KB20713: How to create subscriptions in MicroStrategy Distribution Services

INTRODUCTION
Subscriptions allow report and document requests to be executed according to a schedule specified by the administrator. This reduces the load on the system in two ways:

1. Frequently-accessed reports and documents can be pre-cached, which provides very fast response times to users while not creating much load on the database system.
2. Long-running reports and documents can be postponed to a later time when the load on the system is not as heavy.

There are two ways to schedule reports and documents:

1. Any user with the Administer Subscriptions privilege can subscribe to reports/documents themselves either through Strategy Developer or Web based on schedules defined by administrators.
2. Administrators can schedule frequently-accessed reports/documents on behalf of the users.

Subscriptions can be created via Strategy Developer and Strategy Web. The steps for creating a subscription in Strategy Web are as simple as going to the reports page and selecting "Add Subscription" as seen below:
 

 
 
Steps for creating subscriptions in Strategy Developer are more detailed as described below:
 
To schedule reports and documents in Strategy Developer using Subscription Creation Wizard
 
Subscription Creation Wizard can be accessed via the Administration Menu ->Scheduling or by right mouse clicking on Subscription under Configuration Managers as seen below:
 

• Once the Subscription Creation Wizard opens, review the Introduction Page and click next to specify the scheduling criteria
  

• Choose a schedule, a project and a delivery type for your schedule and click Next.
  

•  
  Delivery Type:
  
• History List - To send the report or document execution to history.
  
• Cache Update - Scheduled reports generate their own SQL and thus create new cache files. To update the existing cache instead of creating a new one, the Cache Update delivery type should be used.
  
• Cube Refresh - To refresh all Intelligent Cubes currently published.
  
• Mobile - To send the report or document execution to the mobile device.
   
  
• Choose Reports/Documents to be scheduled (Answer the prompts, if any) and click Next.
  

•  
  Note: Users cannot schedule reports with prompts unless the report has default answers.
   
  
• Choose Recipients of the subscription and click Next.
  

• Select the Subscription Properties (seen only for history list subscriptions) and click Next:
  

•  
  Subscription Properties:
   
  
• Run Subscription Immediately: To send the report or document to the selected recipients immediately after creating the subscription.
  
• Expire Subscription on - Select Expire subscription on and select a date to configure when the subscription will stop sending reports or documents.
  
• Send Notification to default email address of each recipient - To have an automated delivery notification email sent when the report or document is delivered.
  
• Allow recipients to change delivery settings - To allow recipients to change delivery settings. For example, when this option is enabled, users can change prompt answers or change the time of day that a report or document is sent.
  
• Allow recipients to change personalization - To allow recipients to edit the subscription properties.
  
• Allow unsubscribe - To let users cancel their subscription.
  
• The new scheduled report will overwrite older versions of itself - To ensure that previous versions of the report in the recipients' delivery location will be replaced with the most recent version. If not selected, the older versions will remain.
  
• Re-run against the warehouse - To retrieve data from the warehouse when the scheduled report or document is executed by the system.
  
• Do not create or update matching caches - If checked, existing matching caches are not updated and new matching caches are not created. A new history cache is created or an existing history cache is updated.
  
• The following summary screen is seen:
  

• The newly created subscription will appear in the Subscriptions manager as seen below: