I'm trying to create one portal that can dynamically switch which database it's accessing. Within the .fex I'm using ENGINE SQLMSS SET DEFAULT_CONNETION &PROGRAM. What I'm trying to figure out is how can I dynamically fill the &PROGRAM variable from a portal or html page without the user needing to select a parameter on every page.

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

Rev1,

You might want to consider passing the url domain that the user is accessing through the Custom Settings on the Web Client. Would that provide you what you need?

If I can send it with the querystring and not affect the current dashboards, yes.

Rev,

Your going to want to download the WebFOCUS Security and Administration manual. Chapter 10 talks about how to pass HTTP Header variables. That will tell you what you need to do. In my instance I pull the Host header variable. You probably will want to pull the Path Info. Take a look at whats available to see if thats what you need. Unfortunately I don't know how you've set up your portals, so I can't get to specific on other things you can do. But you can set up variables in a lot of different places.

I might also be over complicating things. If you just want to pass a variable to an HTML page, you would create a fex, and you can HTMLFORM INCLUDE the html page like this:

-SET &VAR1='This is my Variable'  

-HTMLFORM IBFS:/WFC/Repository/Location/Your_HTML_Here.htm

in the HTML you can use the syntax !IBI.AMP; to access the variable

 !IBI.AMP.VAR1; 

you can then put that in a hidden input on the page and pass it down to the fex.

There are a lot of things you can do, from putting the variable into the Site Profile, into the EDASPROF, the Custom Settings on the WebClient. It all depends on how global you want to make it.

So I looked over the security and administration manual. None of the HTTP header variables are returning the web query string. They return a query string but not the browsers string. Looks more like an IBI re-direct.

Passing the variable gets really complex. We are already using an HTML to call a main data fex and store everything in foc cache. That fex then calls another HTML with all the graphs on it.

I could just create a separate portal and separate main html's for each client and just call the same .fex but when we add pages or changes then it would have to be applied to 20+ clients.

Any other ideas?

Rev1,

Its really hard to provide you guidance because I don't know how your system is setup. I know a number of different ways to secure and paramaterize things, but I have no idea what will work in your situation. You are going to have to decide that on your own. The biggest thing that I don't know is how you are identifying your clients. Is it by the URL client1.mybi.com, or is it a part of the query string? rev1.mybi.com/ibi_apps/wfservlet?&client1...
Is it by groups identified on the WebClient, groups captured in LDAP, some custome security table... There are a lot of unknowns for us. Without you providing some examples about your existing system, I can't help you any further

It's LDAP security. We don't use an initial sign-in screen. We capture everybody by active directory group from their network sign-on. All the users are hitting the same URL. My thought was add an initial screen for these clients and use hyperlinks to redirect them to the same url for the same portal with a query string attached.

again Rev1. How do you know who is who? If its by group, you can use the function GRPLST() to identify their groups and adjust the &PROGRAM variable accordingly. Take a closer look at your security model to identify what makes them unique, then identify how to capture that informaton. Again if its by their AD Group designation, look up GRPLST in the help file.