Prerequisites

Authoring Tools

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

WebFOCUS Developer Studio. For more information, see the WebFOCUS Developer Studio documentation related to this topic.
WebFOCUS InfoAssist. For more information, see the WebFOCUS InfoAssist User's Manual.

Project Links

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

WebFOCUS Business Intelligence (BI) Portal
WebFOCUS Developer Studio
WebFOCUS Servlet Self-Service Link or Drill-Down

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

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:

Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit or 64-bit).
Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit).
Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit).
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2012.

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

WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE:

Windows Server 2003, 2008, or Windows Server 2012 (64-bit).
Microsoft IIS Version 6.0 or higher, installed and running prior to the installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework.

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.

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:

Encrypt the key when generated by Visual Discovery Dashboard URL calls.
Decrypt the key by the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE on these calls.
Decrypt the key again if passed back to WebFOCUS for executing WebFOCUS procedures.

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

Access the WebFOCUS Administration Console.
Expand Configuration and then Application Settings in the left pane.
Click Encryption.
The Application Settings - Encryption page opens, as shown in the following image.
Enter a valid 32-character hexadecimal (HEX) string value for the IBI_WF_token_Key parameter.
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

Navigate to the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Server AE installation directory and edit the web.config file.

Note: To edit the web.config file, ensure that you have the required administrative permissions to access and modify this file.
1. Right-click the web.config file and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
2. In the Security tab, click the Edit button to change permissions.
3. Click on Users and check Allow to all fields in the Permission for Users section, as shown in the following image.
4. Click OK.
  
  Note: If the web.config file is locked, check to see if it is in use by the Visual Discovery process (w3wp), or the IIS process (W3SVC). Stop the appropriate process to unlock the file.
Navigate to line 71 where the <WebFocusPassPhrase> element is located, as shown in the following image.
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.
End each open IIS process (w3wp.exe).

Configuring Visual Discovery AE URL Redirection Validation

How to:

Add and Assign a Valid Visual Discovery AE Base URL to a Defined Mapping Value

Since Visual Discovery AE calls must be routed through WebFOCUS, by default, any URL was considered to be valid. This leaves WebFOCUS vulnerable to process any URL, regardless of whether or not the URL was dedicated for Visual Discovery AE.

As a security enhancement, only valid URLs can be passed through WebFOCUS to be rerouted to Visual Discovery AE projects. This includes validating the URL as part of Visual Discovery AE components in the BI Portal or a Self-Service servlet call using the IBI_visdis parameter.

This strategy prevents WebFOCUS from submitting invalid, improper, or malicious links. To accomplish this, the URLs submitted to WebFOCUS for Visual Discovery AE execution are checked against a valid list of known Visual Discovery AE addresses. You must modify the WebFOCUS site.wfs file to define variables containing key values that are mapped to valid Visual Discovery AE URLs.

This security enhancement can also be leveraged in order to use paths with Visual Discovery AE projects in a relative manner. For example, when moving a system from one server to another (from a testing environment to a production environment).

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Procedure: How to Add and Assign a Valid Visual Discovery AE Base URL to a Defined Mapping Value

Open the site.wfs file using an editor.
The site.wfs file is located in the following directory:
```
<wf_home>\client\home\etc
```
where:
<wf_home>
Is the root directory where WebFOCUS is installed.

Define valid key value pairs using the following format:

<hard_coded_variable_name># =<key>|http[s]://<server>/<alias>/

where:

<hard_coded_variable_name>: Is set to IBIF_VisDisAELink.

#: Is a consecutive number.

<key>: Is a unique name for the key.

<server>: Is the specified server (for example, http://installvisdis.ibi.com).

<alias>: Is the known alias (for example, /ADV).

For example:

IBIF_VisDisAELink1 = visdis_1 | http://installvisdis.ibi.com/ADV

IBIF_VisDisAELink2 = visdis_2 | http://installvisdis.ibi.com/ADV/Projects

IBIF_VisDisAELink3 = visdis_3 | http://install8005.ibi.com/ADV/

Sample BI Portal URLs:

http://installvisdis.ibi.com/ADV/Projects/Demo/Customers.aspx

visdis_1/Projects/Demo/Customers.aspx

visdis_2/Projects/Demo/Customers.aspx

Sample Self-Service URLs:

http://install8005.ibi.com:8080/ibi_apps/WFServlet.ibfs?IBI_visdis=http://installvisdis.ibi.com/ADV/Projects/
Demo/Customers.aspx

http://install8005.ibi.com:8080/ibi_apps/WFServlet.ibfs?IBI_visdis=visdis_1/Projects/
Demo/Customers.aspx

http://install8005.ibi.com:8080/ibi_apps/WFServlet.ibfs?IBI_visdis=visdis_2/
Demo/Customers.aspx

The following rules are applicable:

Defined URLs must begin with http[s] and contain an alias.
Ensure that no double periods are used.
For each IBIF_VisDisAELink that is created, a corresponding consecutive number must be appended to its name. If the order is out of sequence, then any additional items are ignored.

Save the updated site.wfs file.
When a Visual Discovery AE URL is executed (through a Visual Discovery AE component in the BI Portal or the standalone IBI_visdis Self-Service servlet call), any key that is located will be replaced with the corresponding Visual Discovery AE URL that is mapped. If no key name is located, then the complete URL is checked against the URL list that is defined. If a match is made, then WebFOCUS redirects to the corresponding URL that is provided. If a match is not made, then the execution is stopped and an error message is displayed.

If a defined URL list is not located, then the following message is displayed:
```
A valid list of Visual Discovery AE URLs are not configured
```
If no matches are made, then the following message is displayed:
```
A valid Visual Discovery AE URL was not found
```

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.

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 sign on (SSO) 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:

Stored WebFOCUS Repository Procedure

http://<host>[:port]/<context_root>/visdisae.ibfs
?IBFS1_action=runItem&IBFS__methodName=runItem
&IBFS_path=IBFS:/WFC/Repository/<FolderPath>/<ProcedureName>.<extension>

Note: Ensure that the query string &IBFS__methodName=runItem uses double underscore characters and is required to pass parameters.

Adhoc Procedures Stored Outside the WebFOCUS Repository

http://<host>[:port]/<context_root>/WFServlet.ibfs
?IBIAPP_app=<ApplicationName>
&IBIF_ex=<ProcedureName>

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.

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.

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.