Portal Integration Kit Administrator's
Guide for Portlets
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1
Copyright
© 2008 Business Objects, an SAP company. All rights reserved. Business Objects
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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 Document 7Chapter 2
Overview......................................................................................................8
Configuring BusinessObjects Enterprise for your Portal Server
deployment..................................................................................................8
Security and Single Sign On..................................................................8
User and group rights...........................................................................10
Additional configuration settings................................................................10
Specifying a server for viewing reports................................................10
Using parameters.................................................................................11
Scheduling and scaling recommendations................................................12
Exporting reports..................................................................................13
Data source information.......................................................................13
Availability column................................................................................13
Report rights.........................................................................................14
Miscellaneous settings and considerations...............................................14
Determining specific IDs for locations..................................................14
Building Customized Portlets 17Chapter 3
Communication interfaces.........................................................................18
Communication between portlets..............................................................18
Communication type.............................................................................18
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 3
Contents
Communication keyword......................................................................19
Get More Help 21Appendix A
Index 25
4 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
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 3.0 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, available at 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 Portlets
Configuring your Document
2
Configuring your Document
2
Overview
Overview
There are many possible configurations for your Portal Server 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 Portal Server 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 3.1 Portal Integration Kit supports
Siteminder Automatic Sign On for your BusinessObjects Enterprise
deployment. Automatic Sign On is enabled when the value is set to true in
the web.xml file.
After installing the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 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 Portlets
Configuring BusinessObjects Enterprise for your Portal Server deployment
Single Sign On with Enterprise
To use Enterprise authentication, ensure the following information is set:
• BusinessObjects Automatic SignOn is set to true
• BusinessObjects Authentication Mode is set to secEnterprise
• BusinessObjects Enterprise Static Username is set to the Single SignOn
account's user name
• BusinessObjects Enterprise Static Password is set to the Single SignOn
account's password
Note:
• If you are using Enterprise 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.
• Windows Active Directory(secWinAD) and Windows NT(secWinNT)
authentication are not supported for the BusinessObjects portlets.
Configuring your Document
2
Single Sign On with SiteMinder
To use LDAP authentication, ensure the following information is set:
• Automatic Sign On is set to true
• BusinessObjects Authentication Mode is set to secLDAP
• Your LDAP deployment is set up properly
• Your portal user names match the aliases in your authentication system.
Note:
If you are using LDAP authentication to sign on automatically, the
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal Integration Kit will attempt to use the
SiteMinder token to log on. 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.
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 9
Configuring your Document
2
Additional configuration settings
Single Sign On with Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS)
To use JAAS Single Sign On, you must replace the default sso.jar file that
is included in the BusinessObjectsPortlet.war file with an sso.jar file
for your platform. The sso.jar files and the instructions on how to configure
them are available from the download center (http://www.businessob
jects.com/products/downloadcenter/boepik.asp).
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 Unavail
able status (and no hyperlinks) in the Availability column of the listing portlet.
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 the Portal Server. 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 Portal Server deployment.
Specifying a server for viewing reports
By default, the reports that Information Consumers view are processed by
the the BusinessObjects Enterprise Processing Server. If the processing
server is not available, the Report Application Server (RAS) will be used.
10 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
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
Processing 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
Configuring your Document
Additional configuration settings
2
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.
Using parameters
Parameter prompts work with the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 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
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 11
Configuring your Document
2
Scheduling and scaling recommendations
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 list portlet.)
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.
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.
Scheduling and scaling recommendations
Because BusinessObjects Enterprise schedules, processes, and runs reports,
general scheduling and scaling recommendations that apply to
BusinessObjects Enterprise also apply to the BusinessObjects Enterprise
XI Portal Integration Kit. Use the Central Management Console (CMC) to
12 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
specify the different scheduling properties for your reports. For more
scheduling recommendations, see the “Improving Performance” 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.
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.
Configuring your Document
Scheduling and scaling recommendations
2
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 portlet 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
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 13
Configuring your Document
2
Miscellaneous settings and considerations
Console, select the schedule option for the report and then click the Update
button.
Report rights
If your report contains parameters, users who view the report require View
On Demand (or greater) rights.
Miscellaneous settings and
considerations
This section provides information on identifying report instances and on
creating Crystal reports.
Determining specific IDs for locations
Your Web Site Creators may want to access a location directly through the
location's unique identifier, or CUID. For example, when a Web Site Creator
wants to guarantee that he or she is accessing a specific folder or category,
the CUID provides the necessary information.
To determine CUIDs for a location
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 General Business:
select si_ID, si_CUID, si_name from CI_INFOOBJECTS where
SI_name = 'General Business'
14 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
Configuring your Document
Miscellaneous settings and considerations
For other locations, replace “General Busines” with the relevant location
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.
2
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 15
Configuring your Document
Miscellaneous settings and considerations
2
16 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
Building Customized Portlets
3
Building Customized Portlets
3
Communication interfaces
Communication interfaces
This chapter provides information on communication interfaces for portlet
developers. Using this chapter as a reference guide, you can create portlets
that communicate with portlets from the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Portal
Integration Kit.
Communication between portlets
The Business Objects portlets must be installed from the same WAR file
because interportlet communication between WAR files is not supported.
Communication between portlets is provided by a combination of a
communication type value and a communication keyword.
Communication type
The Document List portlet has a Communication Type field. This field contains
a comma separated list of the types of objects that can be displayed. If a
value is listed in the Communication Type field, the object can be displayed
in the Document View portlet. If a value is not listed in the Communication
Type field, a separate viewer window opens to display the object.
The following table lists the supported object types and the values to use in
the Communication Types field.
Communication Type valueObject Type
AnalysisAnalysis (OLAP)
AnalyticAnalytic (EPM)
CrystalReportCrystal Report
18 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
Building Customized Portlets
Communication between portlets
Communication Type valueObject Type
FullClientDesktopIntelligence
ExcelExcel
MyInfoviewMyInfoview Dashboard
PDFPDF
PowerpointPowerpoint
RTFRTF
3
Communication keyword
A communication keyword provides the connection between the Document
List portlet and the Document View portlet. When this keyword is set, the
Document View portlet can display the objects that are listed in the Document
List portlet.
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 19
TxtTxt
WebiWebi
Building Customized Portlets
3
Communication between portlets
Note:
You must have the same value in both Communication Keyword fields for
the objects to be displayed in the Document View portlet.
20 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
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
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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
22 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
Get More Help
Send us your feedback
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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:
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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 Portlets 23
A
Get More Help
24 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
Index
C
Communication
keyword 18
type 18
communication interfaces 18
configuring 8
BusinessObjects Enterprise 8
overview 8
security 8
Single Sign On 8
specifying a server 10
user and group rights 10
CUIDs 14
D
determining specific IDs 14
P
parameters 11
R
reports
availability column 13
data source 13
exporting 13
rights 14
S
security 8
servers, specifying 10
Single Sign On 8
G
group rights 10
U
user rights 10
Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets 25
Index
26 Portal Integration Kit Administrator's Guide for Portlets
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