BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide

Custom events

A custom event occurs only when you explicitly click its "Trigger this event" button. As with all other events, an object based on a custom event runs only when the event is triggered within the time frame established by the object's schedule parameters. Custom events are useful because they allow you to set up a shortcut that, when clicked, triggers any dependent schedule requests.

Tip:    When developing your own web applications, you can trigger Custom events from within your own code, as required. For more information, see the developer documentation available on your product CD.

For instance, you may have a scenario where you want to schedule a number of reports, but you want to run them after you have updated information in your database. To do this, create a new custom event, and schedule the reports with that event. When you update the data in the database and you need to run the reports, return to the event in the CMC and trigger it manually. BusinessObjects Enterprise then runs the reports. For more information on event-based scheduling, see "Scheduling an object with events" on page 496.

Note:    You can trigger a custom event multiple times. For example, you might schedule two sets of event-based program objects to run daily—one set runs in the morning, and one set runs in the afternoon. When you first trigger the related custom event in the morning, one set of programs is run; when you trigger the event again in the afternoon, the remaining set of programs is run. If you neglect to trigger the event in the morning and trigger it only in the afternoon, both sets of programs run at that time.

To create a custom event

1. Go to the Events management area of the CMC.
2. Click New Event.
3. In the Type list, select Custom.
4. Type a name for the event in the Event Name field.
5. Complete the Description field.
6. Click OK.

Note:    Before you trigger this custom event, schedule an object that is dependent upon this event.

To trigger a custom event

1. Go to the Events management area of the CMC.
2. In the Event Name column, select a custom event by clicking its link.
3. Click Trigger this event.

A message appears: "This event has been triggered."