Automate email

[Marlina]

Hi Spotfire team,

Im working on automation email. I have question that I attached in the files. Appreciate your suggestion / advise.

Im user spotfire 12.0

Need help from spotfire team auto email.pptx

Edited June 28 by Marlina

[David Boot-Olazabal]

Hi Marlina,

Nice visualizations!
May I ask you how you have setup the email content? I assume you use the automation services job builder.

And what do you want to share in the emails? As it looks to me, you have defined various visualizations as content, but from your Spotfire screenshot, there are more of them (slide 2), as well as filters and legend (slide 1). Do you want everything to be added in the mail content?

Kind regards,

David

[Marlina]

HI David,

Thank u for responding my query. Please find my revised ppt files and steps on creating the email. I removed the filter and legend. I need all donut charts for all commodities to appear in the email (nicely fit).

 

Please advise if i have other option to be used for me to capture the whole page to appear in the email.

Need help from spotfire team auto email.pptx

[David Boot-Olazabal]

Hi Marlina,

I see. As you select the visualizations, they are stacked in one row, below each other in stead of how you have formatted the layout in the analysis. You could export your page in pdf format, that would basically include everything you see in the same order.
This means an extra step in your automation job, as you need to include the 'Export report to pdf' task:

You would add this pdf file in the send email task, via the 'Attached files' box:

There are two things to bear in mind:
- you need to create a report first in pdf format: https://docs.tibco.com/pub/sfire-cloud/latest/doc/html/en-US/TIB_sfire_client/client/topics/en-US/preparing_a_report.html;
- the pdf is gong to be exported to a file location, make sure this is a network folder the Spotfire Server account has access to, otherwise it cannot be located to add to the Attached files box.

As an alternative, you can also use our Alerting Framework for Spotfire to achieve the same. The Alerting Framework is built on top of the automation services, but gives you a couple of advantages. You can find more information here: 

Kind regards,

David

[Marlina]

Hi David, 

Thank u for suggestion. I keep on having this error. 

1st try

Starting job Variability Trigger on server https://spotfiretpt.wdc.com/
FAILED: Task 2 'Export Report to PDF' failed with: Paths cannot be relative. Path '/AutomationJobs/SQE/Variability report' is not a full path.
Done

2nd try

Starting job Variability Trigger on server https://spotfiretpt.wdc.com/
FAILED: Task 2 'Export Report to PDF' failed with: Directory path 'C:\Users\1000071179\OneDrive - Western Digital\Marlina C Drive\Desktop\Spotfire\variability', translated by the operating system, does not exist. Original path 'C:\Users\1000071179\OneDrive - Western Digital\Marlina C Drive\Desktop\Spotfire\variability\Var Red June'24.pdf'.
Done

It seems very difficult to locate the destination.

[David Boot-Olazabal]

Hi Marlina,

To be able to use the shared drives, you must use UNC mentioning. For example, instead of:
T:\finance\Dashboards\Spotfire\PDF\

You need to use:

\\cloudserver1\shared$\finance\Dashboards Spotfire\PDF

Make sure you use a shared network drive for which Spotfire's service account has read/write access. In your 2nd example, you tried to use a C-drive. But as the automation job service is carried out via the server, the system tries to use the C-drive of the Node Manager that 'holds' the automation services instances (instead of your own C-drive). 

See also this article for more information of the above: https://support.tibco.com/s/article/Unable-to-save-PDF-to-different-location-using-Export-to-PDF-in-TIBCO-Spotfire-Automation-Services.

What you can do, is to create a PDF folder on the Node Manager server (e.g. 'C:\Spotfire\PDFExports\') in which you store the pdf's to be added on to your sent email task. If not possible, then the shared network drive using UNC mentioning and proper access for the service account running the Node Manager on which Automation Services is installed should do the trick.

Also, make sure that the Node Manager config is setup to support sending emails, otherwise your next task will result in an error. See also this explanation: https://docs.tibco.com/pub/spotfire_server/14.0.4/doc/html/TIB_sfire_autsvcs_UserGuide/autoservices/topics/adding_smtp_settings_to_the_spotfire.dxp.worker.automation.config_file.html

Kind regards,

David