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Distribute NPrinting reports after reloading a Qlik App

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JonnyPoole
Employee
Employee

Distribute NPrinting reports after reloading a Qlik App

Last Update:

Jul 14, 2021 12:20:23 PM

Updated By:

Frank_S

Created date:

Mar 8, 2018 10:52:50 AM

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***UPDATED 06/30/2021

To resolve rest connector related issues visit:

 

**UPDATED 10/16/2020

Revised Sense Sample to include updated cookie parsing and proper error handling

Added sample to trigger an NPrinting User Import Task from Qlik Sense

****

One of the most common questions is how can i distribute my NPrinting reports to occur automatically as soon as my Qlik app is done reloading ?

THis is possible in both Qlik Sense and with QlikView using the NPrinting API. Moreover, you can invoke the API through the the Qlik load script Qlik REST Connector v1.3+.  What this means is that you can schedule and/or chain your NPrinting report distributions using the Qlik Sense scheduler or the QlikView publisher to better integrate the operations across the platform

.The sample included herein draws on the great document published by gianluca perrin on Qlik Community here:   https://community.qlik.com/thread/292037

Benefits

  1. Common Scheduler

    Currently NPrinting and QLik (Sense or View) have separate schedulers.

    If you reload a Qlik application daily at 1:00AM and want to send the NPrinting reports directly after a successful reload, you must schedule them separately for times that you believe  will not intefere with each other.   Its better to have a100% chained solution however whereby reports are only distribute upon successful reload of the Qlik app.


  2. Error handling

 

     Should the NPrinting task, publisher has a built in solution to notify administrators. Qlik Sense also has 3rd party solutions to do the same.

 

 

Restrictions

 

       You need to have v1.3 of the Qlik REST Connector. Its available as of  Feb 2018.

 

Sample

 

       Connection setup


       You will need to create two REST Connector connections to the NPrinting API.  One that uses a default HTTP method of "GET" , the other will use "POST" as the default method.

        Please reference pages 8-9 of the document  https://community.qlik.com/thread/292037  to create the two connections.

 

Image 1 Get Rest Connection.png

                    

Image 2 Post Rest Connection.png

                      

      App Setup

               1. Import the attached application and open the script in the Data Load Editor

               2. Modify the SETUP tab to reflect your

 

                    i. on lines 25/26  update the names of the two REST Connections that you create using the steps in 'Connection Setup' above.

                    ii. on line 30 , if NPrinting is configured to use https (it is by default) leave this setting to 'Yes' .  If you reconfigured it to use http , set to 'No'

                    iii.   On line 31 ,  set the NPrinting server and endpoint  (host + port)

                    iv:   Line 35 is the name of the NPrinting Publish Task that you want to execute

                    v:   Line 37 and 38 is an enhancement to have Qlik check the NPrinting task executions for errors, or , if it runs too long, to abort it and report a failure .

Image 3 Variables.png

                              

                  3.  (optional)  You can also Import the following application into Qlik Sense to send an administrative alert. THis is not necessary with QV Publisher as it has an in-built feature to notify administrators when a publish task fails.

                      

                 4. Open the imported app in the data load editor and update the 'setup' section

                     i.   on lines 21/22  update the names of the two REST Connections that you create using the steps in 'Connection Setup' above.

                    ii.   on line 26 , if NPrinting is configured to use https (it is by default) leave this setting to 'Yes' .  If you reconfigured it to use http , set to 'No'

                    iii.   On line 37 ,  set the NPrinting server and endpoint  (host + port)

                    iv:   Line 32 is the name of the NPrinting Publish Task that will alert an administrator about a report failure

              

                     (note that i've toyed with using the Notification Web Connector to send an administrative email alert in the event of a full blown NPrinting outage.  This sample is a little simpler)

 

Image 4 Variables.png

                       

       Task setup

                In Qlik Sense QMC under tasks i've setup 3 tasks .

 

                Task #1 - reloads  a Qlik App

                Task #2 - Distributes reports in an NPrinting Publish task     (this is chained to execute 'on success' of Task #1)

                 Task #3 - Send an Administrator alert   (this is chained to execute 'on failure' of Task #2)

               Image 5 Task setup.png

 

QLIKVIEW

 

            The QLikVIew solution has all the same benefits as the Qlik Sense solution with a couple more benefits.

            Additional benefits:

             - you can pass the vTask  name from the publisher task to make for greater re-usability of the load script for chaining multiple tasks

             - Publisher has a built in admin notification feature. SHould the NP task fail, the publisher task will also fail and an admin notification will be sent  (you can do that with qlik sense but need to use a 3rd party qlik sense task notification solution, or use the load script to call an administrative task to send a notification. The latter can be done with NPrinting or with the Qlik Web Notification Connector.

 

Load script

 


The QlikView load script has a login ,  get task ID (lookup using task name),  post task execution, and a task execution check  tab.    The task execution check tab will monitor the NP task execution on an interval with a configurable timeout.  Should the NP task throw a warning or error, it errors out the publisher task.  Should the NP task exceed the timeout, it kills the NP task and errors out the publisher task.

 

You will need to update the NPServer, Task and timeout settings in the CONFIG tab.  Again use the REST Connector 1.3 and i suggest testing with QV desktop first .  The REST Connector must be manually installed on QV desktop and on the publisher machine to work.

 

Image 6 Load Script.png

 

New cookie parsing:

//Set Cookie header

let vCookieRaw = peek( 'Set-Cookie',0,'_response_header');

if vSSL='False' then
let vCookie= subfield(subfield('$(vCookieRaw)','Path=/,',3),';',1);
else
// let vCookie = TextBetween('$(vCookieRaw)','Secure,','Path=/',2);

Let vCookie = TextBetween('$(vCookieRaw)','SameSite=None,','; Path=/',3);
end if

 

Related information:

Labels (2)
Comments
tanvi_madan1
Partner - Contributor III
Partner - Contributor III
You need to update only April 2019.
0 Likes
Bernardvanecek
Contributor
Contributor

Hey guys, 

need a quick help with my API.

I believe I've forgot to put look up few details in the instruction, because instead of sending all of my 12 publish tasks, API just loads only 1.

I am using latest versions of Qlik Sense and Nprinting. API is derived from Gialuncas instructions

If you have any idea what could be possibly wrong, please let me know. 

Thanks

Bernard

0 Likes
JonnyPoole
Employee
Employee

Are you trying to trigger the same task 12 times ?  Or are they 12 different tasks ?  Are you trying to trigger the 12 different tasks from one Qlik load script ?  Or are you using 12 different load scripts ?  

Try testing the script with the 'debug' feature and execute the script line by line while monitoring the 'task executions' page in nprinting.   tasks are not sent if there are no recipients of the task . that's a common problem if you are using the script to update recipients at the same time. 

0 Likes
Bernardvanecek
Contributor
Contributor

I am trying to run 12 different tasks(with different recipients)from one load script, connected to single connection.

When I check the log, "NP GET Task" can see all 12 task, but in execution via "NP POST Task execution" it will run just 1 task out of 12. 

As per my understanding of the API I presumed this should detect all 12 tasks and run them all, shouldn't it?

 

0 Likes
JonnyPoole
Employee
Employee

No. 

Each unique task has separate Task ID.  When you POST a task execution you need to pass the Task ID of the task you want to execute . 

You will need to submit 12 different task executions each with a different Task ID. 

I'd recommend doing them in 12 different qlik load scripts.  That way if one fails, you will get a unique notification of which task failed. 

0 Likes
rupamjyotidas
Specialist
Specialist

@JonnyPoole  yes , I still having issues but I guess I have to upgrade to get this working.

0 Likes
JonnyPoole
Employee
Employee

which version are you on ?  We recently backported the REST Connector Fix to February 2019 SR4 as well.  So if you are on an otherwise working version of February, you can just apply the patch to Qlik Sense as well.   The bug was found many versions ago, fixed , but then reappeared in Feb 2019.   

-------

REST Connector cannot load data from NPrinting API after upgraded to June 2017 release
Jira issue ID: QVXREST-837

Description: A connection successfully reloaded data in Qlik Sense 3.2.4. But after upgrade to June 2017 and later September 2017 release, the reload does not work anymore in either version. This issue is a duplicate of QVXREST-593.

 

 

0 Likes
rupamjyotidas
Specialist
Specialist

@JonnyPoole Do we need to update all the below to get this work?

nPrinting : Qlik NPrinting February 2018 SR1

Qliksense:  Qliksense Feb 2019 

Rest Connector: 2.0.6

0 Likes
JonnyPoole
Employee
Employee

You need to update Qlik Sense.  Either install the latest Qlik Sense version (June) or apply Qlik Sense February 2019 patch 4.  

With either upgrade you will get a version of the REST Connector that works with the NPrinting API

0 Likes
Bernardvanecek
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for info. 

In that case I will need to figure out how can I run all 12 tasks within one Qlik Sense App. Can you please help me?

Should I only add extra lines with task ID's into "NP GET Task" and "NP POST Task execution" or is there some other API which allows multiple task run from one API?

Thanks

B.

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Contributors
Version history
Last update:
‎2021-07-14 12:20 PM
Updated by: