This section assumes that you have already successfully installed Email and/or the Fax engine, and the Email task and/or Fax Server is running. Once these tasks have been set-up we need to think about whom the email/fax reports will be sent to. The Faxing and E-Mailing tasks only work with the reports designed for Users not Clients. Selecting Reports/Reports To Users from the main menu of the DBA allows these reports to be assessed.
As there are likely to be a large number of users loaded into the system, we need an easy way to select the required users. To do this you will need to set-up User Groupings. These work in a similar way to client groupings.
It is also possible to send a fax or email to just one person; in this case user groupings are unnecessary.
Setting up User Groupings
To insert a new User Grouping select Maintenance/Monitor Maintenance/User Groupings from the main menu of the DBA. A list of the user groupings that are currently set-up will be displayed. Click the Insert button, and add the name of the new Group Category, if a new user group is required. These names are purely descriptive only. You can also tick on Show Users Assigned to Group to see how is already in each group.
Figure 4-1: User Groupings
Assigning a User to a User Grouping
To assign a user to a User Grouping, you will need to access their user record. To do this, select Maintenance/Users from the main menu. Highlight the user in the list, and click Change.
Alternatively you can click on the Browse Clients button and select the client that the user is assigned to from the available list of clients. Select the Users tab, highlight the user, and click Change. When the Changing a User Record window appears click on the Edit User Details button to fully open the users record, displaying the global details for that user.
Firstly make sure they have a Fax No and/or Email Address entered.
Next, click on the User Groupings tab. Here you can assign users to User Groupings. The window on the right-hand side lists the available User Groupings, as set-up previously. See Setting up User Groupings on page 19. The window on the left-hand side shows the User Groupings that this user has been assigned to. In the example below the user has been assigned to the “Weekly Fax Log Report” user group.
Figure 4-2: Assigning a User to a Group
The user groupings will apply wherever this user is assigned. For example, if this user is assigned to 3 different clients, then whenever a report for the “Weekly Fax Log Report” user group is requested, the user will receive one report containing all 3 clients they are assigned to. Likewise, each time a report for the “Weekly Fax Log Report” user group is requested, each member of the “Weekly Fax Log Report” user group will receive one report all of their clients.
The important thing to remember is that users will only receive log reports for the clients they are assigned to. Members of a User Group do not receive any information about clients that other members of their group are assigned to unless they themselves are assigned to that particular client. For this reason there is no need for individual user groups for every client. E.g. “Pak’n’Save Weekly Fax Reports” user group, “Tilley Corporation Weekly Fax Reports” user group, “Mobil Weekly Fax Reports” user group and so on.
Manually Running a Fax or Email Report
If you need to run a log or client report for just one client, or just one user, this can be done very easily from with that client (or a client the user is assigned to). When running a client report, click on the print client button, you then get the option of sending the report to the printer, fax, or email. When running a Log report, click onto the log tab, then click the print log button, and you get the option of sending the report to the printer, fax, or email. The Fax number, or email address is defaulted from the general tab of the client but can be changed. If you wish to send the report to a particular user, click onto the user tab, right click on the desired user, and choose either Send Log Report or Send Client Report. Here you can also choose to include all clients of this user, or just the current client. The Fax number or email address is defaulted from the user, but can be changed.
Manual Reports To Groups of Users
Reports to Users deal with reporting from a user’s point of view. It is quite common for a user to be assigned to a group of clients, e.g. an installer, or a business owner. Here you can print reports for a user, showing only the sites assigned to them.
Figure 4-2: Assigning a User to a Group
The User Range window allows the range of users to be selected for the report. Generally the User Grouping will be used for filtering these reports, leaving the First User and Last User filter unchanged. See Assigning a User to a User Grouping section. If you need to send a report to one User, see Manually Running a Fax or Email Report section of this document
To select the User Grouping click on the ellipsis button to the right of the field. The Browse User Groupings window will open. Highlight the desired user group from the list and click Select. The user group will appear in the User Grouping field.
The E-Mail and Fax options in the Send Report To only become enabled when these modules have been registered.
If the report is being sent via email an additional window will be presented allowing you to enter a subject and message for the email body. Note that on the email message you can double click to use Patriot's standard messages feature so that there is no need to enter a new message each time you run this report.
Click on the Print Preview check box if you wish to view each report before sending it to the fax engine or email task.
Once a fax report is run, it is sent to the fax server, which must be running before the fax can be completed. See Running the Fax Server document. Then run the Fax Utility to check the status of the fax.
To proceed, click on the Run button. The Client Range window will appear.
Figure 4-4: Client Range
The Report Client Order can be set to Name or Number. If you want all members of the selected user group i.e. “Weekly Fax Log Report” to receive this report then leave the Client tab unchanged. Otherwise, specify the particular clients that members of the selected user group are assigned to using the client filter.
Next, click on the Date Range tab.
Figure 4-5: Date Range
In the Start Date and Time fields specify the date and time in the log to start the report from. Then in the End Date and Time fields specify the date and time in the log to end the report.
Next, click on the Action Plans tab.
Figure 4-6: Action Plans
On this tab you can specify the types of signals that will be included in the report. By default all are marked. To individually mark or unmark an item, hold down either the ctrl or shift key on the keyboard and click on the action plan using the mouse.
Once the required action plans have been selected, click the OK button to run the report, or to abort, click the Cancel button.
Automated Reports
Most reports are not just one-off. There are a number of reports that your customers will require on a regular basis throughout the year.
Patriot offers the facility to set-up and save each of these reports, so they are pre-configured and ready to go when required. Once set-up, they can either be run manually as required or scheduled to run automatically at a predefined time period.
Setting Up Preset Reports
To set-up a new Preset Report select Reports/Preset Reports from the main menu of the DBA. The Browse the Preset Reports window will appear.
Figure 4-7: Browse the Preset Reports
Click the Insert button to set-up a new Preset Report. The Preset Reports Settings window will appear.
Figure 4-8: Preset Report Settings
To set up the Preset Report Settings:
Enter a descriptive Name for the report. For example, ‘Weekly Faxed Log Reports’ if it is a log report that will be faxed out on a weekly basis.
Choose the Report type from the drop down list. Reports that can be emailed or faxed out to users are:
Log Report By User
Slim Log Report By User
Incident Report By User
Inactive Report
If you wish to filter by client you can Order By Number or Name.
Click on the Set Filter Properties button to filter the Client Range. Click OK to return again to the Preset Reports Settings window.
Note: The Set Filter Properties must be set even if you do not intend to filter the client range.
Uncheck the Print Preview check box if you want the report to be sent straight out, otherwise the report print preview will appear.
If this report is to be automatically printed, set to Automatic, and enter the Post Date and Post Time that the report should first be run. Enter the name of the Computer that this report will be run on.
Note: The DBA of the Computer specified must be running at the Post Date and Time shown, otherwise the report will not automatically run
Frequently Asked Email Questions
Is there anything I need to do before I setup the email task in patriot 5/5.1?
Before you setup the email task, ensure that there is a file called PDFXSDKEU in the Patriot\Utilities folder. If you don’t, you need to download a file called Email.exe from the Downloads web page on the Patriot website, and then extract the file to a temp folder. When you have this file, run the program, and install the PDF print driver. To Ensure that it has been correctly installed, go to the Start Menu, pointing to Control Panel and choosing Printers and if it ahs been installed correctly, there will be a printer called PDF-XChange DE there. This driver is not required for patriot 5.2 and up.
How do I setup the email task?
This is covered in the Email task setup document. In short, to setup the email task, in the Task Manager, click on the File menu and choose Tasks. In the Tasks window, choose the Task Type called 'Email' and click on the Insert button. This will take you to the Adding a Tasks Record window. If you are using a Local Area Network connection, choose none in the Dial Up Connection Control section. If you are using a normal dial up connection, choose Connect and Hang-up in the Dial Up Connection Control section. If you are using Jet Stream, choose Connection Only in the Dial Up Connection Control section.
What’s SMTP mean?
SMTP is a protocol that most outgoing mail servers use to send email.
Please explain the meaning of the Global Default Email Address.
A default global email address is an email address that is used as a default globally throughout Patriot. When Always Use This Email Address is chosen, all emails will be sent to this email address, unless a different email address is specified when an email is being manually sent out. The default global email address can be used to email one person all the time or not at all, or when there are no other users to be emailed.
What’s the From Address used for?
The From Address is used to show who emails are from when a user receives an email that has been sent from Patriot.
I get the error Email(SMTP) server sent error = 550 5.7.1 Unable to reply for?
First check that the From address is a valid email address. If it is, your Email server is not allowing the From Address to send external mail. If your using Exchange server, go to the Default SMTP Virtual Server. The go to properties, Access tab, Relay restrictions. Add the computer running the email task to the list of allowed computers. You may also be required by your email server to authenticate the sender, try entering a valid windows user login and password into the authenticate fields of the email task, with a user that has privileges to send outward emails.