Schedule a Publication

As a content owner, you can set a schedule for sharing a copy of your story or analytic application, with users and teams of your choice. You can share the publication with any number of SAP Analytics Cloud users within the tenant and a maximum of three non-SAP Analytics Cloud users.

Getting Started with Scheduling

Scheduling is the process by which you create a specific task and have it run once or at recurring intervals. In our context, you can schedule stories or analytic application and have them delivered to desired recipients both within SAP Analytics Cloud or outside. Let's take a look at some of the common terms you may encounter while you create a schedule.

Publication: The output of a Story or Analytic Application that is generated when a schedule runs.

Broadcasting: Allows you to schedule and share analytics content with both SAP Analytics Cloud users and non-SAP Analytics Cloud users using the data authorization of the person who schedules the publication. This implies that you get to see the content that the schedulers see when they schedule a particular story. Broadcasting gives you the flexibility of sharing the same content with a wider audience at a regular interval to a particular set of users of groups. A simple example would be sending out a weekly report of sales figures to the respective stakeholders.

Bursting: Allows you to schedule and share personalized copies of a story with SAP Analytics Cloud users. Note that, when you choose bursting as the mode of scheduling and share stories with non-SAP Analytics Cloud users, the users get to see content that the scheduler is authorized to view. The personalized content will be shared as email to the corresponding recipients. SAP Analytics Cloud users get to view the content based on their settings preferences. As of now, the bursting functionality is only available for stories.
Note

The maximum number of recipients that you can choose, while scheduling publication bursting is ten per view.

Destination: The location where the publication will be delivered to..

Authorization: The data access rights associated a schedule. In scheduling, the publications will be delivered to the desired recipients based on the data that the schedule owner has access to.

Bookmark: The copy of a story that you customise for a specific audience and that's saved for quick reference and retrieval. In scheduling, personalization for a particular audience is achieved through bookmarks and by using Prompts..

Understanding what scheduling offers will help you better decide on how and what you want to schedule and share with your team.

Formats supported PDF and PowerPoint (.ppt)
Note

You can also share a link to the story while scheduling.
Delivery channel Email
Maximum email size 12 MB
Maximum number of SAP Analytics Cloud recipients Infinite
Maximum number of Non-SAP Analytics Cloud recipients Three
Content you can schedule Stories along with the Bookmarks, and Analytic Application
Recurrence interval Hourly, Daily, Weekly, and Monthly
Scheduling locations Favorites menu, Featured files, the Files page, or from within the story itself

Who Does This Apply To?

  • BI Admin or Admin roles that come with the Schedule Publication privilege, by default.

  • Any custom role that has been assigned the Schedule Publication privileges, such as Create and Manage.

  • Anyone with a Copy or Edit permission to a story, once the Schedule Publication privilege is granted.

    .
Note

Users with Manage permission on Schedule Publication, and public and private files, can modify the schedule you've created.

Note

Once you have the required privileges to create a schedule, and you choose the scheduling mode as Broadcast the output generated when a schedule runs will be based on the data you're authorized to access, or to put it simply, the recipients get to view the information that you can view. If you choose Burst, the output generated will be based on the recipient’s data authorization for SAP Analytics Cloud users and the scheduler’s data authorization for non-SAP Analytics Cloud users. If you're an administrator and are looking at configuring scheduling as well as understanding how many licenses you would need to create the necessary number of schedules,see Configure Scheduling.

Data Center You're On

Make sure that your application is hosted on one of the following Data Centers:

  • AWS Europe Central (EU10)

  • AWS US East (US10)

  • AWS Brazil (BR10))

  • AWS Japan (JP10)

  • AWS Sydney (AP10)

  • AWS Singapore (AP11)

  • Ali Cloud China (CN40)

Note
You can schedule a publication if you've a minimum of 25 SAP Analytics Cloud licenses within a non-SAP data center environment such as the following:
  • SAP Analytics Cloud can be hosted either on SAP data centers or on non-SAP data centers. Determine which environment SAP Analytics Cloud is hosted in by inspecting your SAP Analytics Cloud URL:
    • A single-digit number, for example us1 or jp1, indicates an SAP data center.
    • A two-digit number, for example eu10 or us30, indicates a non-SAP data center.

For more information on licensing, see Configure Scheduling

Data Sources You Work With

Scheduling is supported on stories based on the following data sources:

  • All imported data sources

  • Following live data sources:

    • SAP BW

    • SAP HANA

    • SAP S4/HANA

    • SAP HANA 2.0

    • SAP HANA Cloud (you can schedule a story based on SAP HANA Cloud only if the connection type is HANA Cloud)

    • Stories based on live data tunnel connections

    • Stories based on live Universe Models

Creating a Schedule

Context

To schedule a story from the Files page:

  • On the Files page (from the main menu, Start of the navigation pathBrowse Next navigation step FilesEnd of the navigation path), select the story that you want to schedule, and select the dropdown arrow from the (Share) icon. Select Schedule Publication .

To schedule a story from the Canvas page, switch to the Edit mode:

Schedule Paginated Stories

While scheduling a story that has paginated tables and sections, the generated output will comprise of all the pages of the section and the all rows of the table.To learn more on the pagination in the Builder panel, see Using Pagination in Stories.
Note

When a schedule runs, each publication gets 15 minutes to execute the workflow and generate an output. If your story takes longer than 15 minutes to generate the output, your schedule will fail with an error message Scheduling the publication failed because the export task could not be completed in time.

Tip

Before scheduling a story, it is recommended that you do a manual export to make sure that the story does not take more than 15 minutes to be exported. Otherwise, your publication will fail when the schedule runs. Also make sure that the maximum size of the output in either PDF or PPT does not exceed 12 MB.

  • From the File menu, select the dropdown arrow under the (Share) icon, and select Schedule Publication.

The Schedule Publication dialog box appears.

By default, the name of the story is populated as the name of the schedule. You can edit the name as per your preference.

Procedure

  1. Under Choose Mode , choose whether you want to burst or broadcast the story.
  2. In the Start Date field, click to specify the start date and the time you want the schedule to run.
    Note

    On clicking Check Availability you get to view, the time slots that are fully available, partially available, unavailable, conflicting, and nonconflicting, in the calendar view, for a single occurrence or a recurrence of a schedule. This enables you to quickly schedule the number of publications based on the available time slots.

  3. Click OK.
    Note
    You can also directly enter the date and time in the Start field and provide a future date in a valid format.
  4. Click Add Recurrence to add a recurrence.
    The Recurrence Settings dialog box appears.

    You can set the recurrence pattern on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis.

  • For weekly recurrence, select the day(s) of the week you want to schedule the story and set the start date.

  1. To end the recurrence, select the relevant option from the End Recurrence by dropdown menu.

    You can end the recurrence based on the end date or the number of repetitions. You can also choose the No End option to set the schedule to run for 365 days, after which it ends and a new schedule needs to be created.

  2. Click OK.
  3. Choose a File Type.
  4. Enter the subject (mandatory) of the email in the Subject field.
  5. In the Message field, type in an optional message. You can also use the formatting options available, such as emphasize text, include a list and so on.
  6. Select the Include Story Link option, if you want to include a link to the story in the email.
  7. You can customize the stories you want to schedule, by choosing the recepients of your choice and choosing between different story Views from either global Bookmarks or personal Bookmarks from the Distribution menu.
    1. Add the name of the users and teams within SAP Analytics Cloud either by typing in the names or by clicking the Add Users or Teams icon in the input field.
    2. Enter the email address(es) of the non-SAP Analytics Cloud recepient(s) separated by a comma.
      Note

      You can include up to three non-SAP Analytics Cloud recipients.

    3. Choose a story view from the Story View field.
    4. To edit the prompt values, select Edit Prompts.
      Set Variables dialog box appears.
    5. Set the values of the variables and select Set.
      Note
      By default, the prompt values that were defined while creating the story will be considered if you don't edit them while scheduling.
      Note

      If you’ve chosen Burst as the mode of scheduling and you’re sharing the analytics content with non-SAP Analytics Cloud users, the content shared, will be that with the data authorization of the scheduler and not the recipient.

  8. Optionally, edit the name of the file from the File Name field.
  9. To edit the file settings, click File Settings.
  10. To add another view, click Add Another View.
  11. Click Create.
    Note

    Due to the limit of publications that can be scheduled per hour, which is based on your license, you might notice unavailable slots for your current schedule. In such a scenario, a warning message is displayed with the unavailable slots. For more information on slots availability, refer to Licensing information in this article.

Publication Delivery Options

Stories may be made up of single or multiple widgets that are based on different types of models connected to different kinds of data sources.

There can be instances where a data source isn't supported, or a connection isn't working as intended, or an incorrect formula or errors during data validation leads to the publication being partially sucessful. You have the flexibility of choosing whether to deliver such publications or deliver only complete publicationsl. You can choose from the following delivery options under Advanced Settings.

By turning on the Deliver partially successful publications to scheduler toggle, the creator of the schedule receives all the publications irrespecitve of whether the content is complete or not.

Managing Schedules

You can view, update, copy, and delete the schedules you've created, from the Calendar.

Context

  • From the side navigation, choose Calendar

    Note
    Users with Manage permission on Schedule Publication, and public and private files can modify the schedule you've created.

Procedure

  1. To view the list of schedules you’ve created, choose the view of the calendar you would like to see: Day, Week, or Month.
  2. To copy the series or an instance of an existing scheduled job and reuse it with the desired scheduling parameters, search for the schedule that you want to copy and then, select it. Click (Copy) in the General menu. You can modify the Name and add a Suffix to the title of the schedule and also change the date as per your preference. Select OK .
  3. You can modify the scheduling parameters from the Details pane after copying the schedule in the calendar.
  4. To delete a schedule, select the schedule you want to delete, and in the general toolbar at the top panel, click Remove. Click OK to delete a recurrence or an occurrence of a schedule.

Modifying a Schedule

To modify an occurrence of a recurrence of a schedule, from the calendar, either double-click the schedule or select the schedule you want to modify and click the Designer button at the top-right corner of the application. Make the required changes and click Update

You can view the changes from the View Changes option. To discard the changes, click Revert.

Discontinuing a Schedule

As an administrator or a scheduler, you can discontinue an occurrence or a series of a schedule.

You can't discontinue a schedule that's in progress or has ended. The discontinued schedule will still be available on the calendar in the Cancelled state and you can create a copy of the schedule if needed. A schedule that's in the Cancelled state can be subsequently deleted.

Caution

Once discontinued, a schedule can't be edited or resumed.