I just got WebFOCUS version 5.3, and I am going though the "Developing Reporting Applications" manual inorder to learn WebFOCUS techniques.
I have been having a problem with the topic of "Passing a User ID from HTML for a Custom Menu". In step 4 "Modifying the SITE.WFS files" on page 9-56 I followed the instructions and added "<sendvar>RUSER=&IBIC_user<endsendvar>" to both the SITES.WFS and IBICOMMD.WFS files and attempted to signon to the demo application, and preceed through FHSUB.fex onto the SUBMEN.HTM page with the proper report options being displayed. I have not been able to get the proper menu options to be displayed.

SIGNON.htm appears to be working correctly, since when I type in garbage I get the "Invalid Credentials" screen. When I type in the UserId and Password that I use to logon to WebFOCUS, I get forwarded to the SUBMEN.htm screen, but no menu options are displayed. I did a view source of that screen, and I can see that the variable &RUSER is blank. According to the instructions in Step 4 (page 9-56) the dialog manager varable &RUSER should have been set to the value of IBIC_user.
Why isn't this happening? Since, I am using a new installation of WebFOCUS 5.3, do I need to modify any of the default settings for this software?

John,

It looks like you are looking at outdated documentation. The correct syntax is:

RUSER=&IBIC_user
<SET>RUSER(pass)

You only need to put this in the site.wfs and make sure you recycle the java application server or reload the web app.

I modified C:\ibi\client53\wfc\etc\site.wfs so that it appears as follows:

<VER 1>
# place any variables here from cgivars.wfs that you wish to override.
RUSER=&IBIC_user
<SET>RUSER(pass)
_HTML_COMMENT_VAR=CGI gened on &_cgi_gen_var\n


I restarted the Report and Client servers but I still get an empty &RUSER variable in my FHSUB.FEX. I am able to sucessfully logon using the Signon.htm screen, but I am not able to pass the &RUSER dialog manager variable to the FHSUB.FEX program. Upon viewing the source code, I can see that the &RUSER variable is equal to blank, and not the value of &IBIC_user.

I tested it myself and you're right. For some reason the assignment in site.wfs isn't working. I was however able to pass IBIC_user.

<SET>IBIC_user(pass)

I was then able to access &IBIC_user in my fex. If you need &RUSER, you can always
-SET &RUSER = &IBIC_user;
in your fex. Give that a try.

I still cannot figure it out. I tried what you suggested but it still does not work. I checked the latest documentation on "Developing Reporting Applications" on the IBI website, and the documentation matches the documentation I have. Since Step 4 (page 9-56) appears to be in error, I'll contact Tech Support about it. Hopefully they will be able to update the documentation with the correct information. Once that happens, then I'll return to this topic.