Integration seems easier w/o iServer

We're near the end of our evaluation of BIRT and iServer Express and from what I can see there is more documentation on integrating BIRT reports directly to your applications w/o the use of iServer. 
 
We were under the impression that iServer would make integration and user management easier to integrate with our PHP web code and user tables, but that doesn't seem to be the case. 
 
It's slightly frustrating since we like the layout of the portal. 
 
I found the following articles on integrating BIRT directly into PHP: 
 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.theserverside.com/tt/articles/article.tss?l=IntegratingBIRTwithPHP'>Enterprise Java Community: Integrating BIRT with PHP</a> 
 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/devshare/deploying-birt-reports/743-calling-birt-from-php/#comments'>Calling BIRT From PHP - Designs & Code - BIRT Exchange</a> 
 
Where is the documentation like this for iServer? We would love to get this to work in our environment using iServer.

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rmurphy

What type of integration are you looking to do? The iServer and recently the iServer Express are quite capable of being integrated with applicaitons. 
 
All of Actuate's BIRT viewer technology can be integrated into existing web applications using the JavaScript API (JSAPI). This API allows you to embed powerful client side JavaScript into applications to pull in BIRT report content. This API offers a very flexible and secure approach to integrating report content with applications in an extremely quick manner. You can read more about the JSAPI here: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/wiki/GSG:Getting_Started_with_BIRT_JavaScript_API/'>GSG:Getting Started with BIRT JavaScript API - BIRT Wiki - BIRT Exchange</a> 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/Manuals10/programming-jsapi.pdf'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/Manuals10/programming-jsapi.pdf</a> 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/JavaComponents10/JSAPI-JSdoc/index.html'>JsDoc Reference - Index</a> 
 
From an applicaiton security perspective, iServer offers two extension points. The first is known as an iPortal Security Adapter which allows you to integrate the iServer's web UI with your applications single-sign-on mechanism. The the other is the Report Server Security Extension and allows you to externalize the user authentication and/or user authorization. The following resources exist to help in this area: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/wiki/GSG:Getting_Started_with_Server_Integration_Technology/'>GSG:Getting Started with Server Integration Technology - BIRT Wiki - BIRT Exchange</a> 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/wiki/Report_Server_Security_Extention/'>Report Server Security Extention - BIRT Wiki - BIRT Exchange</a> 
 
 
The iSever is also offers a services oriented architecture. All of the iServer functionality ia exposed as a set of web services. The web services API is also known as the "Informaiton Delivery API" or IDAPI. More information about the IDAPI can be found in the following resources: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/wiki/Web_Services_Example/'>Web Services Example - BIRT Wiki - BIRT Exchange</a> 
 
 
The iServer (Express) also allows offers several other integtration options such as usage logging, archving, etc. You can find more information about these extension points in the following documentations: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/Manuals10/using-iserver-integration-tech.pdf'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/Manuals10/using-iserver-integration-tech.pdf</a> 
 
Please let us know if you have specific questions about integrating BIRT with your applicaiton. 
 
Rob

al91206

Actually our needs are pretty simple. 
 
We have PHP web code (menu system) and all we would like to do is provide a link to the reports and single-sign on. We don't need (at the moment) to customize the appearance of the portal or anything like that. 
 
Here is a link to a previous post: 
 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/forum/deploying-birt-reports-deployment-kit-iserver-express/14319-php-based-web-code-need-link-iserver-login-page.html'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/forum/deploying-birt-reports-deployment-kit-iserver-express/14319-php-based-web-code-need-link-iserver-login-page.html</a> 
 
Here is a quick summary. 
 
1. We use PHP files for links. We are running Apache on port 80. The problem is that when we put the link to our iserver - the :8900 is being dropped. 
 
Here is the contents of the php file: readfile(http://<localhost>:8900/iportal) 
 
2. Users have to log in to our application. We store the user information in a table on our informix database. We would like to incorporate single-sign-on for that. It is not LDAP-compliant however. 
 
This is what we'd like to accomplish and any help on either or both these topics would really help us out. In the meantime I will check the links you provided. 
 
Thanks! 
 
Al

averma

Hi Al: 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="al91206">Actually our needs are pretty simple. 
1. We use PHP files for links. We are running Apache on port 80. The problem is that when we put the link to our iserver - the :8900 is being dropped. 
 
Here is the contents of the php file: readfile(http://<localhost>:8900/iportal)</blockquote>
Have you tried using the Header function as I had recommended in my post: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/forum/deploying-birt-reports-deployment-kit-iserver-express/14319-php-based-web-code-need-link-iserver-login-page.html#post45262'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/forum/deploying-birt-reports-deployment-kit-iserver-express/14319-php-based-web-code-need-link-iserver-login-page.html#post45262</a> 
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' >2. Users have to log in to our application. We store the user information in a table on our informix database. We would like to incorporate single-sign-on for that. It is not LDAP-compliant however.</blockquote>
iServer (Express) does not require your authentication system to be LDAP compliant. You can implement single sign on by implementing your own IPSE (security extension) described in chapter 8 of the following document: 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/Manuals10/creating-custom-deployment-kit-apps.pdf'>http://www.birt-exchange.com/documentation/Manuals10/creating-custom-deployment-kit-apps.pdf</a> 
 
If you would like to externalize the authentication (user accounts stored outside of iServer (Express)) you will also need to implement an RSSE (a web service). To see the wsdl associated for RSSE visit the following link on the machine that is running iServer (Express): 
<a class='bbc_url' href='http://localhost:8000/wsdl'>http://localhost:8000/wsdl</a> 
Hope this helps. 
 
AV

al91206

The header function worked - although we lost our custom menu - but that is ok for now. I'm glad this worked out.

We're now investigating the single sign-on documentation you mentioned.

I'll reply back w/ our results.

Thanks again,

Al