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Creating a Distribution List

How to:

Reference:

When you create a Distribution List, you specify public or private access, and optional burst values for reports. For more information about bursting, see Bursting a Report. Additionally, you must specify one of the following distribution methods:

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Procedure: How to Create an E-mail Distribution List
  1. From the ReportCaster - Address Book Management window, select the Create a New Distribution List icon, or select New from the Action menu.

    The Distribution List New window opens.

    Note: If the Email LDAP Enabled parameter is set to YES in the ReportCaster Server Configuration tool, the Distribution List New window opens with the toolbar options and Distribution List fields in the left pane, and the Address Search fields in the right pane.

    If you will not be retrieving e-mail addresses defined in an LDAP data source, you can click Close to close the Address Search pane and increase the display size of the Distribution List fields. To reopen the Address Search pane, click the Address Search icon.

  2. From the Access drop-down list, select Public (default) or Private. Only the owner and ReportCaster Administrators can view a Private Distribution List, whereas every ReportCaster user can view a Public Distribution List.
  3. From the Distribution Method drop-down list, select EMail. Email is the default value.
  4. In the Burst Value field, if you are bursting a report (WF Server Procedure, Managed Reporting Standard Report, or Managed Reporting My Report), specify individual sort values in the field. This value is case sensitive, can be a maximum of 75 characters, and, when used with keywords, can contain wild cards or Java regular expressions. For details on using wildcards and Java regular expressions in burst values, see Bursting Guidelines and Limitations When Creating a Task.

    The burst value for a tabular report will be the first BY field, which is the primary sort field. The burst value for a graph report will be the second BY field. The burst value specified must exist in the data source that the scheduled job reports against.

    For more information about bursting a report, see Bursting a Report.

  5. In the Address field, specify the e-mail addresses of the recipients (for example, chuck_hill@ibi.com). Be careful typing this information because there is no edit checking. The maximum number of e-mail addresses you can specify in a Distribution List is 9999. You can specify a maximum of 800 characters within a single Address line.

    Note:

  6. Click Save and specify a name for your Distribution List. The Distribution List appears in the Address Book with the name you specified (for example, East Coast Sales Team).

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Procedure: How to Retrieve E-mail Addresses for a Distribution List Using Address Search

Note: The Address Search pane only appears if the Email LDAP Enabled parameter is set to YES in the ReportCaster Server Configuration tool. For more information, see LDAP Settings.

The following image shows the Address Search pane that appears to the right of the Distribution List pane while creating or editing a Distribution List.

  1. Type the search string. You can search using the following combinations:
    • Last Name [Equals | Starts with | Ends with | Contains]
    • First Name [Equals | Starts with | Ends with | Contains]
    • Email [Equals | Starts with | Ends with | Contains]

    For example, if you type S after the Last Name Starts with field, ReportCaster retrieves last names that start with the letter S.

    Note: By default, ReportCaster retrieves a maximum of 300 e-mail addresses. You can change this default value for the duration of your session. However, if you log out and log back in, the Address Search window displays the default value of 300. ReportCaster allows the retrieval of a maximum of 500 e-mail addresses. If you suspect your search will return more than 500 records, you should refine your search criteria.

  2. Click Search. ReportCaster retrieves the specified names from the LDAP data source.

  3. Select the e-mail address(es) you want to use in your Distribution List. You can multi-select e-mail addresses by pressing the Ctrl key or the Shift key.

  4. Click Insert to insert the e-mail address(es) into your Distribution List, as shown in the following image.

    By default, ReportCaster separates multiple e-mail addresses with a comma. The e-mail addresses will appear in the To: line of a single e-mail when the scheduled output is distributed.

Note: Repeat these steps if you want to change your search criteria or insert additional e-mail addresses into your schedule. If you insert additional e-mail addresses while the original e-mail addresses are selected, the new e-mail addresses will replace the old ones. If your cursor is positioned after the original e-mail addresses, the new e-mail addresses will be appended to the old ones, separated by a comma. However, be aware that the maximum number of characters is 800 when inserting addresses.

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Procedure: How to Create an FTP Distribution List
  1. From the ReportCaster - Address Book Management window, select the Create a New Distribution List icon, or select New from the Action menu.

    The Distribution List New window opens.

    Note: If ReportCaster is Email LDAP Enabled, the Address Search fields appear in the right pane but are grayed out when you select the FTP Distribution Method.

  2. From the Access drop-down list, select Public (default) or Private. Only the owner and ReportCaster Administrators can view a Private Distribution List, whereas every ReportCaster user can view a Public Distribution List.
  3. From the Distribution Method drop-down list, select FTP.
  4. In the Burst Value field, if you are bursting a report (WF Server Procedure, Managed Reporting Standard Report, or Managed Reporting My Report), specify individual sort values in the field. This value is case sensitive, can be a maximum of 75 characters, and, when used with keywords, can contain wild cards or Java regular expressions.

    The burst value for a tabular report will be the first BY field, which is the primary sort field. The burst value for a graph report will be the second BY field. The burst value specified must exist in the data source that the scheduled job reports against.

    For more information about bursting a report, see Bursting a Report and Bursting Guidelines and Limitations When Creating a Task.

  5. In the File field, specify the names of the FTP files that will hold the report (including the extension). The extension specified here should be appropriate for the format selected when creating the schedule. For example, if you selected Excel or EXL2K on a Windows platform, the file should be drive:\directory\filename.xls. The maximum number of FTP files you can specify in a Distribution List is 9999.

    Note: Placing your cursor in one of the Burst Value or File fields activates the toolbar icons. For more information about how to use these icons, see Step 4 in Editing a Distribution List.

  6. Click Save and specify a name for your Distribution List. The Distribution List appears in the Address Book with the name you specified (for example, East Coast Sales Team).

    Note:

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Procedure: How to Create a Printer Distribution List
  1. From the ReportCaster - Address Book Management window, select the Create a New Distribution List icon, or select New from the Action menu.

    The Distribution List New window opens.

    Note: If ReportCaster is Email LDAP Enabled, the Address Search fields appear in the right pane but are grayed out when you select the Printer Distribution Method.

  2. From the Access drop-down list, select Public (default) or Private. Only the owner and ReportCaster Administrators can view a Private Distribution List, whereas every ReportCaster user can view a Public Distribution List.
  3. From the Distribution Method drop-down list, select Printer.
  4. In the Burst Value drop-down list, if you are bursting a report (WF Server Procedure, Managed Reporting Standard Report, or Managed Reporting My Report), specify individual sort values in the field. This value is case sensitive, can be a maximum of 75 characters, and, when used with keywords, can contain wild cards or Java regular expressions.

    The burst value for a tabular report will be the first BY field, which is the primary sort field. The burst value for a graph report will be the second BY field. The burst value specified must exist in the data source that the scheduled job reports against.

    For more information about bursting a report, see Bursting a Report and Bursting Guidelines and Limitations When Creating a Task.

  5. In the Printer input field, specify the printer using the following format 
    queue@printserver

    where:

    queue

    Is the name of the printer queue.

    printserver

    Is the host name or IP address of the printer.

    ReportCaster can differentiate between the printer queue and the printer host name/IP address due to the presence of the '@' separator. Information Builders recommends specifying both the printer queue and host name/IP address when distributing ReportCaster output to a printer. However, ReportCaster supports specifying only the host name or IP address of the printer.

    Note: Placing your cursor in one of the Burst Value or Printer fields activates the toolbar icons. For more information about how to use these icons, see Step 4 in Editing a Distribution List.

  6. Click Save and specify a name for your Distribution List. The Distribution List appears in the Address Book with the name you specified (for example, East Coast Sales Team).

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Reference: Considerations When Creating a Printer Distribution List

When printing on Windows and UNIX, ReportCaster uses the lp (line printer) protocol, which runs on top of TCP/IP to communicate to printers. lp printing with the Novell Client is not supported. For printing on z/OS, ReportCaster uses the lpr (line printer remote) UNIX command, which has special options on the mainframe for sysout dest and class.

When creating a printer Distribution List on z/OS, the printer should be a SYSOUT class (such as A) that has been routed to a printer. For example, you can indicate that scheduled report output be distributed to a specific network printer by typing the following printer identification

 A DEST printserver

where:

A

Is the SYSOUT class to be assigned to a network printer.

printserver

Is the printer host name (for example, IBVM.P24E2).

Note: Before creating a Distribution List, Information Builders recommends verifying that you can connect to your printer by test printing a document outside of ReportCaster.

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