We've recently upgraded from 5.2 to 7.1.1 (Developer Studio/Web Server/Tomcat). With the upgrade comes the ability to incorporate JSP with our FEX/HTML code.
Since we do not have a formal training project I've been tasked with finding out how to put this new stuff to work.
I'm familiar with JSP (more dangerous than effective), WebFOCUS and HTML. Just don't know where to start to tie everything together.
Any suggestions where to start?

Thanks

Install the Webfocus client where you have your web server installed. Then in your jsp call WFServlet or cgi-bin based on your Webfocus installation. And also change edasprof.prf to point your fex folder.

Hope this helps

I was really looking for documentation on how to integrate jsp with fex. Do the jsp scripts reside in the same folder as the fex files? If not where do they go and how do they call fex?

Thanks,

You can have your JSP in your current folder whatever you have now.

For ex: In Tomcat, you can save your JSP in

c:/tomcat/webapps/test/jsp/*.jsp

and you can save your FEX folder under
c:/ibi/apps/test/*.fex

or c:/tomcat/webapps/test/webfocus/*.fex

if you are saving your fex files under tomcat directory then you need to add that settings in edasprof.prf file.

App Map test c:/tomcat/webapps/test/webfocus
App Path test


In general, Webfocus client installs in webserver. All the requests will go through web server. So, when you call the report using

http://webservername/ibi_apps/WFServlet?&IBIF_ex=test.fex

you will get your report.


Hope this helps

Thanks, that helps a lot. But what URL do I use to start the jsp that calls the fex?
If save my jsp (date.jsp) under c:/tomcat/webapps/test/jsp/date.jsp what URL do I use to run it without having to use the :8080 port?

Briefly - Tomcat has a built in web server that is set to listen on port 8080. By default a web browser makes requests on port 80. To make the request on anything other than port 80, you need to specify the port (":8080").

So as you can see you need to either point an existing web server (that by default listens to port 80) such as IIS or Apache to your install of Tomcat OR tell Tomcat's built in web server to listen to port 80 instead of port 8080.

Assuming you don't have an existing web server I'd just change the Tomcat port. I'm not sure where you've installed Tomcat but look for a file called Server.xml in the Tomcat "Conf" folder. You should see an entry for the Catalina service. Change the connector port from 8080 to 80. Restart Tomcat and you should be able to make requests to that server without using the port number.

-EJL

I really wanted to have the IIS serve the .jsp requests on port 80 and forward them to tomcat.
How does this majic get setup in IIS?

Thanks,

I'm not well versed in IIS setup but if you really need to use it, here is the url with directions. There may be something more specific from IBI.

http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/howto/iis.html

We have IIS running on some servers around here but there's very little reason for us to use it with our Tomcat applications. The webserver in Tomcat isn't optimized for static content but that's really not a problem if most of your stuff is dynamic. Even at that, our web traffic isn't very large so we're comfortable without using IIS or Apache for our internal users.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: EJL,

I have been asked to find out how we can use JSPs instead of the standard launch pages provided by the MRE. I would like to clarify what I have read in this thread.

1. Deploy the JSP on the same Web Server as used by WebFOCUS
2. Add a HTML file to the MRE which calls the deployed JSP.
3. The JSP can call the fex to run the report.

Is this the recommended approach, or should the HTML file be a driver which calls the JSP to get the parameters, then call the fex with those parameters.

Why reinvent the wheel when IB provides the BID which is almost entirely JSP. It even has authentication / authorisation taken care of for you which you can even point at Active Directory if required.

T

Thanks Tony,

Are you saying that you can deploy JSPs in the Business Intelligence Dashboard and if can you point me in the direction of the relevant manuals?

Thanks

Declan

quote:

Is this the recommended approach, or should the HTML file be a driver which calls the JSP to get the parameters, then call the fex with those parameters.

I'm guessing this is not the recommended approach!

I would suggest you use the tool as designed. WebFOCUS provides an interface for building HTML lauch pages for existing reports ... use it. If you go down the JSP world, your going to have to be very careful with your security and all kinds of other things that web focus development environment shields you from. And besides, why bother have the JSP preform reflections to get the parameters when the existing interface already does that for you?