Development Modes with Developer Studio

In this section:

Developer Studio allows local (stand-alone) development and development against a remote development. From the Explorers Projects folder, you can develop projects locally on your machine or against a remote WebFOCUS environment. From the WebFOCUS Environments folder of the Explorer, you develop directly against environments that are configured remotely.

In Developer Studio, you start building a reporting application as a Project consisting of different kinds of files. You can create the project as a stand-alone application in the development environment or as a web-based self-service application that you can deploy.

With a full Developer Studio installation, you can:

If you do not have a Reporting Server and the WebFOCUS Client on your development machine, for example if you have installed the Managed Reporting Developer edition of Developer Studio, your environment allows the last two capabilities.

For details, see the WebFOCUS Developer Studio Installation and Configuration manual.


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Project-Based Development

Reference:

Developer Studio supports two configurations for Project-based development:

Use of a remote environment for Project-based development requires the following:



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Reference: Summary of Steps for Project-Based Development

To create a new project:

  1. Install Developer Studio. Use the installation program to install Developer Studio (this includes a Reporting Server for stand-alone development) on your Windows machine.

    For details, see the Developer Studio Installation and Configuration manual.

  2. Configure the web server. For local stand-alone development, configure aliases and servlet functionality on the local web server.

    For Microsoft IIS or Apache Tomcat, configuration of the web server and/or Application server is performed automatically for you during installation of Developer Studio. For other web servers, manual configuration is necessary.

    For details, see the Developer Studio Installation and Configuration manual.

  3. Configure communications and data access. Set up access to remote Reporting Servers and create or copy data source descriptions. You must also set up data adapters to access other data sources, such as relational databases.

    For details, see the Developer Studio Installation and Configuration manual.

  4. Create a project in the Projects on localhost folder. Before you begin Project-based development, you must create a project directory that will contain the associated files. You create this directory with the Project Wizard. The Project Wizard enables you to name the project, designate a directory for it, and optionally add other directory paths from which the project can retrieve information, or paths to other resources.

    Sample projects are provided for editions that allow local/standalone development. When working against a remote WebFOCUS environment you will not see any sample projects by default.

    For more information, see Creating a Reporting Application in the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual.

  5. Create, develop, and test the project components. Open the project, create its components (the procedures, data source synonyms, HTML files, and related files) and develop and test them on the Reporting Server and web server.

While working in the Projects area and performing local project development, files refresh automatically when you are updating your application files without requiring a manual refresh.

Refresh in other areas of the product will occur when operations, such as Create or Delete, are performed. From the Window Options dialog, a time interval can be set to perform an automatic Refresh every number of minutes and this will apply to all active development environments.


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Remote Development

How to:

Reference:

Developer Studio provides the following scenarios for remote development:



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Reference: Summary of Steps for Remote Development

To create a new application on a server platform:

  1. Install Developer Studio. Use the installation program to install Developer Studio on your Windows machine.

    For details, see the Developer Studio Installation and Configuration manual.

  2. Add a WebFOCUS environment. Add an environment from the WebFOCUS Environment Properties dialog box.

    For details, see How to Add a WebFOCUS Environment .

  3. Create an application folder on the server. Create the application folder in the Data Servers area or develop directly against the Repository.
  4. Create, develop, and test the application components. Open the application, create its components (its procedures, data source synonyms, HTML files, and related files) and develop and test them on the Reporting Server and WebFOCUS Client.


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Procedure: How to Perform Project-Based Development Against a Remote WebFOCUS Environment

If you have more than one available WebFOCUS environment, you can select which one to use for your Developer Studio projects.

If you want to add a WebFOCUS Environment first, see How to Add a WebFOCUS Environment .

  1. To select a WebFOCUS environment while the Explorer window is active, select Show Environments from the File menu.

    The Environments List dialog box opens.

  2. Select the environment you want to set as the development environment and click Set Development Environment.

    The current development environment appears in the Development environment field.

    Environments List

  3. Click OK to exit and save your changes. The Explorer tree will get refreshed and the current environment appears in the Projects area as a new node name (for example, Projects on Sales Reporting). The Explorer tree also displays available projects in that environment and allows you to create new ones.

    The Status column on the Environments List dialog box displays current information about each WebFOCUS environment. The status types are:

    • Online. Indicates that the environment is available for development and the icon is enabled.
    • The attempt to connect to the environment failed and the following messages may appear:
      Failed to access the Web server
      Object not found URL: http(s)://host_name:port/... 

      Indicates that the environment is not available or not configured properly. This occurs if the web server is not functioning or is unavailable. The environment icon is marked with a red "x" if it is unavailable.

    • Error Attaching to ODIN node node_name. Indicates that the default Reporting Server for the environment is not available or functioning. Check to see if the Reporting Server is running. The environment icon is marked with a red "x" if it is unavailable.


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Reference: Developing in the Data Servers Area

The Data Servers feature gives you access to file resources on all Reporting Servers in your environment. Using Data Servers, you can create and manage metadata, stored procedures, HTML files, and WebFOCUS StyleSheets. You can also perform operations on GIF images and other files, such as FOCUS data sources. Data Servers has access to all the applications on your configured servers and gives you the ability to create and delete applications.

You can copy and paste files between applications on one server or between servers. Data Servers allows you to move files between servers on different operating systems, which is useful, for example, when upsizing an application from Windows to z/OS. You can also use Data Servers to access certain files that you wish to copy to a Managed Reporting domain, such as a procedure.

Note: When copying files between different areas, code changes may be required to allow procedures to run.

The Data Servers area can be hidden based on user privileges defined in the security database.



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Procedure: How to Create a Remote Application in the Data Servers Area
  1. Expand a Data Servers area and click the plus (+) sign next to a server name.
  2. Right-click the Applications folder and select New Application.
  3. Type a name in the New Application dialog box and click OK.
  4. If the APPROOT of the WebFOCUS Client and the APPROOT of the Reporting Server file point to the same place, the application you created appears below the Applications folder and you can also see it under the Web Applications folder because of the common Application Root directory.
  5. You can copy and paste files between applications on this server or between servers.

    Applications in this area support subfolders.



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Procedure: How to Edit a Remote Application in the Data Servers Area
  1. Expand a Data Servers area and click the plus (+) sign next to a server name.
  2. Expand the Applications folder. Open the contents of an application.
  3. Choose an application component, for example a Master File, procedure, or HTML file, and select Open, Edit in Developer Studio Tool, or another available option. The component opens in the applicable tool.
  4. Edit the component. Save and close the file.


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Reference: Developing an Application in the Repository Area

When you are developing a Managed Reporting application, you are working with files that are controlled by the WebFOCUS Client and stored in a centralized location called the Managed Reporting Repository. The Managed Reporting Repository is stored in a database configured with WebFOCUS. There is no decentralized local development copy of this Repository or of Managed Reporting files. Regardless of whether the developer is using a web browser-based tool or Developer Studio tools, the process entails retrieving a copy of the files, making changes to the files, and saving the files back to the Repository.

All Managed Reporting developers work in a common repository simultaneously and move their application components to a common test environment. The Managed Reporting concept enables two or more developers to work on different parts of the application simultaneously, without affecting each other. However, when two or more developers are working on files in a single Domain, the responsibility is on the developers to coordinate their changes. For example, if two developers are working on the same report file at the same time, the last one saving the file overwrites any changes the first developer may have made. To avoid such issues, Source Control is available in the Managed Reporting area.



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Procedure: How to Create an Application in the Repository Area
  1. Under the Repository area, expand the Repository by clicking the plus (+) sign to view available folders.

    The applications visible depend on your user privileges. Users see their own applications and files that are published. Administrators see all files and folders.

  2. Right-click Repository and select New Folder.

    Folders can have multiple levels of sub folders and are used to build your Managed Reporting applications. The option to create a New Folder can be restricted for specific users or groups of users and in this case this option will not be visible.

    When a new folder is created, the Server property check box is not selected, and the drop-down list of Reporting Server nodes is disabled. The default server detected for your session is displayed in the list box. All reports and reporting objects in this folder will inherit the server setting shown in this list box.

    The Application Path property check box is not selected by default. This means that requests will be processed by the Reporting Servers default search path. The servers search path is generally determined by the settings in its profile but can also be overridden by user and group profiles, depending on the platform.

    For more information about server search path behavior, see the Server Administration for UNIX, Windows, OpenVMS, IBM i, and z/OS manual.

    To override the default search path behavior of the server for reports run from this folder or for a specific file, check the Application Path property. Select applications from the available area and add them to the selected area to customize the search path for the folder or file.

    The Application Path property sends the APP PATH values command to the server, where values contains the applications added to the selected area. A supplied value overrides the servers default search path (it does not append to it). Domain properties are inherited by the reports under it and can be overridden at the report level.



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Reference: Folder Operations

The following table describes the available operations for folders when selecting the New option.

You can do the following:

Note:



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Reference: Explorer Toolbar

The Explorer Toolbar contains buttons that are primarily used to change the display of items in your Explorer window. Depending upon your location in the Explorer, certain toolbar buttons may be inactive or unavailable. The following table describes the buttons on the Explorer toolbar while working in the Projects area.

Button

Operation

Up one level

Moves up one level in the hierarchical file structure.

toggles between the double pane Explorer view

Toggles between the double pane Explorer view and the single right pane Explorer view.

displays properties

Displays properties of the selected item.

New Deploy Scenario

Displays the current deployment scenario. Click the down arrow and select New Deploy Scenario to create a deployment scenario.

Note: Developer Studio supplies a deployment scenario named Local Deploy, which it uses to prepare files to run on a local server. Do not modify or remove Local Deploy.

You can set up a default scenario in the Deployment tab in the Properties dialog box of the project.

For details, see Partitioning and Deploying Project Files in the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual.

current scenario

Provides deployment options for the current scenario that allow you to either deploy, deploy and run, or run the current scenario.

display available items

Displays available items in the path of the project. Note that this button is not available when you have selected the Deploy folder.

adds selected item

Adds the selected item to a project. Note that this button is not available when you have selected the Deploy folder.

removes selected item

Removes the selected item from a project.

Edit Filters dialog box

This button is visible when you are at a project level.

It launches the Edit Filters dialog box, where you can set filters for items you want to display in the selected project. If you add or remove filters, the project filter list will change.

virtual folder level

This button is visible when you are at the virtual folder level.

It launches the Edit Filters dialog box, where you can set filters for items you want to display in the selected project. If you add or remove filters, the project filter list will change.

Click the down arrow to display a list that shows available files and their properties. You can also filter folders in the list.

deletes selected item

Deletes the selected item from the hard drive.

Displays items in the view as large icons, small icons, or in a list. It can also display the item details.

enables source control

Indicates that source control is enabled.

See the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual for more information.



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Reference: WebFOCUS Environments Toolbar

The WebFOCUS Environments toolbar accesses other WebFOCUS application development and deployment tools. This toolbar becomes active when you click a server or environment name under the WebFOCUS Environments area.

Button

Operation

Up one level

Moves up one level in the hierarchical file structure.

Toggles between the double pane Explorer view and the single right pane Explorer view.

Displays the Deferred Report Status Interface in a new browser window. This option is only available in Managed Reporting.

Accesses the Security Center. Used to manage users and permissions applied to groups and resources.

Accesses the Business Intelligence Portal (BI Portal). Use the BI Portal to build complete, modern websites.

Launches the View Builder, where you can create and manage public views (general and custom) and group views. This option is only available in Managed Reporting if you have installed the Business Intelligence Dashboard.

Accesses the Business Intelligence Dashboard, an HTML-based thin client that allows you to create a customized user interface for access to WebFOCUS Managed Reporting. Note that you must use the View Builder to customize the Dashboard.

Accesses ReportCaster Explorer if ReportCaster is installed on the Reporting Server.

For more information, see the ReportCaster manual.

Accesses the ReportCaster Console if ReportCaster is installed on the Reporting Server.

For more information, see the ReportCaster manual.

Server Console

Launches the Server Console for the selected Reporting Server, which you use to configure and manage Reporting Servers. Note that the Server Console is sometimes referred to as the Web Console.

Launches the WebFOCUS Administration Console, which you use to administer the WebFOCUS Client and perform tasks, such as add remote Reporting Servers.

displays properties

Displays properties of the selected item.

deletes selected item

Deletes the selected item from the file system.

Displays items in the view as large icons, small icons, or in a list which also displays item details.

Note: Tools enabled in the Explorer toolbar are controlled by the Security Center.


WebFOCUS