OBIEE Go URL Command to access Reports and Dashboards from External Portals or Applications

General:
When using OBIEE at a Customer’s sites, as part of the requirement it may be necessary to integrate OBIEE Reports and Dashboards within other applications or portals. In one instance at a client site, the requirement was to integrate the OBIEE Repots, Dashboards, and Alerts into a Web Portal. The Portal was the main way for Line Manager to view their OBIEE Reports and Dashboards. Also another requirement was to distribute alerts from OBIEE Delivers to the Line Mangers email and let the Line Managers navigate to more detailed reports from the report delivered to their email. The alerts were based on a condition occurring in situation where the Line Manager needs to be notified. OBIEE Delivers enable an alert to be sent to specific uses based on a conditional report; however when the alert was received by the Line Manager he was unable to drill down to the more detailed reports. The way that the requirements were met was to use OBIEE Presentation Services Go URL Command.

Reference:
Chapter 11 of Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Administration Guide, Version 10.1.3.2

Purpose:
The purpose of this document is to discuss the OBIEE Go URL Command and show how it can be used to incorporate Oracle Business Intelligence Results into External Portals using the Go URL Command. Also it will discuss how to permit navigation down to detailed reports from a report delivered to a Mangers’ email.

Snytax:
The starting syntax of the GO URL Command is:

http://server/analytics/saw.dll?GO

There are many other parameters and option that can be used in the GLO URL to access Reports and Dashboards. The following topics will show some of the parameters and filters that can be used with the GO URL Command. The parameters and filters are discussed in more detail in the referenced document.

Syntax for use in Portals:
Below is an example of the Go URL used in a web portal to access an OBIEE Report. The sections of the Go URL command are discussed below the example command.

https://server/analytics/saw.dll?GO&Path=/Shared/Expense/Expense%20Cost/Direct%20Reports%20Requestor%20Summary&ViewName=compoundView!1&Options=drf

https://server/analytics/saw.dll?GO – The standard GO URL syntax

&Path=/Shared/Expense/Expense%20Cost/Direct%20Reports%20Requestor%20Summary – The path to the OBIEE Presentation Server Report. Note that %20 is used in the statement where spaces are in the Presentation Server Path to the Report.

&ViewName=compoundView!1 – The view that is requested in the Go URL to be displayed in the portal. The View Name is found in the XML for the Report in the Advance Tab in OBIEE Answers. If there are different compound views needed for different reasons, multiple compound views can be made for the request. Only the one that is needed for the portal would be referenced in the Go URL Statement. Instead of using a compound view, any view in the request can be referenced in the Go URL command.

&Options=drf – A link option in the Go URL command that permits the following for the report in the portal: d – download to Excel, r – refresh results, f – printer friendly

Other optional parameters can be used in the Go URL command. Refer to the referenced document for a discussion of the optional parameters that can be used for the Go URL command.

Syntax for use in an email Alert Report:
Below is an example of a Go URL command that was used in an Alert to permit enable navigation to a lower level report. A discussion of each section of the Go URL Command will be discussed below the example.

'href=http://server/analytics/saw.dll?Go&Path=/Shared/Project%20Central/Expense%20Report%20Listing%20Person&Action=Navigate&P0=1&P1=eq&P2=Requestor."Requestor%20Name"&P3='|| Replace(Requestor."Requestor Name",' ','%20') || ' > '||Requestor."Requestor Name"||'

This Go URL command is placed in the column formula section of the column on the report that you want to navigate from. You also have to edit the column and make it a HTML format. The above href command must be enclosed in the HTML anchor syntax.


href=http://server/analytics/saw.dll?Go - The href statement for the Go URL command

&Path=/Shared/Project%20Central/Expense%20Report%20Listing%20Person – The path to the report in the OBIEE Presentation Server. Note the use of the %20 for the spaces in the OBIEE Presentation Server catalog path to the report.



&Action=Navigate – the action filter to tell that tell the Go URL Command that you want to navigate

&P0=1 – the number of columns that you want to filter

&P1=eq – the operation operator. The other potential operation operators are shown in the referenced document

&P2=Requestor."Requestor%20Name" – the requestor column in the report that you want to navigate to. This must be a filter with an “ is prompted” value.

|| - concatenation symbol

&P3='|| Replace(Requestor."Requestor Name",' ','%20') || ' – the name of the column on the report that you need to filter from. The Replace statement is needed because the Requestor Name has spaces in it in the database.

' > '||Requestor."Requestor Name"||' – the name of the column that should be displayed in the column on the Report that you want to navigate from.

Once you build the Go URL command you can test it in the Web Browser to check the syntax and insure that the Report will drill down to the detail report from the displayed report.

Other Options and Filters:
The referenced document discusses the optional parameters and filters that can be used the Go URL command. The Go URL command can access Dashboards as well as OBIEE Reports. Refer to the attached document for more information on the Go URL Command.

Summary:
The Go URL command is a good way to incorporate OBIEE Reports and Dashboards in into External Portals or other Applications. It can also be used to navigate down to detailed reports from Alerts sent to Managers by email. Going forward I anticipate that many other companies will want to incorporate OBIEE Reports and Dashboards into their existing Application instead of having to navigate and login to the OBIEE Application. Using the Go URL command is not difficult but you need to become familiar with the syntax, parameters, and filters to effectively use the command to meet your client or your requirements.