On Demand Report Bursting (DRB) in Business Objects for Dynamic Recipient-A different way of Report Bursting

[Former Member]

We’re all aware about report bursting- It is the ability to publish and schedule reports according to one’s profile.

Let us discuss the other way of report bursting where user sets their prompts and preferred format of report they want to receive on their
demand. Let’s chalk out the problem.

Problem Statement:

1. Non enterprise users: Business Objects Administrator does not want to load the user into BO repository
2. Dynamic Prompt: User wants to choose for which parameters to run and to have the report for
3. Dynamic Format: User wants to select which report format they prefer to see on next day
4. On Demand: User may need report on the next day or may not. It depends on their business needs. Whenever they feel the need for report next day, they request for report bursting on their preferred prompts

Let us discuss whether we can achieve through regular Report bursting either through CMC or BI Launch Pad:

1. Regular Report bursting support enterprise recipients as well as Dynamic recipients but in DRB (On Demand Report Bursting), we’re looking forward for dynamic recipients which is neither fixed on daily basis nor triggered through Universe. The Dynamic Recipients always vary depending on user demand for report bursting. One user may request for a report one day and next day he/she may not need. So the recipient list is totally dynamic
2. There is no concept of prompt change on demand for report bursting. Administrator publishes report through on time report parameter set up. There is no control from user side to get report on their preferred report prompt on demand
3. The common approach does not offer user to choose the preferred format on request basis. Administrator schedules bursting with one format and continues in same format. DRB supports dynamic report format change on demand, the user can get the same report in pdf format one day
   and on next day, he can request for in excel format
4. The on demand report bursting is a new concept which the regular approach does not support. In regular approach, admin set the process one time and schedules for a specific period. The DRB helps user to get  report when they really feel the need. If they do not want, they do not request for it, if they do need on next day, they request to get with preferred dataset

  Solution:

The DRB (On Demand Report Bursting) is a solution combining a web application and a java process. The non-enterprise user has access to DRB web app and they have access to preferred report. Whenever uses feel to get report on next day, they submit request through the online web application. The application captures the user details (like user id, user email address etc...) and report detail (like dynamic report prompts, report format etc...) and store into triggering database table.

On second step, the java process reads the triggered table and schedules the report. It sends the report in preferred format on successful run; if the process fails, it updates the triggered table with failure details.

It’s a custom application base on Business Objects 4.0 SDK API.

Please share your thoughts and let me know if you want to know more about DRB.

Please find the Architecture / Process Flow Diagram attached here