Command line scheduling and deployment

Hi, I've been trying to find out if its possible to the following things with BIRT reports, and iServer Express edition. iServer express is not installed yet, so i can't do trial and error to see if these options are possible, but i need to know for a proof of concept.

1 - command line publish of reports to the iServer, including a parameter file for data connections
2 - schedule of reports on iServer using command line, again with a parameter file. I imagine a scheduling file may also be needed to give dates/times/regularity etc.

Firstly - are these possible?

If so, how would it be done? Please use layman's terms as much as possible as I'm new to this and not hugely technical!

Thanks in advance.

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averma

Hi ayoung,
The answer to both of your questions is yes. Majority of the activities that you could do on the server though an out of the box user interface can be externalized. This can be achieved by leveraging the web services interface that iServer (Express) exposes. Web services are API's (application programming interface) that are accessed over the web (using HTTP) and is a standard way to communicate with application running on remote servers. Using this interface you could write an application that can be invoked though a command line. You can learn more about this service though the following wiki article:
http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/wiki/index.php?title=GSG:Getting_Started_with_Server_Integration_Technology

Here is a link to product documentation regarding this technology:
http://www.birt-exchange.com/be/documentation/Manuals10SP1/using-iserver-integration-tech.pdf

Ashwini Verma

johnw

Yes. If you have a Java or .Net developer handy, they can write a simple app that will make a call to the programming interfaces for IServer to do things like schedule jobs. <a class='bbc_url' href='http://http://digiassn.blogspot.com/2006/10/actuate-program-to-start-cluster-nodes.html'>This article</a> is for starting cluster nodes, but its the same basic idea, it will build a message to send iServer, and Iserver executes it. Of course, its much easier to do now with .Net and Apache Axis. But it will give you the basic idea. 
 
With Windows Powershell that is available for Windows XP and above, you can write your .Net script in that and have it called the same way a batch file is called. If your on a Linux system, any scripting environment, from PERL to Python should be able to do the same thing. 
 
Hope that helps, 
John

ayoung

Thanks for the responses.

I tried sftp of the .rptdesign file to the linux report design directory, however even though i can see it in the directory with the correct permissions, i can't get the GUI to recognize it in the Management console. Is there a way to invoke it somehow?

Thanks

averma

Hi ayoung,
iServer does not accept secure FTP protocol for file transfer to encylopedia so I am not sure about what you did with sftp. A better way to transfer report design file over to encylopedia is use the iServer Explorer plugin that comes with Actuate BIRT Designer Professional(BRD Pro). It presents you a window representing the iServer volume and you can simply drag and drop report designs files to it directly from Project navigator window. To launch this iServer window in BRD Pro, go to menu Window -> Show View -> Other... Expand on "Report Design" and select "iServer Explorer" from here. Once this window launches you can configure a new iServer profile by right clicking on Servers (You will need to provide the hostname and user credentials).

To run the report you can use your browser and point it to http://(hostname:port)/iportal (e.g. http://localhost:8900/iportal). Once you login you can invoke the reports. This user interface is known as Information Console.
Ashwini

al91206

I guess I would put a caveat on this entire discussion. Yes - you can schedule a job, but:

1. It's not easy - at all
2. The example links don't really help that much.
3. We had to use Actuate support simply to enable us to authenticate to iServer express - the example authentication code on the links and examples provided didn't work for us at all
4. If you have security roles implemented - then I believe it's an impossibility if you want to attach the output to the email to users

I would say *most* of the documentation, and help, and support, and documentation are for the standalone version of BIRT without the iServer integration. If you have security roles around reports and on your user accounts unless you add a psuedo-administrator role 'intermediate portal administrator' you simply will not get the attachment.

Good luck if you get it to work - and if you do - can you please post a sample of it?

Thanks!

Al