Emailing BI Publisher Reports to External Users

This topic discusses how to email non-bursted and bursted reports to external user email addresses.

There may be situations where you want to distribute reports using email to recipients that do not have PeopleSoft user profiles. PeopleTools enables you to distribute bursted and non-bursted BI Publisher reports to external users whose email addresses are stored in the database, file server, or other location.

A report developer creates an application class to retrieve the stored distribution lists, and then specifies the application class in the report definition.

Email Report Delivery

When you run and email a report to external users, the report is delivered as an email attachment in the output format defined in the report definition.

The email message that delivers the report contains the following default subject line text and default body text:.

Report Type

Default Email Subject Text

Default Body Text

Non-bursted

BI Publisher <REPORT_NAME> Report

For example:

BI Publisher MONTHLY_SALES Report

BI Publisher Report <REPORT_NAME> Report Process ID: <PROCESS_ID_NUMBER>

For example:

BI Publisher MONTHLY_SALES Report Process ID: 391

Bursted

BI Publisher <REPORT_NAME> Report <BURST_VALUE>

For example:

BI Publisher MONTHLY_SALES Report 2500

BI Publisher Report <REPORT_NAME> <BURST_VALUE> Process ID: <PROCESS_ID_NUMBER>

For example:

BI Publisher MONTHLY_SALES Report 2500 Process ID: 391

An SMTP server is required that allows sending email to external domains.

As described previously, the email address that you use to send a report can reside on the database, a file server, or other source.

You need to develop an application class to retrieve the email addresses to which to send a report from storage. The application class that you develop should implement the IPT_EXT_BIP_EMAIL_INT: BIP_EMAIL_DATA application interface.

BI Publisher expects the application class to provide the following:

  • An array of email addresses.

  • An error string, if any.

The application class that you create is then defined as a report property in the report definition.

For more information about developing this application interface, see the PeopleTools 8.55: PeopleCode API Reference documentation.

To set up a report to email to external users you must ensure two parameters are set/defined in the report definition:

  • The report output location must be set to email.

  • An application class must be defined to retrieve the email addresses to which to send the report.

Setting the Report Output Location

To set the report output location to email:

  1. Select Reporting Tools > BI Publisher > Report Definition.

    The Report Definition-Definitions page appears.

  2. Click the Output tab.

    The Report Definition-Output page appears.

  3. From the Location drop-down list, select Email.

  4. Click the Save button.

Specifying Application Classes to Retrieve External Email Addresses

To specify an application class to retrieve external email addresses for report distribution:

  1. Select Reporting Tools > BI Publisher > Report Definition.

    The Report Definition-Definitions page appears.

  2. Click the Properties tab.

    The Report Definition-Properties page appears.

  3. From the Property Group drop-down list, select PeopleTools Settings.

  4. In the Text field for the psxp_ext_email_appclass property, enter the name of the application class that you’ve created to retrieve the external email addresses.

    The format to enter the application class name is:

    <PACKAGE_NAME>:<CLASS_NAME>

  5. Click the Save button.