Send List Report Data as Calendar Events
Create a list report containing calendar event data and then send calendar events to users in bulk, one calendar event per row. The list report must be designed to have one column per field or option that you would normally fill out when creating a personal calendar event in your calendar. Calendar events are linked back to the report, so any updates to the original calendar event are re-sent and are completely replaced by the latest calendar events. Additionally, it is possible to rescind all events that originated from a particular list report.
The list report itself should be based on the type of information that the calendar events will focus on (e.g., student profiles or particular types of documents). If the report is based on documents, each message will be linked to the corresponding document. There is also an option to schedule the list report to automatically resend/update calendar events nightly.
Include Required Message Columns in the List Report
To send messages based on a list report, you must define the report to have specific columns and titles. These titles are recognized by the system and used to build the messages. The list report can have additional columns for reference purposes, but must include the following columns:
| Column Title | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| To Users | Required | The values in this column must be valid User IDs. Multiple IDs must be separated by commas. To include a calculation, for example, to send a message to the case manager, the formula would be "U" + Casemanager.ID. To send messages to the case manager and nurse, the formula would be "U" + Casemanager.ID +, "U" + Nurse.ID. Because the calendar events are technically personal, only staff users can be recipients (not the ADMIN). |
| Event Date | Required | The date or date/time of the calendar event. |
| Subject | Required | The data to build the subject of the messages. Typically, the column value will be a formula such as "Annual Review for " + FirstName + " " + LastName + " Due: " + CHARACTER(AnnRevDueDate). |
| All Day Event | Optional | This is a true/false column that can be used to indicate whether the event is an all-day event. The column value could simply be "True". |
| Duration Minutes | Optional | The duration of the calendar events in several minutes. The column value could simply be a number like 60. This is ignored if the date is an all-day event or if no specific time is provided in the Event Date column. |
| Body | Optional | The data to build a detailed message for the calendar event. It can be constructed similarly to the Subject column. |
| Reminder Date | Optional | Date when the user should receive a reminder on the user's home page. The dates in this column should precede the Event Date. |
Send Report Data as a Calendar Event
Users must have the Manage Organizational Calendar privilege to access the Send Report Data as Calendar Events menu option. The menu option appears if the report includes the required To Users, Event Date, and Subject columns.
- Display the report.
- Click More ..., and then select Send Report Data as Calendar Events to perform a one-time manual sending of the events.
Setup a Report to Send Events Nightly
You can set up the report to send out calendar events nightly. This option is only available for public list reports.
Typically in this situation, you will want to have more narrow selection criteria to prevent too many duplicate messages from being sent nightly. For example, a formula such as DueDate = ADDDAYS(7, CurrentDate()) could be used to send a message exactly seven days in advance of a due date.
- Display the report, and then click Edit Report.
- Click Report Properties.
- Select the Auto Refresh System-Wide Report View Overnight and Send Report Data as Calendar Events.
- Click Accept.