SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2276603 - How to Schedule and Use the Report Distributor in SuccessFactors

Symptom

  • How to schedule reports to run Offline, send to Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or send to Email using Report Distributor tool?
  • This KB article should help you to create a schedule report using the tool Report Distributor with or without the Report Center.

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

Environment

  • SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite
  • Report Distributor

Resolution

Overview:

  • In addition to Email, reports be distributed by Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or Run Offline
  • File Formats Supported: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel & CSV
  • Tables within the application can now be added directly to new or existing bundles, or exported from within the main UI as Excel files

Benefits:

  • Simplify integrations using SFTP
  • Burst Reports to Managers inboxes as file attachments
  • Users are able to continue using the application while a report is running offline

Prerequisites:

  • User must have access to Report Distributor
  • To configure SFTP address, User must have permission to SFTP Configuration screen
  • This tool only support Canvas Reports

How to Access the Report Distributor tool: 

  1. Go to Home
  2. Reporting
  3. View Schedules
  4. Switch to the Legacy Report Distributor Tool

Creating a Bundle

  1. On the Report Distributor tool, click on "New Bundle"
  2. Give the Bundle a name
  3. Select the Export Type (PDF, MS Word & MS PowerPoint)

    create_bundle.jpg 

Adding Items to a Bundle

You can add a Canvas report, Excel Table or CSV Table:

2016-02-05_16-40-06.png

Options for Running a Bundle

  • Send to E-mail: Content will be sent to the recipients set up for this bundle.
  • Run Offline: Download link will be made available on the Job Status page when content is ready. Content will remain for 7 days.
  • Send to SFTP: Content will be sent to the SFTP server setup for the organization.

  1. Running by E-mail:

     
    1. Click on "Edit Recipients" and then in "Add Recipients"

add recipients.png

            b. Use the Wildcard Search option to search for people to be add to recipients

wildcard search.png

Note: 

  • The Recipient should be a BizX User for you to add them as Recipients.
  • The Report Distributor only looks at the WFA users, the user will need an Analytics permission.
  • Make sure all users selected as recipients have access to run the report/queries.
  • If one of the recipients listed have no access, the bundle will fail and the next recipients will not receive the e-mail notification/report.

2 - Running Offline

  1. Select the "Run Offline" button
  2. Go to "Schedule" > Add
  3. When running the bundle offline, you will need to set the following:
    • When do you want the schedule to start
    • What time do you want the schedule to start
    • How often do you want the schedule to run (One time, Daily, Weekly or Monthly)

If you wish to schedule the reports for a higher frequency (hourly for example), multiple schedules will have to be set up.

NOTE: Please do not use Report Distributor for Integration Purposes.

    • Turn the bundle active.

schedule offline.jpg

You can also check the Job Status. The Job has three Status:

  1. Running
  2. Finished
  3. Runtime Failure

status.png

Note: Bundles that have been run offline can only be downloaded by the user who created them. The files will only be available for seven days.

3 - Send to SFTP

Please note: the option to select between FTP or SFTP is no longer available. SuccessFactors uses only SFTP for file transferring.

  1. Select the "SFTP" button; 
  2. Click "Go to SFTP setup"; 
  3. Set the SFTP configuration: 
    • IP Address/Hostname: (the destination host)
    • Username: (your username)
    • Password: (your password)
    • Directory: (give the directory a name)

You might receive a message "No changes were made" after clicking on Save, but this message is false and the changes will be saved as expected.

Note: If you need that different bundles goes to different folders without overwriting the first bundle's folder, you need to follow these additional steps:

  1. Select the bundle name;
  2. Click "SFTP Folder Setup";
  3. Click "Custom" option. 

It will enable the field and you can write the folder name already configured for each bundle in the previous step. You can repeat this step for each bundle that need to be in a different folder.

Note: If you will be adding folders inside a Subfolder, you need to type all the folders name level in the text box. Separate the name folder names using slash.

2020-04-23_3-46-30.jpg 

More information related to configuration of SFTP and allowlisting in case this tool has never been used before 2283199.

How to delete a bundle: 

  1. Select the bundle
  2. Under Menu click on File
  3. Click on Delete

See Also

  • 2283199 - How to perform the initial Setup of the SFTP on Report distributor? - Canvas Reports
  • 2696182 - Report Distributor (WFA) - Public IP Address to be allow listed at 3rd Party SFTP
  • 3225188 - Is it possible to configure multiple SFTPs for Canvas Report Schedules?

Keywords

sf, success factors, WFA, ANA, RPT, Distributed, File, Transfer, Protocol, FTP, SFTP, Offline, E-mail, create, New, Bundle, Define, Recipient, Scheduled, Job, Subfolder, Sub Folder Delete bundle , KBA , LOD-SF-ANA-RDT , Report Distributor (Advanced Reporting, ORD) , LOD-SF-ANA , Analytics & Reporting (Ad Hoc, YouCalc, ORD) , How To

Product

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite all versions ; SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics all versions