Creating an External Distribution File

How to:

When creating a schedule, you can distribute scheduled output to a single recipient, or to several recipients. If you are creating a schedule to be distributed to several recipients, you may want to create an external distribution file consisting of multiple recipients. The external distribution file can then be assigned to any schedule. An external distribution file is functionally similar to a Distribution List except it is created outside of ReportCaster.

In addition, you can include a password in a Distribution File. If you include a password in a Distribution File, the distribution output is encrypted in a password-protected Zip file if the Zip option is selected. This option is only available if the ReportCaster Server Configuration option, Zip Encryption Password Plug-in, is set to None. When the ReportCaster Server Configuration option, Zip Encryption Password Plug-in, is set to Default or to a custom value, passwords in a Distribution File are ignored because the plug-in provides passwords.

Syntax: How to Create an External Distribution File

The external distribution file must contain comma-delimited records, where the maximum length of each record is 800 characters. Records must end with a comma followed by a dollar sign (,$). Each record must be typed on a separate line in the file.

To specify a record for a non-burst procedure, use the following format: 

distributiondestination,,$

where:

distributiondestination

Is a valid email address, FTP file name, or printer.

To specify a record for a burst procedure, use the following format: 

distributiondestination,burstvalue,$

where:

distributiondestination

Is a valid email address, FTP file name, or printer.

burstvalue

Is a valid burst value for the report being scheduled.

You must not leave the burst value blank. This value is used to name the report file, and if no value is assigned to this parameter, you will receive an error and terminate the distribution.

If you assign a value that includes a keyword or wildcard character that might result in a blank value in one or more instances, code the procedure to assign a special value as a substitute to ensure that all instances of the burst value will not be blank.

Tip: You can specify multiple email addresses within a single record of an external distribution file. For details, see Specifying Multiple E-mail Addresses.

To specify a password for Zip output distribution, include the following statement to enable encryption and record format: 

#encryption enabled
 distributiondestination,burstvalue,password,$

where:

password

Is the value to be used as the password to access the Zip file.

Note:

  • The encryption enabled statement is not case-sensitive.
  • If you include the encryption enabled statement in your Distribution File, then burst values in the Distribution File cannot contain commas.
  • If you include the encryption enabled statement in your Distribution File, do not use commas in passwords.
  • The burst value is optional. If you are not including a burst value, be sure to add two commas between the distribution method and password value. For example: 
    mcr@company.com,,XTG2,$

The following is an example of a distribution file that contains the encryption enabled statement and several records that include password values to be passed to the Distribution Server: 

#encryption enabled
mcr@company.com,England,abcd,$
jsmith@company.com,Australia,rrrAx,$
rable@company.com,France,UtLRzet,$
tom@gadgetco.com,Italy,mOmPP,$

Note: In the Allowed Email Addresses and Domains dialog box in the ReportCaster Console, if the Restrict user input with this list check box has been selected, user input of email addresses is restricted to a list of allowed email domains and addresses. For more information, see Validating Allowed Email Domains and Addresses.

Procedure: How to Automatically Delete an External Distribution File

You can configure ReportCaster to automatically delete external distribution files after a schedule runs.

  1. Create a blank text file named fileaddr.txt in the cfg directory under the ReportCaster installation directory (for example, C:\ibi\WebFOCUS82\ReportCaster\cfg).
  2. Create a directory named addrpath on the same machine as the Distribution Server (for example, C:\ibi\WebFOCUS82\ReportCaster\addrpath) that will hold the deleted distribution files.
  3. Edit the fileaddr.txt file to include the fully qualified directory path to the external distribution files to be deleted (for example, C:\ibi\WebFOCUS82\ReportCaster\addrpath). A slash at the end of the directory path is optional. If an invalid directory path is specified in fileaddr.txt, no external distribution files will be deleted.
  4. Place the external distribution files you want automatically deleted when a schedule runs in the directory created in step 2 (for example, the C:\ibi\WebFOCUS82\ReportCaster\addrpath directory).
  5. Modify your schedules so that the external distribution file(s) are retrieved from the directory created in step 2 (for example, the C:\ibi\WebFOCUS82\ReportCaster\addrpath directory).