Sometimes it might be required to distribute existing reports which are pre-generated and already contain (only) the relevant data for the intended recipient. Such reports don't require any further splitting but only to be distributed, without any modification, to the proper destination. This destination might be email or any other destination type which is currently supported by DocumentBurster™ (e.g. FTP, SFTP, etc.).
DocumentBurster™ can be configured to distribute external/existing documents which do not require splitting.
When distributing external reports DocumentBurster™ doesn't perform any splitting so you need to make sure that the reports contain (only) the relevant data for the intended recipients.
$extracted_file_path$ is the default configuration. This should be changed with a dynamic value to be filled at run-time (e.g. $var0$ user variable).
$var0$ should be configured to point to the appropriate document path to be distributed for each recipient. The external documents can be in any format, including PDF, Excel, Word, CSV,Txt, Xml or any other report format.
There are two different ways to configure the recipients list and the path to the document(s) to be distributed to each separate recipient.
These are two different ways for achieving the same business requirements. The alternative which is best fitting the needs should be used.
When using Excel for configuration
Check the existing sample report
samples/Distribute-External-Files.xls
which can
be found in
samples
folder.
Distribute-External-Files.xls
report contains a list of recipients together
with the relevant
report to be distributed to each one of them.
The document paths are dynamically mapped using the $var0$ user variable. In this sample
samples/Invoices-Oct.pdf
,
samples/Invoices-Nov.pdf
and
samples/Invoices-Dec.pdf.
If required, using Excel, it should be possible to fetch the recipients list and the document(s) paths from other data sources.
Excel has the capability to connect and fetch data from various data sources including SQL Server, Oracle, Microsoft Access, MySQL and most of the existing database types. Using Excel it is also possible to fetch data from existing Xml, CSV, Txt or other Excel reports.
For more details on how to use Excel to connect to an external data source, please consult the official Microsoft Excel documentation.
As an alternative to Excel, it is also possible to provide the recipients and the document(s) paths in a PDF report. This might be convenient when there is already in place an automated PDF based reporting system which can generate the recipients list.
The PDF report should contain one distinct page for each intended recipient and each page should contain all the details required for the specific recipient (including the path(s) to the document(s) to be distributed).
Check the existing sample report
samples/Distribute-External-Files.pdf
which can
be found in
samples
folder.
Distribute-External-Files.pdf
report has three pages, each page containing the path to the
document to be
distributed to the corresponding recipient
Using DocumentBurster™ it is possible to implement conditional report delivery . While bursting the reports, DocumentBurster™ can check and can distribute only those reports which fail to meet a specified user defined condition and can be configured to skip the delivery for the reports which meet the condition.
Use case example
DocumentBurster™ can be deployed and can be easily configured to act as a management by exception reporting system which will alert the management team only for the cases where the minimum performance levels are not met.
For example, the management of your organization might require for getting each morning only the reports for the sales with very low profit margins or for the transactions with deviations from the approved discounts.
Configuration
By default, if configured to distribute reports, DocumentBurster™ will deliver to the relevant recipients all reports which are being generated during the bursting process. The default behavior can be changed, and DocumentBurster™ can be configured to skip the report distribution, by placing a text which has the pattern similar with <skip>true</skip> in each of the output documents which should be skipped for report distribution.
The same result can be achieved by using the shorter (while being less expressive) pattern <s>true</s>.
If configured to distribute reports, DocumentBurster™ will distribute to the relevant recipients all the reports which are being generated during the bursting process and for which DocumentBurster™ :
Depending on the requirements, the report writer software should properly fill the appropriate <skip>true/false</skip> tags into the reports which needs to be burst and distributed. Usually the value (true/false) from within the <skip>true/false</skip> instruction tags will be calculated by a formula defined in the report writer engine and having a business meaning such as:
This sample script can be used to achieve complex conditional report delivery scenarios.
DocumentBurster™
's
built-in capabilities (skip instruction) can be used to achieve
many
conditional distribution
scenarios while this sample script
(scripts/burst/samples/skip_current_file_distribution_if.groovy)
should be used for achieving the remaining and more complex
situations which cannot be easily implemented using the built-in
skip
instruction approach.
This sample script can be used to achieve conditional report distribution in situations similar with the following
skip_current_file_distribution_if.groovy
approach
is described in detail
in
skip_current_file_distribution_if.groovy
from
DocumentBurster™
- Advanced
Report Delivery
Scenarios.