Apparatus and method for defining and processing publication objects

1. A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

present a user interface to specify a publication object, wherein the user interface includes prompts to receive input, wherein the user interface includes:

a first screen with a first box to receive a user defined publication object title and a second box to receive a user defined publication object description;

a second screen to specify report templates;

a third screen to specify a plurality of recipients to receive customized reports derived from the report templates, wherein the third screen lists potential recipients and receives user input that selects the plurality of recipients from the potential recipients;

a fourth screen to specify a delivery rule for each customized report, wherein the delivery rule is selected from a list of delivery rules;

form a publication object based upon the input, wherein the publication object includes a plurality of report names corresponding to a plurality of reports, wherein each report of the plurality of reports includes at least one report parameter and recipient mapping information;

process the publication object to form the customized reports, wherein the executable instructions to process include executable instructions to process each report of the plurality of reports by retrieving data from a data source and formatting the data in accordance with a report schema; and

deliver the customized reports to the plurality of recipients.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to define a processing schedule for the publication object.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to define a personalization filter for the publication object, wherein the personalization filter specifies an attribute associated with a recipient as a value for a parameter defined in a report template.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to generate a publication document, wherein the publication document is a merged document including at least a portion of two or more customized reports.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to receive at the user interface a customized report output format selected from: Crystal Report .rpt, Adobe Acrobat .pdf, Microsoft Word .rtf, rich text format .rtf, Microsoft Word editable .rtf, Microsoft Excel .xls, text .txt, tab separated text .ttx, separated values .csv, XML, and compressed archive file formats.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the destination is selected from the list comprising: email, ftp, business intelligence dashboard, inbox, system folder and repository, and custom destinations.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to:

add at least one static document to the publication object; and

define a format and a destination in the publication object for each static document.