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The options available when you select the WF Server Procedure Task Type are:

• Task Name. Type a name that describes the task you are creating, for example, Sales Report.
• WF Reporting Server. From the drop-down list, select the server from which you want to select a report.
• Execution Id. From the Execution Id drop-down list, specify an ID that is authorized to execute procedures on the server specified in the WF Reporting Server field.

  If the Execution Id field is not grayed out, and you will be using an ID that you previously used for a Task on the selected server, you can select the ID (for example, rcadmin) from the drop-down list.

  If the Execution Id field is not grayed out and you will be using a new ID, you can type the new ID and click Set Password. The Password Editor opens. Type a password for the Id in the Password field and retype it in the Confirm password field, then click OK.

  To change the password for an existing Execution Id, click Change Password. The Password Editor opens, where you can type a new password and click OK.

  Note: The Execution Id is added to the ReportCaster Repository and is viewable in theReportCaster Console.

• Procedure Name. From the Procedure Name drop-down menu, navigate through the WF Server Procedure tree and select the WebFOCUSserver procedure that you want to schedule.
• Parameter Name and Value. Optionally, if your report has parameters or you want to schedule pre-processing or post-processing procedures, click Advanced. For more information, see How to Schedule Pre-Processing and Post-Processing Procedures.
• Report Format. From the Report Format drop-down list, select the report format. HTML is the default value. For guidelines on selecting a report format, see Selecting a Report Format.
• Burst Report. If you want to burst the report, select the Burst Report check box. The burst feature enables you to break a report into sections and distribute the sections separately. Burst values may be specified in a Distribution List, distribution file, or by creating a dynamic distribution list. For more information about bursting, see Bursting a Report.
• Save Report As. Type a file name to identify the report when it is distributed.

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The options available when you select either Standard Reports or My Reports Task Type are:

• Task Name. Type a name that describes the task you are creating, for example, Sales Report.
• Report. From the Report drop-down menu, navigate to the report you want to schedule.
• WF Reporting Server. From the drop down list, select the server from which you want to select a report.
• Execution Id. From the ID drop-down list, specify an ID that is authorized to execute procedures on the server specified in the WF Reporting Server field.

  If the Execution Id field is not grayed out, and you will be using an ID that you previously used for a Task on the selected server, you can select the ID (for example, rcadmin) from the drop-down list.

  If the Execution Id field is not grayed out and you will be using a new ID, you can type the new ID and click Set Password. The Password Editor opens. Type a password for the ID in the Password field and retype it in the Confirm password field, then click OK.

  To change the password for an existing ID, click Change Password. The Password Editor opens, where you can type a new password and click OK.

  Note: The Execution ID is added to the ReportCaster Repository and is viewable in the ReportCaster Console.

• Alert. (Standard Reports only) Click Alert to specify alert schedule options. If you are scheduling an alert, the Alert button will be activated.

  The Alert Schedule dialog box opens. Select one of the following options:

  • Automatically Reset. After the alert is triggered, reactivate the alert when the condition is no longer true. The system will keep checking the condition after the alert has been triggered. As soon as the condition is no longer true, it will reactivate the alert.
  • Continue After Alert. After the alert has been triggered, reactivate the alert immediately.
  • Deactivate Schedule After Alert. Deactivate the schedule after the alert is triggered. This is the default value.
  • Delay. Restart the alert after a specified period. You can specify to restart the alert after a maximum of 99 hour(s), day(s), week(s), month(s), or year(s).

    Caution: An alert schedule distributes e-mails to your mail server more frequently than expected when the schedule interval is less than the time it takes to run the procedure and the Delay option is selected. Be sure to set the schedule interval to a time period greater than the time it takes to run the scheduled procedure.

• Parameter Name and Value. Optionally, if your report has parameters or you want to schedule pre-processing or post-processing procedures, click Advanced. For more information, see How to Schedule Pre-Processing and Post-Processing Procedures.
• Report Format. From the Report Format drop-down list, select the report format. HTML is the default value. For guidelines on selecting a report format, see Selecting a Report Format.
• Burst Report. If you want to burst the report, select the Burst Report check box. The burst feature enables you to break a report into sections and distribute the sections separately. Burst values may be specified in a Distribution List, distribution file, or by creating a dynamic distribution list. For more information about bursting, see Bursting a Report.
• Save Report As. Type a file name to identify the report when it is distributed.

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The options available when you select the URL Task Type are:

• Task Name. Type a name that describes the task you are creating, for example, Sales Report.
• URL Address. In the URL Address field, type the fully qualified path of the URL address you want to schedule (for example, http://www.informationbuilders.com).

  Note that you can also specify parameter names and associated values using the following format:

  www.address.com?&parameter1_name=parameter1_value&parameter2_name=parameter2_value

  The maximum length of this field is 1200 characters.

• Execution Id. From the Execution ID drop-down list, select an execution ID that is authorized to execute a URL on a secured Web server.

  To change the password for an existing ID, click Change Password. The Password Editor opens, where you can type a new password and click OK.

  Note: The Execution Id is added to the ReportCaster Repository and is viewable in the ReportCaster Console.

• Parameter Name and Value. Optionally, if your URL has parameters, you can provide them in these fields.
• Save Report As. Type a file name to identify the task when it is distributed.

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The options available when you select the File Task Type are:

• Task Name. Type a name that describes the task you are creating, for example, Sales Report.
• File. Type the name of the file you want to schedule.You must type the fully qualified path (for example, d:\reportcaster77\filename.doc) of the file. In addition, the file must be accessible to the ReportCaster Distribution Server.
• Save Report As. Type a name for the content to be distributed. Be sure to include the extension. For example, you might save this report as hrletter.doc, therefore, this file will be distributed as hrletter.doc.
• Delete the file after it is distributed. Select this option to delete the file once it has been distributed.

  Note: If a schedule has multiple tasks and one of the tasks fails, then the file will not be deleted. This is true even when the file is distributed successfully.

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The options available when you select the FTP or SFTP Task Type are:

• Task Name. Type a name that describes the task you are creating, for example, Sales Report.
• FTP Server Name. Specify the name of the FTP server from which you will retrieve the file.
• FTP User. Specify the user ID and password you will use to gain access to the FTP Server.
• File Name. Specify the name of the file you want to schedule. You can browse to the file or type the fully qualified path to the file on the FTP server. An example of a fully qualified path on Windows is C:\Reports\Inventory\NEstores.xls, and on UNIX is /Docs/Specs/proto5.txt.
• File Transfer Type. From the File Transfer Type drop-down list, select Binary (for non-text files) or ASCII (for text files). Binary is the default value.
• Save Report As. Type a name for the content to be distributed. Be sure to include the extension. For example, you might save this report as hrletter.doc, therefore, this file will be distributed as hrletter.doc.
• Delete File. Select this option if you want the schedule to run once and then be deleted on the FTP server. Note that the FTP user ID must be authorized to delete the file on the FTP server.

  Note: If a schedule has multiple tasks and one of the tasks fails, then the file will not be deleted. This is true even when the file is distributed successfully.

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If you are scheduling a report Task that is a WF Server Procedure, Standard Report, or My Report, you can schedule a maximum of two pre-processing and post-processing procedures. The pre-processing and post-processing procedures that you schedule must reside on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server.

To schedule pre-processing and post-processing procedures for a Task:

1. Click Advanced Procedure. The Advanced Procedures window opens, as shown in the following image.

   

2. Select the following information:
   1. Pre-processing Procedures:

      First. From the drop-down list, select the first pre-processing procedure. ReportCaster will run this procedure immediately preceding the scheduled Task.

      Second. From the drop-down list, select the second pre-processing procedure. ReportCaster will run this procedure immediately after the first pre-processing procedure, but before the scheduled Task.

   2. Post-processing Procedures:

      First. From the drop-down list, select the first post-processing procedure. ReportCaster will run this procedure immediately following the scheduled Task.

      Second. From the drop-down list, select the second post-processing procedure. ReportCaster will run this procedure immediately after the first post-processing procedure.

3. Click OK to return to the Task tab.

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Use the following guidelines when selecting a format:

• The report format specified in the Report Format field overrides the format statement in the procedure, except for specialized formats (EXL2K FORMULA, EXL2K PIVOT, EXL2K TEMPLATE, PPT TEMPLATE, DFIX). When a report uses a specialized format, the format selection in the report schedule must match that specified in the report.
• There are limitations on what formats are valid for certain options. For instance, not all formats are supported for bursting or printing.
  • The formats that support bursting are AHTML (except for FML reports), ALPHA, COM, COMMA, COMT, DHTML (except for FML reports), DFIX, DOC, EXL07, EXL2K, EXL2K FORMULA, EXL2K TEMPLATE, EXL97, Flash/Flex, GIF, HTML and HTML ODP (except for FML reports), JPEG, PDF, PNG, PPT, PS, SVG,TAB, TABT, and WP.
  • The formats that support printing are DOC, PDF (when ReportCasteris configured to allow PDF to be printed and the printer has the appropriate driver), PS, and WP.
  • When scheduling a procedure that was created using Graph Assistant or Advanced Graph Assistant and:
    • an image format (JPEG, GIF, PNG, SVG) was chosen as the output format, then you must select an image format as the schedule output.
    • the PDF/SVG or PDF/GIF format was chosen as the output format, then you must select PDF as the schedule output.
  • The HTML ODP format can only be distributed to the Report Library.
• If the report is a Coordinated Compound PDF Report, then you can select any supported compound format (AHTML, DHTML, EXL2K, Flash/Flex, PDF, or PPT), but keep in mind that not all of these formats support bursting.

• When scheduling a chart or graph report, the available formats will depend on which tool was used to create the report. When the report was created using:

  • Graph Assistantor Advanced Graph Assistant, then the available formats are GIF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, and SVG.
  • Report Assistant or InfoAssist, then the available formats are all formats except GIF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, and SVG.
  • Power Painter, then the available formats are AHTML, DHTML, EXL2K, EXL2K PIVOT, Flash, PDF, and PPT.
  • If the FEX was created using an editor, then all formats that the ReportCaster administrator set to appear in the formats option list will be available.