Administration Guide

Configuring Access to Application Views

Before a BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic query can access data in an application view, the application view must be configured as a Liquid Data data source. Once configured according to the instructions in this chapter, application views with data source descriptions will show up as data sources available for use in any EJB client, such as the Data View Builder, that connects to this server.

Note: Liquid Data can use the services of an application view but not its events. Application view events have no effect on Liquid Data.

Before you can add an application view as a Liquid Data data source, you must first do the following:

Install and configure WebLogic Integration.
In the server startup file for the Liquid Data server, you must add the path to the Application Integration wlai-client.jar file (such as %WLI_HOME%\lib\wlai-client.jar) to the end of the Liquid Data classpath (LDCLASSPATH). For instructions, see Deployment Tasks in the Deployment Guide.
Deploy each adapter for which you will define application views.
Use the WebLogic Integration Application View Console to define the application views you want to use as Liquid Data data sources, as described in Defining an Application View in Using Application Integration in the WebLogic Integration documentation.

The rest of this section describes how to configure the application view as a Liquid Data data source via the WebLogic Administration Console, and how to modify or remove a Liquid Data application view data source description.

For complete information on how to use WLI Application Integration—including application views, see Using Application Integration in the WebLogic Integration documentation.

The following sections are included here:

Adding Liquid Data to a WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration Domain

Before you can start using Liquid Data with Application Integration, you must have a WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration domain configured to work with Liquid Data. There are two major steps to create such a domain: (1) creating the WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration domain, and (2) adding Liquid Data to it.

If you are starting from scratch, you must first create a WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration domain using the WebLogic Platform Configuration Wizard and the WebLogic Integration (WLI) configuration templates. For instructions, see Creating Domains Using the Configuration Wizard in the WebLogic Platform documentation.

Once you have WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration domain, you need to add Liquid Data to that domain by running the Liquid Data utility for deploying Liquid Data to a new domain. For information on how to run this utility, see Adding Liquid Data to an Existing Domain in Creating Liquid Data Domains.

Starting the Liquid Data Server in the WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration Domain

Once you have configured a WebLogic Platform or WebLogic Integration domain and added Liquid Data to it, you are ready to start the Application Integration server. In a command window, navigate to the domain directory (BEA_HOME/user_projects/domain_name) in which you configured Application Integration with Liquid Data and run the startWebLogic.cmd (on Windows) or startWebLogic.sh (on UNIX) to start the server.

Defining an Application View Using the WebLogic Integration Application View Console

The first step in creating an application view data source for Liquid Data is to define an application view in the WebLogic Integration Application View Console. For detailed instructions on defining an application view, see Defining an Application View in Using Application Integration in the WebLogic Integration documentation.

Note: The Liquid Data installation includes an option to install the Application Integration component. If you chose this option during installation, the WebLogic Integration Application View Console and related software is installed on your system and accessible. For information about Liquid Data installation options see the Liquid Data Installation Guide.

Configuring an Application View Data Source Description

Once you have defined an application view using the WebLogic Integration Application View Console as described in Defining an Application View Using the WebLogic Integration Application View Console, you are ready to add the application view as a Liquid Data data source. You do this by using the WebLogic Administration Console to configure a Liquid Data source description for the application view you just defined. The process from this point on is similar to configuring any other Liquid Data data source.

To continue with Liquid Data Server application view configuration, start the WebLogic Server Administration Console for your Liquid Data server if you have not done so already. (See Starting the Administration Console. To connect to a local server running on your machine use the following URL in the address bar of a Web browser http://localhost:7001/console/).

Creating an Application View Data Source Description

To access an application view from Liquid Data, you must first create a data source description that tells Liquid Data how to find the application view.

Notes: You must log in with modify access before you can create a data source description. For more information, see Defining Liquid Data Roles and Groups.

Liquid Data can use the services of an application view but not its events. Application view events have no effect on Liquid Data.

To create a data source description for an application view:

In the left pane, click the Liquid Data node.

In the right pane, click the Configuration tab.

Click the Data Sources tab.

Click the Application View tab.

Click the Configure a new Application View source description text link.

The configuration tab for creating a new application view Liquid Data source description is displayed. Figure 11-1 Configuring a Liquid Data Source Description for an Application View

Fill in the fields as detailed in Table 11-2.

Click Create.

The Administration Console displays the new application view data source description in the summary table.

Note: You must configure access to this data source description, as described in Configuring Secure Access to Data Source Descriptions.

Table 11-2 Liquid Data Application View Data Source Description

Field	Description
Name	Logical name of the Liquid Data application view data source. You can use any name you want. For use in Liquid Data, the name must start with an alphabetic character (a-z or A-Z).
Application View Name	Name of the application view as defined in the WebLogic Integration Application View Console.
Host	Host name or IP address of the system on which the application view is running. For more information about this field and the remaining fields in this table, see Defining an Application View Using the WebLogic Integration Application View Console.
Port	Listen port used by the system on which the application view is running.
User Name	WebLogic Server username used for the application view. This identifies a user who has access to the application view instance.
Password	WebLogic Server password used for the application view. This is the password for a user who has access to the application view instance.
Operations	Optional—Filter of the application view. You can specify that only a subset of the operations provided by the application view be available to Liquid Data.

Summary of Configured Data Sources

The summary table shows a list of configured data sources of a particular type and a subset of configuration information for quick scanning. From the summary list, you can do the following:

Navigate to the configuration for a particular data source by clicking on it in the table.
If you want to set a security policy for the data source (and security in enabled for your Liquid Data domain), click Define Security Policy or Edit Security Policy on the data source to which you want to assign security. If the object already has a policy defined, the link is labeled "Edit Security Policy"; if the object has no defined policy, the link is labeled "Define Security Policy." For more information, see Configuring Secure Access to Data Source Descriptions.
Remove an existing data source by clicking the trash can next to it.

Note: You can also view all data sources from the All Data Sources configuration tab on the Liquid Data node in the Administration Console, as described in Viewing and Accessing All Configured Data Sources.

Modifying an Application View Data Source Description

You can modify an existing application view data source description. If you want to modify the actual application view definition in Application Integration, you need to do this through the WebLogic Integration Application View Console as described in Defining an Application View Using the WebLogic Integration Application View Console.

Note: You must log in with modify access before you can modify a data source description. For more information, see Defining Liquid Data Roles and Groups.

To modify the data source description for an application view:

In the left pane, click the Liquid Data node.

In the right pane, click the Configuration tab.

Click the Data Sources tab.

Click the Application View tab.

A table of configured Liquid Data data sources is shown.

Click on the data source you want to modify.

Change the settings as needed.

Click Apply.

Verify the operation of any existing queries that depend on the data source configuration you just changed.

Removing an Application View Data Source Description

You can remove a data source description that you no longer need. Removing a data source description does not remove the actual application view to which it refers.

Note: You must log in with modify access before you can remove a data source description. For more information, see Defining Liquid Data Roles and Groups.

To remove a data source description for an application view:

In the left pane, click the Liquid Data node.

In the right pane, click the Configuration tab.

Click the Data Sources tab.

Click the Application View tab.

A table of configured Liquid Data application view data sources is shown.

Find the application view that you want to remove and click the trash can next to it.

When prompted, click Yes to confirm removal.

The Administration Console removes the selected data source description.