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 Publication

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 encounter while creating a scheduled publication.

Publication: The output of a story or analytic application that is generated when a schedule runs.

Broadcast: Allows the scheduling and sharing of analytics content with SAP Analytics Cloud users as well as non-SAP Analytics Cloud users. Using the Broadcast mode, publication schedulers can share stories containing data they're authorized to view. A typical example would be sharing a quarterly sales report with all stakeholders within a specific region. You’ll need the Schedule Publication privilege for this operation.

Burst: Allows the scheduling and sharing of analytics content with SAP Analytics Cloud users as well as non-SAP Analytics Cloud users. Using the Burst mode, publication schedulers can share stories with SAP Analytics Cloud users that contain data the recipients are authorized to view. For non-SAP Analytics Cloud recipients in the Burst mode, the publication will still contain information that the schedule creators have access to.

Note

As of now, the bursting functionality is only available on stories.

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

Authorization: The data access rights associated with a scheduled publication. While scheduling a publication, if the mode chosen is Broadcast, the publications will be delivered to the desired recipients based on the data that the schedule owner has access to. If the mode chosen is Burst, the publications will be delivered to the respective recipients based on the data each recipient is authorized to view.

Bookmark: The copy of a story that you customize 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 publication offers will help you better decide on how and what you want to schedule and share with your team.

Formats supported
For stories in classic mode PDF and PowerPoint (.ppt)
For stories in Optimized View Mode, Optimized Design Experience, and Optimized Story Experience PDF and CSV
Note

You can also share a link to the story while scheduling a publication.
Delivery channel E-mail
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

    When a user is deleted, all schedules created and owned by the user will be deleted.

    Note

    If you're an administrator and are looking at configuring the publication schedule as well as understanding how many licenses you would need to create the necessary number of scheduled publications, see Configure Scheduling of Publication.

    Note

    For information on permissions and privileges of a Schedule Manager, Schedule Administrator, or Publication Admin, see Schedule Manager, Schedule Administrator, or Publication Admin

    Note

    You can also assign Schedule Publication permission to custom roles. To create custom roles, see Create Roles.

Note

While choosing Burst as the scheduling mode, make sure that the recipients have access to the story and underlying models.

  1. Once you have the required privileges to create a schedule, and you choose Broadcast as the scheduling mode, the output generated when the schedule runs is based on the data you're authorized to access. To put it simply, the recipients get to view the information that you can view.
  2. 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.
    Note

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

Data Center You're On

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

  • Microsoft Azure US West (US20)

  • Microsoft Azure Europe (Netherlands) (EU20)

  • AWS Canada (Montreal) (CA10)

  • AWS Seoul (AP12)

  • 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 of Publication.

Data Sources You Work With

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

  • All imported data sources

  • Following live data sources:

    • SAP BW

    • SAP HANA

    • SAP S/4HANA

    • 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

Note

Schedules of stories based on live connections will always run with the user credentials corresponding to the live connection.

Creating a Scheduled Publication

Context

You can schedule a publication for story or analytic application which is either in classic mode or optimized view mode.

  • 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 from the toolbar. Select Schedule Publication. Or

  • From the File menu, select Schedule Publication.

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 couldn’t be completed in time.

Tip

Before scheduling a story, it is recommended that you do a manual export to make sure that the story doesn’t 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 doesn’t exceed 12 MB.

The Schedule Publication dialog 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 Broadcast or Burst 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 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 appears.

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

    For weekly recurrence, select the day or the days of the week you want to schedule the story and set the start date.

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

    The No End Date option is deprecated and will be removed by 2024.Q1. We recommend you use the End Date or Number of Occurrences option instead. For more information, see SAP Note 3358834 Information published on SAP site

    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.

  6. Click OK.
  7. Choose a File Type.
    Note

    For stories in classic mode only PDF and PowerPoint file types are supported.

    For stories in Optimized View Mode, Optimized Design Experience, and Optimized Story Experience, only PDF and CSV file types are supported.

  8. Enter the subject (mandatory) of the email in the Subject field.
    Note

    You can hit the ‘[’ key to get dynamic text prompts that can be inserted within the email subject, body, or as file name. Dynamic text helps you in personalizing the story sharing experience at runtime.

  9. 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.
  10. Select the Include link to story option, if you want to include a link to the story in the email.
  11. (In Optimized Story Experience) If there's a script variable in your story, you can switch on Customize Script Variable to let story viewers customize its value when they open the story.

    Then, add one or more script variables, and define a default value for each of them.

  12. You can customize the stories you want to schedule publications, by choosing the recipients 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 addresses of the non-SAP Analytics Cloud recipients 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.
      Note

      You can also view the last saved prompt within the story.

      Set Variables dialog box appears.
    5. Set the values of the variables and select Set.
      Note

      Keep the check box in the Set Variables dialog selected to retain the last saved value for dynamic variables for the prompt you’ve chosen in a story.

      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.

    6. To specify filter values during schedule creation, select Change Story Filter.
      Restriction

      Change Story Filter is not available for stories in Optimized View Mode.

      A list of dimensional filters applied to the story drops down. Select the filter to which you need to make the changes. The Set Filters dialog appears.

    7. Make the necessary changes to the filter in the Set Filters dialog. Click OK to update the filter. To discard the changes, click Cancel.
      Note

      • Change Story Filter is disabled if there are no filters selected during the story creation.

      • Only dimension type filters by ID or by Description are supported. Measure type filters aren’t supported.

      Note
      • During the schedule creation and modification, you can only choose from the filters that are applied and saved to the story. Hence it is recommended to select All members while applying filters to the story.
      • By default, the filters that were defined while creating the story will be considered if you don't edit them while scheduling.
      • Change Story Filter button is disabled for in-progress and successful schedules.
  13. Optionally, edit the name of the file from the File Name field.
  14. To edit the file settings, select File Settings.
    Note

    For stories in classic mode only PDF and PowerPoint file types are supported.

    For stories in Optimized View Mode, Optimized Design Experience, and Optimized Story Experience, only PDF and CSV file types are supported.

    If you select PDF or PowerPoint as the file type, you can set the following:
    • Page Range
    • Page Resolution
      Note

      You can choose a resolution for PDF and PowerPoint files shared via email that best fits your purpose of publication. 1920 x 1080 being the default page resolution, you have more options to choose from while scheduling a publication.

      Note

      Selecting a higher resolution will increase the size of the file. This could exceed the size limit set for email deliveries.

      Page Resolution settings is disabled for the scheduled publications that are in progress or successful.

    • (In Optimized Story Experience) Paper Size
    • Whether to export the appendix(Insert Appendix), which includes the list of filters applied to the story
    • (In Optimized Story Experience) Enable Commentstoggle lets you export the comments. The appendix and comments are exported to separated pages. Comments on invisible widgets aren't exported.
    If you select CSV as the file type, consider the following:
    • By default, the first exportable widget is selected.
    • If the exported widgets have similar names, a unique ID (the current date in milliseconds) will be appended to the filename.
    • Some of the special characters such as §, ", @, :, ;, !, ', {, }, ., ^, `, &, -, #, (, ), $, %, [, ], and ~ are supported in the CSV filename.

      These special characters are not supported in the CSV file name: \,/,|,?,<,>, and *.

    • Only widgets that can be exported are listed under CSV Settings. You can select up to a maximum of 5 widgets per publication.
    • Click OK to save changes.
  15. To add another view, select Add Another View.
    Restriction

    A maximum of 50 Views can be added in a single schedule.

  16. Select 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.

    Caution
    Before switching from classic view mode to optimized view mode and vice versa for a story or analytic application, consider the following:

    • After scheduling a publication with the CSV file type, if the story or analytic application that is in optimized view mode is converted back to classic view mode, the schedule will fail.

    • After scheduling a publication with the PPT file type, if the story or analytic application that is in classic view mode is converted to optimized view mode, the schedule will fail.

    • If the file type selected for the scheduling publication is PDF, switching between classic view mode and optimized view mode and vice versa will not affect the scheduled publication.

Best Practices for CSV File Settings:

Consider the following when publishing chart data as a CSV file:
  • Formatting (such as cell color, font styles, and so on) are not retained in the publication.
  • The Histogramand Waterfall charts are not supported, make sure you do not include them in the publication:

  • All chart data is exported, not just the currently visible data.

    For example, if your chart has a hierarchy, all the nodes of the hierarchy are exported, even if you have not drilled down on the data in your chart.

  • The hierarchy export behavior applies to all chart types except Time Series charts. Time Series charts export only the currently selected level.
  • During the publication export, hyperlinks are removed and hierarchies are flattened.
  • If you have renamed a measure or dimension, you won't see your names in the exported data.
  • The measure and dimension names from the data source are also exported.
  • SAP Analytics Cloud profile settings do not influence the format of the exported data.
  • There is no export of BW display attributes.
Consider the following when publishing table data as a CSV file:
  • When you expot table data, only All Data export is supported. You can't share Point of View.
  • Formatting (such as cell color, font styles, and so on) are not retained in the publication.
  • During the publication export, hyperlinks are removed, hierarchies are flattened, and only the table data region is exported.
  • You can't export custom cells outside the data region (for example, on a grid page).
  • If your table has a hierarchy, all the nodes of the hierarchy will be exported, even if you have not drilled down on the data in your table.
  • The All export doesn't include visible content applied to the table such as calculations, comment columns, or renamed dimensions.
  • If you have renamed a measure or dimension, you won't see your names in the exported data. The measure and dimension names from the data source are exported.
  • There is no export of BW display attributes.
  • You can't export the following table features:
    • Added row or column calculations including data point comments and dimension comments
    • Hidden rows or columns
    • Properties such as extra rows or columns for the ID or description
  • You can export up to 750 thousand cells per widget.

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 successful. You have the flexibility of choosing whether to deliver such publications or deliver only complete publications. 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 irrespective of whether the content is complete or not.

Managing Scheduled Publications

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

Context

From the side navigation, choose Calendar
Note

Make sure you have the Manage permission granted for the object type Schedule Publication, which lets you manage scheduled publications in the calendar. For more information, see Permissions.

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 scheduled publications 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 publication job and reuse it with the desired scheduling parameters, search for the scheduled publication 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 scheduled publication, 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 Scheduled Publication

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

You can specify filter values while modifying a scheduled publication using the Change Story Filter option and only those filters that were defined during the publication creation will be considered.

Caution

Change Story Filter isn’t available for stories and analytic applications that are in Optimized View Mode.

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

Canceling a Scheduled Publication

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

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

Caution

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