Is there any way of creating or updating users in Managed Reporting, with a script, or some other automated method? I have over 150 users to create for our upcoming project rollout. I really don't want to have to create them all manually.

I did find the BOTUPROF table in the ReportCaster DB (SQLServer) and it has user profile info. I changed one of the user's email addy in there, then pulled that user up in Managed Reporting, but the change was not there. I realize MR and ReportCaster are two different things, but I was hoping there were some tables for MR that I could write a script against.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Scott W.,

I assume this is a one off, to prep the MRE environment ?

You may be able to do this with the migrate functionality, but I haven't had a look at the files created, so you will have to investigate.

You could also ask IBI if there is a bulk load method for MRE users.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott W.:
... I realize MR and ReportCaster are two different things, but I was hoping there were some tables for MR that I could write a script against.

Hi Scott,

there are ways to bulkload users into MRE, but it depends on your configuration of MRE-Authorization and -Authentication.

If you are using a DB-Backend it very easy to write a SQL-script.
If you use the internal file-based configuration (user.htm) it is not very easy, but possible.

The most reliable way is to use the Managed Reporting web services.

Web Services Manual

You can even use FOCUS code to do the inserts if you use the web services adapter on the Reporting Server to consume the Managed Reporting web services. I've got a Summit lab on this "FOCUS on Web Services".

Barring that setting MR Security to a DBMS and SQL inserts is probably the next most likely, though I believe technically not supported.

If you go this route, be sure to clear the cache in the WebFOCUS Admin Console after inserting the users if you want them to show up. Alternatively, you can disable the user/group/domain cache altogether under the advanced settings of the MR Realm driver.

Apparently we didn't purchase WebFOCUS Web Services. Under the WebFOCUS Info on the admin console, it says it is "Not Enabled".

Our MR Security Settings - General show:
Authentication: External WFRS
Authorization: internal

Would this be very hard to change to SQL Server 2005 and if I make that change, will it bring over the users already setup in MR?

Scott,
Unfortunately it will not change over your existing users if you switch over to using a DBMS.

As a result you would need to recreate your existing users in the DBMS as well if trying to go that route.

I don't know much about licensing, but it might be worth calling your sales rep to see what is possible. Maybe there is a trial version of web services you could try out to make sure it meets your needs.

Another possibility might be using a tool like Fiddler2 to track the creation of a user HTTP call, and seeing if you can create something that could iterate through the user's creating them from the "MR Admin Console".

In 769 I don't think there was yet CSRF protections in the MR Admin Console that would make a technique like that near impossible.

Someone else had recommended editing the HTML files in the basedir directly, and I'd strongly recommend against that technique. If you do not create the HTML files exactly like the WebFOCUS product it might work now, but give you big headaches on a migration later on.

I am going to read up on switching to DBMS, as we have less than 20 users currently setup. If its in a DBMS, I can script them.

I need to find out if I have to have a DB setup to start with or if it automatically creates one.

I am not going to close this topic yet, but you people have much closer. I thank you. Let me do a little reading next.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Scott W.,

Scott

This is all documented in the WebFOCUS Security & Admin Guide, but here are the cliff notes:

You need a JDBC driver for your database. This needs to be added to the classpath of Tomcat.

After you do this, you need to go to:
WF Admin Console -> MR Security -> External Directories

And configure the options for your external database.

Once this is done, you must go to:
WF Admin Console -> MR Security Settings -> General

And set both authentication and authorization to the prefix for your DBMS.

After doing this, you must edit:
\ibi\WebFOCUS7702\utilities\realm\mrrealm.bat

So that JDBC_DRIVER_JARS points to your JDBC driver.

You can then run that batch file and it will walk you through creating the tables.

Once this is done, log into Managed Reporting Administration using "admin" and no password and create a MR Admin with the userid that matches your WFRS userid.

You can then log back into the WF Admin Console and set the authorization back to WFRS.

Hi dbLogan

i follow your brief instructions , it was working very well with MS-SQLServer2008. i give it a test with Sybase SQL AnyWhere . unfortunately the tables were not created even i have recived "Selected action has been completed succesfully" from the batch file.

is there any place to check the log of the tables creation?

i appreciate your help

Best Regards and have a nice day
Qalqili

Qalqili,
Yes, if there are any problems perceived by the utility, it will log it to a MR Realm trace.

To log things even if the utility didn't think there was a problem you can turn on MR Realm traces within the WebFOCUS Admin Console:
Diagnostics -> MR Realm

The traces are viewable in the MR Admin console or on the file system at:
/ibi/WebFOCUSxx/logs/

When the tool actually runs, it bases itself off of the SQL files found here:
\ibi\WebFOCUSxx\utilities\realm\sql\

The PREFIX within the MR Realm configuration file (e.g. SQLS2005, SQL, ORACLE) is used to find the appropriate commands within the SQL files for the table creation and data inserts.

As a result if you're using a custom PREFIX, its not going to find anything within those SQL files, and therefore it will "complete successfully" really quickly without doing anything.

If you do need to create a custom PREFIX there are two options:
1) Manually create the tables, etc, based on the SQL you see from a different database, adjusting for any SQL syntax differences.

2) Configure the settings for a default database that is very similar to your database and run the script. After the tables and data are created, you can rename that section to your custom prefix.

If going with option #2, you can do this by manually editing the \ibi\WebFOCUSxx\config\mrrealm.cfg . A # comments out a line allowing you to temporarily duplicate a section so you can add it back later.

Qalqili,
BTW, if you want to use Derby, you can add the following to the mrrealm.cfg. The SQL for it already exists within the SQL files.

Its kind of a "hidden feature" I discovered in going through those SQL files. There is an error on table creation in the MR Realm, but it doesn't seem to prevent anything from working:

DDB.MANAGER.CLASS=ibi.uas.service.WFMRX_DBSecurityManager
DDB.DRIVER.CLASS=org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver
DDB.DRIVER.URL=jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/rtyuijhf;create=true
DDB.USER=
DDB.PASSWORD=
DDB.DBOWNER=
DDB.MAXCONN=0
DDB.TIMEOUT=0
DDB.USER.SELF.AUTHENTICATION=false
DDB.ENCRYPTION=WFENCR

dlogan

thanks very much for your help , it was like you said the SQL Syntax was not correct when i checked the MR_Realm Trace file. i am going to do it manually to adjust what happen in MS-SQLServer to be in SybaseSQL AnyWhere.

again thanks very much
Qalqili

I need to pull all user info for a particular domain group view and put it in the HTML drop down list. Where are this info located in BI server?

Search/Look at documentation for MREXTRACT...