Prerequisites

In this section:

This section describes prerequisites for WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE and WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE.

For more information on hardware requirements, estimating RAM usage, and scalability, see the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Analyst Edition Implementation Guide.


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Authoring Tools

The following authoring tools can be used to build data for Visual Discovery AE projects:


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Project Links

The following tools can be used to provide access to Visual Discovery AE projects:

For more information, see Presenting Published Visual Discovery AE Projects in WebFOCUS.


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Operating Systems

This section lists the operating systems that are supported for WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE and WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE.

WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE:

Note: WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE uses standard database and Windows file server protocols.

WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE:


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Installing WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Analyst Edition Components

WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE and WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE provide standalone installations. Both are independent to WebFOCUS Developer Studio, WebFOCUS Client, and the WebFOCUS Reporting server installations.

For detailed information on installing WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE and WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE, see the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Analyst Edition Implementation Guide.


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Setting the Token Key

How to:

The token creation relies on a user entered key that is identically and separately entered into the WebFOCUS Administration Console and a WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE configuration file. This token is a hexadecimal (HEX) string value that is read each time to:

For more information on how to create encryption key files using hexadecimal (HEX) bytes, see Chapter 9, WebFOCUS Encryption Features (Key File Format) in the WebFOCUS Security and Administration documentation.



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Procedure: How to Set the Token Key From WebFOCUS Client
  1. Access the WebFOCUS Administration Console.
  2. Expand Configuration and then Application Settings in the left pane.
  3. Click Encryption.

    The Application Settings - Encryption page opens, as shown in the following image.

  4. Enter a valid 32-character hexadecimal (HEX) string value for the IBI_WF_token_Key parameter.
  5. Click Save and then close the WebFOCUS Administration Console.


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Procedure: How to Set the Token Key From WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE
  1. Navigate to the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE installation directory and edit the web.config file.
  2. Navigate to line 71 where the <WebFocusPassPhrase> element is located, as shown in the following image.

  3. Replace the following placeholder text
    replace the string with your 32 character WebFOCUS pass phrase key

    with the same valid 32-character hexadecimal (HEX) string value entered for the IBI_WF_token_Key parameter in the WebFOCUS Administration Console.

  4. End each open IIS process (w3wp.exe).

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Visual Discovery Server AE Access

Visual Discovery Server AE only allows secure requests that originate from WebFOCUS. Therefore, any URLs to Visual Discovery AE projects must be initially placed in the WebFOCUS Business Intelligence (BI) Portal. During runtime, WebFOCUS dynamically adds the required token to appropriately call Visual Discovery Server AE.

For more information, see Visual Discovery Server AE Token Requirement.


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Using WebFOCUS Procedures as a Data Source

When using WebFOCUS procedures as a data source, these procedures can be located within the WebFOCUS Repository or independent of this repository. When independent, security is not handled by WebFOCUS and requires that the public user be enabled. When working with those items in the WebFOCUS Repository, it is critical to change the WFServlet.ibfs extension in the URL to visdisae.ibfs (all lower case) in order for WebFOCUS to properly recognize the request.

Note: Accessing WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE, and as a result, live WebFOCUS procedures, is not supported in single-signon environments. Although WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE can be configured to use Active Directory, the WebFOCUS Security framework is the recommended approach to access WebFOCUS procedures stored in the WebFOCUS Repository.

For WebFOCUS Business Intelligence (BI) Portal Report objects, right-click the item and select Properties from the context menu. Click the Details tab. If the item is FORMAT VISDISAE, then the URL can be copied and pasted. The URL will have the visdisae.ibfs extension in place.

Currently, the URL can be obtained by right-clicking the Report object and copying the URL. The following is the syntax for the WebFOCUS procedures:

Note: For improved readability, line breaks have been inserted in the above URLs. In an actual deployment scenario, ensure that the URLs do not contain any extra spaces or line breaks, and that the parameters are on the same line.

When imported, the table name will be inferred from <ProcedureName>. WebFOCUS Servlet calls will be treated as the public user.

When constructing the Visual Discovery URL (VISDISAE item or standalone URL), any query string (amper) parameters included will be passed along to the WebFOCUS procedure for dynamic filtering. This is good practice to use with the adhoc solution described above.


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Synchronized Time When Publishing

Ensure that the time on the system hosting WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE is synchronized with the system where the WebFOCUS Client is installed.


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Network Services Permissions

If you are loading data from WebFOCUS procedures or text files, ensure Network Service permissions are granted to the folder where the specific WebFOCUS procedure or text file is located.


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