Establishing Standards

In this section:

It is beneficial to apply consistent naming standards for the Presentation and Reporting and Metadata Layers. Easily identifiable patterns adopted organizationally makes it easier to organize and search for content. Naming standards are expected to differ between companies.


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Naming Standards

In this section:

Apply naming standards across all WebFOCUS environments to reduce configuration and application changes when promoting code between WebFOCUS environments.



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Domain Folders and Application Directories


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Procedures

Procedures, which are often used to generate reports, charts, and visualizations, may be located on the Presentation Layer under the Content node or on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server in the location specified by the approot configuration parameter. It is beneficial to apply naming conventions to each procedure so they can be easily traced back to application or procedure usage. For example, all procedures under SALES begin with SA_.



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BI Portals

It is beneficial to apply naming standards to both a portal and portal pages. Some customers apply security authorization to portal pages, limiting access to specific groups. Applying names that can be related to a business purpose or department is useful.



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ReportCaster

ReportCaster schedules can be Managed Reporting based, WebFOCUS Server schedule based, or both. Naming standards can be applied to the name of the ReportCaster schedule so it is easily distinguishable as to which type of procedure the ReportCaster schedule is based.



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Data Adapter Connections

Keep logical data connection names uniform across WebFOCUS environments to allow seamless code migration across WebFOCUS environments. The properties of the database connection for each WebFOCUS environment should point to environment specific data. Connection names are written to the Access File. When metadata is moved between WebFOCUS environments, the connection names need to match or the request will fail. For example, in DEV, if a connection name is called MyTest, the QA environment should also have a connection name of MyTest that is pointing to QA data.



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Reporting Server Nodes

Keep Reporting Server node names uniform across environments to allow seamless code migration across environments. The properties of the Reporting Server node can be assigned to Domain folders or resources. When resources are moved between WebFOCUS environments using Change Management, the Reporting Server node specified on Domain folders or resources must match Reporting Server nodes defined in the WebFOCUS Client communications configuration file, odin.cfg, in the target environment.



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Metadata

It is beneficial to apply naming conventions to metadata so they can be easily traced back to application or procedure usage. For example, all metadata referring to SALES begin with SA_.


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Coding Standards

In this section:

Creating code modules that are standardized is beneficial in that all developers can use the same code across applications. For instance, a FOCEXEC can be created to contain all the date variables that are used in the applications and used by all developers.



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Manual Coding Versus the GUI

Developers should always begin in the GUI and stay in the GUI, unless it becomes absolutely necessary to continue coding manually. This may be the case if Dialogue Manager is needed for certain types of logic.



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Standardizing and Reusing Objects

Reusing objects to keep applications and code standardized across the enterprise has several advantages and can be enforced at several levels:

Note: Working With WebFOCUS Metadata covers reuse of metadata attributes, including the use of temporary fields used with DEFINE and COMPUTE.


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