Making Advanced Configuration Changes for Presentation Services

The Oracle BI Server process hosts most of the business logic of the web server and provides the framework and interface for the presentation of business intelligence data to web clients.

Under Windows, the process is sawserver.exe
Under UNIX, the process is sawserver

The instanceconfig.xml file stores the configuration settings that affect Oracle BI Server. Many configuration settings are available in Fusion Middleware Control and that is the preferred method for making configuration changes. If a particular setting is not available in Fusion Middleware Control, then you can change it using the instanceconfig.xml file. You can use the instanceconfig.xml file to customize various aspects of your deployment. Make changes directly in this file only to change default elements, such as the name of the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, or override internal default settings, such as those related to caches.

Several entries are present in the instanceconfig.xml file by default, including the path to the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, and the name of the Oracle Business Intelligence Server data source used by Presentation Services to access Oracle BI Server.

Note:

If you have previously made configuration changes by modifying the Windows registry, then migrate those changes to the instanceconfig.xml. In the Windows registry, entries under the Common key remain valid.

The following procedure provides information about general configuration changes that you can make.

To manually edit the settings for general configuration changes:

Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing, located in:

BI_DOMAIN/config/fmwconfig/biconfig/OBIPS
Locate the section in which you must add the elements that are described the table below.

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

<ServerInstance>
  <ClientStorage>
    <Enabled>true</Enabled>
    <LocalStorage>true</LocalStorage>
    <SessionStorage>true</SessionStorage>
  </ClientStorage>
  <FavoritesSyncUpIdleSeconds>300</FavoritesSyncUpIdleSeconds>
  <BIClientInstallerURL32Bit>http://myhost:7777/my32bitfile< /BIClientInstallerURL32Bit>
  <BIClientInstallerURL64Bit>http://myhost:7777/my64bitfile< /BIClientInstallerURL64Bit>
  <Security>
    <AllowRememberPassword>false</AllowRememberPassword>
    <CookieDomain>value</CookieDomain>
    <CookiePath>/analytics</CookiePath>
    <InIFrameRenderingMode>prohibit</InIFrameRenderingMode>

    <Cursors>
     <NewCursorWaitSeconds>3</NewCursorWaitSeconds>
    </Cursors>

    <LogonExpireMinutes>180</LogonExpireMinutes>
  </Security>
  <ODBC>
    <UnaccessedRunningTimeoutMinutes>5</UnaccessedRunningTimeoutMinutes>
  </ODBC>
  <UI>
    <MaxSearchResultItemsToReturn>300</MaxSearchResultItemsToReturn>

    <UserPickerDialogMaxAccounts>300</UserPickerDialogMaxAccounts>
  </UI>
</ServerInstance>

Save your changes and close the file.
Restart Oracle Business Intelligence.

Element	Description	Default Value
AllowRememberPassword	Specifies whether to allow the browser to save the password, using browser-specific password management software. If set to true, prompts the user to specify whether to save the password for future sign-ins.	false
BIClientInstallerURL64Bit	Specifies that you want to override the default download location for the Oracle BI Client Installer when the user selects to download the Oracle BI Client Installer from the Oracle BI EE Home page. The file for the 64-bit Installer is named biee_client_install64.exe.	No default value
ClientStorage	Specifies the parent element for maintaining client state across sessions and within a session. See also the Enabled, LocalStorage, and SessionStorage elements.	No default value
CookieDomain	Specifies the domain information for a cookie that is sent to the browser.	No default value
CookiePath	Specifies the domain path to which cookies apply.	/analytics
Enabled	Specifies whether to maintain client state across sessions and within a session. State is not maintained across browser sessions. The following items maintain state: Dashboard menu — Stores whether the menu is collapsed or expanded. Folders — Stores whether folders are expanded for the Catalog page and the Open dialog. Favorites menu — Stores the name of the last expanded item. Catalog Page Toolbar — Stores various details about the state of the toolbar, including the settings of the Type, Sort, and Show More Details options. See also the LocalStorage and SessionStorage elements.	true
FavoritesSyncUpIdleSeconds	Specifies the number of seconds of idle time before synchronizing data from a mobile application and favorites from the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog.	300
InIFrameRenderingMode	See Protecting Pages in Oracle BI EE from Attack for information.	sameDomainOnly
LocalStorage	Specifies whether the local storage of the browser is used to maintain state. If the browser does not support local storage, then no state is maintained.	true
LogonExpireMinutes	Specifies a time in minutes after which an inactive user is automatically logged off.	180
MaxSearchResultItemsToReturn	Specifies the maximum number of items to display within a directory listing of the catalog within Presentation Services. The minimum value is 0. Use care when setting this element to a high value as the performance of the user interface might decrease.	300
NewCursorWaitSeconds	Specifies how long the server waits for results after the initial request before returning the search page to the browser. It may be useful to set this value higher (such as 3 seconds) to avoid page refreshes if the majority of queries are not returning in 1 second.	No default value
UserPickerDialogMaxAccounts	Specifies the maximum number of items to display in the left picker within a directory listing of the catalog within Presentation Services. For example, a catalog folder with more than 300 items might not display them all unless you increase this value to greater than 300. The minimum value is 0. Use care when setting this element to a high value as the performance of the user interface might decrease.	300
SessionStorage	Specifies whether the local storage of the browser is used to maintain state for sessions. If the browser does not support local storage, then no state is maintained.	true
UnaccessedRunningTimeoutMinutes	Specifies the time to elapse, in minutes, before an unattended analysis is canceled. An unattended analysis is one that has not been accessed in the number of minutes specified by this setting. The minimum value is 2. This element addresses the case where a user is editing an analysis and browses elsewhere, abandoning the analysis, at least temporarily. Do not set the value too small, however, as the user might return to the analysis. Use this element only for Presentation Services queries that run against the BI Server. The element does not apply to any other type of connection.	5

Protecting Pages in Oracle BI EE from Attack

As the administrator, you must be aware of a security concern that is known as clickjacking. Clickjacking refers to the ability of attackers to subvert clicks and send the victim's clicks to web pages that permit them to be framed with or without JavaScript.

For example, suppose an attacker develops a website that uses an inline frame for an Oracle Business Intelligence Console application. When you visit this site, you are unknowingly clicking buttons on the inline-framed Console application. This vulnerability is very serious, because the attacker is not stopped by the same origin policy principles that apply to other Oracle Business Intelligence applications. You can find many examples of clickjacking documented on the Worldwide Web.

The term that describes preventing attackers from framing an application in an inline frame is frame busting. To affect frame busting, you use the InIFrameRenderingMode element in the instanceconfig.xml file. You can set the element to the following three values:

prohibit = Never permit content from Oracle BI Presentation Services to be rendered in an inline frame.
sameDomainOnly = (Default) Enable rendering of pages in an inline frame if the enclosing page was generated by the server in the same domain. By default, pages have the same domain if they were generated by the same server. See the Worldwide Web for information on the "same origin policy."
allow = Always allow content from Oracle BI Presentation Services to be rendered in an inline frame.