Publishing Visual Discovery AE Projects to a Larger (Web-Based) Audience

In this section:

How to:

Once Visual Discovery AE projects are designed and created, they can be shared with a larger audience if required. To accomplish this, you must first publish the project to the Visual Discovery Server AE. As a part of the process, you can configure how the source data is packaged with the project. This section describes the source data packaging options that are available.
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Standard Option

During run time, this option loads and compresses data into memory from the original location assigned by the Load Data Wizard in WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE. Using text files as the data source means that during the publishing process, Visual Discovery AE does not move the original source data. Therefore, in tiered environments, it is recommended to use shared network paths, or alternatively, the drive paths must be identical between machines. In this case, each machine contains the same source Visual Discovery AE text file. This is referred to as an ADV type project.

WebFOCUS procedures can also be used as the data source, which is also the preferred method. However, the same recommendations that are mentioned when using text files must also be followed.

The source data used here can be updated by ReportCaster, which allows refreshed data to be provided on a specified schedule. The data is refreshed once the last web session has been closed.

Note: This is the slowest and least efficient option and therefore recommended only for smaller sets of data.
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Embedded Option

This option will embed the data using an AES-Rijndael algorithm with a fixed 256-bit encryption key (similar to Active Reports). This is referred to as an ADVM type project.

Note: This is the recommended option, since the data is already compressed and ready to be loaded into memory during run time.
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Converted Option

This option provides a process to dynamically convert ADV type projects to ADVM type projects using an Adv2Advm utility. As a result, embedded projects can be updated on a regular basis.

For more information, see the Deployment and the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server topic in the online help.
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Procedure: How to Publish a Visual Discovery AE Project
  1. Open an existing project in WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench Analyst Edition (AE).
  2. From the File menu, select Publish Dashboard.

    The Publish Dashboard dialog box opens. The Dashboard Name field is populated automatically, as shown in the following image.

  3. Enter the following URL in the Server Address field or the path to the default ADV virtual directory as configured in IIS: 
    http://<server_name>/ADV

    where:

    <server_name>

    Is the host name of the system where WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE is installed.

  4. Uncheck the Embed Data option and then click Next.

    Important: When using WebFOCUS procedures, it is important to uncheck the Embed Data option. Otherwise, the results of the report will be embedded with the dashboard and the report itself will no longer be queried, which prevents real-time data from being reflected in your output.

    You are prompted to select a destination folder for the published dashboard, as shown in the following image.

  5. Select a destination folder and click Finish.

    A message indicating that the dashboard has been successfully published is displayed along with the URL, as shown in the following image.

  6. Copy and save the URL, which will be used later in the process when you present your Visual Discovery AE project in WebFOCUS.
  7. Close WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE.

    You are now ready to present your Visual Discovery AE project in WebFOCUS.

    For more information on publishing a project using WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE, access the Help in WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE.

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