In this Getting Started Guide we introduced you to the basic features of the iServer Express: securely publishing, running, viewing, and scheduling reports. There is much more to learn, however. In particular, we did not take you through two of the most valuable aspects of iServer Express: Interactive Viewer (covered only at a high level in this guide) and BusinessReport Studio (not covered).
Learn More
We urge you to learn more about BusinessReport Studio and Interactive Viewer. Both of these licensed options for iServer give report consumers the power to self-service their own reporting needs through a browser-based interface, but within an environment that is safe, controlled, and easily managed by IT.
- BusinessReport Studio – a Web browser-based, zero-download product that allows business users to author their own reports based on data definitions and report templates provided by IT. An evaluation guide for BusinessReport Studio is available on birt-exchange.com.
- Interactive Viewer – covered at a high level in this guide, Interactive Viewer allows any report consumer to analyze information in an existing BIRT Report or BusinessReport and even create a personalized report design. Users can re-sort, regroup and add or remove data in order to answer their own business questions.
Beyond BusinessReport Studio and Interactive Viewer, iServer Express has many other powerful features that make it able to handle the most sophisticated report deployment requirements.
Technology Guide
An excellent next step is to read the Technology Guide, a technical overview of the major features and integration points of iServer Express.
Additional Resources
Many resources are available to help you learn more about specific aspects of iServer Express.
- Online Help
- iServer Express has extensive online help, accessible from both the iPortal and Management Console (Help link in the upper right corner of pages). To see the complete set of documentation, click on the "Show Navigation" button in the upper left corner of the help page.
- Product Documentation
- iServer Express product manuals are installed along with the product. You can find them at http://localhost:8900/iportal/help/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm (substitute the proper machine name for "localhost" if iPortal is on another machine.)
- Online Product Manuals
- There are separate sections for e.Spreadsheet and BIRT users. Some iServer Express manuals are available only from iPortal as described above.
- Community Forums
- Learn from the iServer Express community at the Deploying Reports in iPortal or iServer Express forum. (Despite the name, this is a general forum for all iServer Express questions, and is for both BIRT and e.Spreadsheet users.)
- DevShare Resources
- Provides articles, tech-tips, and sample code contributed by the BIRT-Exchange community.
- Server Integration Technology
- A package of examples that show how to integrate iServer Express into your application using the iServer Express APIs.
Features Not Covered
To keep this guide short and quick, many powerful iServer Express features were omitted. Keep the following in mind as you explore iServer Express; you can come back to this list later for an overview of the extended functionality of iServer Express.
End-User Functionality in iPortal
- Sharing reports and report documents with other usersUsing all the features of the Interactive Viewer.
- Saving a personalized view of a report (modified using the Interactive Viewer) to iServer for use with future report runs.
- Using BusinessReport Studio to create reports from scratch, using an Information Objects.
- Using BusinessReport Studio to modify an existing BusinessReport.
- Setting personal email notification preferences
- Using channels to “push” reports to other users.
- Subscribing to channels, email subscriptions.
- Personalizing the appearance of the iPortal user interface by selecting from available skins and views.
- Using e.Spreadsheet view-time parameters.
- Using the e.Spreadsheet SmartSheet Security Option.
End-User Functionality in Management Console
Management Console is not just for administrators. Advanced end users can also use it to access the more advanced end-user functionality in the list below, without being able to access Management’s Console’s administrative functionality.
- Setting up time-based job schedules that run more frequently than once a day, or on a custom schedule.
- Setting up event-based scheduling.
- Saving favorite parameter values for a report in a Parameter Values File, and using it to run or schedule reports.
- Publishing or uploading their own reports to iServer.
- Setting privileges to allow other users to access their reports and report documents.
- Creating jobs to send email notifications to other users besides himself.
- Creating event-based job schedules.
Administrator Functionality in Management Console
- Performing system-wide job queue management: killing and restarting user jobs, etc.
- Creating and managing hierarchies of security roles.
- Creating and managing email notification groups.
- Setting up automatic archiving and purging of old report documents.
- Setting up and kicking off “online backup” of the report repository.
- Setting up server-side printing.
- Administering channels.
- Creating and deploying Information Objects that can be used by BusinessReports.
System Configuration
- Using the Configuration Console to set up email notification, logging, and network settings.
- Using the Configuration Console to upgrade from a limited-time trial license to a full production license without reinstalling.
- Customizing iPortal skins – logo, color, font customization.
- Creating “user functionality levels” in iPortal that can hide advanced features from novice users while allowing advanced users access. Assigning end users to functionality levels.
- Customizing the iPortal JSP pages.
Integration with Other Applications
- Security integration with LDAP or single sign-on solutions.
- Setting up iServer as a SOA provider of “Report Services” using its comprehensive Web services interface.
- Integrating using the URL interface to iServer.
iServer Express
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