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Scheduled reports in v11

 
Ian Wallbridge
Scheduled reports in v11
di Ian Wallbridge - Wednesday, 26 September 2018, 08:02
 

Hi all,

I've started getting to grips with the scheduled reports feature in Totara 11, but have a couple of queries regarding the functionality - can anyone please advise?

1. From Totara help:

"If this query should be available to other users (public), place a tick in the Let other users view check box. A public saved search can be viewed by any user that has access to the report it is saved for, however it is only editable by the user that created it."

There are a number of reports that I'd like to share with particular individuals on a regular basis, but it seems that setting the permission on the saved search as Let others view / Is search public doesn't override the overall report permissions - and the only way to configure report visibility is by role. This means that if I want to send report 1 to User A, and report 2 to user B - and even though I can set up a scheduled task to send these to their respective emails - I would have to set up individual roles for each of the users.

If this is the case - and I'm happy to be corrected - this seems like a missed opportunity. Alternatively, has anyone found a way to achieve this behaviour?

2. The scheduled reports standard email starts Attached is a copy of but there is no attachment in the email. Is this text incorrect or should there, in fact, be an actual attachment?

3. I've been asked to run a report on a regular basis and add it to some form of shared location (e.g. OneDrive, SharePoint) so that it can be processed automatically - is there any way that scheduled reports (or any other Totara functionality for that matter) can achieve this?

Many thanks,

Ian 

? ?
Re: Scheduled reports in v11
di ? ? - Wednesday, 26 September 2018, 10:48
 

Hi Ian, I think there should be an attachment with the email, perhaps you can try selecting a different format (CSV?) that is not likely to be blocked by security filters that may be running on your email server.

Regarding central location, a non-coding solution would be scheduled reports combined with Microsoft Flow to automatically scan emails sent by the LMS and save the attachment to OneDrive or Sharepoint, possibly appending a timestamp to the file name so you do not have an overwrite scenario (although in some cases an overwrite is exactly what is needed). From there, you can pick the data to a SharePoint dashboard, etc.

Ian Wallbridge
Re: Scheduled reports in v11
di Ian Wallbridge - Thursday, 27 September 2018, 06:37
 

Hi Antonio, many thanks for your suggestion.

I've been in touch with our partner and they have indicated that, with effect from v11, attachments are no longer sent with scheduled report emails due to the implementation of GDPR regulations - and this (sadly) also prevents me using your Flow idea.

I don't know GDPR well enough to know what the precise clause is - can anyone from Totara provide some information on this?

Many thanks,

Ian


? ?
Re: Scheduled reports in v11
di ? ? - Thursday, 27 September 2018, 09:29
 

Interesting: Our v11.2 is sending attachments in scheduled reports.

To ensure this was not because I'm using a "legacy" report (it was created before the update to v11) I created a new scheduled report just now. It just sent me email, and it has an attachment.

Ian Wallbridge
Re: Scheduled reports in v11
di Ian Wallbridge - Friday, 28 September 2018, 01:39
 

Hi Antonio,

That IS interesting, thanks for sharing. I'll pick this up with our partner and see if they can figure out why there is a clear difference. In the meantime, can anyone Totara-based comment on the attachment functionality (or not) in v11?

Thanks,

Ian 

Craig Eves
Re: Scheduled reports in v11
di Craig Eves (Totara Support) - Sunday, 30 September 2018, 15:10
Gruppo Totara

Hi Ian

I can't see any options to turn off attachments in scheduled reports and have looked to see if there are any improvements added around this and can't find any.

There is an open feature request https://totara.community/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=19082 to have a setting for this but this hasn't been implemented.

Regards