9 Making a View Object Available to BI Publisher as a Data Source

9.1 Prerequisites

Oracle BI Publisher provides a mechanism to extract data from a remote server using Web service calls to a view object. Applications developers can define data sources as view objects in their application and then create a data model in BI Publisher to retrieve the data to use in their reports.

Following are the prerequisites for using the information in this chapter:

• BI Publisher is deployed to the WebLogic Server where the application will be running. The library "oracle.xdo.webapp" is required. The Oracle BI Platform Installer deploys this library.

• In JDeveloper, you have created the entity-based view object.

• In JDeveloper, the name of the database connection data source must be "ApplicationDB".

9.2 Configuring the Application Module

Using Oracle JDeveloper, configure the application module that contains the view object by following the steps in the remaining sections of this chapter.

9.3 Updating web.xml

1. In JDeveloper, navigate to the web.xml file under your Project > Web Content > WEB-INF folder.

   Figure 9-1 Updating the web.xml File in JDeveloper

   
   Description of "Figure 9-1 Updating the web.xml File in JDeveloper"
   
   

2. In the Source view, update the web.xml file with the following:

   <filter-mapping>
           <filter-name>adfBindings</filter-name>
           <servlet-name>oracle.xdo.vo.webservice.VODataSourceService</servlet-name>
           <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
           <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
     </filter-mapping>
     
     <servlet>
           <servlet-name>oracle.xdo.vo.webservice.VODataSourceService</servlet-name>
           <servlet-class>oracle.j2ee.ws.server.provider.ProviderServlet</servlet-class>
           <init-param>
               <param-name>Oracle.JAX-WS.ServiceEndpointBean</param-name>
               <param-value>oracle.xdo.vo.webservice.VODataSourceService</param-value>
           </init-param>
           <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
     </servlet>
   
     <servlet-mapping>
           <servlet-name>oracle.xdo.vo.webservice.VODataSourceService</servlet-name>
           <url-pattern>/services/voService</url-pattern>
     </servlet-mapping>
   

9.4 Updating weblogic.xml

1. In JDeveloper, navigate to the weblogic.xml file under your Project > Web Content > WEB-INF folder.

2. Update the weblogic.xml file located in the WEB-INF directory with the following library reference:

   <library-ref>
     <library-name>oracle.xdo.webapp</library-name>
   </library-ref>
   

   Figure 9-2 Updating the weblogic.xml File in JDeveloper

   
   Description of "Figure 9-2 Updating the weblogic.xml File in JDeveloper"
   
   

9.5 Deploying the Application Module

Deploy the application module to the WebLogic Server where BI Publisher is installed. Note the application context path.

9.6 Updating the providers.xml File

1. In your BI Publisher installation, navigate to the providers.xml file. The providers.xml file is located in ${xdo.server.config.dir}/repository/Admin/Configuration.

2. Update the providers.xml file by providing a name for this data source and supplying the application context path in the nonSSOUri attribute as shown:

   <provider name="MyWSVOTest" uri =""  nonSSOUri="http://example.com:7101/Application-VOTestWS-ViewController-context-root"/>
   

3. Save the providers.xml file.

4. Restart the BI Publisher application.

   The view object data source will now be available from the data model editor.

   For instructions on how to create a data model for this data source, see the topic "Defining a View Object as a Data Set Type" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.