In this lesson you will publish (upload) reports to iServer Express so that iServer Express users can run your report.
This lesson demonstrates how to publish reports using three different tools:
- Management Console
- Actuate BIRT Report Designer
- e.Spreadsheet Design
Publish Reports using Management Console
Publishing a report means to copy a file to the iServer Express and make it available to users. For BIRT reports, this means uploading a BIRT report design to iServer. For e.Spreadsheets, it means uploading a SOX file. To do this, you use the iServer Express Management Console to upload the report files from the local file system.
Let's try this with a sample report. You can use your own report, or one of the Actuate sample reports.
- If you have the BIRT Report Designer installed, you can find a sample report at C:\Program Files\Actuate9\BRDPro\Desktop Application DSK\ReportEngine\samples\hello_world.rptdesign.
- If you have the Actuate e.Spreadsheet Report Designer installed, you can find sample reports in the Tutorials folders under C:\Program Files\Actuate9\espreadsheet\examples\.
Let's get started:
- Log into the Management Console for iServer as the Administrator user (login page is at http://<MACHINENAME>:8900/acadmin/).
After logging in you’ll be on the Files/Folders listing page.
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Let's add a BIRT report to this folder.
- Click on the Add File button.
- For File, click the Browse button and locate your RPTDESIGN on the local file system.
- For now, leave the “If the file already exists” setting to “Create a new version.”
- Click the Upload button.
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A properties page now appears for the report you are uploading. On the General tab you can change the name of the file as it appears to users of the iServer Express, as well as give a description. On the Privileges tab, you can specify which users and roles can access the file. The Dependencies and Auto Archive tabs are for more advanced properties and are not covered in this guide. You can learn about them in the product manuals and online help.
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- On the General tab in the Description field, enter a description for the report. Then click OK.
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The Files & Folders listing will reappear and will now include your newly uploaded report.
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You can now run the report.
Publish Reports using the Actuate BIRT Report Designer
If you use Actuate BIRT Report Designer, you can publish BIRT report designs to iServer Express directly from the Actuate BIRT Report Designer with just a few mouse clicks. This method is usually much faster than the Management Console method.
Configure the Actuate BIRT Report Designer
To use one-click publishing, you first have to set up an iServer Profile within the Actuate BIRT Report Designer. The profile will contain all your typical settings for the reports you publish. This way, you don’t have to specify the settings every single time you publish a report.
- In the Actuate BIRT Report Designer, define a new iServer Profile by clicking on the “Servers” tab in the lower pane. Select New iServer Profile.
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The “New iServer Profile” dialog pops up.
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Fill in the properties as follows:
- Profile — enter a descriptive name, perhaps the name of the iServer machine.
- iServer — enter the hostname for the machine where iServer Express is installed. In the screenshot above the machine is named edl02709. Your machine name will be different.
- Port number — If you installed iServer using default port settings, leave this set to 8000.
- User name and Password - enter iServer username for the report developer.
- iPortal Server — enter the same hostname as you did for iServer.
- iPortal Port — if you accepted iServer using default port settings, set this to 8900.
- Context Path — leave this set to /iportal.
- Click the Finish button.
In the lower pane on the Servers tab, Actuate BIRT now displays the new iServer profile. This profile will now be available whenever you use the BIRT Report Designer.
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Publish a Report
- Open a report design in the Actuate BIRT Report Designer.
- On the toolbar, click on the Publish Report icon, and select Publish Report to iServer…
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The Publish Report Designs dialog pops up.
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- Under “Select Project files”, select the project files you want to publish.
- Under “Specify the Encyclopedia volume and directory” section, from the “iServer profile:” drop-down list box select the name of the iServer profile you just set up.
- For “Publish Location” either enter the name of the folder on iServer where you want to publish the report or click the “Browse…” button to navigate through iServer folders.
- If you want, specify other publishing properties, such as whether a new version of the report should be created and if the access permissions should be copied from the last version.
- Click Publish Files.
A dialog box appears to show whether publishing was successful:
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Log into the iPortal or the Management Console, and you'll see your newly published report.
Publish Reports Using e.Spreadsheet Designer
You can publish e.Spreadsheet reports to iServer Express directly from the Actuate e.Spreadsheet Report Designer.
Configure e.Spreadsheet Designer
First you must set up an iServer Profile within the Actuate e.Spreadsheet Designer. The profile contains your typical settings for the reports you publish. This way, you don’t have to specify the settings each time you publish a report.
- In the Actuate e.Spreadsheet Report Designer, define a new iServer Profile by selecting File → Publish Report.
You will be prompted to save your report design if it hasn’t been saved yet and then the “Publish and Preview” dialog will be displayed:
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The “New iServer Profile” dialog opens.
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Fill in the properties:
- Profile name — enter a name of your choosing.
- Application server — enter the hostname for the machine where iServer is installed.
- (Application server) Port — if you installed iServer using the default port settings, leave this set to 8900.
- Context path — leave this set to /acadmin.
- iServer — enter the hostname for the machine where iServer is installed.
- (iServer) Port — if you installed iServer using default port settings, leave this set to 8000
- Volume name — enter the same hostname as you did for iServer
- User name and password — enter the iServer username and password for the report developer. Since we have not yet created any users, you can use Administator with the password you created earlier.
- Destination folder — enter the folder into which you want to upload the report. Leave the default “~” to upload to the current user’s home folder on the iServer.
You can test the settings to ensure they are correct.
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Publish a Report
Now you are ready to publish a report.
- Open a report design in the Actuate e.Spreadsheet Report Designer.
- Go to File menu on the toolbar and select “Publish Report…”. The “Publish and Preview Options” dialog will pop up.
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- Profile name — select the name of the iServer profile (MyProfile) you just created.
- Destination folder — defaults to the folder set in the iServer profile. If you want, overwrite this value by clicking on the “…” button to browse and select a new destination iServer folder.
- Version option — specifies how to handle the case where a report of the same name already exists on the server. Leave this at the default values for now.
- Click OK to publish the report.
A dialog box appears to confirm that publishing suceeded.
- Log into iPortal or the Management Console to see your newly published report.
Learn More
The following product manuals at http://www.birt-exchange.com/modules/documentation/ also provide more information.
- If you are a BIRT user: BIRT Deployment → iServer Express Report Server → Using Actuate iServer Express →, or
- If you are an e.Spreadsheet user: Spreadsheet Automation → iServer Express Report Server → Using Actuate iServer Express →
- Using the Management Console
- Managing files and folders
- iPortal → Using the Actuate BIRT Report Option (HTML) → Deploying BIRT Reports to Actuate iPortal and iServer
The same documentation is available in your iServer Express install:
You can also simply click on the Help link on each of the iPortal pages to get help with that specific page.
iServer Express
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