21 Configuring Resource Availability and URL Generation

You can configure how resources are made available for HTTP access and how URLs are generated by Oracle BI Presentation Services. To do so, you modify the instanceconfig.xml file to include the URL element and its interrelated subelements, as described in the following procedure.

Before you begin this procedure, ensure that you are familiar with the information in Section 3.4, "Using a Text Editor to Update Configuration Settings."

To manually edit the settings for resource availability and URL generation:

  1. Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing, as described in Section 3.6, "Where Are Configuration Files Located?"

  2. Locate the section in which you must add the elements that are described in Table 21-1.

  3. Include the elements and their ancestor elements as appropriate, as shown in the following example:

    <ServerInstance>
      <URL>
        <AbsoluteCommandURLPrefix>value</AbsoluteCommandURLPrefix>
        <CustomerResourcePhysicalPath>value</CustomerResourcePhysicalPath>
        <CustomerResourceVirtualPath>value</CustomerResourceVirtualPath>
        <ForceAbsoluteResourceURL>value</ForceAbsoluteResourceURL>
        <ResourcePhysicalPath>value</ResourcePhysicalPath>
        <ResourceServerPrefix>value</ResourceServerPrefix>
        <ResourceVirtualPath>value</ResourceVirtualPath>
      </URL>
    </ServerInstance>
    
  4. Save your changes and close the file.

  5. Restart Oracle Business Intelligence.

Table 21-1 Elements for URL Generation and Resource File Location

Element Description Default Value

AbsoluteCommandURLPrefix

Specifies how Presentation Services generates command URLs. If you explicitly specify an value, then it must be of the following form:

protocol://server/virtualpath

where virtualpath is the complete virtual path to Presentation Services. The default is determined separately for each client, based on the URL that the client sends to Presentation Services.

Varies

CustomerResourcePhysicalPath

Specifies the physical location of resource files that are not part of a default installation. Such resource files include customized styles and skins. The internal default is ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\web\app\res.

You must provide a full path. Presentation Services must have read permission to this path. For example, if this is a shared network resource, then you must ensure that the user under which Presentation Services is running has read access to the shared resource and read access to the file system from which the shared resource is exported.

Varies

CustomerResourceVirtualPath

Specifies the virtual path used for resource files that are not part of a default installation as specified in the CustomerResourcePhysicalPath element.

NA

ForceAbsoluteResourceURL

Specifies whether Presentation Services always generates fully qualified URLs for resource files that have fully qualified virtual paths.

When set to False, resources and the Presentation Services extension are served from one server. When set to True, default resources are served from the same server as the Presentation Services extension, and customer resources are served from another server. Depending on the value of the other settings described in this table, you can also configure to have default and customer resources served from one server, and the Presentation Services extension served from another server.

False

ResourcePhysicalPath

Specifies the physical location of the primary resource files for Presentation Services. These are the resource files that are distributed with Presentation Services, not user-customized files such as custom styles or skins. The internal default is ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\web\app\res.

You must provide a full path. Presentation Services must have read permission to this path. For example, if this is a shared network resource, then you must ensure that the user under which Presentation Services is running has read access to the shared resource and read access to the file system from which the shared resource is exported.

If the value for this entry is different from the physical location of the DLLs for Presentation Services, then you must specify a value for the ResourceVirtualPath element.

NA

ResourceServerPrefix

Specifies how Presentation Services generates URLs for static resources such as images, script files, style sheets, and other user-specified files. The default is protocol://server from the AbsoluteCommandURLPrefix element.

If you explicitly specify a value, then it must be of this form:

protocol://server

If you specify a virtual path, then it is removed.

This element designates a separate Web server for delivering static resources, thereby reducing the load on the main Web server. This prefix is used for the resources that have a fully qualified virtual path of the form '/Path/file'. If a resource file has a relative virtual path of the form 'Path/file', then the prefix used is the same one that is used for commands to the Presentation Services extension.

protocol://server

ResourceVirtualPath

Specifies the virtual path used for the primary resource files for Presentation Services, as specified by the ResourcePhysicalPath element. These resource files and customer-defined resource files must be served from the same Web server.

For generating relative URLs, the virtual path defaults to res, if the resource folder is present under the same virtual directory as the Oracle BI Presentation Services DLL files.

For generating absolute URLs, the value of the AbsoluteCommandURLPrefix element is used as the default.

The value must be a fully qualified virtual path of this form:

'/VirtualPath'

If you omit the leading slash, then one is added.

res