Sharing a date-prompted report between dashboards and ibots

Question

I have a report that has a single filter which is an "is prompted" date filter. I use it in conjunction with a calendar dashboard prompt when displaying the reports on a dashboard, and the dashboard prompt has a default value that references a repository variable called "yesterday", which is a datetime datatype. Well, I want to schedule this report to be executed and emailed by an ibot, and the ibot execution of the report should always be for "yesterday". Furthermore, whatever solution I come up with to accomplish this, it must be able to be reapplied to report after report after report by much less technical BI end users than myself. So I'm thinking that if I can create a saved filter, no matter how complex to create, that can be easily added to all such reports by the end users, that would seem to be ideal.
i've tried to exhaustively go down a road of effecting a logical NVL() in an "Advanced SQL Filter" of the report using syntax along the lines of this, but I can't quite get it working. This is the closest I came to getting it to work:
"Dates and Times"."Transaction Date" = @{VALUEOF("TransactionDate")}{VALUEOF("yesterday")}
In the above example, "TransactionDate" is a presentation variable set by the dashboard prompt, and "Dates and Times"."Transaction Date" is a DATE datatype in the repository. Anyway, the above generates no error in either the dashboard with a prompt, nor in the "Results" tab of the Answers report-writing webpage (which I'd imagine simulates an iBot since the dashboard prompt is missing). However in both cases, "yesterday" is unconditionally used, and the "TransactionDate" presentation variable is ignored. In other words, everything works fine, except that when I select different values from the dashboard prompt, yesterday's data is still displayed. Argh!
I've seen a lot of threads & blogs online that seem close to this problem, but no cigar in the long run. any and all suggestions are so welcome. I'm ready to tear my hair out... :)
-Jim

Answer 1

Okay, let's see if I understand this correctly. You want to use a report in an iBot and for this you want the Transaction Date to always be for "yesterday." You also want this report in a dashboard and you want the default to be "yesterday" but you want the users to be able to override this by selecting another date from the dashboard prompt. If yes, then proceed; else explain again.
First, you need to create a repository variable (not a presentation variable!) in the rpd called "yesterday."
In the dashboard prompt, for the Default Value, click on "Server Variable," click on the ellipsis and type "yesterday." This will default the dashboard prompt to "yesterday." Use the "drop down" type and save this to the presentation variable pvTransDate.
You will need to build two reports, one for your iBot and one for your dashboard.
For the iBot report, click on the Transaction Date column filter button and, after converting the filter to SQL, type this:
"Dates and Times"."Transaction Date" = TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_DAY,-1, SYSTDATE).
Schedule your iBot and you report will always be for "yesterday."
For the dashboard report, make a copy of the report above. For this report, you will need to add the PV piece and delete the TIMESTAMPADD filter.
Click on the Transaction Date column filter button, click on Add>Variable>Presentation, and type pvTransDate.
When the report is viewed in the dashboard, the report will initially be filtered by the "yesterday" repository variable. When the user selects a value from the dashboard prompt, it will filter the report for that.