Scheduling Reports, Stored Processes, and Folders

About Scheduling

For faster rendering, you can schedule a time for queries to be pre-generated for selected reports and stored processes, including an entire folder of reports. If a report does not have any schedules associated with it, then the first page of the Schedule Report Wizard lets you define the execution time, date, and recurrence. However, if one or more schedules are associated with a report, then the first page of the Schedule Report Wizard lets you choose a schedule.

Scheduling always produces a manually refreshed report. If the report was originally saved as automatically refreshed and a schedule runs for that report, then the report becomes manually refreshed. Output from a scheduled report is always stored in the same place. If you run multiple schedules on a report, then the report reflects the state of the last scheduled run.

To schedule a report, a scheduling server must be available and you must have the authorization to schedule reports. For more information, contact your system administrator.

How the Preferred Locale for Reports Affects Scheduling

Note: This feature is available starting with the second maintenance release of SAS Web Report Studio 4.31.

The locale preference that is specified in the SAS Preferences Manager is applied to SAS Web Report Studio. The SAS Preferences Manager is a Web application that provides a common mechanism for managing preferences for all SAS Web applications. In previous versions of SAS Web Report Studio, the locale preference specified in your browser was applied to the report.

If the preferred locale is not specified in the SAS Preferences Manager, then the locale specified in the browser is applied. If a locale is not specified in the browser, then the default locale for the Java environment is applied. For scheduling and distributing reports, your locale preference is applied. The browser default is not available for these operations, since there is no browser.

SAS Information Delivery Portal users can specify locale preference by selecting Options

Preferences and accessing the SAS Preferences Manager. For more information, see the Help for SAS Information Delivery Portal.

SAS Web Report Studio users can access the SAS Preferences Manager directly. To display the SAS Preferences Manager application and specify your preferred locale, use the following URL address: http://server:port/SASPreferences. Here is an example: http://orion.com:8080/SASPreferences.

To set the locale in the SAS Preferences Manager, follow these steps:

Select Regional in the left panel.
Under the Regional heading in the main panel, select a value in the User locale drop-down list.
Click OK. The SAS Preferences Manager closes, and returns you to the standard log on window for SAS applications.

For more information about the SAS Preferences Manager, see SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide.

Schedule a Report, Stored Process, or Folder for the First Time

To schedule a report, stored process, or folder, complete these steps:

To launch the Schedule Report Wizard, perform one of these tasks:
- When a report or stored process is displayed in View mode, select FileSchedule.
- In the File Management window, next to the name of the report, stored process, or folder that you want to schedule, click in the Actions column, and then select Schedule.
The first wizard page appears.
Specify the interval for running the report, stored process, or folder.

The rest of the information that you must provide depends on your selection. If you select Now, then you do not need to select any other options.
For any Run report option other than Now, specify the time that you want to run the report. You can also specify the starting and ending (if applicable) date range for the schedule.
(Optional) To archive the report, select Retain previous instances of output not to exceed. Archived reports are saved as PDF output and can be opened from the Open dialog box or from the File Management window.

Note: Only one copy of a report can be saved per day. If a report is saved multiple times in one day, then only the next-to-last saved report is used as that day's archived report.

Note: If you have the capability to archive reports and have already specified a number of report instances to retain for an archived report, then the number that you enter here will overwrite that number.

Note: This option is not available for folders.
(Optional) If publication channels are defined, then select the Publication Channel to which the report should be saved. The list of available channels is supplied by your system administrator.

Note: A publication channel is an information repository that has been established by using the SAS Publishing Framework. It can be used to publish information to users and applications. If you publish your report to a publication channel, then authorized users and applications can access your report by subscribing to the channel.

Specify a number in the Days until expiration field. The default is 90 days. The number that you entered is saved with your user profile. It is filled in automatically the next time you open the Schedule Report Wizard.

Schedule Report Wizard: Define Execution Time, Date, and Recurrence
Click Next to go to the next wizard page.

Note: If the report has prompts that do not have defaults, then you must specify prompt values before exiting.
If the report has prompts, a wizard page appears, displaying those prompts.

Schedule Report Wizard: Select Prompt Values
After you enter the required prompt values, click Next to go to the next wizard page, or click Finish. The summary page displays the name of the report, the time or times that it is scheduled to run, and any prompt values.

Note: To make changes to your selections on previous wizard pages, click Back.

Schedule Report Wizard: Summary
Click Finish to save your settings and exit the wizard.

Note: When you schedule a stored process, SAS Web Report Studio saves the results in a report with the same name as the stored process. The report is saved in the same folder as the stored process.