BusinessObjects Board

Schedule reports to export only if data returned

scheduling XI Scheduler
#1

Hi there,

What are the ways we can use built in BO funtionality to determine if rows are retrieved or not in Webi reports?

I have a business need to schdule Webi reports to .pdf where they are distributed by a sperate workflow application. One of the requirements is that these reports should not be sent out if they do not include data (makes sense!). The current way we are managing this is using multiple reports with vba which exports only when rows are retrieved. Ideally I would like to utilize some other built in way and slim down to one report possibly using profiles.

Thanks in advance.

CCampbell :us: (BOB member since 2006-05-17)

Dont send report when no data to fetch in scheduling.
#2

I see there was an earlier thread on this topic from a past co-worker and no real answers in XI yet. :cry:

CCampbell :us: (BOB member since 2006-05-17)

#3

I’ve not seen the previous thread myself… but also have the same request.

We have reports sent out weekly to vendors to alert them when there are changes to merchandise, however many vendors have no changes during a week and we don’t want to send them a report if there was no data returned. (It seems a bit unprofessional to send that blank looking PDF file).

If anyone has found a solution, or know if it’s even possible I’d love to hear about it.

JPetlev (BOB member since 2006-11-01)

#4

A solution like Infoburst answers your needs:

You can say: “don’t send the doc if the dataprovider returns 0 row”. It’s just a checkbox in a burst’s settings.

But Infoburst can go deeper too : you could say : I send the doc, only if a report’s indicator is > than a value (eg : amount > 10 000 $)

  • Support BO V5 / V6 / XIR2 - (Deski + Webi), Crystal Report
  • Output Format : pdf, xls, html, native, csv, txt, xml, zip
  • Distribution : mail, share folder, ftp, repo BO, webdav, printer, Webserver
  • Manage refresh and distribution for Xcelcius Dashboard too
  • Allow True Report Bursting (Single Pass Refresh + split) for all BO Documents (Deski / Webi / CR), no matter BO version
  • and much more…

You can find more information here :

cchaize :fr: (BOB member since 2005-11-02)

#5

I’ve got a requirement to do this now.
Crystal Reports Server XI on a Sybase IQ datasource.
Its an Exception type report that needs to run hourly and notify user by email of records above a certain threshold.
I looked into trying to get the Crystal Report to flag an error somehow to the scheduler to fail the report, but no joy.
Next stage is a Batch or Perl script that interrogates the datasource and will trigger an event for the report to run…unless someone got a better idea that does not involve spending more pennies???

tedzonk :uk: (BOB member since 2006-03-29)

#6

Managed to get it to work by raising an error in the SQL.

if @@rowcount<1 then raiserror 31000 ‘no rows’

That fails the instance and so means that no email is sent out.

tedzonk :uk: (BOB member since 2006-03-29)

#7

Hi Ted,

I have reports running on the universe.

Where exactly am i supposed to embed this SQL and how.

Please help me pal… :wah:

Thanks & Regards,
Sandeep Kumar

sandeepkumar :india: (BOB member since 2006-06-27)

#8

I have implemented it using the Command option on the data source. You could implement it via a stored procedure too.

tedzonk :uk: (BOB member since 2006-03-29)

#9

Ted,

I really appreciate your help.

But, could you be a little clear as how exactly implement this at the report level; a report built around a universe.

We have Oracle as our data source.

Thanks & Regards,
Sandeep Kumar

sandeepkumar :india: (BOB member since 2006-06-27)

#10

I think maybe we can achieve the <x rows with a Crystal report using an alerter then schedule the remaining reports based on that alert.

CCampbell :us: (BOB member since 2006-05-17)