Automate Reports with Workflows

Workflows let a report work for you without anyone opening it. Email a report to your manager every morning, save an Excel copy to the media library each week, send someone a link to a report, or do something every time a report is run, exported or published.

Menu	Design > Workflows
Permission	Manage workflows
Feature	Report Builder, with Workflows. Emailing needs Email, with a configured provider. Saving files needs Media.

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

What you can use

The report activities are in the Reports category of the activity picker.

Activity	Kind	What it does
Report Run	Event	Starts the workflow when someone runs a report: on its page, on the shared reports page, or through a share link.
Report Exported	Event	Starts the workflow when someone exports a report.
Report Published	Event	Starts the workflow when someone publishes a report.
Run Report	Task	Runs a report and keeps its rows for the next activities.
Export Report	Task	Exports a report to CSV, or to Excel when the Reports (OpenXml) feature is on, and saves the file in the media library.
Email Report	Task	Emails a report: your message, the report's headline numbers and tables, and the report attached as a file.
Create Report Share Link	Task	Creates a share link to a report for users of the site, and emails it to them.

Each event can be limited to some reports. Leave Reports empty to start the workflow for every report.

Reports run with their owner's access

A report run by a workflow reads data with its owner's access, exactly like a shared report. An emailed report or a share link shows its recipients what the owner can see. Send reports only to people who should see that data.

Choose the report

Every report task has the same first fields:

Field	What it does
Report	The published report to use.
Report ID expression	Instead of choosing a report, a Liquid expression that gives its ID. After a report event, {{ Workflow.Input.ReportId }} is the report that was run, exported or published.
Filters	One filter per line, as filter ID = value. Repeat a filter for several values. A recent period takes a number of days, such as created = 7. Filters you leave out use the report's defaults. Values can use Liquid.
Output name	The name the task stores its result under, read by the next activities in Liquid.

To find a filter's ID, run the report, set the filter and click Show: the address of the page holds f. and the ID, such as f.created=7 for the filter ID created.

Email a report every morning

1. Go to Design > Workflows and click Create Workflow. Name it, for example Daily sales, and save.
2. Add the Timer Event from the Background category as the start activity. Set its schedule, such as 0 7 * * * for 7:00 every day.
3. Add Email Report. Choose the report, and enter the recipients in To. Leave Subject empty to use the report's title.
4. Write a Message if you want one. Keep Attachment on CSV, or choose Excel (.xlsx), or No attachment to send only the tables.
5. Connect Done of the timer to the email task, and save the workflow.

The recipients get your message, the report's headline numbers and tables, and the file attached. Charts are left out of the email; they are in the attached file's data and in the report itself.

Email someone a link to a report

A link is better than an attachment when the report is large or the reader wants to change its filters. A link is for users of the site: they open it once signed in.

1. Add Create Report Share Link and choose the report.
2. Fill in its settings:

Setting	What it does
Recipients	The user names or emails of the users the link is for, separated by commas. It can use Liquid.
Note	Optional. What the link is for, sent with the email and shown on the report's Sharing tab. It can use Liquid.
Expires after (days)	How many days the link works, at least 1. It starts at 7. Every link expires.
Most uses	How many times the link can be used, or 0 for no limit. Opening the report, changing its filters and exporting it are each a use.
Allow export	Lets the recipients download the report.
Email the link to the recipients	On at first: the task emails the link and the note to each recipient. It needs the Email feature. Turn it off to send the link with another task, such as Orchard Core's Email task, with {{ Workflow.Output.ReportShareLink.Url }} in the message.

3. Connect the outcomes: Done when the link was created, Failed otherwise.

The task keeps the link for the next activities, read in Liquid as {{ Workflow.Output.ReportShareLink.Url }} (or the Output name you entered):

Value	What it holds
Url	The link.
LinkId	The link's ID.
ExpiresUtc	When the link stops working.
Recipients	The user names of the recipients.
Notified	The recipients the email was sent to.

The link appears on the report's Sharing tab with your note, and under Tools > Shared Links, where you can revoke it like any other link. Set the site's base URL under Settings > General so links created on a timer are complete.

React when a report is run

Start a workflow with Report Run, Report Exported or Report Published to do something when people use a report. For example, email the owner when a report is published, or keep a log of who exports a report.

The event gives the workflow these values, read in Liquid as {{ Workflow.Input.ReportTitle }}:

Value	What it holds
ReportId	The ID of the report.
ReportTitle	The title of the report.
UserName	Who ran, exported or published it. Empty for a visitor who is not signed in.
Source	Where it was run or exported: Admin (the report's page), Shared (the shared reports page) or Link (a share link).
RowCount	Report Run only: the number of rows.
Format	Report Exported only: csv or xlsx.
VersionNumber	Report Published only: the version that was published.
FilterValues	The filters that were used.

Runs made by the report tasks of a workflow do not start these events, so a workflow that runs a report after Report Run does not start itself again.

Use a report's rows

Run Report keeps the report's result for the next activities, read in Liquid as {{ Workflow.Output.Report.RowCount }} (or the Output name you entered). It has three outcomes: Done when the report has rows, No rows when it has none, and Failed when it cannot run. Use No rows to skip an email when there is nothing to report.

Value	What it holds
ReportId, Title	The report.
RowCount	The number of rows.
Columns	The column labels.
Rows	The first 1,000 rows, each with its values by column label.
Errors	The reasons the report could not run, if any.

Export Report stores FileName, Format, RowCount and Size. With a Media folder, such as reports/weekly, it saves the file in the media library and stores its Path and Url; the folder can use Liquid. Without one, the file is kept in the workflow as Base64 for a custom activity to use.

When something goes wrong

Every report task has a Failed outcome. It is taken when the report cannot be found or is not published, when the report cannot run, when the email cannot be sent, or when a media folder is set and the Media feature is off. Create Report Share Link also fails when there is no recipient, when a recipient is not a user of the site, or when it should email the link and the Email feature is off. The reason is written to the site's logs.