Broadcast by E-Mail 

Use

Broadcasting by e-mail is one way in which you can distribute BI objects (queries, query views, Web templates, reports or workbooks).

Prerequisites

You selected Broadcast by E-mail as the distribution type when you created the broadcast setting.

Your system administrator has maintained the possible recipients as communication type E-mail in user maintenance and has entered the e-mail addresses. For more information, see Tasks for System Administration .

Features

To send by e-mail, make the settings on the following tab page:

Recipients

You have different options for entering recipients:

●     User: Enter the BI user names of the recipients manually or using  Selection, separated by semi-colons.

●     Users in Roles: Enter the BI roles manually or using  Selection, separated by semi-colons. All users that are assigned to one of the roles specified here will be sent the e-mail.

If an e-mail address for a user that you have specified under User or User in Role has not been maintained in user maintenance, the user will not receive the distributed file as an e-mail. Instead the user gets a message in the Business Workplace (transaction SO01).

●     E-Mail Addresses: Enter the e-mail addresses of the recipients, separated by semicolons.

In order to send e-mails to a distribution list, the distribution list has to be recognized on the SMTP server with a valid e-mail address (SMTP address). The e-mail can be sent to the distribution list as soon as this e-mail address has been specified under E-Mail Addresses in the broadcast setting.

Note that on the SMTP server, the system uses the sender’s SMTP address to check whether the sender is authorized to send to the distribution list. In broadcasting, the internet mail address specified in the user master data is used as the sender’s SMTP address.

For information about managing distribution lists on the SMTP server and specifying addresses using a valid SMTP address, see the product documentation for the SMTP server (Microsoft Exchange/Microsoft Outlook, for example).

Example (Microsoft Exchange/Microsoft Outlook)

The Microsoft Outlook address book contains the global distribution list "DL EMEA EMPLOYEES". In the properties of the distribution list, the SMTP address is "DL_EMEA_EMPLOYEES@exchange.myCompany.com". If you specify this SMTP address as the e-mail address in the broadcast setting, the system sends the e-mail to all the recipients on the distribution list.

●     Authorized User: If you schedule the broadcast setting in the background (for example, for a certain time), then you can enter a BI user name manually or using  Selection. The system generates the document with the settings (for example, date format) and authorizations of the specified user.

If you want to distribute the broadcast setting immediately, the system uses the authorizations and settings for the current user that has logged on to the system and has defined the broadcast setting when generating the document.

●     Language: If you schedule the broadcast setting in the background (for example, for a certain time), then you can select the language in which the document is to be generated. The system offers you the choice of those languages that are installed in the BI system.

If you want to distribute the broadcast setting immediately, the system uses the logon language for the current user who has logged on to the system and has defined the broadcast setting when generating the document.

●     User-specific: If you schedule the broadcast setting in the background (for example, for a specific time), then you can generate the document user specifically. The system generates the document for each of the specified recipients with their personal settings (date format, language) and data authorizations. Recipients that are only specified with e-mail addresses are excluded. For these recipients, the system generates the document with the settings for the authorized user.

If you want to distribute the broadcast setting immediately, the system uses the settings for the current user when generating the document.

Texts

Here you can make the following entries:

●     Subject: Enter a subject line for the e-mail manually or use a text variable from  Attach Text Variable. The text can be up to 50 characters long.

●     Importance: Select the importance you want to attach to the e-mail (low, medium, high).

●     Contents: Enter text for the contents of the e-mail manually or use a text variable from  Attach Text Variable. When sending online links, the system automatically adds a link to the text of the e-mail if it is not part of the text. Variable PR_ONLINE_LINK is used.

For more information, see Use of Text Variables.

 

You are also able to make settings in the Filter Navigation, General Precalculation or General Link Generation, Layout and Header/Footer tab pages. Depending on the selected output format, the tab pages are context sensitive. For more information, see Filter Navigation, General Settings for Precalculation and the Creation of Links and Creating Print Versions of BI Applications (with the PDF output format for the Layout and Header/Footer tab pages).