A report with appointments in its calendar is created automatically: the server runs it at each appointment, stores it as a file and sends it by email. Each such report needs the license Server: Scheduled reports, per report.
Creating appointments
- Open the report in the Reports list and let it run once, see The report window.
- Click Calendar. A monthly calendar appears.
- Right-click a day and choose New entry for a single appointment or New recurring entry for a recurring one, for example every Monday.
- On the Appointment tab, set the start and recurrence, and on the Automatic report creation tab, set the period, format and email — see below.
- Save the report in the report window.
- The times apply in the time zone of your computer.
- Each appointment has its own settings; a series shares one set.
- With Edit entry, Edit series and Delete entry, you change appointments later.
Report output
The Automatic report creation tab has two tabs. The first one, Report Output, sets the period and the file:
| Field | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Group time type | the unit of the report period: Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter or Year | Day |
| Group time count | how many of these units the report covers; a whole number greater than 0 | 1 |
| Timezone to display report | the time zone in which the server calculates the period and shows the times | the time zone of your computer |
| Export format | the format of the file: Pdf, Htm, Mht, Rtf, Docx, Xls, Xlsx, Csv, Txt or Image (PNG) | |
| Separator | only for Csv and Txt: the character between the columns | empty |
Which period
The report covers the last complete units before the appointment — with Group time count 1:
| Group time type | Period | Appointment on Wednesday, Sep 23, 6:00 |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | the last full minute | 5:59 to 6:00 |
| Hour | the last full hour | 5:00 to 6:00 |
| Day | yesterday | Sep 22 |
| Week | the previous week, Monday to Sunday | Sep 14 to Sep 20 |
| Month | the previous month | August |
| Quarter | the previous quarter | 2nd quarter |
| Year | the previous year | previous year |
With a larger Group time count, the period reaches back correspondingly further: Day with 7 covers the last seven days up to 0:00 today.
The second tab, Smtp server settings, determines who receives the report by email:
| Tab | Field | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Smtp server | Sender mailbox | the sender address; if empty, the one from Email send configuration in the server configuration |
| Sender display name | the name of the sender | |
| Receivers | Recipients (,), Carbon copy (,), Blind carbon copy (,) | addresses for To, Cc and Bcc, separated by commas |
| Subject | the subject | |
| Text | the text of the email, with formatting |
The server attaches the report as a file. In Subject and Text, it replaces these placeholders:
| Placeholder | Replaced by |
|---|---|
%REPORTNAME%, %REPORTID% |
the name and the ID of the report |
%REPORTSTARTTIME%, %REPORTENDTIME% |
the start and end of the period, in the time zone of the appointment |
%REPORTRENDERTIME% |
how long the report took to run |
%SERVERNAME% |
the computer name of the server |
- Server, port and authentication for sending come from Email sending; the appointment only sets the sender address and display name.
- An email is only sent if there is at least one recipient and both the sender address and the display name are set — in the appointment or in the server configuration. If any of this is missing, nothing is sent, without a message.
- Before sending, the server itself logs on to the SMTP server, so it must be able to reach it. The email is sent via a Routing Service.
When the server creates the report
- The active server creates the report, always at the start of an appointment. How long an appointment lasts does not matter; a new appointment has a duration of zero.
- If two identical appointments follow each other without a gap, the report is created only once. So keep appointments short.
- If you save the report while an appointment is running, or if the server starts during that time, the report is created immediately.
- The server only creates one report at a time. The others wait up to 15 minutes; after that, the run is dropped and there is a message.
- Only reports with the Run state Enabled run.
The file
If a Path to store reports is entered in the server configuration, the server stores the file there — named according to the Export File Name Template, see Automatic reports. It does not overwrite a file that already exists.
License and run state
A report takes up the license as soon as its calendar has at least one appointment — even if all appointments are in the past. So delete appointments that will not come up again. Without a free license, the report is set to No License and does not run; when a license becomes free, the server checks again.
Messages
If something fails during an automatic run, all logged-in administrators and supervisors receive a Reports error message with the name of the report:
| Message | Cause |
|---|---|
| Error while saving report to file store | The file could not be stored; the reason is shown below, for example File name template is invalid. or Report location not configured. |
| Error while sending report by email | Sending failed, for example because the server cannot reach the SMTP server. |
| Error while updating the report | The server could not reschedule the report after it was saved or after the licenses changed. |
If running the report itself fails, the message names the automatic report creation. The information area shows identical messages at most once in 24 hours.
If a report did not run, catch up on it with Run again.