9
Using OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal

9.1 Using OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal

This chapter describes how to use OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal, and contains the following topics:

• Section 9.2, "What is OracleAS Portal?"

• Section 9.3, "How to use OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal"

• Section 9.4, "How to register Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal"

• Section 9.5, "How to edit the Discoverer Portlet Provider"

• Section 9.6, "About changing the default performance settings for OracleAS Discoverer"

9.2 What is OracleAS Portal?

OracleAS Portal is a component of OracleAS that enables non-technical business users to create portals. Portals are Internet or intranet sites that provide a personalized, single point of interaction with a company's suite of applications. Portals also enable you to provide a consistent look and feel to users.

The Discoverer Portlet Provider is the content delivery mechanism used to publish Discoverer data in OracleAS Portal. The Discoverer Portlet Provider enables portal users to publish two types of Discoverer portlet:

• a Worksheet portlet, which displays a Discoverer worksheet

• a List of Workbooks portlet, which displays a list of Discoverer workbooks

The figure below shows a portal page containing a Discoverer List of Workbooks portlet called Analyze Sales Reports. Analyze Sales Reports contains links to Discoverer workbooks that enable portal users to start Discoverer Viewer and quickly access Discoverer reports.

Figure 9-1 An OracleAS Portal containing a List of Workbooks portlet

Text description of the illustration portmain.gif

You can also use Discoverer portlets in dashboard applications to display worksheets and graphs (see figure below).

Figure 9-2 A dashboard application featuring Discoverer graphs, worksheets, a list of workbooks, and links to other information sources

Text description of the illustration dash.gif

Notes

• For more information about OracleAS Portal, see Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide.

• For more information about how OracleAS Discoverer works with OracleAS Portal and OracleAS Single Sign-On, see Section 12.8.2.3, "An example showing how Discoverer works with OracleAS Portal and Single Sign-on".

• To use Discoverer with OracleAS Portal, make sure that the OssoIPCheck parameter value in the mod_osso.conf file is set to FALSE.

9.3 How to use OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal

Before portal users can add Discoverer portlets to an OracleAS Portal, you must register the Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal.

You register the Discoverer Portlet Provider using the Add Portlet Provider page in OracleAS Portal.

To use OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal, do the following:

• register Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal (for more information, see Section 9.4, "How to register Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal")

  Note: This task must be done once after an OracleAS Business Intelligence and Forms type installation.

• (optional) change the default cache settings for Discoverer Portlet Provider if required (for more information, see Section 9.6, "About changing the default performance settings for OracleAS Discoverer")

• use OracleAS Portal to add Discoverer portlets to portal pages, which is typically done by Discoverer Plus or Discoverer Viewer users

  For more information about how to add Discoverer portlets to portal pages, see Oracle Application Server Discoverer Plus User's Guide.

Notes

• For more information about using OracleAS Portal to register portlet providers, see OracleAS Portal Help.

9.4 How to register Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal

You register Discoverer Portlet Provider to enable OracleAS Portal end users to add Discoverer business intelligence portlets to their portal pages.

To register Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal:

1. Start a Web browser and enter the URL for OracleAS Portal.

   For example:

   http://<host.domain>:7778/pls/portal

   For more information about displaying the OracleAS Portal main page, contact the OracleAS Portal administrator.

   
   
   Text description of the illustration port5.gif

2. Select the Login link and connect as a portal administrator.

3. Display the Administer tab.

4. Display the Portlets sub-tab.

   
   
   Text description of the illustration port4.gif

5. Select the Register a Provider link to display the Provider Information page.

   
   
   Text description of the illustration port1.gif

6. Enter the Discoverer Portlet Provider details.

   You can enter any name and display name for the Discoverer Portlet Provider as required. The name and display name can be different.

   Hint: Give the Portlet Provider a useful display name because Portal users will see this when they add a Discoverer portlet to a portal page.

7. Choose Web from the Implementation Style drop down list.

8. Click Next to display the General Properties page.

   
   
   Text description of the illustration port2.gif

9. Enter the Portlet Provider general properties as follows:
   1. Enter the URL of the Discoverer Portlet Provider in the URL field, in the form:

      http://<host.domain>:<port>/discoverer/portletprovider (e.g. http://myserver:7778/discoverer/portletprovider)

   2. Clear the Web Provider in same cookie domain as the portal check box.

   3. Select the The user has the same identity in the Web providers application as in the Single Sign-On identity radio button.

      Note: Do not change the default value of other fields.

10. Click Next to display the Control Access page.

    
    
    Text description of the illustration port3.gif

11. (optional) Change the default access control settings if necessary.

12. Click Finish.

End users can now use the Discoverer Portlet Provider to add portlets to an OracleAS Portal page.

Hint: To test that the Discoverer Portlet Provider is running:

1. Start a Web browser.

2. Enter the URL that you entered into the URL field in step 8 (e.g. http://<host.domain>:<port>/discoverer/portletprovider).

   You should see the message 'Congratulations! You have successfully reached your Provider's Test Page.'

Notes

• If Discoverer end users need to publish workbooks and worksheets using a public connection, create a public connection that they can use using Enterprise Manager (for more information about creating public connections, see Section 3.7, "How to create a public connection").

• If the Discoverer Portlet Provider is not visible in the Portlet repository, refresh the Portlet repository, as follows
  1. Click the Home icon to display the OracleAS Portal main page.

  1. Select the Builder link to display the Portal Design-Time pages.

  2. Display the Administer tab.

  3. Display the Portlets sub-tab.

  4. Select the Refresh Portlet Repository link in the Portlet Repository area.

  5. Apply changes.

  You might also turn the Portal cache setting off, as follows:

  1. Click the Home icon to display the OracleAS Portal main page.

  1. Select the Builder link to display the Portal Design-Time pages.

  2. Display the Administer tab.

  3. Display the Portal sub-tab.

  4. Select the Global Settings link in the Services area.

  5. Display the Cache tab to display the Web Cache Settings page.

  6. Clear the Enable Web Cache for Caching Portal Content check box.

  7. Apply changes.

9.5 How to edit the Discoverer Portlet Provider

You edit the Discoverer Portlet Provider when you want to change the way that it works. For example, you might want to change the Discoverer Portlet Provider Display Name, or change its Control Access settings.

To edit the Discoverer Portlet Provider:

1. Start a Web browser and enter the URL for the OracleAS Portal main page main page.

   For example:

   http://<host.domain>:<port>/pls/portal

   For more information about displaying the OracleAS Portal main page, contact the OracleAS Portal administrator.

2. Display the Administer tab.

3. Display the Portlets sub-tab.

   
   
   Text description of the illustration port4.gif

4. In the Remote Providers area, enter the name of the Discoverer Portlet Provider (i.e. its display name) in the Name field, and click Edit to display the Provider Information page.

   Hint: If you are not sure of the display name of the Discoverer Portlet Provider, do the following:

   1. Click the Browse Providers icon to the right of the Name field.

   2. Choose the Discoverer Portlet Provider name from the list of Portlet Providers displayed.

      Hint: The name that you choose is the display name that was specified when you registered the Discoverer Portlet Provider (for more information, see Section 9.4, "How to register Discoverer Portlet Provider with OracleAS Portal").

   3. Click Edit to display the Edit Portlet Provider page.

5. Make the necessary changes, as follows:
   • use the Main tab to change provider information (e.g. the display name of the Discoverer Portlet Provider)

   • use the Connection tab to change general properties (e.g. the URL of the Discoverer Portlet Provider)

   • use the Access tab to change the access privileges (e.g. the control access settings of the Discoverer Portlet Provider)

6. Click OK to save the changes you have made.

The Discoverer Portlet Provider is updated according to changes you have made.

9.6 About changing the default performance settings for OracleAS Discoverer

You might change the default performance settings for OracleAS Discoverer to improve Discoverer performance.

When you use OracleAS Discoverer with OracleAS Portal, you might want to:

• increase the number of sessions that can run at one time by changing the maximumSessions setting (for more information, see Section A.4, "List of configuration settings in configuration.xml")

• change the way that stylesheets are pooled in memory (for more information, see Section 10.5.2, "How to enhance Discoverer Viewer scalability using XSL stylesheet pooling")