Scheduled Notifications with Filter Changes

#1

This may need to get moved to Feature Requests, but I wanted to reach out here first to see if anyone has a pre-existing solution.

Short version: I’m looking to setup a scheduled export of a report with different filter values based on the scheduled notification (schedule 1 would have filter A, schedule 2 would have filter B, etc.)

Long version:

I’ve designed a report to spit out some basic groupings as well as a summary in the header. I’ve also added two filters to the report - a drop-down list for Company_Name and a date range for Date_Resolved.

The report itself works great, but now it’s time to put the report into production. We’re going to want monthly PDF exports for a handful of clients with a date range of end-of-month minus 60 days. All easy so far.

The problem is that I can’t touch the filters while setting up the schedule. For instance, I can’t say “on the 1st day of every month, send a report with Company = ABC Co” then make a new schedule for “on the 2nd day of every month, send a report with Company = BBC Co”. The report simply remembers the values set on the filters when it was last checked in and runs with those.

The Director really, really doesn’t want to have to log in on a schedule, change the filters, run the report, save the PDF, etc.

The best idea I’ve been able to come up with is to clone the report for each client, set and save the filters, and set notifications on each of them, but that seems a bit ham-fisted.

If anyone has any ideas or has faced a similar issues, I’d be eternally grateful for any suggestions or advice!

-Matt

#2

I’m actually doing something similar. We are doing data driven notifications, but the same should work for scheduled as well. Once you choose the schedule you want, you may have to clear the checkbox for Preserve Current Parameter Values, go down to Delivery Options. Click the Edit button next to the recipient. There will be an option to customize parameters.
You could also just filter the dashboard for the Company name and set up the notification with the dashboard prefiltered. That’s how I have been doing the data driven notifications and it seems to work pretty well.

I hope that helps. The end result would be a schedule for each company, but the data should filter the way you tell it to.

2 Likes
#3

Interesting… I wouldn’t have thought to look there (under the adding of a recipient). Unfortunately, while I do see the “Customize parameters” button, clicking it does nothing. I’m going to start investigating it as a browser issue, but has anyone else run into issues with this button?

#4

This might help you guys - https://www.dundas.com/learning/webinars/04-05-2017-operational-reporting-_-enhancements-in-reports-and-scorecards

#5

Yea, there is a little bit more setup I failed to mention. My apologies. You need to make sure you configure viewParamters for anything you want to filter on. When editing the dashboard, just click the Parameters tab on the bottom, and then add whatever you need. Those will show up on the ‘customize parameters’ section of the notification setup.

#6

@Jeff - cool video, but doesn’t really cover this situation (it did teach me how to put my filter settings as labels on the report itself, so that’s a win)

@Andy - I already have those - they were created automatically when I added the filters to the report. At the moment it shows 4 view parameters: Company and DateResolvedRange (which I made via the aforementioned filters), BrushViewParameter and "[Generated] filter 2 Filter View Parameter

Local testing didn’t resolve anything - I was hoping some combination of browser and check-out state would create the appropriate box when I clicked the “Customize parameters” button, but so far, nothing. The button is there, it just refuses to do anything when clicked.

I’m going to re-build the report entirely… there are a lot of version that include a lot of testing. It’s entirely possible that there’s simply some bad link or disused object floating about causing the issue. I’ll update shortly…

#7

No joy. I created a highly simplified version of the report with the same 2 filters and I get the same issue. The “Customize parameters” button appears, but clicking it does nothing. Tested in Chrome, IE and Firefox just in case.

Interestingly, about 60% of the time when I click “Notification”, I get an error which reads “A command execution has failed. Cannot read property ‘localeCompare’ of null”. I’m allowed to close the error and proceed, but am unsure if it’s related to the symptoms.

#8

Hi Matt,

This might be getting a bit deep for a forum answer. Can put you in touch with a dedicated support person to get on a meeting and gave you a hand? I have a feeling that this is something that should be seen directly.

Just let me know if you’d like this.

#9

Hi Jeff,

That would be very much appreciated!

-Matt

#10

I’ll get the ball rolling immediately.