I am trying to create a URL that would authenticate to MRE as well as execute a specified FEX. This is so that I can call this URL from a java app without having to maintain cookies in java. Any thoughts?

Why not call the report via a web service (webfocus web service enablement option).

Web services is not an option according to our company's WebFOCUS host. We use a shared WebFOCUS environment and for some reason they do not allow the web services option.

I did, however, manage to figure out a solution. I ended up creating a java class that is able to establish an authenticated connection using http (essentially does what we would do manually through a browser) and manages the session cookies provided by the MRE. After a connection is established, I can call upon it to execute any number of reports I want and can get the output in a number of formats.

anush, can you post you java code or at lease email me a copy that. Scott_Wanner@ibi.com

OK... there actually IS a way to authenticate and execute from MRE.
You need to use the IBIMR_drill=RUNNID param for
this to work. Here's an example:

http://<server>:
29400/ibi_apps/WFServlet?
IBIMR_action=
MR_RUN_FEX&IBIMR_sub_action=
MR_STD_REPORT&
IBIMR_domain=&
IBIMR_folder=%<folder>&IBIMR_fex=
<fex>&IBIMR_drill=RUNNID&IBIMR_user=
<user>
&IBIMR_pass=<password> 

I incorporated this
into my
code
as well. Note that the WebFocusConnector
class has 2 methods of
executing reports.
First method (session-less
connection) uses the drill param mentioned above.
This way, it
does not have to maintain MRE
cookies.
Second method uses a session-
based
connection i.e. it
maintains the
MRE cookie. This allows you
to send the user &
pass just once and following that,
execute as many
reports as you want
without having to pass credentials each and every time. Here's the code:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.
InputStream;import java.io.UnsupportedEncoding
Exception;i
mport java.net.URLEncoder;
import org.apache.commons.
httpclient.
Cookie; import rg.aache.commons.
httpclient.
HttpClientimport org.apache.commons.
httpclient.
HttpException; import org.
apache.commons.
httpclient.
HttpMethod; import org.apache.commons.httpclient.
HttpState;import org.apache.
commons.httpclient.
NameValuePair;
import org.apache.commons.http
client.methods.
GetMethod; import org.apache.log4j.
Logger; This class allows 
for an authenticated 
connection to a WebFOCUS * 
Managed Reporting Environment 
enabling the execution of secure * 
WebFOCUS reports. * @author 
Anush Ramanipublic class WebFocus
Connector  static 
final String SERVLET_TOKEN= 
"ibi_apps/WFServlet"
static final String S
IGNON_TOKEN	
= "IBIMR_action=MR_SIGNON";
static final String USERID_TOKEN= 
"IBIMR_user" static final String 
PASSWORD_TOKEN	= "IBIMR_pass";
static final String 
DOMAIN_TOKEN	= 
"IBIMR_domain";  
static final String REPORT_TOKEN= IBIMR_action=MR_RUN_FEX&I
BIMR_sub_action=MR_STD_REPORT&
IBIMR_fex";
static final String FOLDER_
TOKEN	= "IBIMR_folder";static 
final String DRILL_TOKEN= 
"IBIMR_drill=RUNNID";  static final 
String AUTH_COOKIE = "MR_COOKIE";   
static final int AUTH_SUCCESS = 0;
static final int AUTH_FAIL= -1;    
static Logger log 
=ogger.getLogger(WebFocus
Connector.class);Server 
information private String server;
private int port; // 
User credentials  private String 
userId;  private String 
password;private String 
sessionBasedURL;  private 
String 
sessionLessURL;  
private HttpClient client;
private HttpMethod method;   
private boolean 
isConnected = false;  
@param server WebFOCUS server name 
(can be either IP or hostname).* 
@param portWebFOCUS server's 
communication port number. @param userId MRE user's login ID.@param passwordMRE user's 
password. * @param establishSession 
If <code>true</code>, an attempt 
will be made to created an authenticated session. If <code>false</code>, 
reports will be executed in a 
session-less method.  
 public WebFocusConnector
(String server, 
int port, String userId, 
String password, boolean 
establishSession)    
this.server = server; 
this.port = port;       
this.userId = userId;  
this.password = password;
 client = new HttpClient()       if(establishSession)          connect();sessionBasedURL = 
"http://" + server + ":" + 
port + "/" + SERVLET_TOKEN + "?";        sessionLessURL  = 
"http://" + server + ":" + port + "/" + 
SERVLET_TOKEN + "?" + 
DRILL_TOKEN + "&" 
+ USERID_TOKEN + "=" 
+ userId +   &" + PASSWORD_TOKEN 
+ "=" + password;  Establishes an 
authenticated connection to the 
WebFOCUS s
erver.@return Indicates if 
the connection 
was successfully authenticated.
public boolean connect()
  String url = "http://" + 
server + ":" + port  "/" + 
SERVLET_TOKEN + "?" + SIGNON_TOKEN + 
"&" + USERID_TOKEN + "=" + 
userId +  "&" + PASSWORD_TOKEN + 
"=" + password;method = new 
GetMethod(url);     tryclient.executeMethod(method);                 Read the response body  
byte[] responseBody = method.getResponseBody()catch 
(HttpException e)      
e.printStackTrace();
 catch (IOException e)         e.printStackTrace(); finally 
Release the connection.   method.releaseConnection();
return isAuthenticated();
Checks if the current 
connection to the WebFOCUS 
server is authenticated.  
* @return Indicates if the current c
onnection has been authenticated. 
public boolean isAuthenticated()
HttpState state = client.getState();     Cookie[] cookies = 
state.getCookies();      
loop through the array of cookies 
to check if we have the MRE session 
cookie  for(int i = 0; i < cookies.length; 
i++)    if(cookies[i].getName().
equals(AUTH_COOKIE)) 
return true;// session 
cookie was not found
return false;  public void release
Connection() method.releaseConnection();      
isConnected = false;   * Execute's an MRE FEX stored on the WebFOCUS server. * 
@param domain MRE Domain where 
report is located.* @param
 folder MRE Folder where report is 
located.   * @param name   
Name of the report to 
execute. * @param params 
Parameters to be passed to 
the report. * @retur Output 
from the executed report.   public InputStream executeReport(String domain, 
String folder, String 
report, NameValuePair[] params)
if(isConnected) releaseConnection()
String url = null;InputStream 
responseBody = null;   
if(isAuthenticated())  
url = sessionBasedURL; 
else url = sessionLessURL; t
ry // construct URL with URL-safe 
(UTF8-encoded)valuesurl += "&" + 
DOMAIN_TOKEN + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(domain.trim(), 
"UTF-8") + "&" + FOLDER_TOKEN + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(folder.trim(), 
"UTF-8") + "&" + REPORT_TOKEN + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(report.trim(), 
"UTF-8");if any parameters exist, a
dd them to the URLif
(params != null)   
for(int i = 0; i 
<params.length; i++)if(
params[i] 
!= null   url += "&" L
Encoder.encode
(params[i].
getName().trim(), 
"UTF-8") + "=" + URLEncoder.
encode(params[i].
getValue().trim(), "UTF-8"); 
catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e1) e1.printStackTrace();
 method = new GetMethod(url);  
try  log.debug("Executing HTTP
 method: " + url)
client.executeMethod
(method);  responseBody = method.getResponseBodyAsStream()          isConnected = true;catch 
(HttpException e)         
e.printStackTrace();
catch (IOException e)          e.printStackTrace();
 return responseBody; p
ublic 
static void 
main(String[] args)
WebFocusConnector conn = 
new WebFocusConnector
(<server>, 
<port>, <user>, <password>, 
<session?>
NameValuePair[] params = 
{new NameValuePair
("REP_START_DATE", "20050101"),  
new NameValuePair(
"REP_END_DATE", 
"20050526"), new NameValuePair
("CURRENCY_CODE", "USD"),            			new NameValuePair
("REP_OUTPUT", "PDF")}      
InputStream responseBody = 
conn.executeReport
(<domain>, 
<folder>, <fex>, params);

Note that to
use this code, you will
require
the HttpClient jar and its
dependencies (available at apache.org).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Mabel>,

IBIMR_drill=RUNNID

Thank you for this information - it may come in handy.

Thanks for the information on the IBIMR_drill=RUNNID. That was what I was missing and my self-service links were not working as I was getting the "must login to MRE" message. Just wanted to post a "thank you for contributing to the forum".

Adding &IBIMR_drill=RUNNID seems to allow one to login to MRE without a valid User ID and Password.

Is there some way to stop this?

Thanks,

Further to this, it looks like you can login with anything as User ID/Password, the IBIMR_fex is executed alright, but if that program has a form that submits another report, you get the "not logged-in to MRE" message.

<form target="dscCall" method="get" target="dsc" action="http://servername/ibi_apps/WFServlet">
<input type="hidden" name="IBIMR_drill"      value="RUNNID">
<input type="hidden" name="IBIMR_action"     value="MR_RUN_FEX">
<input type="hidden" name="IBIMR_sub_action" value="MR_STD_REPORT">
<input type="hidden" name="IBIMR_folder"     value="#dashboardsa3">
<input type="hidden" name="IBIMR_domain"     value="enterpri/enterpri.htm">
<input type="hidden" name="IBIMR_fex"        value="app/dbdsc.fex">

<span style="width: 100px;">MRE User</span><input type="data" style="width: 100px;" name="IBIMR_user" value="">
<br>
<span style="width: 100px;">MRE Password</span><input type="password" style="width: 100px;" name="IBIMR_pass" value="">
<br><br>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">

I thought this form would be one method to login to MRE and execute a fex. Well, it appears to login and execute a fex, but if the executed fex has a form to submit another fex, I get "Cannot execute the request. Please log into Managed Reporting."

Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks.

Guru dhagen's response here triggering report fex from... appears to be the answer.

I have made his suggestion work, but I may have to add some cookie deletion JavaScript - I've noticed if I login with a different User ID, the first User ID is the one that's really logged in.

Also, I cannot find any documentation on a couple of MRE parameters he specified: SIGNON_CORRECT_ADMIN and SIGNON_CRT_DOM_ADMIN.

We are adding two new settings in WebFOCUS 7.6.4, MR_ANONYMOUS_RUN_ACCESS=YES|NO and MR_AUTOSIGNON=YES|NO. I think these will give you what you are looking for, and also address the security concerns some people have had about IBIMR_drill=RUNNID. Also, look for this being written up in the next WF Newsletter Article.

More info posted about these settings here:

https://forums.informationbuilders.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/...1057331/m/9361055342
triggering a fex...

Jim, thanks very much for the update. These new parameters will come in handy when the customer upgrades...

Cheers,