Portal Integration Kit Administrator's
Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1
windows
Copyright
© 2008 Business Objects, an SAP company. All rights reserved. Business Objects
owns the following U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and
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2008-09-03
Contents
Chapter 1
Welcome to the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration
Kit 5
About this guide...........................................................................................6
Who should read this guide....................................................................6
Configuring Your Deployment 7Chapter 2
Overview......................................................................................................8
Configuring BusinessObjects Enterprise for your SharePoint deployment..8
Security and Single Sign On..................................................................8
User and group rights.............................................................................9
Additional configuration settings..................................................................9
Specifying a server for viewing reports................................................10
Using parameters.................................................................................11
Scheduling and scaling recommendations................................................12
Exporting reports..................................................................................12
Data source information.......................................................................13
Availability column................................................................................13
Report rights.........................................................................................13
Miscellaneous settings and considerations...............................................13
Determining specific IDs for locations or reports..................................14
Performance Improvement...................................................................14
Crystal Reports considerations..................................................................15
Building Customized Web Parts 17Chapter 3
Communication interfaces.........................................................................18
List web part..............................................................................................18
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 3
Contents
List integration......................................................................................18
Viewer web part.........................................................................................19
Viewer integration.................................................................................20
Troubleshooting 23Chapter 4
Trace Exceptions.......................................................................................24
Get More Help 25Appendix A
Index 29
4 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Welcome to the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration Kit
1
Welcome to the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration Kit
1
About this guide
About this guide
This guide details configuration and troubleshooting information for the
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal Integration Kit.
Who should read this guide
This guide is intended for the following audiences:
• administrators who want to know how to configure BusinessObjects
Enterprise to work with the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal
Integration Kit.
• portlet developers who want to know how to create customized portlets
Familiarity with your portal server is essential, as is a good working knowledge
of both Crystal Reports and BusinessObjects Enterprise.
For more information about the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal
Integration Kit, consult the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal
Integration Kit Installation Guide and the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1
Portal Integration Kit User's Guide, see http://help.sap.com/.
For more information about BusinessObjects Enterprise, consult the
BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide, which is included with
BusinessObjects Enterprise. For more information about Crystal Reports,
consult the Crystal Reports User's Guide, which is included with Crystal
Reports.
6 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Configuring Your Deployment
2
Configuring Your Deployment
2
Overview
Overview
There are many possible configurations for your SharePoint deployment.
This chapter provides detailed information about configuring BusinessObjects
Enterprise and on scheduling and setting report properties to maximize their
effectiveness for Information Consumers. This chapter requires that you
have experience in using and administering BusinessObjects Enterprise.
For more information on BusinessObjects Enterprise, refer to the
BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide, which is found in your
BusinessObjects Enterprise product distribution.
Configuring BusinessObjects Enterprise for your SharePoint deployment
When you first install the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal Integration
Kit, you may need to configure or update certain settings within
BusinessObjects Enterprise to optimize your deployment.
Note:
After you install the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal Integration Kit,
no icons or shortcuts are added to your Start menu.
Security and Single Sign On
The BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration Kit supports Windows
Active Directory and Windows NT Authentication automatic Sign On with
your BusinessObjects Enterprise deployment. Automatic Sign On is enabled
when the value is set to true in the web.config file.
After installing the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration Kit, you
need to ensure that your BusinessObjects Enterprise security settings are
set correctly. Otherwise, your users may see the following error message
when they attempt to access the portal:
"Unable to access the BusinessObjects Enterprise infrastructure
at servername to username. The infrastructure may not be ac
cessible, or you have not been granted access using automatic
sign-on with authenticationmode. Contact your reporting admin
istrator for further details on availability."
8 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
If you are using LDAP, NT, or AD authentication, ensure the following items
are set:
• BusinessObjects Enterprise Credential Prompt is set to false
• Your LDAP, NT, or AD deployment is set up properly
• Your portal user names match the aliases in your authentication system
Note:
If you are using Enterprise or LDAP authentication to sign on automatically,
the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration Kit will attempt to log
on with the portal user's name and a blank password. Please ensure that
your CMC authentication is setup to handle this situation.
For more information, see the “BusinessObjects Enterprise Security Concepts”
section in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide.
User and group rights
If users do not have View On Demand rights to reports that do not have
instances in the BusinessObjects Enterprise system, they will see an
“Unavailable” status (and no hyperlinks) in the Availability column of the
listing web part.
Configuring Your Deployment
Additional configuration settings
2
Users need View rights to see reports in the list; they need View On Demand
rights to access reports in real-time (versus reports that have been scheduled
and run beforehand).
To ensure that all users have View rights, in the BusinessObjects Enterprise
Central Management Console, add your users to the Everyone group and
then give this group View rights to specific folders that contain reports that
are accessed by SharePoint. For more information about setting user rights,
see the “Controlling User Access” section in the BusinessObjects Enterprise
Administrator's Guide.
Additional configuration settings
This section provides information about optional BusinessObjects Enterprise
settings that you can configure for your SharePoint deployment.
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 9
Configuring Your Deployment
2
Additional configuration settings
Specifying a server for viewing reports
By default, the reports that Information Consumers view are processed by
the the BusinessObjects Enterprise Page Server. If the page server is not
available, the Report Application Server (RAS) will be used.
If you want to configure the system to use the RAS to process reports, create
a new Server Group for your RAS in BusinessObjects Enterprise. Then,
specify this server group in all of the reports. (Alternatively, you can stop the
Page Server.)
For more information about server groups, see “Managing Server Groups”
in the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide.
To specify the server that a report object uses
1. In the Objects management area of the Central Management Console
(CMC), select an object by clicking its link.
2. Click the Process tab.
3. In the Default Servers To Use For Viewing area, choose one of the three
options:
• Use the first available server
BusinessObjects Enterprise will use the server that has the most
resources free at the time of viewing.
• Give preference to servers belonging to the selected group
This option will attempt to process the object from the servers that are
found within the server group that you select from the list. If the
specified servers are not available, then the object will be processed
on the next available server.
• Only use servers belonging to the selected group
This option ensures that BusinessObjects Enterprise will use only the
specified servers that are found within the server group that you select.
If all of the servers in the server group are unavailable, then the object
will not be processed.
4. Click Update.
10 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Using parameters
Parameter prompts work with the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal
Integration Kit only when you view reports in real-time (unless the parameter
is a stored procedure). In the Central Management Console, you must ensure
that the Prompt the user for new value(s) when viewing check box is
selected; otherwise, the values of the prompts in the report cannot be
changed by the Information Consumer. (The prompts will be disabled if they
are displayed in a web part.)
Tip:
• If your report contains parameters, users who view the report require
View On Demand (or greater) rights.
• To allow Information Consumers to modify parameter values, the reports
that they view must be real-time reports. However, real-time reports can
be resource-intensive; therefore, to reduce the processing load on your
BusinessObjects Enterprise services, you should use scheduled reports
whenever possible.
• If you have one report that has two uses (for example, real-time filtering
and general viewing by date), separate the usage by having two copies
of the report. For real-time filtering, allow users to view the report on
demand (which is resource intensive); for general viewing by date,
schedule the report to run as often as required. By separating the usage,
this method results in less impact on your system resources, because
only the real-time filtering report needs to be viewed on demand.
Configuring Your Deployment
Additional configuration settings
2
To specify parameter settings
1. In the Objects management area of the CMC, select a report object by
clicking its link.
2. Click the Process tab, and then click the Parameters link.
3. Under the Value column, select the value that is associated with the
parameter that you want to change.
4. Select the Prompt the user for a new value(s) when viewing check
box to ensure that your users are prompted when they view the report
instance through their web part.
5. Click Submit.
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 11
Configuring Your Deployment
2
Scheduling and scaling recommendations
Scheduling and scaling recommendations
BusinessObjects Enterprise schedules, processes, and runs reports, general
scheduling and scaling recommendations that apply to BusinessObjects
Enterprise also apply to the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 Portal
Integration Kit. Use the Central Management Console (CMC) to specify the
different scheduling properties for your reports. For more scheduling
recommendations, see the “Scaling Your System” section in the
BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide.
Tip:
• When you have reports that need to be updated regularly, schedule
reports to run as required if the users are going to access the same set
of data.
• When you need to view a report, schedule and run the report instead of
viewing it on demand. Scheduled reports are less resource-intensive.
• When assigning View On Demand rights, note that every time a user
(with the proper rights) refreshes a report, the report accesses the data
source. In addition, the Page Server or the Report Application Server
processes the request.
• When designing your portal, be wary of mixing web parts that contain
real-time views from the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0 Portal
Integration Kit along with other parts from different vendors that are page
refresh intensive. Whenever a page refresh occurs, everything that is
contained in the web page is refreshed. Thus, if the web page contains
a stock ticker that refreshes every ten seconds, any reports contained in
the same web page also refreshes.
Exporting reports
For performance reasons, set export options (Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat,
and so on) at schedule time when possible. When users export a report
dynamically by selecting the alternative format viewing options on the toolbar,
this request is more process and resource intensive. For more information
about setting export options, see the “Configuring the Report for You Web
Part” section in the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Portal Integration Kit
User's Guide.
12 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Data source information
Set your database logon information for your reports through the CMC;
otherwise, users will need to log on to the database every time they refresh
or view a report.
Availability column
In your portal, note that the Availability column in a web part is not driven by
the status of a scheduled instance (for example, a recurring instance). The
Availability information comes from the default value that is specified in the
CMC for the report object.
To ensure that the Availability column displays the most appropriate
information for the report, do the following: in the Central Management
Console, select the schedule option for the report and then click the Update
button.
Configuring Your Deployment
Miscellaneous settings and considerations
2
Report rights
If your report contains parameters, users who view the report require View
On Demand (or greater) rights.
If you are using the Page Server to view the summaries of different reports,
you need to grant your users Edit rights.
Miscellaneous settings and
considerations
This section provides information on identifying report instances and on
creating Crystal reports.
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 13
Configuring Your Deployment
2
Miscellaneous settings and considerations
Determining specific IDs for locations or reports
Your Web Site Creators may want to access a location or report directly
through the location or report's unique identifier, or CUID. For example, when
a Web Site Creator wants to guarantee that he or she is accessing a specific
location or report, the CUID provides the necessary information.
To determine CUIDs for a location or report
1. In the BusinessObjects Enterprise Admin Launchpad, under the “Client
Samples” area, select Query Builder.
2. Specify the User Name, Password, and Authentication.
Note:
Ensure that you log on as an user with administrator rights in
BusinessObjects Enterprise.
3. Enter your SQL statement.
• You can enter the following SQL statement to find all the CUIDs that
are related to the World Sales Report:
select si_ID, si_CUID, si_name from CI_INFOOBJECTS where
SI_name = 'World Sales Report'
For other reports, replace “World Sales Report” with the relevant report
name.
• If you want to see all CUIDs on the system, type
select si_ID, si_CUID, si_name from CI_INFOOBJECTS
4. Click Submit.
Performance Improvement
To improve the performance of the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal
Integration Kit when you are not using a web farm, you can enable the session
state on the web application server.
14 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
To enable the session state
1. Open the web.config file.
2. Remove the comment identifiers from the parameter that is used to create
a Session object in the HttpModules section of the web.config file.
The result should look like the following:
<add name="Session" type="System.Web.SessionState.Session
StateModule"/>
3. Set enableSessionState to true in the pages declaration.
<pages enableSessionState="true" enableViewState="true" en
ableViewStateMac="true" validateRequest="false" />
Note:
If you do not enable the session state, the Portal Integration Kit will
continue to operate in a stateless mode.
Crystal Reports considerations
Configuring Your Deployment
Crystal Reports considerations
2
When you create a report, follow these recommendations:
• Set the background of your report to be transparent in color.
• Make maximum use of your screen resolution and space for your report
parts.
• Ensure that parameter names are short and that parameter descriptions
are meaningful and useful, because your end users—Information
Consumers—will see the parameter names and descriptions in the toolbar.
For detailed information about creating Crystal reports, refer to the Crystal
Reports User's Guide, which is included in your Crystal Reports product
distribution.
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 15
Configuring Your Deployment
Crystal Reports considerations
2
16 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Building Customized Web Parts
3
Building Customized Web Parts
3
Communication interfaces
Communication interfaces
This chapter provides information on communication interfaces for web part
developers. Using this chapter as a reference guide, you can create web
parts that communicate with web parts from the BusinessObjects Enterprise
XI Portal Integration Kit.
For more information about Microsoft web part communication interfaces,
search for Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.Communication
Namespace documentation in MSDN.
Note:
A CUID is the unique cluster ID for an InfoObject within BusinessObjects
Enterprise. For more information about CUIDs and objects, see the
BusinessObjects Enterprise .NET SDK Guide or the BusinessObjects
Enterprise Java SDK Guide, at https://boc.sdn.sap.com/developer/library/
List web part
The List web part sends the chosen document and the active folder to its
surrounding environment through the various web part communication
interfaces. The List web part can receive the location that it needs to make
active using the web part communication interface or the portal page URL
query string.
List integration
Web part integration for developers occurs through the use of the Microsoft
defined communication interfaces.
The Document List web part makes use of the ICellProvider, ICellConsumer,
IRowProvider, and IRowConsumer interfaces.
The interfaces expect the following structured information for the Document
List web part:
18 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
ICellConsumer
Building Customized Web Parts
Viewer web part
DescriptionInterface
Single cell with CUID, ID, full name,
or partial name as value of the location (folder or category).
3
ICellProvider
IRowConsumer
IRowProvider
Viewer web part
Single cell that will contain the CUID
of the location (folder or category).
Location and Document as two
columns with a single row. The values in the cell must contain the CUID,
ID, full name, or partial name as the
value for the location (folder or category) and the document (any selectable object type in the list).
Location and Document as two
columns with a single row of data.
The values in the cells will be the
CUID of the location (folder or category) and the selected document
(selected object in the list).
There are two viewer web parts: the Crystal Report View web part and the
Document View web part. The Crystal Report View web part is used to view
Crystal reports, and the Document View web part is used to view several
object types, including Crystal reports and PDF documents.
The Crystal Report View web part can receive the report that it needs to
make active via the web part communication interface or the portal page
URL query string. The Crystal Report View web part can send active reports
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 19
Building Customized Web Parts
3
Viewer web part
to another web part through the communication interface. The Crystal Report
View web part is also able to send and receive prompts.
The Document View web part can receive an object type that it needs to
make active via the web part communication interface or the portal page
URL query string.
Viewer integration
The viewer web part supports the following interfaces:
IRowConsumer
DescriptionInterface
Location and Document as two
columns with a single row. The values in the cell must contain the CUID,
ID, full name, or partial name as the
value for the location (folder or category) and the document (any selectable object type in the list).
Location and Document as two
columns with a single row of data.
IRowProvider
20 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
The values in the cells will be the
CUID of the location (folder or category) and the selected document
(selected object in the list).
IListConsumer
Building Customized Web Parts
Viewer web part
DescriptionInterface
Parameter values that will be used
for the current report that is being
viewed. Parameter and Value as two
columns with one or more rows signifying the parameter and its chosen
value.
The parameter field values must be
made up from subreportname.param
etername, where subreportname is
the optional case-sensitive name of
the subreport followed by a period.
The parametername is the casesensitive name of the parameter.
Value corresponds to a string value
that will be converted to the parameter-specific format.
3
IListProvider
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 21
Parameter values used by the current
report that is being viewed. Parameter and Value as two columns with
one or more rows signifying the parameter and its chosen value.
The parameter field values must be
made up from subreportname.param
etername, where subreportname is
the optional case-sensitive name of
the subreport followed by a period.
The parametername is the casesensitive name of the parameter.
Value corresponds to a string value
that will be converted to the parameter-specific format.
Building Customized Web Parts
Viewer web part
3
22 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Troubleshooting
4
Troubleshooting
4
Trace Exceptions
Trace Exceptions
In some instances, where you need to provide detailed information on an
issue (for example, when consulting with Business Objects technical support
staff), you can enable tracing. To enable tracing, you need to modify the
web.config file manually and change the BusinessObjects Enterprise
Trace Enabled key to True:
<appSettings>
<!-- Displaying problem tracking messages in web part pages -
->
<add key="BusinessObjects Enterprise Trace Enabled" value="True"
/>
</appSettings>
Tracing provides you with stack trace information and web page configuration
options that can help you to understand any issues in greater detail. For
example, if you see an unexpected error message, and tracing is enabled,
the tracing information is listed at the bottom of the same web page where
the error occurred. Scroll down to see the tracing information provided by
SharePoint for the web part.
Note:
Tracing is a resource-intensive option and should only be enabled when
necessary.
24 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Get More Help
A
A
Get More Help
Online documentation library
Business Objects offers a full documentation set covering all products and
their deployment. The online documentation library has the most up-to-date
version of the Business Objects product documentation. You can browse
the library contents, do full-text searches, read guides on line, and download
PDF versions. The library is updated regularly with new content as it becomes
available.
To access the online documentation library, visit http://help.sap.com/ and
click Business Objects at the top of the page.
Additional developer resources
https://boc.sdn.sap.com/developer/library/
Online customer support
The Business Objects Customer Support web site contains information about
Customer Support programs and services. It also has links to a wide range
of technical information including knowledgebase articles, downloads, and
support forums.
http://www.businessobjects.com/support/
Looking for the best deployment solution for your company?
Business Objects consultants can accompany you from the initial analysis
stage to the delivery of your deployment project. Expertise is available in
relational and multidimensional databases, in connectivities, database design
tools, customized embedding technology, and more.
For more information, contact your local sales office, or contact us at:
http://www.businessobjects.com/services/consulting/
Looking for training options?
From traditional classroom learning to targeted e-learning seminars, we can
offer a training package to suit your learning needs and preferred learning
style. Find more information on the Business Objects Education web site:
http://www.businessobjects.com/services/training
26 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Get More Help
Send us your feedback
Do you have a suggestion on how we can improve our documentation? Is
there something you particularly like or have found useful? Drop us a line,
and we will do our best to ensure that your suggestion is included in the next
release of our documentation:
mailto:documentation@businessobjects.com
Note:
If your issue concerns a Business Objects product and not the documentation,
please contact our Customer Support experts. For information about
Customer Support visit: http://www.businessobjects.com/support/.
Business Objects product information
For information about the full range of Business Objects products, visit:
http://www.businessobjects.com.
A
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 27
A
Get More Help
28 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
Index
C
communication interfaces 18
List web part 18
Viewer web part 19
configuring 8
BusinessObjects Enterprise 8
overview 8
security 8
Single Sign On 8
specifying a server 10
user and group rights 9
Crystal Reports considerations 15
CUIDs 14
R
reports
availability column 13
data source 13
exporting 12
rights 13
S
security 8
servers, specifying 10
Single Sign On 8
D
determining specific IDs 14
G
group rights 9
L
List web part 18
P
parameters 11
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint 29
T
trace exceptions 24
troubleshooting 24
U
user rights 9
V
Viewer web part 19
Index
30 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Microsoft SharePoint
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