INTRODUCTION TO

CUSTOMIZING

INFOVIEW (XI R3.1) Adam Lange

Lake Tahoe Community College

Agenda

• Why Customize?

• Best Practices for Customization

• Modify Basic InfoView properties

• Modify Web Intelligence Default Settings

• Modify InfoView Title and Greeting

• Hide Unused Buttons on InfoView Toolbar

• Change Log On Page Instructions

• Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page

• Customizing Launchpad in 4.0

• Resources

Why Customize?

• Modify appearance to create seamlessness among other

internal systems/interfaces

• Modify functionality to align with practices and standards

specific to your organization

• Extend the delivered functionality of Business Objects to

meet unique requirements

• Bonus: It’s fun!

Best Practices for Customization

• Always make back-up of original system file

before customizing it

• Document all customizations

• Restart Apache Tomcat after making changes

• Make changes on Test server first – if possible

Modify Basic InfoView Properties • CMC > Applications > InfoView > Properties

Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\

res\schema.blue\default.css

Logo displayed on

InfoView log on page

Change InfoView Log On Page Logo 1) Copy logo file to Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\res\schema.blue

2) Enter custom logo file name under CMC > Applications > InfoView > Properties

3) Restart Tomcat

Change InfoView Log On Page Logo

Before

After

Modify WebI Default Settings • CMC > Applications > Web Intelligence > Properties

Modify InfoView Title & Greeting

• InfoView Title

• InfoView Greeting (log on page)

Modify InfoView Title & Greeting

• Text is defined within web.xml file

Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\WEB-INF

• Web.xml file contains mant system parameters. Modify

the app.name and app.name.short with desired text.

Modify InfoView Title & Greeting

• Edit web.xml file

• Save web.xml file

• Restart Tomcat

Hide Unused Buttons in InfoView

• Buttons and links for unused features in InfoView may

cause confusion among users.

LTCC does not use these features

Hide Unused Buttons in InfoView • Suppress buttons by modifying the headerPlus.jsp file:

• “Comment out” .add() functions

Hide Unused Buttons in InfoView

• After making change to headerPlus.jsp file:

Change Log On Page Instructions

• InfoView log on page displays generic instructions by default

Change Log On Page Instructions

• Instructions can be tailored to fit your organization

Change Log On Page Instructions • Tailor instructions by modifying

PlatformResources_en.properties within the

PlatformServices_en.jar file

(Tomcat55\webapps\PlatformServices\WEB-INF\lib)

Change Log On Page Instructions • Modify the logon.firstInstruction and/or

logon.secondInstruction parameters

logon.secondInstruction=For questions regarding account

information, contact Adam Lange at x756 or <a

href="mailto:lange@ltcc.edu"

class="homepage">lange@ltcc.edu</a>.<br><a

href="https://portal.ltcc.edu/facstaffresources/technology/Lists/

Report%20Requests/NewForm.aspx" class="homepage"

target="_blank">Click here</a> to request a new report.

Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page

• LTCC uses a reporting database (ODS) which is

refreshed daily from the ERP system

• Refreshes occur around 1:30AM every morning

• In the future, LTCC may establish an additional mid-day

refresh around noon

• A dynamic message was added to the InfoView log on

page to display the date/time when the reporting database

was last refreshed

Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page

Message is updated automatically

after the completion of daily refresh

Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page

Process to update message on log on page:

1) Refresh of reporting database is completed and then SQL

stored procedure is executed automatically.

2) Stored procedure writes the date/time of refresh to text file

under Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\WEB-INF

3) Java code snippet added to logon.jsp file (under

Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp) to dynamically

read/display refresh date from text file.

Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page

Stored procedure to write refresh date/time to text file. Executed automatically after daily refresh of reporting database is completed.

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[L56_WRITE_ODS_REFRESH_STATUS]

AS BEGIN

-- =============================================

-- Author: Adam Lange

-- Create date: 3/20/2013

-- Description: Writes to refresh data to ODSREFRESH.txt file on LTCC-BOAPP

-- =============================================

-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from

-- interfering with SELECT statements.

SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @cmd VARCHAR(256)

DECLARE @result VARCHAR(100)

SET @result = 'ODS reporting database last updated ' + (SELECT LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR(30), GETDATE()), ' ', ' '))))

SET @cmd= 'echo>\\LTCC-BOAPP\WEB-INF\ODSREFRESH.txt ' + @result

EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @cmd, no_output

END

Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page Java code in logon.jsp dynamically reads from ODSREFRESH.txt text file.

<%

String fileName = "/WEB-INF/ODSREFRESH.txt";

InputStream ins = application.getResourceAsStream(fileName);

try

{

if(ins == null)

{

response.setStatus(response.SC_NOT_FOUND);

}

else

{

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader((new InputStreamReader(ins)));

String data;

while((data= br.readLine())!= null)

{out.println(data+"<br>");}

}

}

catch(IOException e)

{out.println(e.getMessage());}

%>

Add Dynamic Text to Log On Page

Customizing Launchpad in 4.0 Many similar customizations shown in this presentation are

also possible in 4.0/Launchpad. However, the actual processes

for implementation are quite different.

Helpful resources for customizing 4.0/Launchpad:

Business Intelligence Platform Administrator Guide

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_bip_admin_en.pdf

SAP BusinessObjects OEM Customization Guide

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_oem_customizati

on_en.pdf

Customizing SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0

www.dallasmarks.org/blog/2011/09/customizing-sap-businessobjects-bi-4-0

Resources for Customizing InfoView

BusinessObjects Chop Shop (InfoView hacks)

www.dallasmarks.org/blog/2009/07/businessobjects-chop-shop-

infoview-hacks

Customizing SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

www.dallasmarks.org/blog/2008/08/customizing-

businessobjects-enterprise-xi-3-0

Customizing InfoView without Coding (R2)

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-20265