How can I have a report subscription sent only if there is actually data in the report?

Environment:

Analytics, Scheduled Reports

Issue:

I have a report scheduled to be sent each week, but sometimes, there is no data in the report. How can I have the report subscription sent only if there is actually data in the report.

Resolution:

To set up an alert to be sent only when data exists in a report, use the steps below. For more information and specific steps on setting up data exceptions and alerts, refer to Answer ID 1854: Using Alerts with Report Subscriptions.


Step 1: Define your basic report. Set up the report to use as the basis for your scheduled report. Define the table instances, filters, and output for the report to be sent.

For more information on configuring reports in RightNow, refer to Answer ID 2509: Creating Custom Reports.

Step 2: Define the data exceptions to be used. To send an alert only if any data is present, you want to set the data exception so that any data listed in the report will meet the data exception.

For example, in the case of newly published answers, you could define the data exception to be "Answer ID > 0". Since all Answer IDs are greater than 0, every answer in the report will meet the exception. Similarly, you could define the exception to be Status Type in list "Public". Again, since all published answers have a public status type, all records in the report will qualify as an exception.

Note: In a general report, you can set data exceptions so that they display using a different format than other data in the report. However, when setting an exception for purposes of triggering an alert, you most likely do not want the exception to display in a unique format.

• Edit the data exception by going to the Insert tab and then clicking the Exception button. Click the Tabular Display tab, then Click the Use Custom Display Options to set the data marking to "None" and set the style to be your standard report style, such as 10 pt. Times New Roman and black. 
   

Step 3: Set up the alert. The alert itself is configured similar to a scheduled report.  However, the report is sent only if the alert conditions are met.

While editing the report, open the scheduling window. From the Home tab, click the Scheduling button.

From the scheduling window, click the Add Schedule link. Add an alert in the Alerts section of the page and specify who the alert report should be sent to. After defining the alert conditions, be sure to save the report itself.