Introduction

• Users might be interested to automatically create reports about planning and execution of job scheduling.
• Such reports can be created by use of JS7 cmdlets, see the following use cases:
  • JS7 - How to create an Audit Log Report
  • JS7 - How to create a Daily Plan Report
  • JS7 - How to create an Order History Report
  • JS7 - How to create a Task History Report
• Use cases include to customize the ordering and format of reporting data. This includes use of output formats such as .csv, .xml, .json, .xlsx and individual formats. As Excel® is a frequent output format the use cases introduce a solution to create .xlsx files with Windows and with a number of Unix platforms. Reports can be added to individual worksheets of an Excel® report file.
• This article explains how to automate the creation of reports and how to send reports by mail.

Download

• Download the sample workflow: jdDailyReport.workflow.json

• For use with Unix environments you can use the sample workflow, however, you have to replace the first line of each job to make use of a Unix shebang.
  
  

  Code Block
  language bash title Shebang for PowerShell Job with Unix
  #!/usr/bin/env pwsh

  Explanation:

  • Use of a shebang allows to invoke the pwsh PowerShell executable. 

Example

The sample workflow jdDailyReport is used that

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• The reporting jobs to be used are explained with the respective articles, see Introdution.
• The workflow jdDailyReport serializes execution of the above jobs.
  • Keep in mind that you might not need all reports as they provide redundant data, for example the Task History Report partially includes similar reporting data as the Order History Report.
  • The main purpose of the reports is to allow different perspectives on historic data, therefore make your choice which report you will need.
  • The workflow makes use of three variables, that are provided with a default value that can be modified by any order:
    • report_file: The path to the Excel® file that holds the reports. Each report is stored to a separate worksheet. The path is determined from the Agent's working directory.
    • report_past_period: This period is applied to reports that consider the past, for example the Task History Report.
    • report_future_period: This period is applied to reports that consider the future, for example the Daily Plan Report.
• A final send-mail job is added that forwards the report_file by mail.
• Finally an order is created to parameterize and to schedule execution of the workflow.

Job: send-mail

The send-mail job makes use of the following arguments:

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• The screenshot shows the configuration of the eMailDefault Job Resource, see JS7 - Job Resources.
  • Mail parameters are specific for a user's environment.
  • Check the JS7 - JITL MailJob for applicable parameters, such as host, port, use of TLS protocols etc.

Schedule: daily-report

Explanation:

• The order carries the following parameters:
  • report_file: the path - including the name - of the Excel report file. This parameter is forwarded to all jobs in the job chain that therefore will write to the same Excel report file.
  • report_past period: a relative date specification for the begin of the reporting period is used. The above value -1d+TZ translates to a date range starting 1 day ago at midnight in the timezone that is specified by the reporting jobs with the -Timezone parameter for the respective reporting cmdlet.
  • report_future_period: a relative date specification for the end of the reporting period is used. The above value +1d+TZ translates to a date range one day after the current date at midnight in the timezone that is specified by the reporting jobs with the -Timezone parameter for the respective reporting cmdlet.
  • to: the recipient of the e-mail. Multiple recipients are separated by comma ",".
• The above order can be added a run-time to specify automated execution, e.g. on a daily basis or more/less frequently.
• Additional orders can be created with different parameter sets for date range an recipients that  use the same job chain.

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