Creating a new Web Intelligence document using OpenDocument (requires an existing document?)

[Former Member]

We use the OpenDocument interface to embed the Web Intelligence viewer in our web application.  One of the problems we're having is that the code appears to require a valid document ID, even if all you want to do is create a new document (passing the noDocument=true flag, so that the application opens with no document at all).

I've tried various permutations of the following, with no success, always getting this error message (An error occurred: Could not find the document)

E.g:

http://bo-server:8080/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?noDocument=true...

http://bo-server:8080/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?noDocument=true&iDocID=...

http://bo-server:8080/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?noDocument=true&iDocID=-1...

http://bo-server:8080/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?noDocument=true&iDocID=0...

http://bo-server:8080/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?noDocument=true&sDocName=...

http://bo-server:8080/BOE/OpenDocument/opendoc/openDocument.jsp?noDocument=true&sDocName=new...

It appears the only way to get OpenDocument to allow you to do this is to use an existing WebI document ID.  That is to say you can't create a new document unless you already have an existing document to include in the call to the JSP.

This limitation appears to be artificial and only on the OpenDocument interface -- You can create new documents in Launchpad without having an already existing document to point to.  Documenting the workaround for this, having people installing the product first make a webi and save it, then configuring it so it has read-only permissions (so it doesn't accidentally get deleted), then configuring our application to lookup the ID isn't the most elegant of experiences.

I was wondering if anyone had run into this before and/or if anyone at SAP could look into it?  I'm hoping it's an easy limitation/bug to fix.

This limitation affects 4.1 SP4 and probably older versions of the OpenDocument interface.  See also:

Embedding Java Webi Report Panel in Custom Application - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - S...

Thanks!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

There is a feature request to request addressing this limitation here.  If you're interested, please vote it up!

OpenDocument "New Report" feature from a Universe Identifier : View Idea