markfeinman asked a question.
Hi all ...
Below is a sample (redacted) record from a filtered All Licenses report:
Is it possible, in Flexera One, to have this report e-mailed to me, if the value in the shortfall / availability column (the last one in the sample above) changes in the database? Is this scenario feasible?
I was looking at Flexera Analytics (IBM Cognos behind the curtain). Analytics can e-mail reports based on a schedule, and also by the occurrence of a trigger. [Best I can tell, a trigger is some sort of event.] But all the documentation I've seen on Cognos triggers involves running a batch file on the [Cognos?] server to create the trigger, and in the Flexera One world, I do not have access to the Cognos (or Flexera) server. It is also not clear to me, assuming I had server access, how to define the trigger - how might I say "when the value changes, run the report"? The documentation simply says "run this command to set up the trigger" but offers no example of how to define one (for example, the database refresh that the documentation identifies).
Can Flexera Analytics do this? If not, can anyone suggest some other method of meeting this requirement?
One non-perfect answer is to simply have the report e-mailed daily. Setting up the daily schedule looks straightforward. But it was pointed out to me that I'd be getting the same report daily with no way to know that something has changed. With the automation use case, I'd get the report only when something changed. I'd have to examine the report to see what changed, but at least, I'd get the report only when necessary, so I'd know that a change occurred.
I'm looking for a better solution and am interested in your suggestions. Thank you!
--Mark
Best Answer
Here is the response I received from Support on this question:
I do not believe there is a way to send out the report if a specific value has changed unfortunately.
You may be able to find what you are looking for on the ITAM side via the API and include maybe some PowerShell to automate sending you an email if value x > y or whatever condition you may need.
The trigger option would only be for on-premise installations since a trigger based schedule allows a report to execute only when an external trigger file is placed in a designated directory.
It does not evaluate report data or expressions. You cannot define a condition inside Cognos to act as a trigger it must be handled externally.
Essentially if the file 'RunMyReport.bat' is found in the C:\...\trigger folder on the Cognos server then the report assigned to it would be run and emailed out to its distribution list.
--Mark
