This is my idea...

I need access to information about an MR user when they run a report. Unfortunately (please correct me if I'm wrong) it appears the only things MR passes along are:

IBIMR_user
IBIMR_domain
MR_FULL_FEXNAME
MR_ITEM_HANDLE

Which doesn't give me a lot of context. Initially I was wondering if there was something like:

IBIMR_users_groups

but quickly realized that would only solve one specific problem. I need something extensible and customizable so I can retrieve arbitrary information about a user.

To this end I came up with a (probably) old idea.

I want to create a SQL table that will hold the information I need to know about a user before they run a report. For example:

UserID, FullName, Division, Role, Status... etc.

Then when they run reports from MR, I can run a little pre-report before the main report, to do something like:

Open the SQL table
Get the record for UserID (which I will look up using IBIMR_user)

then somehow magically...

-SET &FName=FullName
-SET &Div=Division
-SET &Role=Role
-SET $Status=Status
...


Then when I run the actual report I can do stuff like...

"Financial Report for &DIV Generated by &FName on &DATEtrMDYY &TOD"

and

WHERE DIVISION EQ '&DIV';

It's also going to be used to send parameters to an SQL Stored Procedure, and maybe even be used to help create an XML to help bulk load MR users.


Is this an approach worth pursuing? If it's possible, I'm probably almost there. However as a major WebFocus ignoramus I can't quite see how I'd turn the idea into actual code.


Thanks,

Lance.

Lance,

I would say you're on the right track.

Create a WebFOCUS program that you would -INCLUDE in every report. It would have code similar to the following:

-*-- Extract User Info -------------------------------------
TABLE FILE CRMSYSTEMUSERVIEW
PRINT
USERNAME
DIVISION
ROLE
STATUS
WHERE USERID EQ '&IBIMR_user';
ON TABLE HOLD AS HUSERNM FORMAT ALPHA
END
-RUN
-IF &LINES EQ 0 GOTO PROF_NOUSER;

-READ HUSERNM &USER_NAME.A100. &USER_DIV.A2. &USER_ROLE.A1. &USER_STATUS.A1.

-GOTO PROF_END

-PROF_NOUSER
(do something)

-PROF_END

This program could also be included in the site profile or in EDASPROF.prf, then you would not have to include it in each program.

There are several options. I'm sure someone will come along with another (better?) idea.

Cheers,

tHANKS fRANCIS

Actually that's pretty much what BJ on the IBI help desk came up with too. With a little tweaking for my needs it works great!

As usual once you already know what to do, it's simple, but actually figuring it out from the manuals... sheesh!

Thanks again.

Llance

That is an option, but I really would not like to have to do a -INCLUDE in every program. If it were me I would create a WebFOCUS Servlet Exit that would extract the information 1 time from the RDBMS and store them as JAVA Session Variable and then pass them to all future request. This way you only have to overhead from reteriving the information from the RDBMS once. A good place to start is the WebFOCUS Security Administration Manual.

Hope this helps

A fascinating suggestion, and as soon as I find someone who has a clue what you just said I'll get right on it!

Seriously though, thanks for the idea. However with the barely entry level expertise I can muster, I think the "easy to grok" route works best at the moment. Maybe later...