Accessing External Links in the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE

In this section:

External links in the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE can be accessed as follows:


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Managing External Links

In this section:

The Workbench AE Project Workshop element contains the External Links node. This provides an interface to add, modify, or delete external links as well as view high level details about all external links associated with the current project.

  1. Statistics. Displays how many external links are associated with the current project.
  2. Tasks. Lists available actions that can be performed on external links. For example, you can click new to create a new external link.
  3. External Links. Lists high-level details about each external link associated with the current project. This includes the Modify and Delete buttons, as well as the name of the external link, URL, how many parameters are defined, whether the external link is assigned to the overall project, and the total number of assigned charts.


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Creating External Links

The New External Link dialog box allows you to build an external link that is parameterized by any managed data source, and assign it to a project or chart.



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Procedure: How to Create an External Link
  1. In the left pane of the Workbench AE Project Workshop, click External Links, as shown in the following image.

    The External Links dialog box opens in the workspace area, as shown in the following image.

  2. In the Tasks area, click new.

    The New External Link dialog box opens, as shown in the following image.

  3. In the Definition area, perform the following steps:
    1. Type a name for the new external link in the Name field.

      A name is the string used to present and describe the external link in the External Links node within the Workbench AE Project Workshop, and the External Link Launch button combined with a drop-down list that can be viewed in the Workbench AE, and Server AE environments.

      Note: As a best practice, define a name that indicates the type of information that you expect to see when drilling out on an external link.

    2. Type the URL of the external link in the URL field.

      The URL is the absolute URL path assigned to the external link, which is executed when selected from the External Link Launch button combined with a drop-down list that is available in the Workbench AE and Server AE environments. HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, and other URL formats are accepted.

    3. Select a target from the Target drop-down list, which is the browser location that will be used to open the selected external link.

      The following target types are available:

      • _blank (selected by default)
      • _parent
      • _self
      • _top

      Note: The target type is only used when executing external links from within the Server AE. Server AE and Workbench AE will execute external links in the latest active default browser, or automatically launch the default browser.

  4. The Parameters tab in the New External Link dialog box manages and lists the name and value pairs appended to external links when selected from the External Link Launch button combined with a drop-down list that is available in the Workbench AE and Server AE environments.

    To create new parameters, click the Add button to open the Add Parameter dialog box, as shown in the following image.

    Perform the following steps:

    1. Enter a name in the Name field, which is the text assigned to the name portion of the name and value pair.

      Note: If no name is provided, then the field that is selected from the Field drop-down list will be specified as the name.

    2. Specify a value in the Value area as a string to be assigned to the value portion of the name and value pair. The value can be a field or a constant.
      • Field. Assigns the field-level row value for the selection state of the project, based on the selected data source (Table) and column (Field). Select the required values from the corresponding drop-down lists.

        Note: It is recommended to match the selection state of a Visual Discovery AE project to any subsequent URL-based application by passing fields that make a record unique. When using non-unique fields, consideration must be taken in mapping selection states to the external link URL-based application accordingly.

        Note: Depending on the data type that is defined for a field, data values referenced by external links are specifically constructed when they are passed to the subsequent URL-based application. For example, strings and dates are passed enclosed within single apostrophe characters, and are separated by an OR operator. Data types of type integer and double are not enclosed by single apostrophe characters, but are still separated an OR operator. Empty and null values for all data types are represented by MISSING.

      • Constant. Specifies a static string.
  5. The Assignments tab in the New External Link dialog box manages and lists how external links are associated with the entire project, any given chart, or across all charts.

    Perform the following steps:

    1. Select the Project check box to assign an external link to the overall project. The external link is then added as an option listed in the External Link Launch button combined with a drop-down list.
    2. Select Specific Charts or All Charts to assign external links to a specific chart or to all charts. The external link is then listed in the External Link Launch button combined with a drop-down list for the corresponding chart. To assign the external link to a specific chart, click Add.

      Note: When assigning external links, external links at the project level must not be combined with external links for all charts. It is recommended to create two external links, one for the project level and the other for the charts level.

      The Add Chart Assignment dialog box is displayed, as shown in the following image.

    3. From the Page drop-down list, select the page number in which the chart is located.
    4. From the Chart drop-down list, select the specific chart.
    5. Click OK.

      The external link is now displayed in the chart toolbar to which it was assigned.

The external link is now created and can be accessed from the External Link Launch button combined with a drop-down list in the Project toolbar, Chart toolbar, or the External Links node in the Workbench AE Project Workshop.



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Viewing External Links

After an external link is created, the external link and all of its associated and assigned parts can be viewed on the external link properties page. This page is accessible from the External Links node added in the Workbench AE Project Workshop (left pane), or by selecting the name of the external link as a hyperlink from the list of external links (right pane).



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Procedure: How to View an External Link
  1. In the Workbench AE Project Workshop, expand the External Links node in the left pane.
  2. Click the external link you would like to view in the left pane, or the name of the external link as a hyperlink in the right pane, as shown in the following image.

    The external link properties page is displayed, which provides all of the details for the selected external link, as shown in the following image.

    This page allows you to modify or delete the external link.



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Modifying External Links

All external links can be modified at any time. When modified, the same interface used to create the external link is presented in a Modify External Link dialog box where every property of the external link can be updated. To modify an external link, click the Modify button next to an external link in the main page of the Workbench AE Project Workshop or the Modify link on the external link properties page.



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Procedure: How to Modify an External Link

External links can be modified using one of the following methods:

  • In the main page of the Workbench AE Project Workshop (External Links node). See steps 1 and 2.
  • On a specific external link properties page. See steps 3 and 4.
  1. In the main page of the Workbench AE Project Workshop, click External Links in the left pane.

    All of the available external links are displayed in the right pane, as shown in the following image.

  2. Click the Modify button for a corresponding external link that is listed.
  3. In the left pane, click the specific external link that you want to modify.

    The specific external link properties page is displayed, as shown in the following image.

  4. In the Tasks area, click the Modify hyperlink.

    The Modify External Link dialog box opens, as shown in the following image.

  5. Modify the properties of the selected external link as required.
  6. Click OK when you are done.


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Deleting External Links

An external link can be permanently deleted at any time.

Note: The delete action cannot be undone.



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Procedure: How to Delete an External Link

External links can be deleted using one of the following methods:

  • In the main page of the Workbench AE Project Workshop (External Links node). See steps 1 and 2.
  • On a specific external link properties page. See steps 3 and 4.
  1. In the main page of the Workbench AE Project Workshop, click External Links in the left pane.

    All of the available external links are displayed in the right pane, as shown in the following image.

  2. Click the Delete button for a corresponding external link that is listed.
  3. In the left pane, click the specific external link that you want to modify.

    The specific external link properties page is displayed, as shown in the following image.

  4. In the Tasks area, click the delete hyperlink.

    The Confirm Deletion dialog box opens, as shown in the following image.

  5. Click Yes to permanently delete the selected external link.

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Post Request Protocol

As part of the Visual Discovery AE HTTP Post request, all external link parameters, and WebFOCUS tokens, are embedded as fields.

Constructing external link parameter values are specifically based on the external links parameter field data type defined in the in-memory data source. Any value that is NULL or MISSING will be represented by the reserved string MISSING (not enclosed with single apostrophes). When multiple records are selected the multiple values represented for a single field are concatenated, and separated by OR.


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