How Two-Way Email Works

In this section:

With Two-Way Email, mobile business professionals have access to the enterprise data of their company, from any location, at any time.

The following basic activities enable the Two-Way Email capability. The Managed Reporting Administrator or Developer performs some activities, and the user performs others:

The user simply replies to and sends a template to receive the associated report.

Details on the processing behind these activities follow.


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Subscription and Confirmation Processing

The following steps take place when a new user subscribes to Two-Way Email using an HTML subscription page. A Managed Reporting Administrator and ReportCaster Administrator can also subscribe a new user from the Two-Way Email Administrator console.

The following images depict the steps being explained.

From a browser, a user accesses the HTML subscription page and supplies the Managed Reporting user ID and password, WebFOCUS Reporting Server user ID and password, and e-mail address.

 

Two-Way Email checks the user ID, password, and domain authorization, links the security credentials to the applicable templates, and creates a new user record in the Two-Way Email user database.

 

Two-Way Email sends a confirmation message to the user through e-mail.

The user receives and replies to the confirmation message through e-mail, using a handheld device, laptop, or desktop computer.

 

Two-Way Email receives the confirmation reply and verifies the Reply-To address in the user record in the Two-Way Email database.

 

Two-Way Email retrieves the applicable templates from the Managed Reporting Repository and sends them to the validated, registered user as e-mail messagess.

     


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Report Request Processing

The following steps take place when a user requests a report.

In the handheld device, laptop, or desktop computer from the e-mail client, the user selects, replies to, and sends a template. The e-mail is routed to an e-mail server.

The Two-Way Email Listener monitors its inbox on the e-mail server and detects the request. It validates the address of the sender as a subscriber address and queues the request.

The Two-Way Email Dispatcher takes the request off the queue and starts a Worker thread.

The Worker checks the security credentials from Managed Reporting, retrieves the Standard Report procedure, merges it with parameter values, and sends it to the WebFOCUS Reporting Server for processing.

The Worker starts an agent on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server. The server runs the procedure with any parameter values. The Reporting Server sends output back to the Distribution Server.

The Distribution Server sends the e-mail message.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Secured Message Delivery

Two-Way Email provides the same level of secured message delivery as provided by Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

Managed Reporting enables central management of user access to data. As a Managed Reporting Administrator, you use standard Managed Reporting security features to establish the credentials and access privileges of a user.

You need to:


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Security in the Subscription and Confirmation Procedure

See Subscription and Confirmation Processing, for an illustration of this procedure.

For a first-time subscriber, Two-Way Email checks the Managed Reporting user ID and password and the domain authorization. It creates a new subscriber record in the Two-Way Email database and sends a confirmation message to the e-mail address supplied. This message enables validation of the correct Reply-To address for the subscriber, since Two-Way Email actually uses the address to acknowledge the subscription request.

Once Two-Way Email receives the reply of the subscriber to the message, it stores the correct address in the Two-Way Email database.

The credentials of the subscriber are also linked to the allowed Two-Way Email templates. That information is encrypted to provide additional security.


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Security in the Report Request Procedure

See Report Request Processing, for an illustration of this procedure.

When a subscriber sends a request for a report, Two-Way Email makes sure that the Reply-To e-mail address of the sender is the same as the e-mail address of the subscriber. This security feature prevents unauthorized users from gaining access to reports.

Two-Way Email also verifies the content of the request to make sure it is a Two-Way Email request. If it is not, Two-Way Email sends the request to an error account.


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Error Account

When a user requests a report, Two-Way Email examines the content of the request. Non-Two-Way Email requests are sent to an error account. The e-mail address for this account is specified during WebFOCUS installation.

Make sure that someone periodically checks and cleans up the error account.


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Report Display Considerations

A report displayed on a handheld device is text based and does not support formatting options such as font size or color.

As a Managed Reporting Administrator or Developer, you are responsible for designing reports that are compatible with the display device. Reports may require tailoring for small screen presentation.

Possible display options include the following.

See the Creating Reports for WebFOCUS Language manual, for details on report display and syntax.


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Alert Response

Two-Way Email alert response is available only at sites that have licensed and installed both ReportCaster and Two-Way Email. For more information, see the WebFOCUS Managed Reporting Developer’s Manual.

A Managed Reporting Administrator or Developer can attach a Two-Way Email template to a ReportCaster Alert. The user is alerted when certain pre-defined data conditions are met, and can use the attached template to respond to the alert to request a report for more detail.

Note: Two-Way Email does not support Compound Reports.


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