment”, so that, report will be attached in the e-mail.

Print

This option is applicable only for Deski reports schedule. If you enabled the Print, it will select “Default Printer” which will be you server printer settings or else you have to specify the network printer information in “the Specify the Printer”.

Caching

Caching is to enable fast online viewing of your report documents in more than one format (PDF, Html & Excel). The pre-cache in different formats allow you to view your reports in other formats (other than Deski / Webi Report) instantly. If you are not enabled the Caching option, you may have end up in waiting several minutes for huge volume of reports to be refreshed in PDF, Excel or Html.

Note: Caching options for Desktop Intelligence Reports are only available when the reports format is set to Desktop Intelligence. If the format is set to Excel or PDF, the check boxes in the Caching section will be disabled.

When you schedule the Deski reports in Deski format and sent to a user email inbox, a ZIP file containing Cached versions of files included with an attachment.

The contents of a zip file generated with all three caching options are shown below along with e-mail page screen.

When you do scheduling for Webi reports you will get one more option for Formatting Locales to Pre-Load the Cache. These Webi reports cache will store into Webi servers and it cannot be attached in the e-mail when schedule in Webi format and sent through e-mail.

Events

We can also schedule the Deski / Webi reports based on triggered events. Events will be created only in CMC (BO administrator) and available to users to schedule based on the created events. There are 3 different types of events.
•    Custom Events
•    File Events
•    Scheduled Event

Custom Events: Custom Events can be done by calling Business Objects SDK functions and used to integrate reporting with other applications. Any application or web service use the Business Objects SDK functions to raise an event to trigger the report.

File Events: Business Objects Enterprise schedule server will watch for specific files to start / trigger an event. For example, you have ETL and completion of ETL load you have to place once file (Basically Dummy File) into the specific folder with proper file Name. In CMC, event will be cared by providing the below information.

Event Name: Daily Load Completion Trigger File
File Name: Loadcmp.txt
Path:  \\BOServer\ftp\Trigger\ BusObject_prod – This will your servers specified location.

Scheduled Event: This event is to define the events chain. For example, if you have a one scheduled report and want to schedule another report based on the first reports completion you use the Schedule event.

Scheduling Server Group

By default it will select the first available server. If you want to change / specifically mentioned your cluster / Load balanced server you can provide in this section based on the group of available servers.

View existing Schedule / instance

To view an existing Schedule / instance, right click on the report and select History.

In the History page you can select the report and do re-schedule or delete the instances.

In the History page you can see the report scheduled status (Success / failed / Recurring / Pending). By clicking the Status (Success / failed / Recurring / Pending) you will get complete information of the scheduled report.

Below is the Success Status of Deski report schedule.

Please share your thoughts on Report schedule.