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Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Online Help
Release 10.1.3.4
Part Number E12602-01		Go to Table of Contents
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Setting Up Data Sources

Setting Up Data Sources

BI Publisher supports a variety of data sources from which you can supply XML data. The data can come from a database, an HTTP XML feed, a Web service, an Oracle BI Answers request, an Oracle BI Discoverer worksheet, an OLAP cube, or a previously generated XML file.

This section describes how to set up the following:

Note: Connections to an HTTP XML feed or a Web service are set up when you define the data model for your report (see Defining the Data Model for Your Report). Connections to Oracle BI Discoverer and Oracle BI Presentation Services are set up through the integration screens (see Setting Up Integrations).

When you set up data sources, you also define security for the data source by selecting which BI Publisher roles can access the data source.

This security mechanism is intended for use with the BI Publisher Developer role to restrict developer use of data sources. For example, suppose you have two data sources: a database containing Financials data and a database containing Human Resources data. The Financials developers should only have access to the Financials data. You can create a role called Financials Developer and assign it the BI Publisher Developer role. You can then assign the Financials Developer to the Financials data source. When the user assigned this role logs in to create reports, he can only see the Financials data source.

By default, BI Publisher Administrators can access all data sources.

If you have not set up the user roles yet, you can assign data sources to a role from the Create Role interface. See Understanding Users and Roles for more information.

About Proxy Authentication

BI Publisher supports proxy authentication for connections to the following data sources:

For direct data source connections via JDBC and connections via a JNDI connection pool, BI Publisher enables you to select "Use Proxy Authentication". When you select Use Proxy Authentication, BI Publisher passes the user name and password of the individual user (as logged into BI Publisher) to the data source and thus preserves the client identity and privileges when the BI Publisher server connects to the data source. For more information on Proxy Authentication in Oracle databases, refer to Oracle Database Security Guide 10g or the Oracle Database Security Guide 11g.

Note that for connections to the Oracle BI Server, Proxy Authentication is required. In this case, proxy authentication is handled by the Oracle BI Server, therefore the underlying database can be any database that is supported by the Oracle BI Server.

Prerequisites

Setting Up a JDBC Connection to Your Data Source

  1. From the Admin page select JDBC Connection. This will display the list of existing JDBC connections.

  2. Select the Add Data Source button.

  3. Enter the following fields for the new connection:

  4. Select Test Connection. If the test is successful, the confirmation message, "Connection established successfully" will display. If connection error occurs, the message "Could not establish connection," will display.

  5. Define security for this data source. Use the shuttle buttons to move roles from the Available Roles list to the Allowed Roles list. Only users assigned the roles on the Allowed Roles list will be able to create reports from this data source.

Setting Up a JDBC Connection to the Oracle BI Server

Note: If you included BI Publisher Enterprise in your Oracle BI Enterprise Edition installation, this data source will be automatically added. You must configure the settings appropriately for your deployment.

To add the Oracle BI Enterprise Edition server as a JDBC data source, follow the guidelines in Adding a JDBC Data Source.

Note that if your Oracle BI Server is SSL-enabled, you must copy the keystore to the BI Publisher server and provide it in the connection string. If your Oracle BI servers are set up in a clustered configuration, the connection string must use the appropriate syntax described in this section.

The entries for Database Driver Class and Connection String must be as follows:

Database Driver Class: oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcDriver

Connection String: The appropriate connection string depends on your specific deployment. Clustered and SSL-enabled deployments require specific parameters to construct the URL. For example, if your Oracle BI Server is SSL-enabled, you must copy the keystore to the BI Publisher server and provide it in the connection string. For more information on SSL and on clustered configurations, see the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide.

The URL for the connection string requires the following format:

<URL>:= <Prefix>: [//<Host>:<Port>/][<Property Name>=<Property Value>;]*

where

<Prefix>: is the string jdbc:oraclebi

<Host>: is the hostname of the analytics server. It can be an IP Address or hostname. The default is localhost.

<Port> is he port number that the server is listening on. The default is 9703.

<Property Name>:= <Catalog>|<User>|<Password>|<SSL>|<SSLKeyStoreFileName> |<SSLKeyStorePassword>|<TrustAnyServer>|<TrustStoreFileName >|<TrustStorePassword>|<LogLevel>|<LogFilePath>|<PrimaryCCS>|<PrimaryCCSPort>| <SecondaryCCS>|<SecondaryCCSPort>

Valid property values are:

<Catalog> - can be any catalog name that is available on the server. If the catalog is not specified, then it will default to the default catalog specified by the server. If the catalog name is not found in the server, it will still use the default catalog and issue a warning during connect.

<User> - specifies the username for the BI Server. The default is "Administrator".

<Password> - specifies the password for the BI Server for the username. The password will be encrypted using 3DES.

<SSL> True|False - default is False. Specifies if the JDBC driver will use SSL or not. If true, the driver will check if SSLKeyStoreFileName is readable; if not, it will issue an error message.

<SSLKeyStoreFileName> - the name of the file that store the SSL Keys. This file must exist in the local file system and be readable by the driver.

<SSLKeyStorePassword> - the password to open the file pointed to by SSLKeyStoreFileName.

<TrustAnyServer> - True | False - the default is False. If SSL is set to "True" the property specifies whether to check the trust store for the server. If TrustAnyServer is set to "False", the driver will verify that TrustStoreFileName is readable.

<TrustStoreFileName> - if TrustAnyServer is set to false, this property is required to specify the trust store file name.

<TrustStorePassword> - if TrustAnyServer and TrustStoreFileName are specified, this property specifies the password to open up the file specified by TrustStoreFileName.

<LogLevel> - specify the log level. Valid values are

SEVERE | WARNING | INFO | CONFIG | FINE | FINER | FINEST

<LogFilePath> - specifies the file path of the desired logging destination. Default is %TEMP% on windows, $TMP on UNIX. Driver needs to have write permission on the file. It will create a new entry marked as _0, _1 if the same file name already exists.

<PrimaryCCS> -(For clustered configurations) specifies the primary CCS machine name instead of using the “host” to connect. If this property is specified, the “host” property value is ignored. The jdbc driver will try to connect to the CCS to obtain the load-balanced machine. Default is localhost.

<PrimaryCCSPort> - specifies the primary CCS port number running on the PrimaryCCS machine. Default is 9706.

<SecondaryCCS> - specifies the secondary CCS machine name instead of using the “host” to connect. If this property is specified, then the jdbc driver will try to connect to the CCS to obtain the load-balanced machine. Default is localhost.

<SecondaryCCSPort> - specifies the secondary CCS port number running on the secondary machine. Default is 9706.

Following is an example connection string for a clustered deployment with SSL enabled:

jdbc:oraclebi://machine01.domain:9706/PrimaryCCS=machine01;PrimaryCCSPort=9706;SecondaryCCS=machine02;SecondaryCCSPort=9706;user=admin;password=welcome;ssl=true;sslKeystorefilename=c:\mycompany\OracleBI\sslc\javahost.keystore;sslKeystorepassword=welcome;trustanyserver=true;

Use Proxy Authentication - select this box. If you included BI Publisher in your Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition installation, this box will be enabled by default.

Setting Up a Connection to a JNDI Connection Pool

BI Publisher supports connecting to your JDBC data source via a connection pool. Using a connection pool increases efficiency by maintaining a cache of physical connections that can be reused. When a client closes a connection, the connection gets placed back into the pool so that another client can use it. A connection pool improves performance and scalability by allowing multiple clients to share a small number of physical connections. You set up the connection pool in your application server and access it via Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI).

After you set up the connection pool in your application server, enter the required fields in this page so that BI Publisher can utilize the pool to establish connections. For information on setting up a connection pool in OC4J, see the chapter "Data Sources" in the Oracle Containers for J2EE Services Guide 10g.

  1. From the Admin page select JNDI Connection. This will display the list of existing JNDI connections.

  2. Select the Add Data Source button.

  3. Enter the following fields for the new connection:

  4. If you would like to test the connection, select Test Connection. If the test is successful, the confirmation message, "Connection established successfully" will display. If connection error occurs, the message "Could not establish connection," will display.

  5. Define security for this data source. Use the shuttle buttons to move roles from the Available Roles list to the Allowed Roles list. Only users assigned the roles on the Allowed Roles list will be able to create reports from this the data source.

Setting Up a Connection to an OLAP Data Source

BI Publisher supports connecting to several types of OLAP databases. Note that to connect to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services, BI Publisher must be installed on a supported Windows operating system.

  1. From the Admin page select OLAP Connection. This will display the list of existing JNDI connections.

  2. Select the Add Data Source button.

  3. Enter the following fields for the new connection:

  4. If you would like to test the connection, select Test Connection. If the test is successful, the confirmation message, "Connection established successfully" will display. If connection error occurs, the message "Could not establish connection," will display.

  5. Define security for this data source. Use the shuttle buttons to move roles from the Available Roles list to the Allowed Roles list. Only users assigned the roles on the Allowed Roles list will be able to create reports from this the data source.

Setting Up a Connection to a File Data Source

  1. From the Admin page select File. This will display the list of existing file sources.

  2. Select the Add Data Source button.

  3. Enter the following fields for the new data source:

  4. Define security for this data source. Use the shuttle buttons to move roles from the Available Roles list to the Allowed Roles list. Only users assigned the roles on the Allowed Roles list will be able to create reports from this the data source.

Viewing or Updating a Data Source

  1. From the Admin page select the Data Source type to update.

  2. Select the name of the connection to view or update. All fields are updateable.

  3. Select Apply to apply any changes or Cancel to exit the update page.

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