Overview
The Inbox is a per-user mailbox in Lens that collects scheduled Report deliveries, Secure Inbox shares, and Dashboard PDF downloads. It is the retrieval point for any output that was generated for or sent to the user, separating ad-hoc consumption from the live Dashboard surface where Reports are designed and viewed.
The Inbox is reached from the Inbox icon on the Main Navigation Bar. Each user sees only their own entries; there is no cross-user inbox view.
When to use it
- Retrieve a Report that arrived on a recurring schedule.
- Pick up a Report another user shared through Secure Inbox.
- Re-download a Dashboard PDF without regenerating it from the source.
- Audit which Reports have been generated for the user and when.
Entry sources
| Scheduled delivery | A schedule configured on a Report delivers an entry to the Inbox of each subscribed recipient at the scheduled time. |
| Secure Inbox share | A user explicitly sends a Report to one or more recipients using the Secure Inbox option. The shared entry appears in each recipient’s Inbox. |
| Dashboard PDF download | A user downloads a Dashboard as PDF with the Generate to Secure Inbox option enabled. The PDF appears in the downloader’s own Inbox. |
Inbox columns
| Report Title | Title of the Report the entry was generated from. |
| Generated By | User who triggered the generation — the schedule owner, the Secure Inbox sender, or the user who initiated the download. |
| Generated On | Date and time the entry was generated. |
| Report Type | Format of the entry (Scheduled or Ad hoc). |
| Schedule Name | Name of the schedule that produced the entry. Empty for entries that did not come from a schedule. |
| Status | Current state of the entry (e.g., Generated, Failed). |
| Details | Opens a pop-up showing the filters applied and the columns selected when the entry was generated. |
| Download | Downloads the entry in its Report Type format. |
| Delete | Removes the entry from the Inbox. |
List controls
| Search | Filters the list by Report Title. |
| Refresh | Reloads the list to show entries that have appeared since the page was opened. Useful for entries that take time to generate. |
| Filter (Report Type) | A filter icon adjacent to the Report Type column header opens a filter pop-up to restrict the list by Report Type. |
| Sort (any column) | Clicking a column header cycles through ascending, descending, and default order. |
Details pop-up
The Details button on an Inbox entry opens a pop-up listing the filters applied and the columns selected when the entry was generated. This is the read-only record of how the Report was rendered for this delivery.
If the source Report is configured to support it, the Details pop-up also exposes a Column Preferences button that lets the user adjust which columns are included on future runs of the Report. Column Preferences are configured by the Designer at design time. Column Preferences can also be reached from the Report or Dashboard itself via the three-dot menu in the top-right → Preferences → Column Preferences.
Key behaviors
Per-user mailbox. Each user has their own Inbox; there is no shared inbox or distribution list. A Secure Inbox share to multiple recipients creates one entry per recipient, in each recipient’s Inbox.
Entries are snapshots, not live Reports. An Inbox entry captures the state of the Report at the time it was generated. Re-downloading the same entry returns the same data; to see current data, the user must re-run the Report from Design or Dashboard, or wait for the next scheduled delivery.
Generation can lag the trigger. Schedules and downloads do not produce entries instantly — generation runs through a queue, and large Reports can take longer. Refresh updates the list with newly available entries; a missing entry shortly after the trigger is not necessarily a failure.
Deletion is local to the Inbox. Deleting an entry removes only the entry — it does not affect the source Report, the schedule, or any other recipient’s Inbox.