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BI Launchpad & XI vs Web Services SDK - BusinessObjects 4.x

Former Member
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Hello,

I am new to using the .NET SDK and have noticed that there are two different versions that do similar things. I am looking to add functionality into my company's .NET-based website where we can add BO users on the fly into preset groups. I noticed that this administrative functionality is available with the XI .NET SDK (CrystalDecisions,etc) but it is not available with the Web Services SDK (BusinessObjects.DSWS,etc). Is this something that can be done with the Web Services SDK? If not, is it a good practice to use the XI SDK for Web Applications?

I am also looking to log into the BI Launchpad programmatically so user's do not see the login screen. I have tried logging the user into BO using the Web Services SDK and saving the proper information into cookies that are created when one logs into the BI Launchpad. While I created all the proper cookies, when I navigate to the webpage with the embedded Launchpad it will not recognize these cookies, prompt for login credentials, and overwrite them if I log in. I set the property allowInsecureToken=true in BILaunchpad.properties so I can at least work with it in an IFrame. Is this a good way to go about this task? If not, is there a better way?

I have been working on this for a week or two and read a lot of articles, viewed samples, experimented with code, etc. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dustin

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

DellSC
Active Contributor
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If you're going to use the .NET SDK, you'll need to use the same version as the BO system that you're connecting to - the XI version of the SDK is really old and won't connect to the 4.x versions of BO.

I have used the .NET SDK to do the user management tasks with a number of my clients.  However, they don't necessarily access the SDK directly from the web app.  While one client did this directly from their application, another client had an extensive batch processing system and they would schedule a user update job, passing in the parameters needed to add/update/delete the user.  Yet another client wrapped all of their BO-related code in a web service and called that to do the user management (among many other things.)   So, I believe that you could definitely do this directly from your application.

For the login, is the URL you're using in the same domain as the application?  If not, that could be one reason why you're seeing this problem.  If it is, have you looked at the Administrators Guide and the information about configuring for Single-Sign-On?  There are a number of settings in config files for the BO website that are required in order to get this working.

-Dell

Former Member
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Thanks for your reply.

Perhaps I am muddying up the terms but I believe I am using the same version. The path where I find the dlls that contain CrystalDecisions.Enterprise.* is as follows:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win32_x86\dotnet\iPoint

Unless I am mistaken in thinking they wouldn't package old libraries with newer versions.


I have used the .NET SDK to do the user management tasks with a number of my clients.  However, they don't necessarily access the SDK directly from the web app.  While one client did this directly from their application, another client had an extensive batch processing system and they would schedule a user update job, passing in the parameters needed to add/update/delete the user.  Yet another client wrapped all of their BO-related code in a web service and called that to do the user management (among many other things.)   So, I believe that you could definitely do this directly from your application.

According to the documentation I have found, it looks like the BIPlatform portion of the sdk is the closest section to this, though it has differing functions between the Web Services SDK and the other one I discussed. The web services documentation does not talk about anything related to user management. Do you have any links that would go into more depth regarding the specifics of implementing this functionality?

I will look into adding single sign on for this.

Thanks again!

DellSC
Active Contributor
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AFAIK, the web services do not have any user management in them - they're primarily for use when rolling your own user interface instead of using BI Launchpad.

I have a basic SDK functionality sample program on my website:  www.dellstinnett.com/sample_code.html - look for "BI 4.0 fp3, Visual Studio 2010" under ".NET SDK Tutorials.

For user management samples, you can go here:  and search for the word "User".  Most of the samples are for earlier versions of the SDK, but very little has changed.  The main things you have to do to upgrade the code are:

1.  Be sure to use the full .NET Framework, not one of the "Client" frameworks.

2.  If you're using .NET 4.0 or higher, the CrystalDecisions references have a new property called "Embed Interop Types" - this MUST be set to "false".

If you can't find what you're looking for, post back here with your exact requirement.  I might be able to come up with some sample code that will get you started.

-Dell

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