Customizing OBI EE – GO URL Parameters

While I was working on the data mining pieces, I got a request from a customer who basically wanted to completely customize OBI EE. Well, it got me thinking about the various customization options that we have with OBI EE. In my customer’s case, they wanted to integrate OBI EE into their web application. Let’s see what options we have with OBI EE customizations.

Using OBI EE GO URL parameters

Almost most of the functionality that a customer would need or expect out of OBI EE is available for them via URL parameters. One can leverage these URL parameters into their application. What this would do is that rather than having OBI EE as a separate reporting tool, it would enable an end customer to call various reports via iframes into their application.
 
 A sample URL with the parameters for OBI EE would look like this

 http://hostname:port/analytics/saw.dll?GO&NQUser=Administrator&NQPassword=Administrator&
Path=/Users/administrator/GEC_DW/Regional+Sales/Profit+per+Category+Pie+Chart&Options=md

When one needs to use the URL parameters the fundamental part of the URL should include http://hostname:port/analytics/saw.dll?GO and following that options are to be entered. Lets look at the various URL parameters for OBI EE

        1. &NQUser – Username for logging into Answers

        2. &NQPassword – Password for login. One must realize that entering password directly into the URL is not very secure. Its recommended to use    the post method wherein the password is not explicitly shown. (People who know discoverer, entering password, as a parameter is no more   available. Only post method is supported)
 
        3. &Options=mdfr – Each of the letters in mdfr have a specific function.
            m – To include the modify report link under the report
            d – To include the download link under the report
            f – To include the printer friendly link under the report
            r – To include the refresh report link under the report

  All the above can be interchangeably used. For example &Options=md for including modify and download links alone.

        4. &Action – This allows the developers to request specific formats for the reports. For example, &Action=print (can also have excel etc)
 
        5. &ViewName – This argument allows one to specify a view. For example, &ViewName=Chart1

        6. &Style – Specify a style sheet For example, &Style=Lime

        7. &Format – Specify the format of the output, html or xml
 
        8. &Path – Specify the path for the report. For example, &Path=/Shared/administrator/testReport

        9. &SQL – Logical Sql – One can even issue logical sql via the URL parameter. For example,  &SQL=select+region+from+Sales. Here Sales is the   subject area.

The above are some of the parameters that you might find useful. But for more detailed and some parameters refer the Documentation here.

 
The above picture is actually a simple application that calls out 2 different reports based on the data entered. This kind of integration is very strong and infact the entire OBI EE is integrated into the Oracle Siebel CRM using this methodology. One can use Post methods; execute scripts etc using this type of methodology.

Following are some examples for simple HTML form elements using post method.

 Access to Answers:
     <form action=”http://hostname:port/analytics/saw.dll?” method=”post”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”Cmd” value=”Answers”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”nqUser” value=”Administrator”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”nqPassword” value=”Administrator”>
     <input type=”submit” value=”Answers”>
     </form>

To open a report in Answers (for edit), include the Path parameter:
     <form action=”http://hostname:port/analytics/saw.dll?” method=”post”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”Cmd” value=”Answers”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”nqUser” value=”Administrator”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”nqPassword” value=”Administrator”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”Path” value=”/Shared/SH/Category analysis”>
     <input type=”submit” value=”Open a Report for editing in Answers”>
     </form>

To open BI Publisher use “AdvancedReports” as the Cmd value
     <form action=”http://hostname:port/analytics/saw.dll?” method=”post”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”Cmd” value=”AdvancedReports”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”nqUser” value=”Administrator”>
     <input type=”hidden” name=”nqPassword” value=”Administrator”>
     <input type=”submit” value=”BI Publisher”>
     </form>