Automate Business Processes with Agents

Content authors can create agents that deliver analyses, dashboards, and briefing books to targeted audiences on-demand or on a regular schedule.

Topics:

• Create Agents to Deliver Content

• Schedule an Agent to Deliver Content Directly from an Analysis

• Disable and Enable the Schedule for an Agent

• Subscribe to Agents

• List Agents You Subscribe To or Own

• Access and Manage Your Alerts

• Perform Advanced Agent Job Management Tasks

Create Agents to Deliver Content

You can create agents that deliver analyses, dashboard pages, and briefing books to specific recipients and subscribers. These agents can deliver content on-demand or on a regular schedule.

1. On the Classic Home page, click Create and select Agent.
2. Optional: Set some general options for the agent.
   1. Set a priority level for the agent.
      Consider the importance of the content you want to deliver.
   2. Define how you want to generate the content, that is, which user do you want to run report queries as.
3. Set up a delivery schedule.
   1. Click the Schedule tab.
   2. Select whether you want the agent to run on a schedule, how often it runs, when to start, and when to stop.

      When you select the date and time, for time zones where daylight savings applies, the time zone reflects the daylight savings time. For example, if, during the summer months, you select (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time: Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, this means BST (British Summer Time).

      The minimum frequency for daily run by delivery agent is 15 minutes.

4. Optional: Click the Condition tab, and select Use a condition if you want the agent to only run under certain conditions.
   • Click Create to define the condition.
   • Click Browse to select an existing condition from the catalog.
   Keep the default (Do not use a condition), if you want the agent to always deliver its content.
5. Select the content you want to deliver, such as a dashboard page or an analysis.
   1. Click the Delivery Content tab.
   2. Enter a name in the Subject field.
   3. Select the content that you want to deliver.
   4. Select the format that you want to deliver the content in.
   5. Select the option for how you want to deliver the content when the agent runs.
      • Deliver results directly - Delivers the results in an email.

        This option displays if you have the Deliver Content in Email privilege (assigned to BI Consumer users by default).

      • Deliver as attachment - Delivers the results as an email attachment.

        This option displays if you have the Deliver Content in Email privilege (assigned to BI Consumer users by default).

6. Specify who you want the content to be delivered to and who else is allowed to subscribe to this agent.
   1. Click the Recipients tab.
   2. Click Add Recipient to add users individually or add users by their application role.
   3. Click Add Email Recipient to enter the email address of one or more recipients.
   4. Click Get Recipients from the Analysis Used in the Agent Condition, and select analysis columns from a condition used by this agent. If the Condition tab doesn't contain a condition, then you can't select this option. At runtime this adds recipients whose email addresses are configured for the selected columns used in the condition.

      If you select this option the agent must be saved under Shared Folders.

   5. Click Only Return Rows Relevant to the User Running the Agent to only return data available to the user.
   6. To allow other people to subscribe to this agent, select Publish Agent for Subscription and then define who can subscribe, by selecting their user name or an application role.

      This option is only available for agents or reports saved in Shared Folders.

7. Specify how you want content to be delivered to the recipients. You can send deliveries to Oracle Analytics, by email, and to devices such as mobile phones and pagers.
   1. Click the Destinations tab.
   2. Click Home Page and Dashboard to deliver content. Users receive alerts in Oracle Analytics whenever deliveries are sent to them.
   3. Click Devices to deliver the content in other ways.
      • To let users decide how they receive deliveries, select Active Delivery Profile.
      • To restrict the types of devices that deliveries can be sent to, select Specific Devices and select only the device types you want.
      Users set up their deliveries profile through Delivery Options preferences (My Account).
8. Save the agent.

   If you want other people to subscribe to the agent, you must save it in a subfolder under /Shared Folders so they can find it. For example, /Shared Folders/MySharedAgents/Sales/MonthlySalesTarget_Agent.

   After saving the agent, you can run the agent by clicking the Run Agent Now button. This is helpful, for example, if you want to test the agent.

The Actions tab is reserved for future use.

Schedule an Agent to Deliver Content Directly from an Analysis

You can set up an agent to deliver content directly from an analysis. When you create an agent in this way, Oracle Analytics sets the Content property for you and creates a delivery condition for the agent to help you get started.

1. Navigate to the analysis in the catalog.
2. Click the More action menu, and select Schedule.
3. Further define the agent, as required.

Disable and Enable the Schedule for an Agent

You can temporarily disable (and then enable) an agent's schedule.

Disabling an agent's schedule stops the agent from running on its defined schedule. It doesn’t stop you from running it by other means, for example, by the Run Agent Now button in the agent editor.

1. On the Classic Home page, click Catalog and navigate to the agent whose schedule you want to disable or enable.
2. Click the More action menu, and select Disable Schedule to disable the agent's schedule.
3. Click the More action menu, and select Enable Schedule to run the agent on schedule again.

You also can disable and enable an agent's schedule by using the Enabled box in the Schedule tab of the agent editor.

Subscribe to Agents

Subscribe to an agent if you want to receive the most up-to-date information generated by the agent. You can only subscribe to agents if the owner allows you to do so.

1. On the Classic Home page, click Catalog.
2. Navigate to the agent you want to subscribe to.
3. Click the More action menu, and select Subscribe.

   To make an agent available for subscription, the owner must select Publish Agent for Subscription (Recipients tab) and identify who’s allowed to subscribe.

4. To unsubscribe at any time, click the More action menu, and select Unsubscribe.

List Agents You Subscribe To or Own

You can display a list of agents that you subscribe to and any agents that you own.

1. On the Classic Home page, click Catalog.
2. Click Search.
3. To find all the agents, enter * (asterisk) in the Search box, select All from the Location list, and then select Agent from the Type list.
   Alternatively, enter the name or part of the name of an agent in the Search field, select a specific Location, and then select Agent from the Type list.
4. Click Search.

Access and Manage Your Alerts

Alerts notify you when content arrives from an agent.

1. On the Classic Home page, click Alerts!
2. View and manage your alerts.

   • View the content for an alert.

   • Clear an alert and all its occurrences.

   • Edit the agent that generated the alert, if you have permission to do so.

   • Run the agent that generated the alert, if you have permission to do so.

   • Subscribe to the alert.

   • Clear all your alerts and all their occurrences.