Creating a Distribution List

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Procedure: How to Create a Distribution List

To create a Distribution List:

From the Distribution List pane, click New.
The following image shows the available options, input fields, and drop‑down lists in the Distribution List pane.

In the Distribution List field, specify a name for your Distribution List (for example, Sales Team).

From the Access drop-down list, select Public (default) or Private.
Only the owner and ReportCaster Administrators can view a Private Distribution List, whereas every ReportCaster user can view a Public Distribution List.

From the Distribution Method drop-down list, select Email (default) or Printer.

If you are bursting a report, specify individual sort values in the Burst Value field. The burst value is case-sensitive, can be a maximum of 75 characters, and, when used with keywords, can contain wild cards and Java regular expressions.
The burst value for a tabular report is the first BY field, which is the primary sort field. The burst value for a graph report is the second BY field. The burst value specified must exist in the data source that the scheduled job reports against.

For more information, see Bursting a Report.
In the Destination field, specify the destinations to which the report is distributed:
- If you selected Email as the distribution method, type the e-mail addresses of the recipients (for example, chuck_hill@ibi.com). Be careful typing this information because there is no edit checking.
  Note: If the Email Delivery, Restrict Email Domains option is set to yes in the ReportCaster Server Configuration tool, then only those e-mail domains (the portion of the e-mail address following the at symbol) listed in Allowed Email Domains (also in the Server Configuration tool) are valid e-mail recipients.
- If you selected Printer as the distribution method, specify the printer using the following format
```
queue@printserver
```
  where:
  queue
  Is the name of the printer queue.
  printserver
  Is the host name or IP address of the printer.
  Although ReportCaster supports specifying only the host name (or IP address), we recommend that you specify both the printer queue and the host name (or IP address) when distributing ReportCaster output to a printer. ReportCaster differentiates between the printer queue and the printer host name (or IP address) when the at sign (@) is present as the separator.
You can specify a maximum of 800 characters within a single Destination line.

Note:
- You can specify multiple e-mail addresses within a single Destination field. For more information, see Specifying Multiple E-mail Addresses.
- You can retrieve e-mail addresses defined in an LDAP data source. For more information, see How to Retrieve E-mail Addresses for a Distribution List Using Address Search.
- For more information about creating a printer Distribution List, see Considerations When Creating a Printer Distribution List.
Click Save to save the Distribution List and return to the Distribution List pane.
The following image shows that the Distribution List you created (Sales Team) is added to the list of available Distribution Lists.

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Procedure: How to Retrieve E-mail Addresses for a Distribution List Using Address Search

Note: The Address Search options appear automatically if your ReportCaster Administrator has set the Email LDAP Enabled parameter to YES in the ReportCaster Server Configuration tool. If the Address Search options do not appear, contact your ReportCaster Administrator.

The following image shows the Address Search pane that appears to the right of the Distribution List pane while creating or editing a Distribution List.

Type the search string. You can search using the following combinations:
- Last Name [Equals | Starts with | Ends with | Contains]
- First Name [Equals | Starts with | Ends with | Contains]
- Email [Equals | Starts with | Ends with | Contains]
For example, if you type S after the Last Name Starts with field, as shown in the following image, ReportCaster retrieves last names that start with the letter S. The Address Search pane also contains action buttons, input fields, and drop-down lists.
Note: By default, ReportCaster retrieves a maximum of 300 e-mail addresses. You can change this default value for the duration of your session. However, if you log out and log back in, the Address Search pane displays the default value of 300. ReportCaster allows the retrieval of a maximum of 500 e-mail addresses. If you suspect your search will return more than 500 records, you should refine your search criteria.

Click Search.
ReportCaster retrieves the specified names from the LDAP data source.

The following image shows retrieved search data under the Name and Email Address column headings in the Address Search pane.

Select an e-mail address you want to use in your Distribution List.
The following image shows a highlighted data selection under the Name and Email Address column headings in the Address Search pane.

Click Insert to insert the e-mail address into your Distribution List.
Note: Alternatively, you can double-click an e-mail address to automatically insert it into your Distribution List.

Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 if you want to select and insert additional e‑mail addresses into your Distribution List.
The following image shows selected Email Address data transferred from the Address Search pane on the right to the Distribution List pane on the left.

By default, ReportCaster separates multiple e‑mail addresses with a comma. The e-mail addresses appear in the To line of a single e‑mail when the scheduled output is distributed.

Note: Repeat these steps if you want to change your search criteria or insert additional e‑mail addresses into your Distribution List. If you insert additional e‑mail addresses while the original e‑mail addresses are selected, the new e‑mail addresses replace the old ones. If your cursor is positioned after the original e‑mail addresses, the new e‑mail addresses are appended to the old ones, separated by a comma. However, be aware that the maximum number of characters is 800 when inserting addresses.

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Reference: Considerations When Creating a Printer Distribution List

When printing on Windows and UNIX, ReportCaster uses the lp (line printer) protocol, which runs on top of TCP/IP to communicate to printers. lp printing with the Novell Client is not supported. For printing on z/OS, ReportCaster uses the lpr (line printer remote) UNIX command, which has special options on the mainframe for sysout dest and class.

When creating a printer Distribution List on z/OS, the printer should be a SYSOUT class (such as A) that has been routed to a printer. For example, you can indicate that scheduled report output be distributed to a specific network printer by typing the following printer identification

A DEST printserver

where:

A: Is the SYSOUT class to be assigned to a network printer.
printserver: Is the printer host name (for example, IBVM.P24E2).

Note: Before creating a Distribution List, we recommend verifying that you can connect to your printer by test printing a document outside of ReportCaster.