Scheduling

A key component of the report functionality is the ability to schedule periodic report running. Any preset or customized template can be scheduled by means of the scheduling properties dialog.

To schedule template executions

• Click in the Reports wizard Summary window
   

-OR-

• Right-click a report of interest in the tree node and select Schedule from the pop-up menu.

Note: For reports to be run as scheduled, the Windows task schedule systems service must be running and the client must be active and have a network connection.

Define the schedule by means of its two composing tabs: Schedule and Delivery Options:

Schedule tab

Divided into two sections, use the upper half to schedule periodicity (daily, weekly, monthly or one-time only) and commencement (Start time and Start date) and the lower half for (first-time) User Information definition.

In the lower half, a valid Windows operating system user ID and password must be specified. This account is used by the Windows Scheduler to perform the actual task of report creation.  If no account information exists, click (or through Display Options configuration: | Scheduler tab) to display the Set Scheduler Account dialog, wherein you supply the valid Windows operating system user ID and password. If yours is a domain account, the user identification must be prefixed with the domain identification and "\". (For example, user John Smith in the PRODUCTION environment might have a user identification of: PROD\Jsmith)

Note: Once you enter this data, it updates all existing schedules to that account information and any subsequently created schedules (for this and all other Oracle instances accessed from this client) will also have that same account. If your network user/password is changed, you must reenter the User Information for your schedules to work.

Delivery Options tab

Use these checkboxes to set the report delivery destinations:

• Output to Performance Analysis—In order for you to make use of the Performance Analysis tree node archival and retrieval functionality and to list each report occurrence in the right pane, you must select this checkbox.  Only by selecting this checkbox can you preserve customized runnings, like that of the customized template "Weekly Activity", in the following illustration:

• Output to the following directory: Formatted (html, xhtml, xms, RTF, or pdf) to a target (possibly network) location to which the account has WRITE permission. If the account is a web-accessible address, you can effortlessly create daily updates of key performance indicators for controlled dissemination.

• Output by Email to the Following Addresses: Enter here valid email addresses, semi-colon delimited, of intended report recipients. The reports (formatted as above) will be sent as attachments in the specified format, no validity or receipt checks will be performed and the recipients will be unable to reply to the sender. Click Set SMTP Properties to define the SMTP address (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), the email sender address, and as necessary, the email account information (username and password). Click Send test mail to verify that the SMTP properties are specified correctly.