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Managing a report notification schedule
Who is this article for?
Users who want to create a report notification schedule
No elevated permissions are required.
Saved search reports can help users stay up to date with relevant information in a timely and organized manner. Notifications can be scheduled and sent at specific times, such as daily, weekly, or monthly, or notifications can be generated by specific events or conditions, such as when new data matches certain criteria or when there are significant changes in the search results.
Creating a report notification
Once a search has been completed and saved as a report, set up a notification by clicking on the Notification button on the toolbar.
In the notifications window enter the subject, body, text, and other relevant email attributes. Hover over the help icons for more information about various fields. When the notification details have been added, test the notification. First click Save then Test Search and Run Now.
Adding attachments
Notifications can be optionally configured to include an attachment in one of two formats, PDF or Spreadsheet.
The content, layout, and functionality of the attachment is determined by the view, grouping, and attachment type.
Notification failures due to attachment size
Careful consideration should be taken when selecting the option to add an attachment. A large attachment could block the delivery of the notification based on email setting limitations. Most spreadsheets are attached within an acceptable limit, whereas .pdf documents may convert to a larger size.
Setting a schedule
Set up a reoccurring schedule notification or a triggered notification that is based on set defined criteria.
Schedule dates determined by server location
Schedules run in the time zone where the server is located. U.S. hosted environment is in the Central time zone.
Quarterly (and other monthly schedules) notification dates
Monthly schedules can be set up to send notifications quarterly, or other monthly frequencies, for example, every 6 months. When these types of schedules are used the notification schedule will always begin on January 1. Subsequent notifications will then be calculated from January 1.
For example, notifications set to quarterly (every 3 months) will be sent on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. It is not possible to define the first period to be a month other than January.
If a quarterly schedule is created mid-cycle, the first notification will be sent on the next scheduled date (e.g. Scheduled in May so the first notification will be sent on July 1.)
Defining a triggered notification
A notification trigger is a specific condition or event that initiates the sending of a notification. Triggers can be set up based on various criteria, such as:
- Time-based triggers: Notifications are sent at specific times or intervals (e.g., daily at 9 AM, weekly on Mondays).
- Event-based triggers: Notifications are sent when certain events occur (e.g., a new search result matches specific keywords, a notable change in data is detected).
- Threshold-based triggers: Notifications are sent when certain thresholds are met (e.g., the number of search results exceeds a set limit, a particular metric reaches a critical value)
Using notification triggers can help limit the number of notifications by ensuring that users only receive updates when they are most relevant. This prevents users from being overwhelmed with constant notifications and allows them to focus on the most essential information.
For example, instead of receiving a notification for every single new search result, a user might set a trigger to only receive notifications when there are more than ten new results or when a high-priority keyword is detected.
There are various trigger types to choose from, with some requiring a value to be set in the Criteria field.
Notification Trigger Types
| Notification Type | Criteria EXAMPLE | A notification would be triggered and distributed |
|---|---|---|
| Total rows returned > | 5 | When a report's row count is 6 rows or more Note: 0-5 is acceptable, 6+ exceeds the criteria and triggers a notification |
| Total rows returned < | 5 | When a report's row count is 4 or less Note: 5+ is acceptable, 0-4 exceeds the criteria and triggers a notification |
| Difference from prior run > | 5 | When there are more than 5 changes to a report from the last time the report was run Note: 0-5 is acceptable, 6+ exceeds the criteria and triggers a notification |
| Difference from prior run < | 5 | When there are less than 5 changes to a report from the last time the report was run Note: 5+ is acceptable, 0-4 exceeds the criteria and triggers a notification |
| Percent difference from prior run > | 3 | When the number of items changed divided by the total number of items is greater than (>) 3% since the prior run Note: 0-3% is acceptable, 3%+ exceeds the criteria |
| Percent difference from prior run < | 3 | When the number of items that have been changed divided by the total number of items is less than (<) 3% since the prior run Note: 3% or greater is acceptable, less than 3% exceeds the criteria |
| Items have been added | 5 | When at least 5 items are added to a report Note: 5 or more items will trigger a notification, 0-4 is not enough to meet the criteria |
| Items have been removed | 5 | When at least 5 items or more are removed from a report Note: 5+ will trigger a notification, 0-4 is not enough to meet the criteria |
| Items have been added or removed | 1 | When at least one item has been added or removed from a report the criteria will be met and a notification triggered Note: when there are zero changes a report will not be triggered |
| (Trending Only) The most recent period has a cell score > | 5 | The Trending Score has exceeded the acceptable score of 5 and will trigger a notification |
Notification Type Criteria
Criteria must be in the form of an Integer. Integers are whole numbers that can be positive, negative, or zero. Acceptable criteria will not include fractions or decimals.
Shared report Notifications
Because notifications are generated by running saved searches, theNotificationbutton is grayed out until the search has been saved again. Only administrators can modify a notification published to a shared dashboard. Otherwise, the screen will be view-only.
Add report information to the subject line
Fields in the report can be added to the subject or body of a notification when they are referred to by the module builder::field name::. For example, a field in a module called “Owner” can be embedded into the notification by using the variable::Owner::.
Ideagen does not currently publish the available field names directly in the notifications screen, but an administrator can retrieve the “Field name” through the Query Builder window by querying thevXX_Fieldsystem view.
Notification Limitation
Notifications that use thresholds (e.g., Total rows returned > 0) to determine when a notification should be sent do not consider BI right-side filters, such as advanced filtering of child-level data. See University Course 1010 – Dashboard, Searching, Reporting for more information.
Recipients
Emails can be sent to internal users (those that have a platform account), external users, and teams. External user email addresses must be typed into the "E-mail(s)" field. When a notification is distributed to a platform team, an external team member is also included in the distribution list.
Another option to distribute the email to a large external group is to send the email to an externally managed distribution list. For example, a company could create and maintain a distribution list called, "dailyactionslist@yourcompany.com". To send a notification to this list add the distribution list to the notification recipient's field.
Sub-Reports
Attachments in emails received by sub-report recipients will only contain the items that relate to that recipient. However, if the sub-report recipient clicks the "Run Search" button, they will see all the results of the search.
Setting up a notification with sub-reports
Sub-Report Notifications can only be assigned to a person. Team Sub-Report Notifications are not supported. To assign a notification to a person(s), select a name(s) from the Send sub-reports to dropdown. This will generate a unique sub-report for each recipient. These emails will be in addition to the complete report sent to any additional recipients specified.
For example, if the sub-report field is Manager and a search result contains two distinct managers, Joe and Ellen, then Joe will receive a notification with a sub-report attachment containing just his items, and Ellen will receive one containing only her items. If Joe or Ellen clicks the "Run Search" button they will see all the items.
Notifying a team OR an individual.
Fields that allow for the selection of both a team or an individual cannot be used with the Sub-Reports feature.
Notifications created by users that are now disabled.
When a user is disabled, all notifications created by that user will cease working after 30 days or need to be reassigned to an active user. If recipients of a notification would like to continue to receive the report it can also be saved under their own reports.
More Information
Administrators, see Admin Notifications for additional information on managing notifications created by all users.