Introduction

This article presents the configuration steps to integrate your Xcelsius dashboard based on SAP NetWeaver BW Connections into the BusinessObjects Enterprise Infoview portal.

The integration with BOE Infoview is technically possible but is not the "leanest" option; this is because of the BEx Web runtime requirement which is not part of the BOE stack. Unlike with other QaaWS or Live Office connectivity, the dashboard will not appear as an Xcelsius object in Infoview but as an URL object. The user will always have to double click (or Right Click / View) on that URL object to launch the dashboard. The URL is the same BEx Web launcher URL we mentioned earlier in this document. From that point, there are 2 challenges to overcome : Single Sign-On between Infoview and NW Enterprise Portal, and a limitation of the BEx Web iView.

SSO between Infoview and Enterprise Portal

This is possible by implementing SSL client certificates or the SAP Logon Ticket with a front end tool like Siteminder. Either way, the deployment is relatively complex to set up.

Detailed Steps to display the iView in Infoview

Determine the BEx Web Launcher URL for your dashboard, it should look like this one :

http://myportal:50100/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd!3aportal_content!2fcom.sap.pct!2fplatform_add_ons
!2fcom.sap.ip.bi!2fiViews!2fcom.sap.ip.bi.bex?DASHBOARD=Z_MYDASHBOARD_TECH_NAME

This is the URL launched from Xcelsius Designer when using the option SAP / Launch. The DASHBOARD=Z_MYDASHBOARD_TECH_NAME parameter is the specific query string parameter that identifies which dashboard to display, where Z_MYDASHBOARD_TECH_NAME is the technical name of Xcelsius dashboard object published to the NetWeaver BW server.
The URL hyper linking of BEx Web iViews has a limitation that prevents an easy integration into 3rd party portals. You can overcome it by following these steps.

Problem: You may run into the following problem if you use the default URL mentioned earlier in this article.

http://cdphl331.phl.sap.corp:50100/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/pcd!3aportal_content!2fcom.sap.pct!2fplatform_add_ons!2fcom.sap.ip.bi!2fiViews!2fcom.sap.ip.bi.bex?DASHBOARD=XC_BICS_BASIC_XLF

The screen will remain blank and the browser will, in the background, spin indefinitely on the execution of javascript code.

This is because the BEx Web launcher embeds Java scripts that require a top parent window from the NW EP to properly execute.

Resolution: Here are the steps to avoid the problem.

1. First step is to change the Javascript references and use the BEx Web runtime in "interop" mode. It will require the addition of a new alias onto your portal web application, hence access to the portal servers and changes to the web application configuration files.
   1. Go to the server that is hosting the portal
   2. Edit this configuration file : C:\usr\sap\<SID>\<NO>\j2ee\cluster\server0\apps\sap.com\irj\ servlet_jsp\irj\root\WEB-INF\web.xml
   3. In the web.xml, make a copy of the init-param element whose param-name element has the value portal. In the copy, change the param-name value to portal/interop, and then append nested_window=1 to the value for param-value.

      <init-param>
       <param-name>
        portal/interop
       </param-name>
       <param-value>
         anonymous=0,proxy=0,low_bandwidth=0,include_in_url=1, include_application_name_in_url=1,nested_window=1
       </param-value>
      </init-param>
      

   4. Restart the web application to apply the changes. From then on, the portal will work in nested mode and change its internal JavaScript references whenever you enter the portal from the following URL.

      http://localhost:50000/irj/portal/interop

   5. Repeat these steps on each portal server node. Note they are documented in this white paper, section 4.2. Although it mentions Websphere portal, the same applies to all non NW portals.
   6. To access the Xcelsius iView, use the following URL. Note the use of the "/portal/interop" alias. Replace the server name, port number and dashboard technical name with the connection details from your own environment.

       
      http://cdphl331.phl.sap.corp:50100/irj/portal/interop?NavigationTarget=pcd:portal_content/com.sap.pct/platform_add_ons/com.sap.ip.bi/iViews/com.sap.ip.bi.bex&DASHBOARD=XC_BICS_BASIC_XLF
      

   7. The iView will now display as follows within Infoview. It does open within the Default Portal Desktop which in most cases has a header, left and top menu.
      
      Because you are integrating the iView into Infoview, you most likely do not want those displayed but instead only the iView alone.
2. The second step consists of creating a new Portal Desktop that does not embed any menu or header, and assign it to the URL alias you just created. This process and funamental concepts are documented here, but you need a Framework Page, a Theme, a Portal Desktop and an iView.
   1. Go to "System Administration" / "Portal Display" / "Desktops and Displau Rules". Browse the Portal Catalog and search for the "Content Provided by SAP" folder. This is where the default Framework Pages are. Copy the "Headerless Framework Page".
      
   2. Go to your own folder (wherever you stored your Xcelsius content) and paste the framework page as a "Delta Link".
      
   3. By keeping a reference to the default page, you ensure it will be updated as SAP releases enhancements and fixes to the portal and default pages.
      
   4. Copy the Default Portal Desktop and paste it as a Delta Link to the same folder
      
   5. Add the Framework Page to the Portal Desktop
      
   6. Change the Portal Desktop so it look like this : one Framework Page and the theme you need (default ones are used here)
      
      Take note of the ID that you will need in a later step.
   7. Now that your Portal Desktop is ready, you need to update the right rule collection to associate it with the URL alias "portal/interop". You can search for all existing Rule Collections and find the right one from the Search tab, in our case "Main Rules".
      
   8. Open the Rule Collection and add an IF-THEN statement as follows : IF URL Alias = portal/interop THEN Portal Desktop = <pcd ID of your new Portal Desktop>. Place that IF-THEN statement first and keep any existing one so any other URL gets redirected to the default Portal Desktop.
      
   9. At this stage, you should now get redirected to your new Portal Desktop and Framework page if you log on to the interop URL. All that is left is the configuration of the Framework Page to only display the Xcelsius dashboard iView.
   10. Go to "Content Administration" / "Portal Content". Browse the Portal Catalog to find the newly created Framework Page, right-click "Open" / "Object". Then define the page content. In this example, we only kept the one iView we need to display (Xcelsius dashboard).
       
   11. And that is it ! You can now display the iView alone when opening it up from Infoview :
       

coming soon

References and Links