SAP BusinessObjects WebIntelligence : Send Scheduled Report to users only in case "Scheduled Report Contains Data" else do NOT send the blank report.

[Ashish_Farkya]

In this blog post, I would like to share a business scenario ( primarily used for "Reconciliation Reports" ) and one of the solution to it.

Business Scenario :

For a WebI Report ( may be a Reconciliation report between two systems) which is scheduled to run on daily basis, users would like to -

1. Send a copy of the report to users only if the reconciliation has issues ( i.e. the Recon report has variances identified)


2. However, if there were no variances ( reconciliation was successful) then don't send the report with NO data (blank report) to users.


3. Additionally, In case "Schedule" fails to execute for any technical reasons, notify Business Users about the failure and automatically, SAP BusinessObjects WebI scheduler should try to re-run the schedule ( for 5 times at the interval of 1 minute before it gives up).

Sounds interesting yet complicated??

If you have been using WebI scheduling for quite sometime then I think you would find requirement mentioned in point #1 as simple, may be the requirement in point # 3 a bit new but however still simple, but  the requirement in point #2 is something that makes this business case a complex one.

Solution :

Part 1 : Create a WebI Report on two sources -

1. Create a WebI report, with two data providers. Merge the data set on common dimensions. Calculate variance/difference in the WebI report.


2. Set the report /block level filter as show only the records having (variance<>0)

Part 2 : Schedule the Report ( with few settings) -

1. Schedule the report to run daily, Set the options to deliver the report via "email" and with excel attachment of the report.   -- takes care of requirement in point #1


2. Use the " Delivery Rules" property to set the Schedule Status as "Warning" when Scheduled Report contains NO data.

Schedule - Delivery Rules Options

 

The trick here is that If the report contains data then the status of the scheduled Report would be set to "Success". Due to the success status, the output of the report in excel format via email will be sent to users.

But if, the Scheduled Output of the report doesn't pull any data then the schedule status would be marked as "Warning".

The moment SAP BusinessObjects scheduler finds the status as "Warning", it doesn't trigger the email with excel attachment --- This takes care of the second requirement

3. Now, the only requirement left to address is - What if the Schedule failed to run due to any system failures/ technical issues?

Let's look at the solution for this as follows :

To notify users that the Report Schedule failed to run, we can set "Notification" emails as follows -

Email Notification when job failed to run

 

now, lets configure re-try ( 5 times; 1 minute apart) , as follows :

Re-try Schedule

 

Hope, you found this blog interesting!

 

Cheers!

~ Ashish