11 Configuring Connections to External Systems

This chapter explains how to configure connections to systems that are external to Oracle Business Intelligence. This chapter includes the following topics:

As part of the process of configuring connections to external systems, you can configure a database for the Oracle BI Scheduler. See "Configuring a Database for the Oracle BI Scheduler" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Scheduling Jobs Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

11.1 Configuring E-Mail and Agents

You can use Fusion Middleware Control to configure common e-mail settings that are used by agents. Advanced configuration settings are described in Chapter 19, "Configuring and Managing Agents."

11.1.1 Using Fusion Middleware Control to Configure Oracle BI Scheduler E-Mail Settings that Affect Agents

Before you begin this procedure, ensure that you are familiar with the information in Section 3.2, "Using Fusion Middleware Control to Update Oracle Business Intelligence Configuration Settings."

To use Fusion Middleware Control to configure Oracle BI Scheduler e-mail settings that affect agents:

  1. Go to the Business Intelligence Overview page, as described in Section 2.2.2, "Using Fusion Middleware Control to Manage Oracle Business Intelligence System Components."

  2. Display the Mail tab of the Deployment page as appropriate.

  3. Click Lock and Edit Configuration to enable changes to be made.

  4. Complete the elements using the descriptions in the Help topic for the page. Click the Help button on the page to access the page-level help for the following options:

    • SMTP Server

    • Port

    • Display name of sender

    • Email address of sender

    • Username

    • Password

    • Confirm password

    • Number of retries upon failure

    • Maximum recipients

    • Addressing method To, Blind Copy Recipient (Bcc)

    • Use SSL

    • Specify CA certificate store

    • CA certificate file

    • SSL certificate verification depth

    • SSL cipher list

  5. Click Apply, then click Activate Changes.

  6. Return to the Business Intelligence Overview page and click Restart.

See Chapter 19, "Configuring and Managing Agents" for information about advanced configuring settings for agents.

For information about using methods in the Oracle BI Systems Management API to change configuration settings, see Chapter 22, "Introducing the Oracle BI Systems Management API."

11.2 Configuring for Actions with the Action Framework

Users can create actions in the Oracle BI Presentation Services user interface. An action is an operation or process that can be invoked explicitly by a user clicking an action link. Actions can also be invoked automatically, as the final step of an agent.

You can configure for the use of actions in your organization. For a comprehensive discussion of how to use the Action Framework to enable actions for external systems, including a complete description of each configuration setting and detailed examples, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

11.3 Configuring Connections to Data Sources

Connections to data sources are defined in the Oracle BI repository file (RPD). Repository developers use the Administration Tool to configure data source connections by importing metadata and configuring connection pools. See "Importing Metadata and Working with Data Sources" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information.

You might need to update connection pool information in the repository during migrations to production and other environments. You can use the Oracle BI Server XML API to automate these connection pool changes. See "Moving from Test to Production Environments" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information.

11.4 Configuring for Connections to the Marketing Content Server

Oracle Marketing Segmentation handles segmentation, which involves dividing a target audience into different segments given different criteria based on the subject areas. When a segment is ready, users create lists of the contacts and accounts that satisfy the criteria for the segment. Users then specify whether to store the generated lists on the file system, in a database, or on a specified Content Server.

For users to store the lists on a Content Server, you as the administrator must configure the connection to the Content Server by specifying the appropriate URL and credentials. You use Fusion Middleware Control to make this specification. You can also manually specify additional settings in the instanceconfig.xml file.

You can configure for connections to the Marketing Content Server, as described in the following sections:

11.4.1 Using Fusion Middleware Control to Configure the Connection to the Marketing Content Server

Before you begin this procedure, ensure that you are familiar with the information in Section 3.2, "Using Fusion Middleware Control to Update Oracle Business Intelligence Configuration Settings."

To use Fusion Middleware Control to configure the connection to the Marketing Content Server:

  1. Go to the Business Intelligence Overview page, as described in Section 2.2.2, "Using Fusion Middleware Control to Manage Oracle Business Intelligence System Components."

  2. Display the Marketing tab of the Deployment page.

  3. Click Lock and Edit Configuration to enable changes to be made.

  4. Complete the elements using the descriptions in the Help topic for the page. Click the Help button on the page to access the page-level help for the following options:

    • URL option

    • Username option

    • Password option

    • Confirm Password option

  5. Click Apply, then click Activate Changes to execute your changes and release the lock to enable another system administrator to make changes

  6. Return to the Business Intelligence Overview page and click Restart.

For information about using methods in the Oracle BI Systems Management API to configure the connection to the content server, see Chapter 22, "Introducing the Oracle BI Systems Management API."

11.4.2 Manually Editing Settings for the Marketing Content Server Connection

Use various elements in the instanceconfig.xml file to change additional settings for the connection to the Marketing Content Server.

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 additional settings for the Marketing Content Server connection:

  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 the following list:

    • SocketTimeoutSec: Specifies the number of seconds that the socket waits for the Content Server to respond while transferring records. The default value is 60. There is no minimum or maximum value.

    • FileSizeMB: Specifies the size in megabytes of files that are generated during ListGeneration and inserted into the Content Server. The default is 10. The minimum size is 1MB and the maximum size is 50MB.

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

    <ServerInstance>
      <MarketingContentServer>
        <URL>myhost.com:6666/st1b2rep/idcplg</URL>
        <SocketTimeoutSec>120</SocketTimeoutSec>
        <FileSizeMB>5</FileSizeMB>
      </MarketingContentServer>
    </ServerInstance>
    

    You do not specify values for user name and password in the instanceconfig.xml file. Instead you specify values in Fusion Middleware Control that are stored securely within the central credentials wallet, along with all other user names and passwords.

    Also, do not change the URL element. This value is centrally managed by Fusion Middleware Control.

  4. Save your changes and close the file.

  5. Restart Oracle Business Intelligence.

11.5 Configuring to Download Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office

The Oracle BI EE Home page provides a link to download and install Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office. Complete the following steps in the specified order to configure for users to download Smart View, which was installed as part of EPM System 11. Although the order of installation is not important, Provider Services must be started before users can connect to Oracle BI EE using Smart View.

To configure to download Smart View:

  1. Install and start Provider Services. Smart View uses Provider Services for accessing Oracle BI EE content.

    For information about installing Provider Services, see the Oracle Hyperion EPM System Installation Start Here Guide.

  2. Install Oracle BI EE.

    For information, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

  3. Configure a connection to Oracle BI EE using the Smart View Data Source Manager in the Smart View client.

    For information, see the chapter on connecting to data sources in the Oracle Smart View for Office, Fusion Edition.

    Note:

    There is no separate administration tool for configuring data sources for use with Smart View. Administrators can install Smart View using the standalone installer, if they want to set up connections before enabling the Smart View download for users. The assumption is that the Oracle BI EE installation has been completed and the services run along with the Provider Services.
  4. Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing, as described in Section 3.4, "Using a Text Editor to Update Configuration Settings."

  5. Update the SmartViewInstallerURL element with the URL of the location from which users can download the Smart View Client installation file, as shown in the following example:

    <WebConfig>
      <ServerInstance>
        <SmartViewInstallerURL>http://<URL to download SmartView client>/</SmartViewInstallerURL>
      </ServerInstance>
    </WebConfig>
    
  6. Ensure that the appropriate users have the Access to Oracle BI for Microsoft Office privilege specified on the Privilege Administration page. This privilege controls access to downloads for both Oracle Business Intelligence Add-in for Microsoft Office and Smart View.

    For more information, see "Managing Presentation Services Privileges" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

  7. Restart Oracle BI Presentation Services to see the download option for Smart View.