controlling reporting tool access in dashboard · 2011-01-31 · 1997 april 6 october 26 1998 april...

Controlling Reporting Tool Access in Dashboard by Gil Rodriguez

In WebFOCUS version 7 Release 6.10, the Business Intelligence Dashboard gives administrators the ability to control reporting tool access from the Dashboard at a global level or the view level.

This feature provides administrators with the flexibility and the ability to display a subset of the available reporting tools based on specific views and its users. Other capabilities include the ability to hide the tools from users until they receive proper training. This capability is available only from Dashboard, not the Managed Reporting Applet and Developer Studio.

The reporting tools are the following:

• Report Assistant • Graph Assistant • Advanced Graph Assistant • InfoAssist • Power Painter • Text Editor

Note: InfoAssist and Power Painter license codes must be configured in WebFOCUS in order for them to be accessible from Managed Reporting.

Below are illustrations of a user logged into a view that has been configured to hide the Graph Assistant tool. Screen 1 displays all available tool menu options, except Graph Assistant from Custom Reports. Screen 2 displays the Reporting Objects with all available tool menu options, except for Graph Assistant.

Screen 1 Screen 2

Now let’s take a look at how this can be configured.

Selecting Reporting Tools for All Dashboard Views

The display of the reporting tools globally in Dashboard is controlled by variables in the bid-config.xml file. The default value for each tool variable is set to true which makes all tools available to users in Dashboard.

To select specific reporting tools in all Dashboard views, complete the following steps:

1. In the WebFOCUS76\worp\conf directory, open the bid-config.xml file in a text editor.

2. Locate the variables for the reporting tools. There is an enable variable for each reporting tool. The following shows the variable for the Graph Assistant tool:

<internal-var name=" enableHTMLGraphAssistant " value="true"/>

The reporting tool variables names are as follows:

• enableAdvancedGraphAssistant • enableHTMLReportAssistant • enableHTMLGraphAssistant

• enableInfoAssist • enablePowerPainter • enableTextEditor

3. The default variable setting is to make the tool accessible (true). If you want to hide the tool, set the variable to false, as shown in the following example.

<internal-var name="enableHTMLGraphAssistant" value="false"/>

1. After making changes to the bid-config.xml file, you are required to use the WebFOCUS Console to clear memory cache, or restart the application for the changes to take effect.

Selecting Reporting Tools for Specific Views

To hide the reporting tools in specific views, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the Dashboard View Builder.

2. Select a view.

3. Click Edit Settings.

4. Click the False option to the right of the enableHTMLGraphAssistant tool variable in the Settings pane.

5. Click Save Settings.

6. Click Close

For more information, see the Customizing Dashboard Pages for a Public or Group View section in Chapter 5 of our Managed Reporting Administration manual.

Don’t Be Thrown by Daylight Saving Time by JoSezettea Keeton

An article in the January/February 2010 issue of the WebFOCUS Newsletter, “FOCUS Functions and Julian Dates,” reminded me of a recent customer request. This customer wanted to display a datetime field with time zone and Daylight Saving/Standard Time components. No problem, right?

Well, when a string search of the Using Functions manual produced no results, I looked around some more but had no luck. Was there really no function for this format display? Not that I could find.

So, on to a different search with my favorite engine, Google. What I first needed was more information on Daylight Saving Time (DST and yes, it's saving, without an s). Hours later, I had picked up more than I thought possible about DST. Who knew DST reportedly saves electricity? Who knew DST is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation and governed by law (and subject to change)?

Well, I do recall the last change in 2007. Until that year and since 1986, DST began on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. In 2005, the Energy Policy Act was signed into law and these dates changed. Effective in March 2007, DST begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

Year DST Begins 2 a.m. (First Sunday in April)

DST Ends 2 a.m.

(Last Sunday in October)

1990 April 1 October 28

















Year DST Begins 2 a.m. (Second Sunday in March)

DST Ends 2 a.m. (First Sunday in November)

2007 March 11 November 4









Source: NationalAtlas.gov (www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_savingtime.html)

Loaded with all sorts of new information, I investigated using (Define) functions to create the format. The end result is a set of functions that 1) return the date/time DST begins for a given

year; 2) return the date/time DST end for a given year; and 3) return a fully formatted date ready for display. For these, the names are still limited to eight characters.

Define Function: DSTM_BEG

This function accepts a single value – a year, formatted as CCYY. For this year, the date and time DST begins is calculated and returned, formatted as ccyymmddhhmmssss (A16).

Define Function: DSTM_END

This function also accepts a single value – a year, formatted as CCYY. For this year, the date DST ends is calculated and returned, formatted as ccyymmddhhmmssss (A16).

Define Function: GET_DSDT

This function accepts two values – a datetime alphanumeric string, formatted as ccyymmddhhmmssss (A16) and a time zone code. The time zone was added later and currently accepts only North American time zones (C, E, M, and P). (There's definitely room for expansion in this logic.)

This function also returns a single string, a date in translated-string format with time components and including DST/ST (mm/dd/yy 12:00:00 AM EST) for the requested time zone (A26).

All functions return results in alpha format and can be used with Reporting or Dialogue Manager. In its current state, DST dates since 1986 are supported.

-* GetDSTv2.fex -*-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ -* Daylight Saving Times (DST) functions -* DSTM_BEG : accepts 1 value, year (CCYY) and outputs date DST begins OLD: 1st Sun in April, NEW: 2nd Sun in March -* DSTM_END : accepts 1 value, year (CCYY) and outputs date DST ends OLD: LAST Sun in October, NEW: 1st Sun in November -* output format : ccyymmddhhmmssss (A16) -* GET_DSDT : accepts 2 values, 1) datetime field in A16 format 2) time zone code -* output format : mm/dd/yy 12:00:00 AM EST (A26) -* Valid time zone codes: C, E, M, and P. -* These functions support the current and most recent Daylight Saving Times. Any -* change from the current (2010) times will require a change to these functions. -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEFINE FUNCTION DSTM_BEG (YYYY/A4) -*---------------------------------- DSTMTH_NEWa/A8 = YYYY || '0301'; DSTMTH_NEW/I8YYMD = EDIT(DSTMTH_NEWa); DSTDOWK_NEW/A4 = DOWK(DSTMTH_NEW,'A4'); DSTM_NEW_BEG/I8YYMD = IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'MON' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 13 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'TUE' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 12

ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'WED' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 11 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'THU' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 10 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'FRI' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 9 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'SAT' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 8 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'SUN' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 7 ELSE DSTMTH_NEW; DSTMTH_OLDa/A8 = YYYY || '0401'; DSTMTH_OLD/I8YYMD = EDIT(DSTMTH_OLDa); DSTDOWK_OLD/A4 = DOWK(DSTMTH_OLD,'A4'); DSTM_OLD_BEG/I8YYMD = IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'MON' THEN DSTMTH_OLD + 6 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'TUE' THEN DSTMTH_OLD + 5 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'WED' THEN DSTMTH_OLD + 4 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'THU' THEN DSTMTH_OLD + 3 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'FRI' THEN DSTMTH_OLD + 2 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'SAT' THEN DSTMTH_OLD + 1 ELSE DSTMTH_OLD; DST_BEG/I8YYMD = IF YYYY LT '2007' THEN DSTM_OLD_BEG ELSE DSTM_NEW_BEG; DSTM_BEG/A16 = EDIT(DST_BEG) || '02000000'; -* if not used with Dialogue Manager, output in h date format -* DSTM_BEG/HYYMDS = HINPUT(16,DSTM_BEGa,8,'HYYMDS'); END -*---------------------------------- DEFINE FUNCTION DSTM_END (YYYY/A4) -*---------------------------------- DSTMTH_NEWa/A8 = YYYY || '1101'; DSTMTH_NEW/I8YYMD = EDIT(DSTMTH_NEWa); DSTDOWK_NEW/A4 = DOWK(DSTMTH_NEW,'A4'); DSTM_NEW_END/I8YYMD = IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'MON' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 6 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'TUE' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 5 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'WED' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 4 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'THU' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 3 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'FRI' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 2 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_NEW EQ 'SAT' THEN DSTMTH_NEW + 1 ELSE DSTMTH_NEW; DSTMTH_OLDa/A8 = YYYY || '1031'; DSTMTH_OLD/I8YYMD = EDIT(DSTMTH_OLDa); DSTDOWK_OLD/A4 = DOWK(DSTMTH_OLD,'A4'); DSTM_OLD_END/I8YYMD = IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'MON' THEN DSTMTH_OLD - 1 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'TUE' THEN DSTMTH_OLD - 2 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'WED' THEN DSTMTH_OLD - 3 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'THU' THEN DSTMTH_OLD - 4 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'FRI' THEN DSTMTH_OLD - 5 ELSE IF DSTDOWK_OLD EQ 'SAT' THEN DSTMTH_OLD - 6 ELSE DSTMTH_OLD; DST_END/I8YYMD = IF YYYY LT '2007' THEN DSTM_OLD_END ELSE DSTM_NEW_END; DSTM_END/A16 = EDIT(DST_END) || '02000000'; -* if not used with Dialogue Manager, output in h date format -* DSTM_END/HYYMDS = HINPUT(14,DSTM_ENDa,8,'HYYMDS'); END -*---------------------------------- DEFINE FUNCTION GET_DSDT (COMP_DTM/A16, TM_ZONE/A1) -*---------------------------------- TMZ/A1 = IF TM_ZONE NE 'E' OR 'C' OR 'M' OR 'P' THEN 'E' ELSE TM_ZONE; CMP_YR/A4 = EDIT(COMP_DTM,'9999'); DST_BEG/A16 = DSTM_BEG(CMP_YR); DST_BEG_DTM/HYYMDS = HINPUT(16,DST_BEG,8,'HYYMDS'); DST_END/A16 = DSTM_END(CMP_YR); DST_END_DTM/HYYMDS = HINPUT(16,DST_END,8,'HYYMDS'); CMP_DATE/A10 = EDIT(COMP_DTM,'$$$$99/99/') || EDIT(COMP_DTM,'9999'); CMP_TOD/A8 = EDIT(CMP_DATE,'$$$$$$$$00:00:00'); CMP_HRa/A2 = EDIT(CMP_TOD,'99'); CMP_HRb/I2 = EDIT(CMP_HRa); CMP_HR/I2L = IF CMP_HRb EQ 12 THEN 12 ELSE IF CMP_HRb GT 12 THEN CMP_HRb-12 ELSE CMP_HRb;

CMP_DTM/A22 = IF CMP_HRb EQ 0 THEN CMP_DATE | (' ' | '12') || EDIT(CMP_TOD,'$$999999') | ' AM' ELSE IF CMP_HRb LT 10 THEN CMP_DATE | (' ' | EDIT(CMP_TOD,'$9999999')) | ' AM' ELSE IF CMP_HRb LT 12 THEN CMP_DATE | (' ' | CMP_TOD) | ' AM' ELSE CMP_DATE | (' ' | EDIT(CMP_HR)) || EDIT(CMP_TOD,'$$999999') | ' PM'; CMP_DTIME/HYYMDS = HINPUT(16,COMP_DTM,8,'HYYMDS'); GET_DSDT/A26 = IF CMP_DTIME GE DST_BEG_DTM AND CMP_DTIME LT DST_END_DTM THEN CMP_DTM | ' ' | TMZ || 'DT' ELSE CMP_DTM | ' ' | TMZ || 'ST'; END

Here’s a sample report using GGSALES.

For this report, GGSALES.DATE (YYMD) represents the Sales Date and is an additional date the customer wants displayed in the full format. Because the report groups by year, the group heading includes the DST dates for the year.

Here’s the report request: -INCLUDE GETDSTv2.FEX

-RUN -SET &THISYEAR = EDIT(&YYMD,'9999'); DEFINE FILE GGSALES -* For current year DST display -*** GET - returns the DST start/end dates in alpha format -*** DAY - reformats GET date to HMDYYS GET_DST_BEGYR/A16 = DSTM_BEG('&THISYEAR'); DAY_DST_BEG/HMDYYS = HINPUT(16,GET_DST_BEGYR,8,'HMDYYS'); GET_DST_ENDYR/A16 = DSTM_END('&THISYEAR'); DAY_DST_ENDS/HMDYYS = HINPUT(16,GET_DST_ENDYR,8,'HMDYYS'); -*--- For subhead ------------------------------------------ -* Get sales date year SLS_YR/A4 = EDIT(DATE,'9999'); -* Get DST start date for sales year SLS_DST_BEG/A16 = DSTM_BEG(SLS_YR); -* Get DST end date for sales year SLS_DST_END/A16 = DSTM_END(SLS_YR); -* Reformat start/end dates for display SLSYR_DST_BEG/HMDYYS = HINPUT(16,SLS_DST_BEG,8,'HMDYYS'); SLSYR_DST_END/HMDYYS = HINPUT(16,SLS_DST_END,8,'HMDYYS'); -*--- For data column -------------------------------------- -* Display sales (DATE) with time and DST components SALES_DATE/A26 = GET_DSDT(EDIT(DATE,'99999999') || '00000000','C'); END TABLE FILE GGSALES "For this year, &THISYEAR ," "Daylight Saving Time" "begins on <DAY_DST_BEG and ends on <DAY_DST_ENDS" SUM UNITS DOLLARS/D20M BY SLS_YR NOPRINT BY SALES_DATE AS 'Sales Date' BY REGION BY ST BY CATEGORY BY PRODUCT WHERE REGION EQ 'Midwest' WHERE ST EQ 'MO' WHERE PRODUCT EQ 'Espresso' ON SLS_YR SUBHEAD "In <SLS_YR , DST began on <SLSYR_DST_BEG and ended on <SLSYR_DST_END" ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT HTML ON TABLE SET PAGE-NUM NOLEAD ON TABLE NOTOTAL ON TABLE SET HTMLCSS ON ON TABLE SET STYLE * … … END

What’s Changed in This Release? by Susan Trommer

The announcement of each new WebFOCUS release, new feature or maintenance pack always sparks interest. Typically, it is only a matter of hours before I start getting e-mails, instant messages and phone calls from people asking, “What’s changed in this release other than the new features?” My answer, for several years, is that there are two documents for each major release level that provide this information.

2. The WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations provides information on product changes in default configuration or functional behavior.

3. The WebFOCUS Release Notes provides information on:

a. WebFOCUS functional issues with workaround information, as well as whether these problems have been fixed and in what release they are fixed.

b. Third-party product limitations or problems.

c. Documentation updates that are not yet available in the WebFOCUS manuals.

Questions that usually follow and the answers I provide are as follows:

Where can I get a copy?

The WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations and WebFOCUS Release Notes documents can be obtained from the Information Builders Technical Documentation Library, which is accessible to registered InfoResponse customers. You can go to the Information Builders Corporate Web site, http://www.informationbuilders.com, and from the Services and Support menu, select Documentation. Then, in the Quick Links section on the right, select WebFOCUS Release Notes. From that page, you can obtain both documents and also the WebFOCUS New Feature Highlights and WebFOCUS New Features documents.

Who decides what to put in the WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations and WebFOCUS Release Notes documents?

WebFOCUS Product Managers are responsible for the documentation about the product areas they manage. They work with Information Builders’ Documentation Services technical writers, who manage the creation and publication of all WebFOCUS product documentation.

Information in the WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations and WebFOCUS Release Notes originate from many sources but mostly from operational (programming and QA) efforts, as well as the evaluation and certification process for third-party products such as new release levels of

browsers, operating systems, Web and application servers, database engines, and Java versions.

How often are the WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations and WebFOCUS Release Notes documents updated, and how do I know if they have been updated?

These documents can be updated daily, if necessary, but are generally updated on a weekly or monthly basis. The revision date of the document is on the Release Notes page as well as on the document’s cover page. A notification e-mail is not distributed when an update of the WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations and WebFOCUS Release Notes documents is made accessible from the Release Notes page.

If e-mail isn’t sent to me, how do I know when there is important information added to these documents?

Important product functionality notifications are proactively distributed via e-mail to registered InfoResponse customers as a CTSS Alert or product notification e-mail. So, I will take this as an opportunity to remind registered InfoResponse customers to verify that the e-mail address in your profile is correct.

With each new WebFOCUS Release, a product availability notification is distributed that includes links to the key release documents, including the WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations and WebFOCUS Release Notes documents.

The Q&A usually ends at this point, but the WebFOCUS Product and Documentation Services teams are always interested in any feedback you have on how to improve the product, as well as the content and quality of the WebFOCUS product documentation. So, if you do have any feedback, please tell us by opening a case with Customer Support so that your feedback is documented and delivered to the appropriate product manager to review and respond.

Universal Concatenation in the Report Painter by David Glick

Information Builders is introducing a long-awaited Report Painter feature, called universal concatenation, with WebFOCUS Developer Studio 7.7.0. Also known as MORE, universal concatenation allows you to retrieve data from unlike data sources in a single request to create one report.

Over the years, we have received many requests for universal concatenation in Report Painter, and the topic has occasionally come up on our Focal Point online developer community. So what is universal concatenation? A universal concatenation request is divided into one main request that retrieves data from the main data source and defines the data fields, sorting criteria and output format. Then there are sub-requests that define the data sources and fields to be concatenated to the data of the main request. The fields printed and sorted by the main request must exist in each of the concatenated data sources. If they do not exist, they need to be created as virtual fields.

So how does this work? Let’s walk through an example. Here is the request we want to create in the Report Painter:

DEFINE FILE EMPDATA NEWID/A11 = EDIT (PIN, ‘999-99-9999’); END DEFINE FILE SALHIST NEWID/A11 = EDIT (PIN, ‘999-99-9999’); SALARY/D12.2M = OLDSALARY END TABLE FILE EMPDATA PRINT SALARY BY NEWID WHERE SALARY GT 65000; MORE FILE SALHIST WHERE OLDSALARY GT 65000; END

Step 1: Create a new procedure in the WebFOCUS Developer Studio Explorer, which for the purposes of this article we will name more.fex. To create it, select “Procedure Viewer” (Screen 1).

Screen 1

Step 2: After clicking the “Open” button, from the “Procedure Viewer,” left-click your mouse on the diamond after the comment box. Then select “Define” from the pop-up menu to invoke the Define Tool. Select EMPDATA for the master file.

Step 3: Create the NEWID virtual field in the Define Tool (Screen 2).

Screen 2

Step 4: After clicking “OK” to create the Define, you are returned to the “Procedure Viewer.” Now, left-click on the diamond after the Define box, and select “Report” from the pop-up menu to invoke the Report Painter. Select EMPDATA for the master file.

Step 5: In the Report Painter, we start by painting the main request. By default, the Report Painter will create a Detail field (PRINT), so we just need to double-click the SALARY field, and then the NEWID field to put them on the canvas. When the NEWID field is added to the canvas, there is a red box around it indicating it was the last field added. With that red box displayed, click the “By” button on the toolbar, to change this field to a BY field.

Step 6: Let’s add a heading by typing the following text in the Page Heading box: “Employee Salaries.”

Step 7: The last part of the main request is a WHERE statement to limit the records retrieved. We add this by clicking the “Where/If” button on the toolbar to invoke the Where Tool (Screen 3).

Screen 3

If you click the Assist button, you invoke the Expression Builder, which guides the user through the creation of the Where statement (Screen 4).

Screen 4

We start creating the expression by double-clicking SALARY in the field list. This adds SALARY to the “Column to filter” column in the Expression Builder. Under “Logical Relation,” select “is greater than” from the dropdown. Scroll over horizontally and select “Value” from the dropdown under “Compare Type.” Lastly, double-click in the “Compare Value” column to invoke the “Single Value Builder” where you click the “New Item” icon to enter the constant of 65000 (Screen 5).

Screen 5

Click the “OK” button to return to the Expression Builder, and click “OK” in the Expression Builder to return to the Where Tool which should now show our selection test (Screen 6).

Screen 6

Click the “OK” button to close the Where Tool and return to the Report Painter. Screen 7 shows what your canvas should look like.

Screen 7

Step 8: Now we are ready to start our sub-request. Just above the Report Painter canvas between the Join Tool button, and the OLAP Dimensions button, is the Universal

Concatenation button . Let’s click this button to invoke the Universal Concatenation dialog (Screen 8).

Screen 8

We start off by clicking the “Add Source” icon on the toolbar to select the data source for the sub-request. Select SALHIST for the data source and click the “Open” button. The dialog loads the selected data source and then provides information on the existence or non-existence of matching fields in that data source that exist in the main request (Screen 9).

Screen 9

This information is telling us that the NEWID and SALARY fields do not exist in the SALHIST data source and that they need to have the stated formats as well. If the checkbox

for “Create all needed fields for a data source when launching the Define tool” is selected, default expressions for these fields will be created – blank for an alphanumeric format field, and zero for a numeric format field. If this checkbox is selected, it is remembered for future invocations of the Universal Concatenation dialog. For this article, we will not be selecting this checkbox.

Step 9: To define these fields, we click the “Define” icon on the toolbar of the dialog to invoke the normal Define Tool. Create the virtual fields and their expressions, as we did for the EMPDATA data source, using the code from the request as a guide. Once both fields and expressions are created, click the OK button in the Define Tool to close it and return to the Universal Concatenation dialog, which should now look as you see it on Screen 10.

Screen 10

This shows that the fields now match the main request.

Step 10: The last thing we need to do for the sub-request is to create the WHERE test. We do this by clicking the “Where/If” icon on the Universal Concatenation dialogs toolbar which looks like a funnel or filter. This invokes the Where Tool where we need to generate WHERE OLDSALARY GT 65000. We can generate this using the same steps as explained in Step 7. Once the expression is generated and the Where Tool closed, the completed Universal Concatenation dialog should look like Screen 11.

Screen 11

Click OK to close the Universal Concatenation dialog and return to the Report Painter.

Step 11: Now we will run the request:

The output is showing salaries from both files EMPDATA and SALHIST.

Step 12: You may now close the Report Painter, save your work and exit WebFOCUS Developer Studio.

In closing, you should know that universal concatenation is very powerful. It can be used with HOLD files as well, which is quite common.

Are You Secure? by Ben Naphtali

For the past year, I’ve been involved in a security project here at Information Builders as the Product Implementation Manager of WebFOCUS Architecture and Security. During this time I’ve come to realize that securing an environment starts with very basic steps and some common sense.

If we take for a moment the topic of a secured password, following certain industry standards, a secure password would have the following characteristics:

• Eight characters or more, or use “passphrase,” which is a sequence of words used much like a password but adds more security.

• Upper and lower-case characters.

• Special character such as !@#$%^&*().

• Numbers.

• Is not a word in any language.

Even with these characteristics, someone who knows your user ID could obtain your password with enough time and effort through “brute force,” a technique employed by trying every conceivable password, if there were no account lockout restrictions in effect to stop them.

It’s important to be aware of this possibility and to keep in mind that to have a very secure environment, you need passwords with the aforementioned characteristics. Still, our support and field personnel have on many occasions seen that the most basic security measures and precautions are not met.

Here are some scenarios we have come across:

• Failure to secure the WebFOCUS Administration Console.

• Using the default MRE Administration Password.

• Using the default user ID/password for the application server administrator.

• Allowing operating system commands to run on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server.

• Not Securing the WebFOCUS Reporting Server, or integrating its authentication with MR.

• Allowing user ID/password credentials to be sent via HTTP, and not using HTTPS.

We have published an “Information Assurance” Technical Memo, which is to be used as a reference guide to implement features and functionality within our product to better secure an IT environment. The goal is to help our customers secure their environment and highlight potential WebFOCUS security issues, from the simple to the complex. The memo is accessible at this URL:

http://www.informationbuilders.com//new/pdf/bp_SecurityMethod.pdf

Please take the time to review this document to see if the settings are applicable to your customers’ environments. You might see some basic precautions that you hadn’t thought of, or perhaps chance on something a little bit more obscure.

We welcome any additional insight and feedback from our customers.

The Power of Miniaturization by Matthew Lerner

When a new technology is invented, the hardware associated with it typically takes up a lot more space than the next generation of that same technology. The world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), was unveiled on Valentine’s Day 1946.

ENIAC (Screen 1) contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints. It weighed 30 tons, was roughly 8.5 by 3 by 80 feet, took up 680 square feet, and consumed 150 kW of power. It cost $500,000 to build in the 1940s, which is about $6 million in today’s money. Today you can get a netbook such as the Hewlett-Packer Mini at a fraction of the size and cost.

Screen 1

The trend of miniaturization is prevalent in all technologies. We have audio devices such as the iPod Nano, smartphones such as Google’s Nexus One, and even the Mini Cooper has made a comeback. All of them are smaller, cheaper and more powerful than ENIAC. More importantly, be it the Mini Cooper or the Nano, all of them are designed for anyone to use.

ENIAC, of course, wasn’t. And the same goes for a lot of other technology out there. Take InfoAssist, for instance. It was released in WebFOCUS 7.6.7 to give business users a tool for ad hoc reporting. Some business users need all of the features of InfoAssist, but like ENIAC, the tool is not for everyone. With that in mind, Information Builders is set to introduce InfoMini as a WebFOCUS 8 new feature (Screen 2).

Screen 2

InfoMini enables you to develop mini applications. On a report-by-report basis, you can choose which features of InfoAssist to embed into a report. An InfoMini application has three modes –interactive, edit, and InfoAssist.

The interactive mode gives access to features available on InfoAssist’s Home and Format tabs. This includes features such as the ability to change report format and add a heading. In this mode there is no interactive canvas and or ability to alter the query.

The edit mode exposes additional functionality such as the Resources Panel (field list, filter bucket, and query bucket) and the Field Tab. In this mode the user can add/remove fields from the query, style individual fields and perform other tasks. There is still no interactive canvas since this is a smaller version.

The InfoAssist mode provides the full functionality of InfoAssist, including the interactive canvas. Any changes made to the original request are preserved when the full-feature set of InfoAssist is exposed.

No good application is complete without the ability for user input. To enhance the prompting experience, InfoAssist is being upgraded in WebFOCUS 8 with a new Filters tab (Screen 3). This tab allows you to create your own controls directly on the ribbon. You will be able to group your controls together and specify whether to chain controls in a given group.

Screen 3

The combination of the new Filters tab and InfoMini allows a business user to create an application for both themselves and others using a single, simple-to-use Web-based tool.

controlling reporting tool access in dashboard · 2011-01-31 · 1997 april 6 october 26 1998 april...

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