Bursting a Report

Instead of distributing an entire report from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), you can use the burst feature to break the report into sections to be distributed separately to the same or different destinations. Bursting enables you to target relevant sections of a report to individual users. Each report section is saved to a separate file.

If you are distributing a burst tabular report, the burst value is determined by the first BY field. If you are distributing a burst graph report, the burst value is determined by the second BY field. The burst value is automatically determined by the internal matrix, which is a memory area that stores each database field value and calculates values referenced by the TABLE or GRAPH request.

You can send several report sections to one recipient by specifying the destination of that recipient (email addresses, FTP server locations, and files or printers) for each section you want to send. You can also send several report sections to one destination. The burst values you specify in the Distribution List must exist in the data source you are reporting against.

Note:

• If you want to burst a report, you must enable the bursting option within the Task for a schedule. The burst values specified in the Burst Value column in the Distribution List are ignored unless the Task specifies to burst the report.
• Report names containing more than 60 National Language Support (NLS) characters are truncated to 60 characters prior to distribution. This prevents a report name from becoming corrupted when the report is emailed.
• Before distributing a coordinated Infographic procedure as an inline email message, you must select the Burst Report check box in the scheduling tool. Infographic procedures that are not coordinated cannot be burst. For more information, see the WebFOCUS Infographics technical content.
• If you choose to distribute your reports as inline email messages, when an email recipient receives a chart or infographic distribution that contains more than one burst value, the multiple charts or infographics will display inline. For more information, see the WebFOCUS Infographics technical content.

Example: Specifying Burst Values in a Distribution List

You can specify sort field burst values and destinations (email addresses, FTP, or printers) when creating or editing a Distribution List. The following image shows burst values and the destination email addresses specified in the Distribution List window.

Using the primary sort field values (Northeast Sales, South Sales, and Midwest Sales), the email address of each representative is associated with the relevant sales report data. Since Chuck Hill needs only the data for the Northeast branch, the sort value Northeast is listed in the Burst Value column and is associated with his email address in the E-mail column.

However, Tom Gregory works in both the Midwest and South regions. Since he requires data for both regions, his email address is listed in the E-mail column twice, next to a Burst Value column entry for each region.

Note:

• You can click on a column heading to sort the data in that column.
• You can specify multiple email addresses on a single Address line.

Reference: Considerations When Distributing a Burst Report Using FTP

When distributing a burst report using FTP, consider the following:

• When using a format of HTML, PDF, or EXL2K, an index page for the burst report output is generated.
• The index page for FTP distribution will only contain the burst values specified in the Distribution List. The report output is distributed only for the specified burst values.
• The index page links for burst report output distributed using FTP are incorrect when specifying BASEURL in the scheduled procedure. This is because the software does not parse and evaluate the procedure code of the scheduled job. To resolve this, move the distributed files to the BASEURL directory or specify the fully qualified directory path of the distributed output in the index page.
• On z/OS, burst report output distributed using FTP is created in sequential data sets having the following qualifiers:
  • High-level Qualifier: User ID specified for the FTP Server.
  • Additional Qualifiers: Location value in the Distribution tab and file(s) supplied in a Distribution List.

  To send burst output to a partitioned data set, specify an existing partitioned data set as Location and specify member names, without extensions, in the Distribution List File column. For example, highlevelqualilfier.location.file.

• On z/OS, do not use an index name that is the same as the data (input) file from which you are reporting. If you specify an index name that is the same as the DDNAME in the DYNAM for your data file, the data file is overwritten with the report output.
• On z/OS, the index page is generated with extra characters preceding the burst values. The links on the page to the report sections are correct.

Bursting Guidelines and Limitations

This section provides detailed information to assist you in defining burst values.

When a schedule task specifies to burst a report procedure (FEX), all data values generated for each burst section are returned to the Distribution Server.

• For the Repository and Report Library distribution methods, each burst section is distributed to the repository. The owner of the schedule must have write access to the repository folder specified in the schedule when the scheduled job runs for the report output to be successfully distributed. Access to the report sections is controlled by the repository security rules that are created when the report is distributed.
• For the email and printer distribution methods, specific burst sections are distributed based on the burst values specified when creating the Distribution List or Single Address used by the schedule.

The following are guidelines and limitations that apply to the burst feature:

• Case. Burst values are case-sensitive.
• Keywords. Burst values can contain the following keywords:
  • Wildcard Characters. Use an asterisk (*) and a question mark (?) as wildcards to represent characters at the beginning, end, or middle of the burst values. The asterisk represents one or more characters, while the question mark represents any single character. Precede each instance of a burst value using a wildcard with the wildcard keyword enclosed in brackets followed by a colon, [wildcard]:, as shown in the following examples.

    [wildcard]:abc* = all values that start with 'abc'.

    [wildcard]:a?c = all three-character values that start with 'a' and end with 'c'.

    [wildcard]:a?c* = all values that start with 'a' and have a 'c' as the third character.

    Note: Wildcards in a distribution list are not supported with FTP.

  • Java Regular Expressions. Use to identify strings of text. Precede each instance of a burst value using a Java regular expression with the regular expression keyword enclosed in brackets followed by a colon, [regexp]:, as shown in the following examples.

    [regexp]:[bcr]at = values that are bat, cat, or rat.

    [regexp]:[^bcr]at = any value that is not bat, cat, or rat.

  • Default Distribution. You can provide a default destination for burst values that are not specified in the Distribution List. To do this, enter the following in the burst value column of the Distribution List.

    [elsesend] = reports for burst values not contained in the Distribution List will be sent to the named recipient.

  • '%BURST' Syntax. You can include a burst value in the name of a distributed file by using the '%BURST' syntax in the name. The use of '%BURST' is not supported in a zip file name when the Packet email setting is Yes.

  The following are example entries in an email Distribution List that illustrate the use of the wildcard and default distribution keywords in burst values.

  Burst Value	Address
  [wildcard]:*an*	sml@company.com
  England	ray@company.com
  [elsesend]:	jt@company.com

  Using a scenario where the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX) is burst on the Country field that contains values of Germany, USA, France, Canada, Italy, Chile, England, and Japan, then:

  • Report information for Germany, France, Canada, England, and Japan will be delivered to sml@company.com.
  • Report information for England will be delivered to ray@company.com.
  • Report information for USA, Italy, and Chile will be delivered to jt@company.com.
• Formats. All formats support bursting except XML and EXCEL. Each burst section of the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX) will be named burstvalue_filename.format (for example, Northeast_Sales.pdf).
• ACROSS command. This command is not evaluated as a primary sort field. To burst report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), you must also include a BY field. Bursting occurs on the BY field.
• TABLEF. No internal sort processing is performed. The specification of a BY field requires that the data already be sorted in the data source.
• ON TABLE SUBHEAD/ON TABLE SUBFOOT. Creates a SUBHEAD for only the first page of the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), and a SUBFOOT for only the last page of the report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX). When bursting report output from a scheduled report procedure (FEX), the SUBHEAD and SUBFOOT should occur for each sort break. Therefore, specify the primary sort field in place of TABLE in the ON command. For example:

  ON primarysortfield SUBHEAD

• AnV field types. Bursting is not supported on a field with the AnV (where n is an integer value) field type.