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Installing and Administering
BMC Remedy Mid Tier
May 2006
Part No: 58485
Copyright 1991–2006 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Contacting Us
If you need technical support for this product, contact Customer Support by email at
support@remedy.com. If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact
Information Development by email at doc_feedback@bmc.com.
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
AR System documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Learn about the AR System Developer Community . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Why should you participate in the Developer Community? . . . . . . . . 12
How do you access the Developer Community? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Contents 3
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
4 Contents
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
Chapter 7 Working with AR System forms and applications on the Web . . 113
What users see in a form in a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Working with View options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Showing or hiding the web toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Editing web header and footer content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Working with form action fields for the web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Browser settings for scripting and ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Configuring page properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Managing resource files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Accessing forms and applications with URLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Opening forms and applications from a Home Page . . . . . . . . . . 128
URLs for opening forms and applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Accessing support files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Specifying parameters in URLs for direct access . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Passing data to a field in a URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Creating URLs for login and logout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Working with the Mid Tier Object List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Creating customized login pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Contents 5
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
6 Contents
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
Chapter 10 Configuring the mid tier to run reports on the Web . . . . . . . 185
Reporting on AR System data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Web reporting components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Steps required to enable web reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Overview of the Crystal Reports and BusinessObjects software . . . . . . . 189
Understanding the ARWebReportViewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Configuring web server settings for Crystal reports . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Crystal Enterprise 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI (Managed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Crystal Reports Server XI (Unmanaged) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Configuring the mid tier for Crystal reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Contents 7
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
8 Contents
Preface
Audience
This guide is written for administrators who are responsible for setting up
and maintaining web services, web reporting, and web applications built on
the BMC® Remedy® Action Request System®® (AR System®). It is intended
to aid new and current administrators of AR System. If you are a current
AR System administrator, this guide enhances the ease of use and
performance of your AR System environment. If you are a new AR System
administrator, this guide helps you create an effective and efficient
AR System environment.
You must know how to use AR System, including BMC Remedy
Administrator, BMC Remedy User, and BMC Remedy Import.
Preface 9
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
AR System documents
The following table lists documentation available for AR System products.
Unless otherwise noted, online documentation in Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
format is available on AR System product installation CDs, on the Customer
Support site (supportweb.remedy.com), or both.
You can access product Help through each product’s Help menu or by
clicking on Help links.
10 Preface
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
AR System documents 11
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
12 Preface
Chapter
Before you install BMC Remedy Mid Tier, you should read the Release Notes,
and then you must complete basic preinstallation steps.
The following topics are provided:
Overview (page 14)
Important documentation to review (page 16)
Before you install (page 16)
Installing components and patches for the mid tier (page 17)
UNIX—Filling in the worksheet for installing the mid tier (page 26)
Windows—Filling in the worksheet for installing the mid tier (page 30)
Overview
BMC Remedy Mid Tier enables users to access AR System forms and
applications through browsers.
The mid tier resides on the system running the JSP (servlet) engine.
Depending on your configuration, you might install multiple mid tiers for
additional scalability.
Using the BMC Remedy Mid Tier Configuration Tool, you can configure the
mid tier and the AR System servers that communicate with the mid tier. This
tool is installed with the mid tier.
File Location
Executables <mt_install_dir>
Javascript <mt_install_dir>\resources
Overview 15
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Tip: On UNIX, install the SDK into the /usr/java directory. If you install the
SDK into another directory, and then you install ServletExec, you might
need to make manual changes to your ServletExec configuration after the
installation.
Web server
Browser
AR System server
The AR System server can be installed locally, but the mid tier is typically
installed on a separate computer with network access to the server.
One of the following reporting tools (if you will be running Crystal
reports on the Web):
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI (recommended)
Crystal Reports Server XI
Crystal Enterprise 10 and the Crystal Web Component Server
Crystal Web Component Server (which requires advance
configuration) is available from http://www.businessobjects.com/.
If this server is installed remotely, you will need to share the mid tier
installation directory with the remote Crystal server, specifying the full
path to this directory. Make a note of this directory path if you will
access Crystal Web Component Server over a network.
For more information, see Chapter 10, “Configuring the mid tier to run
reports on the Web.”
Note: You must install Crystal Reports on Windows to run reports using the
AR System ODBC driver. For UNIX platforms, see Appendix A,
“Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms.”
2 If the Sun One web server is already installed, change the Sun administrative
server and web server ports:
a Stop the Sun One web server admin server.
b Change the default Administrative server port number on the Port line
from 8888 to another number in the <sun_web_server_install_dir>/
https-adminserv/config/server.xml file.
c Refresh the Web Server Administration Server page after you make
changes, and if you are prompted to load configurations, do so.
d Restart the Sun One web server.
If you do not follow these guidelines, your web server might become
corrupted.
3 Obtain write privileges to the Sun One obj.conf configuration file.
The installer needs write privileges to:
Configure the reports and attachments features.
Install the JSP engine as a plug-in.
For information about the obj.conf file, see the ServletExec User Guide,
installed with ServletExec (<ServletExec_install_dir>/Documentation by
default), or from the ServletExec website at http://www.servletexec.com.
4 Obtain root permissions to your computer.
5 Obtain the Sun One web server user name, password, and administration
server port number
The user name, password, and port number are necessary to access the Sun
administration web server. These parameters are established when the Sun
One web server is installed.
6 If you have an existing ServletExec 5.0 directory, remove it before installing
ServletExec 5.0.
Alternatively, you can rename your existing directory and install ServletExec
5.0 into another directory.
7 Disable Java for the Sun One web server and deactivate the Sun One web
server servlet engine.
See “Disabling the Sun One web server and internal Java” on page 22 for
instructions.
4 Enter or verify that the compiler and link-editor specified by $CFG_CC and
$CFG_LD_SHLIB in the apxs script are in the PATH environment variable.
6 To minimize security exposure, include umask 077 in the web server start
sequence.
Using umask 077 makes sure that files created by the web server processes will
be owned and only usable by the user who runs that web server.
To prepare a Sun One web server before installing the mid tier
1 Obtain local Windows Administrator account privileges for the Web server
computer. You must be able to change registry entries. Otherwise, the
Mid Tier Configuration Tool that is installed with the mid tier will not save
changes.
c Refresh the Web Server Administration Server page after you make
changes, and if you are prompted to load configurations, do so.
d Restart the Sun One web server.
If you do not follow these guidelines, your web server might become
corrupted.
4 Disable Java for the Sun One web server and deactivate the Sun One web
server servlet engine.
See “Disabling the Sun One web server and internal Java” on page 22 for
instructions.
WARNING: Stop the Sun One web server before you make any changes to the
configuration. In addition, after you make changes, refresh the Web
Server Administration Server page, and if you are prompted to load
configurations, do so. If you do not follow these guidelines, your web
server could become corrupted.
To disable the Sun One web server JSP and Servlet engine
1 If it is not installed, install the Sun One web server using the typical option.
2 Open the administration page at http://<host_name>:<port_number>.
For example, go to http://myserver.mydomain.com:8050.
The Manager Servers screen appears. Your server should be listed in the
Select a Server field.
3 If you have two or more web servers, choose the target web server in the list.
4 Click Manage.
If you are prompted to load configurations, do so.
The Server On/Off screen appears.
5 If the server is on, click Server Off.
A message appears, stating that the server has been shut down.
6 Click OK to dismiss the message.
i Click OK.
5 Start the IIS Admin Service service.
6 In the IIS Manager, make sure that the Default Web Site and the
DefaultAppPool is started.
Note: You must install the mid tier into its own top-level directory and not
in a subdirectory of another AR System component. For example, do not
install the mid tier into the same directory as BMC Remedy
Administrator. Both the mid tier directory and the BMC Remedy
Administrator directory should be installed in the top-level AR System
directory.
ServletExec information
If you plan to install ServletExec 5.0, fill in your values on the following blank
lines, and use your values with the installation instructions.
Server information
AR System server
Server #1: ____________________
Server #2: ____________________ (Optional)
Name of the AR System server to which the mid tier will connect
(required).
You must specify at least one AR System server. You can make further
changes after you install.
If you identify two or more preference servers, separate each entry with a
comma but no space, for example: server1,server2,server3. . .
Port: ___________________________________________________
TCP port number for the AR System server that the mid tier connects to.
If your AR System server is not configured to run on a specific port, leave
this field empty.
If your server is running on a specific port, you can still have the server
registered with portmapper. For more information about portmappers,
see the Installing guide.
Note: You must install the mid tier into its own top-level directory.
If you plan to install ServletExec 5.0 after you install the mid tier, fill in your
values on the following blank lines, and use your values with the installation
instructions.
Password: ______________________________________________
Password corresponding to the user name. You designate this password
during installation.
Installing BMC Remedy Mid Tier on UNIX requires specific steps, which are
different from Windows installations. The following topics are provided:
Accessing the software (page 34)
UNIX—Installing the BMC Remedy Mid Tier (page 35)
After you install the mid tier, see Chapter 4, “After the installation,” and
Chapter 5, “Configuring the mid tier,” to complete the installation and
configuration process.
Note: Read the Release Notes before you perform the steps in this section.
Proceed to the next section, “UNIX—Installing the BMC Remedy Mid Tier.”
Tip: If you have a specific configuration to install (such as Apache 2.x and
Tomcat 5.x using JK Connectors), see the 7.0 white papers on the Support
website for specific installation steps.
5 At the prompt asking to install the mid tier, press ENTER to continue with
the installation.
A record of the installation is preserved in /usr/tmp/mt_install.log.
6 At the product directory prompt, enter the name of the directory where the
CD is mounted and where the midtier.tar file is located, or press ENTER to
accept the default.
7 At the licensing prompt, complete one of the following steps:
Press ENTER to view the entire licensing agreement.
Enter 1 to accept the licensing agreement, 2 to reject the agreement, or 3
to re-read the agreement.
The script displays:
Disk space information and requirements
AR System product and copyright information
Your UNIX version information
Space requirements for mid tier installation
Note: Make sure you have the correct space requirements on your system.
O for other
A supported web server is required to install the mid tier. If you do not
have a supported web server installed, terminate the installation and
install one.
b Enter the web server installation directory, for example:
/usr/local/<web_server>
12 At the JSP engine prompt, perform one of the following set of steps:
To install the JSP engine (ServletExec) provided with the mid tier:
a Enter N if you do not have a JSP engine installed.
The installer prompts you to install ServletExec.
b Enter Y to install ServletExec. Go to step 13.
Note: When you are installing ServletExec with the UNIX mid tier on the Sun
One web server, the ServletExec installer lists options for web servers that
the BMC Remedy Mid Tier does not support. This is a non-BMC issue.
See the product compatibility matrix on the BMC Remedy support site for
supported Sun One web servers.
Enter the full paths to the JBOSS deployment directory and startup
script. The installer starts the JBOSS service if it is not running.
O for another JSP engine
13 At the mid tier installation directory prompt, enter and confirm the path to
the mid tier installation directory.
Note: You must install the mid tier in a separate directory under the top-level
AR System directory and not in a subdirectory of another AR System
component. For example, do not install the mid tier into the same
directory as the AR System server. If you install the mid tier into the same
directory as another component, the web server might access the wrong
.jar files.
After you enter the mid tier install directory, mid tier files are installed. For
information about where the files are located, see “BMC Remedy Mid Tier
file locations” on page 15 The following lines are an example from the
display:
Extracting files, please wait.
x ./images, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x ./images/bkgdImage.gif, 16751 bytes, 33 tape blocks
x ./images/blackdot.gif, 35 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x ./images/diaryExpand.gif, 188 bytes, 1 tape blocks
. . .
If you choose N, you must configure your web server after installation, if
applicable. See “Postinstallation tasks” on page 58.
16 Web-server adaptor—Do not choose this option.
17 For upgrades only: If you have existing mid tier configurations (for example,
if you have already designated port numbers, preference servers, or
AR System servers), perform one of the following actions at the upgrade
configuration prompt:
a Enter Y to keep the existing configurations. If you select this option, you
will still be able to add AR System servers and preference servers.
b Enter N to reconfigure your current setup.
Go to the next step.
18 At the AR System server prompt, enter the name of the AR System server to
which the mid tier will connect (required).
The mid tier requires at least one AR System server to connect users to
AR System. You can enter or modify servers in the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
Configuration Tool after installation.
19 At the AR System server port prompts:
a Enter the port number (TCP port) for the AR System server you chose in
step 18 if you designated a port number during the server installation
(optional).
If you did not assign a port number, press ENTER to accept the default
port.
b Enter the RPC port number for the AR System server you chose in step 18
if you designated an RPC port number during the server installation.
c Enter the names and port numbers for other AR System servers (optional)
or type N to go to the next step.
20 Enter Mid Tier Administrator Password for the AR System server on which
you are installing the mid tier.
This password must match the password set in the Server Information dialog
box in BMC Remedy Administrator. If you are running AR System 7.0, this
password is required.
The following message appears:
AR Servers are: <your entries>
21 (Optional) At the preference server selection prompt, enter and confirm the
number that corresponds to the preference server you chose during the
AR System server installation.
Preference servers must be AR System servers. You do not have to specify a
preference server now. You can specify preference servers after installation
using the Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
Enter N to skip this step.
22 (Optional) At the home page server prompt, enter and confirm the number
that corresponds to the home page server you chose during the AR System
server installation.
Enter N to skip this step.
The installation is complete.
23 Restart the web server. If you are upgrading your mid tier installation, stop
and restart ServletExec.
24 Complete the steps described in “Postinstallation tasks” on page 58.
Installing BMC Remedy Mid Tier on Windows requires specific steps. The
following topics are provided:
Accessing the BMC Remedy Mid Tier software (page 42)
Windows—Installing BMC Remedy Mid Tier and ServletExec (page 43)
Completing the installation (page 55)
Installing ARWebReportViewer separately (page 55)
After you install the mid tier, see Chapter 4, “After the installation,” and
Chapter 5, “Configuring the mid tier,” to complete the installation and
configuration process.
Note: Read the Release Notes before you perform the steps in this section.
Note: The BMC Remedy Mid Tier software is included in the AR System CD
or HTTP download.
Tip: If you have a specific configuration to install (such as Apache 2.x and
Tomcat 5.x using JK Connectors), see the 7.0 white papers on the Support
website for specific installation steps.
If you want to use another JSP engine, see the compatibility matrix at http:/
/supportweb.remedy.com.
6 Start the installer as described in “Accessing the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
software” on page 42.
7 If you are performing a new installation, in the Choose Setup Language dialog
box, choose a language for the installation, and click OK.
If you are reinstalling, click Yes in the dialog box to reinstall the mid tier.
The Welcome screen appears.
8 Click Next.
The licensing screen appears.
9 Read the agreement, choose I Agree, and click Next.
The Select Features screen appears.
12 Select the web server that the mid tier will use, and click Next.
The Select JSP Engine screen appears.
Note: If you are using a pre-5.0 ServletExec engine, an error message appears.
Stop the installation, uninstall the previous version, and begin the mid tier
installation again.
14 To select an AR System server that the mid tier will connect to, choose one of
the following options:
Select an existing server from the list and click Next.
To add a new server to the list, click Add to open the AR Server Properties
dialog box.
Identify the servers by the host name, or the server name specified when
the AR System server was installed. If you are not using a portmapper,
specify the port numbers. Then, click OK.
To change existing port information for a listed server, click Modify in the
AR Server Properties window. Then, click OK.
To delete a server from the list, click Remove.
Enter the Mid Tier Administrator password for that server.
This password must match the password set in the Server Information
dialog box in BMC Remedy Administrator. If you are running AR System
7.0, this password is required.
Tip: Use the BMC Remedy Mid Tier Configuration Tool to add, remove, or
modify servers after installation.
15 Click Next.
The Preferences Servers screen appears.
16 Enter or select the specific types of servers that the mid tier will connect to.
If you have previously configured preference, home page, or data
visualization module servers, enter the names of each server in the
appropriate field. Servers entered here will appear in the Mid Tier
Configuration Tool, and will be available to the mid tier. If you have not
configured servers for these purposes, leave the fields blank.
If you specify servers during the mid tier installation, you do not need to
set up these server connections in the Mid Tier Configuration Tool after
installation. If you do not specify these servers during the mid tier
installation, you can use the Mid Tier Configuration Tool to do so after
installation.
To identify multiple preference servers, enter the server names separated
by commas. For example, enter: server1,server2,server3.
If you enter an AR System server here, that server must also be entered in
the Server Properties screen.
If the local computer is not a preference, home page, or report server,
remove the local computer name from the fields.
17 Click Next.
If you have Crystal Enterprise 10, Crystal Reports Server XI, or
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI installed, go to step 18.
If you do not have Crystal Reports installed, click Next and go to step 21.
18 Enter the Crystal Enterprise 10 Location, or enter the BusinessObjects
Enterprise XI (or Crystal Reports Server XI) Location (http://
<server>:<port>) in the Crystal Reports Information screen, and click Next.
If you are using both versions, enter the correct location in each field, but
the Crystal Enterprise 10 Location field will take precedence.
If you selected the AR Crystal Web Application option at the beginning of the
installation, the Crystal Management Server screen appears.
20 Click Next.
The Choose Destination Folder screen appears.
Note: Install the mid tier into its own separate, top-level directory. For
example, do not install the mid tier into the AR System directory. One mid
tier can service multiple AR System servers.
22 Select the program directory that will display the mid tier program icon.
The Summary screen appears.
23 Click Next, or click Back to review your choices and then click Next.
If you chose ServletExec as your JSP engine, the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
Setup dialog box appears. Go to the next section.
If you chose another JSP engine, the installer begins to install mid tier files.
Go to “Completing the installation” on page 55.
Installing ServletExec
This section describes how to install ServletExec. Skip this section if you are
using another JSP engine and you did not select ServletExec in the Select JSP
Engine screen in step 13 on page 46.
To install ServletExec
1 If you chose ServletExec as your JSP engine and you do not have a compatible
version installed, click Yes in the BMC Remedy Mid Tier Setup dialog box to
begin the ServletExec installation.
If you chose ServletExec as your JSP engine and you have a compatible
version already installed, go to “Completing the installation” on page 55.
2 If you are using an IIS server, click Yes to shut down the IIS server when you
see the IIS Question dialog box.
3 If you are using a Sun One web server, click Yes at the following prompt:
The program will update the obj.conf and magnus.conf files, back up your
original obj.conf and magnus.conf files, and inform you of the location of
the Install.log file for information. The Command Prompt might be
displayed briefly. For more information about these files, see the SunOne
documentation.
4 Press ENTER to continue.
The Welcome screen appears.
5 Click Next.
The License Agreement screen appears.
6 Click Next to accept the agreement.
You cannot install ServletExec unless you accept the license agreement. If you
click No, installation terminates and the mid tier installation begins.
The Information screen appears.
7 Read the ServletExec Read Me text and click Next.
The Choose Destination Location screen appears.
8 Select the location to install ServletExec, click Browse, or accept the default.
The installer displays installation-related messages.
The Username and Password screen appears.
9 Enter a user name and password, and confirm your choices.
10 If needed, enter the user account for anonymous users (users who connect
through the internet) as follows:
IUSR_<AR System server name>
11 Click Next.
The InstallShield Wizard Complete screen appears.
12 Click Finish to complete the ServletExec installation.
The ServletExec Read Me information is displayed in a text file.
13 Read the text and close the file.
The installer displays installation-related messages.
For the remainder of the installation, you will see most of the screens are the
same as those outlined in “Installing the mid tier” on page 43.
After you install the mid tier, you can finish the process by changing the
password. You might also need to change the port number or update
permissions.
The following topics are provided:
Postinstallation tasks (page 58)
Uninstalling the mid tier and ServletExec (page 60)
Starting and stopping ServletExec/AS manually (page 62)
Troubleshooting the mid tier installation (page 64)
Postinstallation tasks
This section describes tasks you should complete after you install the mid
tier:
“Changing the mid tier configuration password” on page 58
“Changing the ServletExec port number” on page 58
“Changing permissions for an Apache web server” on page 59
On Windows, use the Web Server Administration Server to change the port
number.
3 Restart ServletExec.
On HP-UX, AIX, or Linux, start ServletExec/AS manually, as described in
“Starting and stopping ServletExec/AS manually” on page 62.
4 Refresh the Sun One web server.
You must refresh the web server after you install the mid tier so that updates
to the configuration file will take effect.
For information about refreshing the Sun One web server, see your Sun
documentation.
3 Change the group name of the ServletExec directory, all subdirectories, and
files to root by using the recursive option:
# chgrp -R <Web_Server_Group> <ServletExec_install_dir>
For more information, see the ServletExec documentation installed with the
product: <ServletExec_install_dir>/ServletExecAS/Documentation.
Postinstallation tasks 59
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
WARNING: Use the rm command with caution. You cannot retrieve what you
remove with that command.
WARNING: Applications that do not use the registry might use a shared file.
Do not remove a file if you are not sure if it is shared. If you do not remove
shared files, you can remove them manually.
Note: If you choose not to remove all DLLs, some mid tier files will remain
on the system. You can inspect the uninstall log file and remove files
manually. Applications are not uninstalled by the mid tier uninstallation
program.
To uninstall ServletExec/AS
1 If you are using a copy of ServletExec that was installed separately from the
mid tier, stop the ServletExec process. You can stop ServletExec by issuing
the ./StopServletExec command in the following directory:
<ServletExec_install_dir>/ServletExecAS/se-<instance_name>
You can run this command while logged in as root. You do not need to
assume the web user ID.
2 Stop the web server.
3 Uninstall ServletExec installer.
a Run the ServletExec installer.
b At the prompt for the installation directory, choose the existing
ServletExec installation directory.
You will be prompted to remove ServletExec or install a new instance.
c Choose the option to remove ServletExec.
4 Remove the mid tier directory.
Note: If you choose to install the mid tier with ServletExec/AS in any other
configuration, manual configuration of the web server and JSP engine is
required. These configurations will not be supported.
You can run this command while logged in as root. You do not need to
assume the web user ID.
Location: <File system path for the mid tier install directory>
Note: To configure the mid tier, access the configuration tool at:
http://<host>/<contextpath>/shared/config/config.jsp
where <host> is the name of the web server and <contextpath> is the path
representing the location of the mid tier (arsys by default). Use arsystem
as the default login password.
For information about mid tier settings, see Chapter 5, “Configuring the
mid tier.”
Note: Remember where you will install ServletExec AS because you will need
to provide this path during the ServletExec installation.
If you see this message, uninstall the mid tier and reinstall it into its own
separate directory.
If you see this error, enter the correct web server group ID in the Group line
of the httpd.conf file, located in the Apache installation directory. If you do
not make this change, you will be unable to save changes you make to the
Mid Tier Configuration Tool settings. Obtain the correct group ID from
your web server administrator.
To configure the BMC Remedy Mid Tier, you will use the BMC Remedy Mid
Tier Configuration Tool. The following topics are provided:
Configuring the BMC Remedy Mid Tier through a firewall (page 68)
Accessing the Mid Tier Configuration Tool (page 70)
Overview of configuration settings (page 71)
General settings (page 74)
AR Server settings (page 80)
Report settings (page 87)
Web service settings (page 91)
Log settings (page 93)
Change password (page 97)
Browser settings (page 98)
Configuring Flashboards data points (page 98)
Firewall Firewall
ARS Server Web client
UDP
conduit
Remedy
mid-tier
HTTP
TCP conduit
conduit port 80
to IP of
mid-tier
Configuring As shown in Figure 5-1, the web client connects to the mid tier server
the external through a standard HTTP connection. If the web server (on the mid tier
firewall server) is configured on a certain port—the default for most web servers is
80—then you would need to open that port for HTTP on this firewall. The
web client request would then use this port in its requesting URL. For
example, if you have your web server configured on port 8080, then you
would use the following example URL request:
http://<webserver>:8080/arsys/home
The firewall would need port 8080 open for HTTP. No mid-tier-specific
configurations are needed for this connection through the external firewall.
Configuring The mid tier server connects to the AR System server using a TCP
the internal connection. If there is a firewall between the mid tier and the AR System
firewall server, you must allow traffic through the firewall on the TCP port on which
AR System listens.
To enable these connections through the firewall, the AR System server and
the mid tier must be configured to communicate on the proper ports. To
configure the mid tier to connect to the AR System server, perform the
following steps:
Step 1 Set the AR System server to use a specific TCP port in BMC Remedy
Administrator.
Because you are configuring the mid tier to use a specific port, registering the
server with portmapper is optional.
Step 2 Ask your network administrator to open the port on which the AR System
server is listening on the internal firewall for TCP.
For more information about assigning a specific port number in the Server
TCP/IP Port box, see the Configuring guide.
Step 3 In the Mid Tier Configuration Tool, select AR Server Settings, and then set
the Port# field to the AR System configuration.
These settings allow the mid tier to connect to the AR System server using the
port specified.
For information about the Mid Tier Configuration Tool, see “Accessing the
Mid Tier Configuration Tool” on page 70.
where:
<host_name> is the name of the host machine for the mid tier.
For this the URL to work, localhost must be correctly entered in the
hosts file.
Setting Value
Mid tier system information
Mid Tier Version The version of the mid tier that is installed.
Installation Directory The directory path being used for your BMC
Remedy Mid Tier installation.
Web Server Information The product name of the web server being used
with this installation of AR System (for
example, Microsoft IIS) and the product name
of the Java servlet engine being used with this
installation of AR System (for example,
ServletExec 5.0).
Operating System Name The operating system used on your computer
(for example, Windows 2003).
Java Version The version of the Java Software Development
Kit (SDK) that is installed on your computer
(for example, 1.4.2).
Setting Value
Current configuration settings
AR Servers The AR System servers currently used with the
mid tier.
Preference Servers The servers currently designated as preference
servers. You can add or delete servers from the
General Settings page. For more information
about preference servers, see the Getting Started
guide.
Data Visualization Module The AR System server that contains the data
Servers visualization module.
Homepage Server The AR System server for the mid tier on which
the home page resides.
Log Directory The directory path in which session-related
information, such as logs and temporary files,
is stored.
Definition Change Check Interval The interval (in seconds) at which information
(Seconds) in the cache is updated.
The default value is 3600 seconds. You can
change this value on the Cache Settings page.
Session Timeout (Minutes) The number of minutes after which a session
will expire. When the system has exceeded this
amount without any activity, you must log in
again.
The default value is 90 minutes You can change
this value on the General Settings page.
General settings
Click the General Settings link in the navigation pane to access the General
Settings page. Use this page to update configuration settings, such as session
timeout intervals, preference servers, Home page server, and reporting
information. A bold label with an asterisk indicates a required field.
General
Setting Description
Session Timeout The number of minutes after which the current session will expire. When the
(Minutes) system has exceeded this amount without any activity, you must log in again.
If you are entering data in a form, that data might be lost if the session times out
before you submit the data. To prevent possible data loss after a timeout, open a
new instance of the browser window with the same login, and copy and paste the
data to a new form.
If users are experiencing frequent timeouts, increase the session timeout. The
default value is 90 minutes; there is no upper or lower limit.
The entry in the Session Timeout in Minutes field of the AR System User
Preferences form (Advanced tab in the web view, Web tab in the standard view) will
override this setting for a specific user.
Preference Servers The name of the AR System server designated as a preference server. You can
specify more than one server if you need multiple preference servers to support
different departments or business units. If you enter more than one preference
server, the system searches the list until it finds the first preference server that
matches the user name and uses that server as the preference server.
To add or update preference servers, enter the name of each server you want to
designate as a preference server. If you are adding more than one server, separate
each name with a comma (for example, mars,jupiter,saturn).
A fully qualified server name is not valid in this field.
Note: All servers designed as preference servers must be included in the AR System
Server list on the AR Server Settings page.
Data Visualization The name of the AR System server designated as a data visualization module server.
Module Servers You can specify more than one server if you need to copy the modules to another
server to serve as a backup in case the first module server goes down.
To add or update module servers, enter the name of each server you want to
designate as a module server. If you are adding more than one server, separate each
name with a comma (for example, mars, jupiter, saturn).
A fully qualified server name is not valid in this field.
Note: All servers designed as module servers must be included in the AR System
Server list on the AR Server Settings page.
For information about data visualization fields, see the Integrating with Plug-ins and
Third-Party Products guide.
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Setting Description
Homepage Server Select the server that contains the Home page you want to open in the browser
when the user logs in.
The Home page URL:
http://<mid_tier_server>/<context_path>/home
The Home page server must already be added to the list of mid tier servers on the
AR Server Settings page. For information about how to add a server, see “To add a
new server” on page 82.
The mid tier will search this server for the designated or default Home page. This
server will be used globally if you have not selected a Home page server in the
AR System User Preference form. A Home page server specified in the AR System
User Preferences form will take precedence over the server set here.
The form used for the Home page has the following precedence on a specific server:
1 A form designated in the AR System User Preference form.
2 A default Home page designated in the Server Information dialog box in
BMC Remedy Administrator.
3 The default Home page installed with AR System.
For more information about specifying a server and a Home page, see the Form and
Application Objects guide.
Authentication Select the server that the mid tier uses to authenticate the user. If you specify an
Server authentication server, the mid tier will authenticate with the specified server only.
The authentication server must already be added to the list of mid tier servers on
the AR Server Settings page.
Prefer standard/ One of the settings evaluated when the system is progressing through the view
windows views selection algorithm; it indicates whether you want a standard view or a web view to
be the default for the view type selection.
If the check box is:
Selected—If no view is specified, the browser displays the standard view of the
form.
Cleared (the default)—If no view is specified, the browser displays the web view
of the form, if one is available. If no web view is available, the standard view is
displayed.
See “How a view is selected” on page 143 and the Form and Application Objects
guide for more information about how a view is selected for the user.
Setting Description
Enable object list Indicates whether you want to enable the AR System Mid Tier Object List that
displays all the forms and applications that can be accessed by the mid tier.
The object list is displayed automatically when the system cannot determine the
specific form to load because an incomplete URL is entered into the browser or an
application does not define a primary form.
To enable the AR System Mid Tier Object List, you must:
1 Add your Home page server to the list of mid tier servers on the AR Server
Settings page of the Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
2 Set the Home page server on the General Settings page of the Mid Tier
Configuration Tool.
3 Import the definition files to your Home page server.
4 Select the Enable object list check box on the General Settings page of the
Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
Importing the definition files
Import the definition files into your Home page server. Definition files of different
locales are installed with the mid tier; the default installation is:
C:\\Program Files\AR System\Mid-
Tier\samples\ARSystemMidTierObjectList*.def
Import the ARSystemMidTierObjectList.def file to your Home page server by
using Tools > Import Definitions > From Definition File in BMC Remedy
Administrator. This will provide the default view and the related workflow in
English. If you require only the English view of the form, you need to import only
this file.
For a localized view, you must import the appropriate localized .def file in addition
to using Tools > Import Definitions > From View Definition File in BMC Remedy
Administrator. Browse to the samples directory, and select the .def file for the
locale you require. The naming convention is as follows:
ARSystemMidTierObjectList_fgis.def—Contains French, German, Italian
and Spanish views.
ARSystemMidTierObjectList_ja.def—Contains the Japanese view.
ARSystemMidTierObjectList_ko.def—Contains the Korean view.
ARSystemMidTierObjectList_zh_CN.def—Contains the Simplified Chinese
view.
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Setting Description
Enabling the AR System Mid Tier Object List
Enable the AR System Mid Tier Object List on the General Settings page of the
Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
If the check box is:
Selected—The AR System Mid Tier Object List is enabled.
Cleared (the default)—The AR System Mid Tier Object List is not enabled and is
not displayed when the system cannot determine which form to load.
Once it is imported and enabled, you can open the AR System Object List using any
one of the following URLs:
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/forms
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/forms/<server_name>
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps/<server_name>
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps/<server_name>/<application_name>
Setting Description
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Setting Description
Maximum Enter a value to set a limit for the total number of connections for any server. If the
connections per number of connections for the requested server does not exceed the value entered
server here, a connection is allocated to that server.
The default is 80 connections per server.
You must restart the mid tier for changes to the server connection pool
setting to take effect.
AR Server settings
From the AR Server Settings page, you can add, delete, or modify
information about servers used by the mid tier. A bold label with an asterisk
indicates a required field.
The fields on this page are read-only except for the Delete/Edit field.
Setting Description
Delete/Edit Click in the check box to select a server.
To select all servers in the list, click Select All; to clear all
selections in the list, click Clear All.
Server Name The name of the AR System server being used by the mid
tier. The name must be that of a server recognized by
AR System.
Admin Password The specified password for an AR System account with
administrator privileges. This password is set in the Server
Information dialog box in BMC Remedy Administrator. If
a password has been entered for a server, asterisks appear in
this column instead of the actual password characters.
Enter a password only if you have set the Mid Tier
Administration Password under the Connection Settings
tab in the BMC Remedy Administrator Server Information
window. The 7.0 AR System server requires a password.
AR Server settings 81
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
For more information about reserved fields and their use, see the Form and
Application Objects guide.
5 Enter an Admin Password, Port#, and RPC# for the new server.
6 Click Add Server.
After you add a server, the AR Server Settings page is redisplayed with the
new server listed.
Note: You cannot edit the server name. If you need to change the name of a
server, you must delete the server and add it again with the new name.
4 Click Edit.
The Edit AR Server page is displayed.
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Note: If a server you have selected for deletion is being used as a preference
server or a Home Page server, you must delete it from the General Settings
page before you can delete it from this list.
Cache settings
Click the Cache Settings link in the left navigation pane to open the Cache
Settings page.
Setting Description
Definition change The interval (in seconds) at which cache information will be
check interval automatically updated. The default value is 3600 seconds.
(seconds) To change the interval, enter the new number of seconds in
this field; the value must be greater than 0. If you do not
want the cache to be updated, clear the Perform check box.
Perform check Indicates whether you want the cache to be updated
automatically. You can still update the cache manually by
clicking the Flush cache button.
If the check box is:
Selected: The cache will be updated automatically at the
interval you specify in the Definition change check
interval field.
Cleared: The cache will not be updated automatically. If
the system is in the process of flushing the cache when you
clear the check box, the current cache flush will continue
until that session is completed.
Update Flashboard The interval (in seconds) at which the server updates the
Definition Interval Flashboards cache information. Set this value to 0 to disable
(Seconds) caching.
The default value is 0.
For more information about Flashboards, see the
Administering Flashboards guide.
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Resource Check The time limit (in seconds) for which resources (such as
Interval (seconds) images, .css files, and JavaScript files) can be used. The
default is 300 seconds.
If a user closes a form and opens it again within the specified
expiry time, the image is cached and is not downloaded
again. This helps increase the mid tier’s performance.
Flush Cache Click Flush cache to update the objects already in the cache
with the latest versions on the AR System server.
Save your changes, or click Restore Defaults before you save to restore the
previous settings.
Cache table
The cache table shows information about different cached objects and how
they change. It displays the following items:
Object name—The type of object in the cache.
Object count—The number of objects in the cache.
Hit count—The number of times an object is found in the cache.
Miss count—The number of times an object is not found in the cache.
Last flush—The time that particular type of object was last flushed from
the cache and the reason for the flush.
This table is useful for monitoring your application’s performance. If objects
are being flushed due to server definition changes, this will cause serious
performance degradation.
Report settings
The Report Settings page enables you to specify folder locations so that users
can run Crystal reports.
Setting Description
Crystal/BO Report Specify how you are deploying your report engine. The options are:
Engine Deployment No Report Engine (You are using AR System reports only.)
Crystal Enterprise 10
BOXI/Crystal Report Server 11 on a different machine without a mid tier
BOXI/Crystal Report Server 11 on a different machine with a mid tier
Reporting Working The default directory in which reports will be stored.
Directory Enter the complete (absolute) path for this directory, for example:
c:\Program Files\AR System\Mid-Tier\reports
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Crystal Enterprise Enter the appropriate information as discussed in the following bullets. Leave this
10 Location field empty if you are not using Crystal Enterprise 10.
For IIS web servers serving Crystal Web, specify the <host_name> of the web
server machine.
http://<host_name>
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must include it
in the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
For SunONE 6.1 or Apache web servers serving Crystal Web, specify the CGI
path to the Crystal Web component server as:
http://<host_name>/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
where <host_name> is the name of the web server machine. If you need to
specify a port number other than the default, you must include it in the string as
follows:
http://<host_name>:port/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
BOXI/Crystal Enter the path to BusinessObjects Enterprise XI or Crystal Reports Server XI. Leave
Reports Server 11 this field empty if you are not using either of these versions.
Location Specify the <host_name> of the web server machine.
http://<host_name>
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must include it in
the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
To view reports on BusinessObjects Enterprise XI, the mid tier uses a web
application called ARWebReportViewer. This application can be installed
with the mid tier on the same machine as the Crystal Management Server is
located, or it can be installed separately from the mid tier. If
ARWebReportViewer is installed on the same machine as the mid tier, then
you will see the following Report Settings page in the Mid Tier Configuration
Tool.
Figure 5-10: Mid Tier Configuration Tool—Report Settings page (for combined
scenarios)
Setting Description
Crystal/BO Report Specify how you are deploying your report engine. The options are:
Engine Deployment No Report Engine (You are using AR System reports only.)
Crystal Enterprise 10
BOXI/Crystal Report Server 11 on a different machine without a mid tier
BOXI/Crystal Report Server 11 on a different machine with a mid tier
Reporting Working Specify a directory where the Crystal Reports Management server will look for
Directory report definition files. If this is not under the web server’s root document directory,
you must configure your web server with a virtual directory to point to this
directory. For more information, see “Configuring web server settings for Crystal
reports” on page 191.
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Setting Description
Crystal Enterprise Enter the appropriate information as discussed in the following bullets. Leave this
10 Location field empty if you are not using Crystal Enterprise 10.
For IIS web servers serving Crystal Web, specify the <host_name> of the web
server machine.
http://<host_name>
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must include it
in the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
For SunONE 6.1 or Apache web servers serving Crystal Web, specify the CGI
path to the Crystal Web component server as:
http://<host_name>/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
where <host_name> is the name of the web server machine. If you need to
specify a port number other than the default, you must include it in the string as
follows:
http://<host_name>:port/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
BOXI/Crystal Enter the path to BusinessObjects Enterprise XI or Crystal Reports Server XI. Leave
Reports Server 11 this field empty if you are not using either of these versions.
Location Specify the <host_name> of the web server machine.
http://<host_name>
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must include it in
the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
Setting Description
CMS Machine Host name of the machine where the local Crystal Reports Management server
Name resides. Do not include the port number.
BusinessObjects Select the report version you are using:
Report Version BusinessObjects Enterprise XI (Managed)
Crystal Reports Server XI (Unmanaged)
If you selected the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI version, enter information for the
following fields:
AR System ODBC Data Source Name—Name of the system DSN. If the field is
blank, “AR System ODBC Data Source” (the default) is used. The ODBC driver
is installed by BMC Remedy User, the mid tier, or ARWebReportViewer.
CMS Folder Name—Name of the folder where the Crystal reports are published.
CMS User Name and CMS Password—The user name and password of CMS.
The mid tier uses this user information to log in to the CMS and publish the
reports.
If you selected the Crystal Reports Server XI version, enter information for the
following field:
AR System ODBC Data Source Name—Name of the system DSN. If the field is
blank, “AR System ODBC Data Source” (the default) is used. The ODBC driver
is installed by BMC Remedy User, the mid tier, or ARWebReportViewer.
Setting Description
Anonymous User Enter a user name to use with web services. The user can be either a registered or a
Name guest user (if guest users are allowed in your AR System environment).
Anonymous Enter a password to use with web services. This field must be left blank if the user
Password is a guest user.
Click Save Changes to accept the user name and password, or click Reset
Defaults before you save to restore the previous settings.
For more information about web services and the Anonymous User Name,
see the Integrating with Plug-ins and Third-Party Products guide.
Log settings
You can use the Log Settings page to update logging configuration settings.
A bold label with an asterisk indicates a required field.
Figure 5-12: Mid Tier Configuration Tool—Logs Settings page (top portion)
Log settings 93
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Logging
Setting Description
Log Categories The type of information to be stored in the log file.
To specify a category, select the check box next to the information to be stored.
Reporting—Messages related to reporting.
Cache—Messages related to definitions, such as forms and active links in the
cache.
Session Management—Messages related to user session construction and
expiration, such as login, logout or timeout.
Configuration—Messages related to the config.properties file, such as when
it is loaded and changed.
Flashboards—Messages related to Flashboards.
Web Services—Messages related to web services.
Workflow—Messages related to compilation of workflow (primarily active link
actions), such as invalid active links.
Performance—Messages related to performance, including duration of
operations.
Qualifications and Expressions— Messages related to parsing and compilation
of expressions, for example, in active links.
Servlet—Messages related to servlet handling of http requests, primarily for
reporting results of back-channel requests.
Internal—Internal logging messages.
ARServer (API/Filter/Database)—Messages related to APIs, filters, and
databases.
Data Visualization Module—Messages related to the data visualization module.
Categories selected by default are: Reporting, Cache, Session Management,
Performance, and Servlet.
Filter Log by User The statements relating to the user who is logged in with this user name only are
Name recorded. After you enter the user name and save changes, a new log file is started.
For log messages displayed on the screen, the filter will only be applied to new
entries. Older entries that existed before the user name was changed will still be
displayed on screen, up to the limit set in the View Logs setting.
If the field is left blank, all logs related to the current session are stored, regardless
of who is logged in.
You can enter only enter one name in this field.
Log Directory The directory in which log files are stored, for example,
C:\Program Files\AR System\Mid-Tier\logs.
To change the log directory, enter the absolute (complete) path for the new
directory. You cannot change the log file name.
Maximum Log File The maximum size (in kilobytes) a file reaches before a backup copy is
Size (kb) automatically made. The default size is 1024 KB. When the log file reaches this
limit, a backup copy is made with the same file name (the default is
armidtier.log) and an incremental number (for example,
armidtier<n>.log).
Maximum Number The maximum number of backup files that the system will generate when the log
of Log Files file size exceeds the limit specified in the Maximum Log File Size.
The default is 10 backups.
Log Level The level of detail for logging information. The options are:
Fine—Provides the highest level of detail.
Warning—Provides a moderate level of detail. Warnings plus those errors
included in the Severe level are logged.
Severe—Provides the lowest level of detail; only server start time and error
messages are logged.
The default value is Warning.
Log Viewer The method by which you want to view log files. The options are:
Console—The log entries will be directed to the stderr (System.err) of your
servlet engine.
File—Data is saved to a file in the specified log directory.
The default value is File.
Note: If you are using ServletExec as your servlet engine, you can also view Servlet
log data from your browser. To do so, enter http://<host_name>/
servletexec/admin in the browser address field, then click the View Logs link
in the navigation bar.
Log Format The log output is generated using the standard Java 1.4 logging API, including
Simple and XML formatting. The options are:
Simple Text—A basic text file for faster performance. It does not include stack
trace information except in the case of Severe log messages.
Detailed Text—A text file containing details such as Java class names and
methods.
XML—A file in XML format.
The default value is Simple Text.
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BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
Mid-Tier Profiler
You can turn on the Mid-Tier Profiling feature to gather performance
information.
Setting Description
Mid-Tier Profiling A tool for profiling the client side (JavaScript) code on the mid tier. The profiler will
show how much time was spent on a particular method (such as a table refresh).
Changing this value requires that you restart the mid-tier server.
When the profiler is turned on, Show Profile and Clear Profile buttons appear in
the mid-tier toolbar (if enabled) when forms are viewed in the browser. If you click
Show Profile, a new window will display all the profiled data up to that point. If you
click Clear Profile, all profiled data will be cleared from memory.
The Mid-Tier Profiling option is normally used during development of an
application because when you turn on the profiler, all users will have access to the
profile.
View logs
You can view the log files that record the activity of the mid tier. If you have
no log files generated, it might be because the Log Viewer setting is set to
Console. Change this setting to Files to generate mid tier log files.
Setting Description
Display Last The number of lines you want to view from the most recent entries in the log. The
default is 25.
View Log File Click to view the log file.
Change password
You can change the password used to access the Mid Tier Configuration
Tool. A bold label with an asterisk indicates a required field.
Setting Description
Old Password The current configuration password.
New Password The new configuration password. The password must contain more than 5 and less
than 20 characters; do not include double-byte characters. As you type, asterisks are
displayed instead of the actual password characters.
Confirm New The new configuration password. Re-enter the new configuration password exactly
Password as you entered it in the New Password field.
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Browser settings
For the mid tier to work properly, the browser settings for the XMLHTTP
protocol between the browsers and mid tier must be set correctly.
Typically, if you simply use all the default scripting settings in MS IE and
Mozilla, you should not see any problems with the mid tier. See “Browser
settings for scripting and ActiveX controls” on page 125 for more
information.
For the mid tier to open windows properly, users must configure their
browser or pop-up window-blocking software to allow pop-up windows
originating from the web server’s address.
For example:
flashboards.maxDataPoints=4000
You can set user and administrator preferences both locally and on the server
(centralized). The following topics are provided:
User preferences for web clients (page 100)
Setting centralized preferences on web clients (page 100)
Logging tab (page 105)
Common fields
These fields reside in the non-page field portion of the AR System User
Preference form.
Figure 6-1: Common area of AR System User Preference form for web settings
Form tab
Figure 6-2: Form tab of AR System User Preference form for web settings
Logging tab
Figure 6-3: Logging tab of AR System User Preference form for web settings
Locale tab
Figure 6-4: Locale tab of AR System User Preference form for web settings
Advanced tab
Figure 6-5: Advanced tab of the AR System User Preference form for web settings
Working with AR System applications for the Web involves a few more steps
than working with forms in BMC Remedy User. The following topics are
provided:
What users see in a form in a browser (page 114)
Working with View options (page 116)
Working with form action fields for the web (page 122)
Browser settings for scripting and ActiveX controls (page 125)
Configuring page properties (page 126)
Managing resource files (page 126)
Accessing forms and applications with URLs (page 128)
Creating customized login pages (page 142)
How a view is selected (page 143)
How locale is established (page 144)
Session timeouts (page 144)
Creating help for web applications (page 145)
Saving a web application to another location (page 146)
Making your web-based applications accessible to users with disabilities
(page 146)
Before reading this section, you should be familiar with the information
about defining applications and creating forms and views in the Form and
Application Objects guide:
In a browser, toolbar buttons along the top of the form provide the
equivalent functionality of menus and toolbars in the Standard (Windows)
view. You can hide the entire toolbar by clicking the down arrow icon just
above the first toolbar button. You can also configure the form to hide the
toolbar when the form is viewed in a browser, and control individual button
access using Menu Access view properties.
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Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
For more information about hiding the toolbar by default, see “Showing or
hiding the web toolbar” on page 118.
The Advanced Search Bar (if enabled) appears as a pane at the bottom of the
form.
Note: If you are creating a new view of the same form (for example, if you are
creating both a Standard view and a separate web view), use a different
label for the second view, so that the view name will be unique in the URL
for the form. For more information about creating views, see the Form and
Application Objects guide.
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Note: The Dynamic Web Views tab appears only in Standard views in
AR System 6.3 and later.
From the Appearances tab of this dialog box, you can specify the visibility of
the details pane, results pane, and toolbar when forms are viewed in a
browser. You also can edit web header and footer content of any view. For
more information, see the following resources:
For information about selecting menu access, list color, advanced results,
list, dynamic views, aliases and labels, and defined searches, see the Form
and Application Objects guide.
For information about pane banner visibility on the web, see “Showing or
hiding the web toolbar.”
For information about editing web header and footer content, see “Editing
web header and footer content” on page 119.
6 In the Pane Banner Visibility region, choose Visible or Hidden in the Web
Toolbar field.
7 Click OK.
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Click either of
these buttons
to edit web
header and
footer content.
6 In the Web Header and Footer region, select either the Edit Web Header
Content or Edit Web Footer Content button.
The Web Header Content dialog box appears.
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In this example, the header is positioned 50 pixels from the top of the form,
and 30 pixels from the left edge, with a height of 45 pixels. An <H1> tag is
used, with styles specified for the color, background color, font size and style,
border, and padding around the text.
Note: Make sure that the CSS z-index of the header and footer is higher than
that of the other elements on the page that overlap it. For example, if you
add content to the top of the page, make sure that its z-index is higher than
that of the FormContainer element (for instance, greater than 29999).
Header text
Note: Form action fields are not visible in some modes. For example, the
Modify All button is not visible in New Search mode.
The following table lists and describes the available form action fields. The
form action fields that are displayed are based on the selections made in the
Form Action Controls dialog box, shown in Figure 7-9 on page 124. The
form action fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required on most forms.
Form Action Field Description
Submit * Sends the data on the form to the database. If any workflow
is designed to execute on submit, it will be executed.
Query * Submits the search on the current form. Because the results
will be displayed in the results list field, you must select the
Results List check box to include a results list field on the
web. If any workflow is designed to execute when a user
performs a search operation, the workflow will be
executed.
Modify * Submits your changes to the database. If any workflow is
designed to execute on modify, it will be executed.
Search Bar Displays the advanced search bar, so the user can perform
advanced searches.
When you create a Search Bar form action field, you must
resize it to a field width of at least 650 so that all of the
buttons appear when the form is viewed in a browser. For
information about changing field width, see the Form and
Application Objects guide.
Form Help Displays form-level help in a separate window.
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You can set a preference for which form action fields are automatically
included. In BMC Remedy Administrator, choose File > Preferences, and
click the Web View tab. For more information, see the Getting Started guide.
Use the following procedure to add form action fields manually to a view.
4 Select the actions that you want included the view, and clear the check boxes
for the actions that you do not want included in the view.
5 In the Add to Views field, select the views that should include the selected
form action fields.
6 Click OK to close the Form Action Controls dialog box and add your new
fields.
7 Save your changes.
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If you create or open forms within the Application window, resources added
to form views are automatically added to the application’s Support Files
properties. At the time the resource is added, the reference to that resource
matches its location in Support Files. However, AR System does not
maintain these references (for example, if you change the directory structure
for resources in Support Files).
The Resources Directory Structure level represents the directory for your
application in the mid tier. You can add support files directly under this level,
or to other directories that you create. You cannot delete or change the name
of the Resources Directory Structure level.
You can add or delete directories and files, or rename existing directories.
You can also save the directory structure to an external disk.
Use the following procedures to specify support files for web applications.
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Note: If you have added support files for your application, you can access
them through a URL. For more information, see “Accessing support files”
on page 130.
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Note: The mid tier also provides an Object List that displays a list of forms
and applications available on the mid tier. This list appears if the system
cannot determine which form to load because of an incorrect or
incomplete URL, or if the application does not have a primary form. The
Object List must be enabled in the General Settings window of the
Mid Tier Configuration Tool. For more information, see “Working with
the Mid Tier Object List” on page 140.
The following sections provide the URL formats to use for opening forms
and applications in a browser. In the following examples, arsys is used as the
default context path.
Opening a form
To open a form, enter:
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/forms/<ar_server>/<form_name>
You can add URLs to form views to provide users access to web pages, HTML
documents, and images. You can also build URL links on web pages, view
fields, and text trim fields that open forms.
You can also use the $HOMEURL$ keyword in workflow to reference the context
path displayed in a browser. For more information, see the Workflow Objects
guide.
If you have placed support files under any subdirectories (including the
Resources directory that BMC Remedy Administrator creates dynamically),
those must be added to the URL, as in the following examples. Notice that the
Resources subdirectory name is uppercase and lowercase (title case).
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At a minimum, you must supply the server name and form name. If more
than one view of a form is available, the system selects a view based on certain
criteria, as described in “How a view is selected” on page 143.
Values in URLs are case-sensitive. For example, ViewFormServlet and
viewformservlet are not the same.
URL encoding
If a URL includes characters that cannot be printed or transmitted safely, the
URL must be encoded. Any unsafe or unprintable characters (for instance,
single or double quotation marks, equal signs, or ampersands) are replaced
with a percent sign (%), followed by the hexidecimal digits that correspond
to the character’s value. For example, the string “Assigned To” would be
encoded as %22Assigned+To%22.
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2 In the Original String field, enter the individual character or string for which
you want to find the correct encoding.
You can encode parameter values, but do not code the entire URL.
3 Click Convert.
The encoded values appear in the Encoded String field.
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The system bypasses the Login screen, and displays the view of the form.
WARNING: If you use the pwd parameter in a URL, passwords are exposed by
the browser in the locator and in bookmarks or favorites. For URLs that
include the pwd parameter, use https://.
After the user logs in, the system displays the form with results of the search
’Assigned To’=”Firstname Lastname” AND ‘Status’=”Fixed”.
To encode a string
1 Open the ARURLEncoder utility. Go to http://<localhost>/arsys/shared/
ar_url_encoder.jsp.
In the following example, a value of Web User is passed to the Creator field
(field ID=2) of the User form stored on the AR System server mars, from the
mid tier server saturn. The default context path is arsys.
http://saturn/arsys/forms/mars/User?F2=Web%20User
Note: In radio button and drop-down list fields, if you enter a value that does
not exist, the value is not set when the form is displayed in the browser.
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The goto parameter redirects users to an alternate URL after login or logout.
The enc parameter specifies the type of character encoding, such as UTF-8 or
Shift_JIS, used in other parameters.
The following examples show how to use URLs for login and logout. In these
examples, <mid_tier_server> is the name of the web server, arsys is the
default context path, and <URL> is a valid URL. When creating login and
logout URLs, do not include quotation marks around parameter values.
The user logs in using the default login page, and then goes to the specified
URL.
Example 2: Login with customized login page
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps/<ar_server>/<app>/
login.jsp?goto=<URL>&server=<server_name>
The user logs in using a login page customized for an application, and then
goes to the specified URL.
Any URL after goto statement must be URL-encoded.
Example 3: User logged in automatically
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/servlet/LoginServlet?goto=
<URL>&server=<server_name>&username=<user_name>
&pwd=<password>
The user is logged in automatically and goes directly to the specified URL.
Example 4: Logout
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/servlet/LogoutServlet?goto=
<URL>
The user logs out and goes directly to the specified URL.
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where arsys represents the default context path, <URL> is the URL the user
will go to after logging in, and <server_name> is the name of the server to
which the user needs to log in.
For Logout functionality, modify the HTML code as follows:
<form name=”logoutForm”method=”post” action=”http://
<mid_tier_server>/arsys/servlet/LogoutServlet?goto=<URL>”>
<p><INPUT type=”submit” value=”Logout” name=”logout”></p>
</form>
where arsys represents the default context path, and <URL> is the URL the
user will go to after logging out.
3 Save your changes.
Note: For more information about customizing login and logout pages, see
the Release Notes.
To import the file, choose Tools > Import Definitions > From Definition
File.
4 If you need additional localized views, import the appropriate .def files. To
do so, choose Tools > Import Definitions > From View Definition Files, and
select the .def files you need. If you do not need localized views, skip this
step.
5 In the General Settings page of the Mid Tier Configuration Tool, select the
Enable Object List check box. (By default, this box is not selected.)
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You can also display the Object List using any of the following URLs.
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/forms
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/forms/<server_name>
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps/<server_name>
http://<mid_tier_server>/arsys/apps/<server_name>/
<application_name>
To restore the full list of forms and applications, clear the Server,
Application, and Name fields, and click Search.
You can also arrange items in the list by name, server, or type by clicking the
appropriate column headings.
Note: On Internet Explorer browsers, the auto complete feature does not
function properly. To work around this issue, you must remove the
Authentication field and make sure that the password is not scrambled in
the JSP engine.
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2 The system selects a view that is appropriate for the client that the user is
running. If the client is on the Web, the system selects a view according to the
Prefer Standard/Windows View option in the Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
For more information, see Chapter 5, “Configuring the mid tier,” and the
Configuring guide.
3 The system selects a view that is appropriate for the user’s locale. If there is
not an exact match, a fallback mechanism finds the closest possible locale to
the one requested. The resulting view is then displayed for use.
Session timeouts
When a user logs in to the mid tier, the length of the user’s session is
determined by the timeout setting in the Mid Tier Configuration Tool. When
the session exceeds this time, the session times out and the user must log in
again. The default session timeout is 90 minutes.
If a user is entering data in a form, that data might be lost if the session times
out before the user submits (saves) the data. To prevent data loss if a timeout
occurs, the user should log in from a new window, copy and paste the data to
the new window, and submit the data from the new window.
If users are experiencing frequent timeouts, you might want to increase the
session timeout setting in the Mid Tier Configuration Tool. For more
information, see Chapter 5, “Configuring the mid tier,” and the Configuring
guide.
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You can also provide access to help on the web by using a Form Action field.
To create help for a form on the web using a Form Action field
1 Create help for the form and for each field as described in the Getting Started
guide.
Note: For field-level help, the Hide This Help Text in Web Views check box
at the bottom of the tab is ignored in version 6.3 and later. Using previous
versions, you can select the check box if you do not want help text for a
field to appear in a form viewed on the web.
Note: You must make sure that all custom HTML and client script code is in
compliance with Section 508 standards. This includes HTML snippets in
view fields and any modifications you make to JSP pages.
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Note: The BMC Remedy Mid Tier does not provide explicit support for Low
Vision users. Low Vision users should use a third-party tool to enlarge the
screen.
Configuring JAWS
On the mid tier, optimal readout will occur if you set JAWS as outlined in the
following procedure. This is not a default JAWS setting.
Configuring Windows-Eyes
You can configure Windows-Eyes to read link title attributes instead of link
text.
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Preference Description
Accessible Mode Generates the HTML page so it is optimized as follows:
Default—No optimization.
Screen Magnifier/Low Vision—Accessed with a screen magnification device.
Screen Reader/No Vision—Accessed using screen reader software.
Accessible Mode is enabled when it is set to Screen Reader/No Vision.
Note: When adding image buttons to a form, you must add a label for the button
image so that screen readers can read the ALT tag for the image. When the No
Vision option is set in user preferences, the screen reader will use the label text
to read the ALT tag.
Accessible Message Designates the level of nonvisual feedback that applies to workflow. The options
are:
No Action—No messages are shown for accessibility. Active link message
actions of type Accessible are ignored.
Message Action—Displays accessibility messages defined by an active link
message action of type Accessible.
All Actions—Displays accessibility messages to reflect visual changes on the
page, as well as accessibility messages defined by an active link message action
of type Accessible.
Note: These options are not used in the BMC Remedy Mid Tier for versions 6.3
and later.
Session Timeout in Specifies the number of minutes for the login session to time out. If no value is
Minutes defined, the default value defined in the BMC Remedy Configuration Tool will
be used. This value should be increased for No Vision users, because they might
need more time to traverse forms.
Accessibility features
AR System provides many accessibility features when the Accessible Mode
user preference is enabled. In certain cases, you might need to configure the
system to meet accessibility requirements.
Because of a JavaScript href reference for the A element tags that make up
the buttons, JAWS assumes that all buttons have been visited.
Note: JAWS will not automatically read the contents of a read-only field.
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Keyboard shortcuts
The following table lists keyboard shortcuts used in AR System. The term
focus refers to keyboard focus, not to virtual cursor positions defined by
certain assistive technologies.
Key Description
UP, DOWN, or ARROW Moves focus through the menu items.
Press ENTER to fill the field with the
menu selection.
RIGHT ARROW If the selected item is a submenu, opens
and sets focus to the submenu.
Key Description
LEFT ARROW Dismisses the submenu and sets focus to
the upper level menu. There is no action if
the focus is at the top level.
<letter> Enter a letter to select the first item in the
menu that begin with that letter. Press
ENTER to fill the field with the menu
selection.
Key Description
CTRL+ALT+F2 Switches to New Request mode
CTRL+ALT+F3 Switches to New Search mode.
CTRL+ALT+ENTER In New or Modify mode, saves the
changes. In Search mode, performs the
search.
CTRL+ALT+E Clears all field values.
CTRL+ALT+U Sets default field values.
CTRL+ALT+H Show status history values.
CTRL+ALT+Q Sets focus to the Advanced Search Bar
input field.
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Specificity
You can combine selectors to apply styles to an element. For example, the
following three selectors are increasingly specific:
.note
Order of precedence
The style that you ultimately see for an element is created dynamically by the
mid tier and the browser, based on a hierarchy of multiple style sheets, plus
any inline styles.
The following diagram outlines the order of precedence for applying styles.
Order of precedence
Styles are applied in downward order from the top of the diagram. Inline
styles always override other CSS rules, and application-specific styles
override system styles. The standard style sheet usually contains rules for all
elements with properties that work for all browsers. The other style sheets
might repeat or add a rule with different or unique properties specific to a
browser client, application, locale, or user.
In addition, properties that are not redeclared in succeeding style sheets are
applied from the previous declarations. For example, suppose you have a
style rule called input.text that is declared in the first four source files:
System style sheet: input.text {background-color: red; color:
black;}
In this example, the style declarations from the application style sheets take
precedence over those from the system style sheets. For instance, the color:
blue declaration from the standard application style “wins” over the color:
black declaration from the system style sheet.
The mid tier might assign multiple CSS rules to an HTML element; for
example:
<textarea class=”text sr f9 dat”>
Style rules take precedence in right-to-left order. Rules to the right take
precedence over rules to the left. Properties that are not declared are carried
over and reapplied to succeeding style sheets.
If you want the application to include your corporate standard for colors and
fonts, you can use a customized style sheet to reflect your corporate styles.
The following procedure outlines how to add a customized style sheet to a
web application.
The standard directory is for stylesheets and other resources that work across
all browsers. The ie and moz directories are for stylesheets that contain CSS
rules specific to each browser and that should be applied only to that
browser.
Keep in mind that a CSS rule property is sometimes applied only by the
browsers that support it, and is safely ignored by all other browsers. Such
properties do not need to be limited to a browser-specific style sheet, which
means that you might be able to reduce the number of style sheets you need
to create.
6 Select a directory, and click Add Files.
The Open dialog box appears.
7 Select your custom CSS file and click Open.
The file is added to the directory selected in step 6.
8 Click the Rename button to rename this file to ARSystem.css if it does not
already have this name.
As you can see, this customized style sheet changes the appearance of the
application in the browser, including fonts, labels, colors, menu styles,
button styles, trim lines, and more.
11 Repeat steps 6 through 10 for each directory to which you want to customize
your .css files. In each directory, click the Rename button to rename each
customized CSS file to ARSystem.css.
12 If you need to edit a .css file later, delete the current file and add the edited
one. Delete the temporary (cached) files in your browser, and refresh the
page to see the changes.
WARNING: System forms are laid out with absolute positioning, which means
that elements do not automatically shift and resize if the window or
element size changes. To prevent unwanted text clipping or other layout
changes, avoid editing or adding geometric properties such as width,
height, positioning, padding, font size, or font family. In addition, avoid
adding properties such as overflow or z-index to elements. Limit your
customizations to visual properties such as color, background color, and
border color.
Button 1. a.btn
a.btn3d
btn3ddown
a.btn3d:hover
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/ for more
information about the ID-only filter property for
creating gradients. Avoid using background images for
gradients in IE, due to an IE bug that sometimes
queries the server when the cursor hovers over a
background image.
Button with URL display type a.btnurl
a.btnurl:hover
Menu 1. div.MenuOuter
2. td.MenuentryName
td.MenuEntryNameHover
3. td.MenuEntryNoSub
td.MenuEntryNoSubHover
4. td.MenuEntrySub (arrow image is referenced in
CSS, so it can be changed per application)
td.MenuEntrySubHover
Not shown: Scroll arrow section for long menus:
div.MenuScrollUp
1. *
divTableHdr
2. See Button. Arrow images are mid tier resources.
The space around “page” is to accommodate all
languages.
3. divTable Inner (Only the border is affected).
4. div.BaseTableHeader
div.BaseTableHeaderDragL
div.BaseTableHeaderDragR
5. td.BaseTableCellOdd and td.BaseTableCell
affect alternating rows. tr.SelPrimary td and
tr.SelSecondry td affect primary and secondary +
row selections.
6. div.BaseTableBar div (column divider)
7. Internet Explorer only:
div.TableInner (scrollbar-rdlight-color:
#ebebeb; scrollbar-arrow-color...}
See http://msdn.microsoft.com for more
information about CSS attributes.
8. div.Table.Ftr
Horizontal Navigation
2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10
1 .HNavBar
2 .HNavItem.leftrnd
3 .HNavItem.center
4 .HNavItem.left
5 .HNavItem.right
6 .HNavItem.rightrnd
7 .HNavSep
8 .HNavSelected
9 .HNavHover
10 .HNavDisabled
For example:
myRaisedBox {
border-bottom-color; #e9967a;
border-right-color: #e9967a;
}
2 In BMC Remedy Administrator, open the form whose field you want to
apply the customized style.
3 Select the field and open the Field Properties window.
4 In the Custom CSS field, enter the name of the style from your style sheet.
Customized style
You can override the default class for the label/text of a field in BMC Remedy
Administrator by making selections in the Color/Font tab of the Field
Properties dialog box.
You can override the default color (usually black) of the label/text of a field
if you clear the Default Label/Text Color check box and choose a color.
Doing so adds inline styles to the field’s HTML code. These inline styles take
precedence over the CSS rules in any linked style sheets.
WARNING: Do not increase the font size unless you also increase the size of
the field’s bounding box in BMC Remedy Administrator. The scaling
factor is tied to font sizes, so you might end up with overlapping fields if
you increase font sizes without increasing the bounding box size for the
field.
This section describes how to save and run searches on the web. The
following topics are provided:
Overview (page 176)
Creating and saving searches (page 177)
Running a search (page 178)
Loading a search (page 179)
Managing saved searches (page 179)
Including parameters in saved or defined searches (page 180)
Overview
You can now save searches on the web, and run them at any time by selecting
searches from a toolbar menu in a form. In addition, the recent searches and
defined searches currently available in BMC Remedy User are now available
in a browser. You can load each type of search criteria into a form, and
update the search criteria before you execute a search. All searches can be run
across multiple sessions.
The Searches button is enabled only if you have specified a preference server
and have the AR System Searches Preference form installed.
Note: Parameterized searches are not saved in the list of recent searches.
Note: Searches saved on the web cannot be accessed from BMC Remedy
User, and searches saved in BMC Remedy User cannot be accessed on the
web.
Note: You must execute a search before you can save it.
5 In the Search Name field, enter a name for the search, or select one from the
list of existing saved searches.
This is the name that will appear in the saved search list. If the name you enter
already exists, the search criteria under the existing name will be overwritten.
6 Click OK.
The new search will now be available in the list of saved searches.
Running a search
To run a saved, recent, or defined search
1 From the toolbar, choose Searches > Run My Searches, Run Recent, or Run
Defined.
Loading a search
You can load search criteria from saved, recent, or defined searches into a
form without executing the search. You can then modify the search criteria,
or execute the search as it is.
2 Select the search you want to enable or disable, and click the Enable/Disable
button.
If a search is not yet selected in the Manage Search dialog box, the default
button label of Disable is displayed.
The state of the search changes to either Enabled or Disabled, depending on
your action. If the search is disabled, it no longer appears in the search menu
on the toolbar, but the search data is still stored in the AR System Searches
Preference form.
3 Click Save to save your changes.
To delete a search
1 Select the search you want to delete.
2 Click Delete.
3 Click Save.
The search is deleted from the list in the Manage Searches dialog box, from
the search menu, and from the AR System Searches Preference form. To
restore a deleted search, you must recreate and save it.
where
<field> is the field on which to search.
<parameter> is the label for the search parameter. The label can be any
string that is not a keyword.
For example, the search ‘Submitter’ = “$Enter Submitter$” will
prompt the user to enter a submitter name.
6 Click OK.
7 Close the Manage Views dialog box.
8 Save the form.
Search parameters
3 Click Search.
A dialog box appears, requesting values for the search parameters.
4 Enter the values for which you want to search, and click OK.
The system executes the search and displays the results.
5 To save the search, follow the instructions from step 4 in “To save a search
you have created” on page 177.
3 Enter the values on which you want to search, and click OK.
The system executes the search and displays the results.
This section outlines the procedures for configuring the mid tier to run
reports on the web. The following topics are provided:
Reporting on AR System data (page 186)
Web reporting components (page 186)
Steps required to enable web reporting (page 187)
Overview of the Crystal Reports and BusinessObjects software (page 189)
Understanding the ARWebReportViewer (page 190)
Configuring web server settings for Crystal reports (page 191)
Configuring the mid tier for Crystal reports (page 200)
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Note: If you are not using Crystal reports, begin with step 4.
Step 1 To enable your users to view Crystal reports, install the AR System ODBC
driver (arodbc70.dll) on the machine you are using. The driver can be
installed in any of the following ways:
The BMC Remedy User install program includes an option to install the
AR System ODBC data source as a User DSN (data source name). For
more information, see the Installing guide.
The BMC Remedy Mid Tier install program “silently” installs the
AR System ODBC data source as a System DSN.
Step 2 For AR System on UNIX using Crystal Enterprise 10: Use the UNIX Web
Connector component that comes with Crystal Enterprise 10 to connect to
the UNIX mid tier. For more information, see Appendix A, “Installing and
configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms,” on page 247.
Step 3 If you are using BusinessObjects Enterprise XI, Crystal Reports Server XI, or
Crystal Enterprise 10, configure the following options and settings:
Step 4 Define the environment you are using to create, edit, and run reports on the
Web with entries to the ReportType form. (See “Using the ReportType form”
on page 208.)
Step 5 Make the ReportCreator and ReportSelection forms available to users on the
Web.
Views of these forms are automatically saved with the locale of en_US. If you
need a view of the form in another locale, open the view of the form on a
machine set to the locale you require, and save it.
Step 6 Create a report definition file using BMC Remedy User reporting tools, the
ReportCreator form, or the Crystal Report Designer application, and make
the report available for selection on the Web.
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Step 7 Define a table or results list field on a form to hold the data that serves as
input for a report. See “Reporting using table fields and results list fields” on
page 228.
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Crystal Enterprise 10
Web server settings are required if a user wants to view reports created with
the Crystal Report Designer application on the Web.
To run Crystal Enterprise 10 with AR System you must configure a virtual
directory, arreports, that points to the report directory on your mid tier.
The following procedures describe how to do this for IIS (page 191) and
SunONE (page 195).
To set up a remote mid tier that communicates with Crystal Enterprise 10,
see “Setting up a remote mid tier for Crystal Enterprise 10” on page 197.
2 In the Internet Information Services window, select Default Web Site from
the hierarchy.
3 From the Action menu, choose New > Virtual Directory to start the Virtual
Directory Creation Wizard.
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4 Click Next.
5 On the Virtual Directory Alias screen, enter arreports in the Alias field, and
then click Next.
6 When specifying the Web Site Content Directory, enter the mid tier report
directory.
7 On the Access Permissions screen, select all the check boxes except Execute,
and then click Next.
8 To complete the task, click Finish.
A new virtual directory called arreports appears as a sub-item in the Default
Web Site hierarchical list.
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2 Configure the web server to enable CGI for this cgi-bin directory.
See your web server documentation for instructions.
3 Copy the wcscgi.exe file from the Crystal Enterprise installation directory
(C:\Program Files\Crystal Decisions\win32_x86\wcscgi.exe) to the
cgi-bin directory.
4 Test the configuration by trying to view the sample web reports that are
installed with Crystal Enterprise. These samples are accessed from the
Windows Start menu option for Crystal Enterprise.
5 Open the SunONE web server settings in a browser.
6 Click the Java tab on the settings page.
7 On the Java web page, click the Default Class List link, and then click the
Programs tab.
8 On the Programs tab, click the CGI File Type link.
The CGI as a File Type page appears.
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On IIS, if you are running the IIS server on a local account, IIS has its own
security, which might prevent you from creating folders in the shared
directory. To work around this issue, you must run the service as a user who
has permission to create folders in the shared directory.
4 Install the mid tier on another machine (Machine B), and map a drive to
Machine A’s crystalTest folder.
5 Using the Mid Tier Configuration Tool, set the following Report Settings:
Crystal Enterprise 10 Location—http://<Machine B’s host name>:
<port>
Note: If you are using BusinessObjects Enterprise XI, make sure that the C:/
WINNT/Temp folder has the permissions for the user that the web server
runs as because reports are copied to this folder before they are published
to the CMS.
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Note: If you are using Crystal Reports Server XI, make sure that the C:/
WINNT/Temp folder has the permissions for the user that the web server
runs as because reports are copied to this folder before they are published
to the CMS.
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For IIS web servers serving Crystal Web is IIS, specify the <host_name>
of the Crystal Reports server.
http://<host_name>
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must
include it in the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
For SunONE 6.1 web servers serving Crystal Web, specify the CGI path
to the Crystal Web component server as:
http://<host_name>/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
where <host_name> is the name of the web server machine. If you need
to specify a port number other than the default, you must include it in
the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:port/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must
include it in the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
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CMS Folder Name—Name of the folder where the Crystal reports are
published.
CMS User Name and CMS Password—The user name and password of
CMS. The mid tier uses this user information to log in to the CMS and
publish the reports.
6 If you selected Crystal Reports Server XI, enter information for the following
field:
AR System ODBC Data Source Name—Name of the system DSN. If the
field is blank, “AR System ODBC Data Source” (the default) is used. The
ODBC driver is installed by BMC Remedy User, the mid tier, or
ARWebReportViewer.
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If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must
include it in the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
For SunONE 6.1 or Apache web servers serving Crystal Web, specify the
CGI path to the Crystal Web component server as:
http://<host_name>/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
where <host_name> is the name of the web server machine. If you need
to specify a port number other than the default, you must include it in
the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:port/cgi-bin/wcscgi.exe
If you need to specify a port number other than the default, you must
include it in the string as follows:
http://<host_name>:<port_number>
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Chapter
Note: The recommended entries for AR System and Crystal report types are
loaded automatically during AR System installation. Open the
ReportType form in BMC Remedy User in Search mode to see these
entries. Use the following procedure to define a new report type.
2 In the Report Type field, enter a name for the supporting report engine.
You cannot use the following names as names for your report types:
AR System
Crystal
These names are already used by the AR System and would violate a unique
index that has already been defined.
3 In the Query Converter Class field, enter the name of the Java class that
converts an AR System query string into a query string format recognized in
the web reporting interface.
AR System uses the com.remedy.arsys.reporting.CrystalQueryConverter
to implement the ReportQueryConverter interface that converts queries to
the Crystal report engine. You must also use this interface when writing your
own query converter for other web-based report engines. You can find the
CrystalQueryConverter and queryConverter_ReadMe.txt file in the
<mid_tier_install_dir>\samples directory. The queryConverter_ReadMe.txt
file provides a guide for creating your own query converter class.
4 In the Query Override Capability field, select Yes or No.
Selecting Yes gives this report type permission to override a query stored in a
report. A No selection denies this permission.
This field also is displayed on the ReportSelection form, with the selected
value.
5 For the Run Command, Edit Command, and Create Command fields, enter
the URLs that are used to connect a report to the report engine.
The Run command begins processing of the selected report.
The Edit and Create commands enable modifying and creating of reports
on the web.
The keyword portion of the URL corresponds to parameters that are passed
to the web reporting environment.
The following table lists allowable URL keywords that can be used to build
the Run, Edit, and Create commands. These keywords listed are for reporting
purposes only. They are not AR System keywords.
Keyword Description
$ARSERVER$ AR System server name for report data.
$ARAUTHENTICATION$ Authentication string used by the user.
$CRTLOC$ Location of any version of Crystal Reports. The mid tier
searches for version 10 first. If it does not find it, it
searches for BusinessObjects Enterprise XI.
This path is stored on the Report Settings page of the
BMC Remedy Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
$CRTXILOC$ Location of BusinessObjects Enterprise XI.
This path is stored on the Report Settings page of the
BMC Remedy Mid Tier Configuration Tool.
$USR$ User name.
$PWD$ User’s password.
$RPTAPP$ Application that the form belongs to.
$RPTENC$ HTML charset encoding.
$RPTOP$ Operations (Run, Edit, Create).
$RPTFORM$ Form the report is being run against.
$RPTSVR$ Name of the server where the form is located.
$RPTNAME$ Name of the report.
$RPTLOC$ Report location relative to the base directory for reports
as indicated in the BMC Remedy Mid Tier
Configuration Tool.
$RPTFILE$ The report on the web server. An absolute pointer to
where the report file is found.
$RPTQUERY$ Query string.
$RPTQOVR$ Query override.
$RPTVIEW$ View that the report is being run against.
$RPTVIEWEXT$ Extension to view.
$CRTSVR$ Crystal Web server. This is usually the same as the BMC
Remedy Mid Tier server web host.
Table 11-1: Run, edit, and create URL keywords and descriptions
Keyword Description
$CRTPORT$ Crystal Web server port.
$CRTVWR$ Crystal report viewer.
$LOC$ Locale used for generating locale-specific prompts,
labels, and formatting data.
$TIMEZONE$ Time zone to use for generating date and time strings;
for example, PST.
$LANGUAGE$ Language to use for formatting data.
$COUNTRY$ Country where the language is spoken.
$UPRPTSVR$ AR System server that is specified in the user preferences
as the Report Server.
$RPTCHARSET$ The character set to be applied to the report.
$RPTDEST$ The selected destination for the report; for example, File
or Screen.
The following entries are recommended for the Run Command, Edit
Command, and Create Command fields for the AR System and Crystal
report types. The recommended entries for AR System and Crystal report
types are loaded automatically during AR System installation.
Native AR System Reports
Report Type—AR System
By default, the Report Type is AR System, but you can enter any name.
Query Converter Class—<leave blank>
Query Override Capability—Yes
Run Command—/servlet/
NativeReportServlet?O=$RPTOP$&U=$USR$&P=$PWD$&Q=$RPTQUERY$&Q
R=$RPTQOVR$&S=$RPTSVR$&F=$RPTFORM$&VW=$RPTVIEW$&VWEXT=$RPTVI
EWEXT$&APP=$RPTAPP$&R=$RPTNAME$&RF=$RPTFILE$&LOC=$LOC$&TZ=$T
IMEZONE$&LNG=$LANGUAGE$&CTRY=$COUNTRY$&enc=$RPTENC$&RPTCHARS
ET=USESERVER&RPTDEST=FILE
Crystal Reports
Report Type—Crystal
By default, the Report Type is Crystal, but you can enter any name.
Query Converter Class—
com.remedy.arsys.reporting.CrystalQueryConverter
BORemoteAPPURL=$CRTXILOC$/arreports/
$RPTLOC$?init=$CRTVWR$&User0=$USR$;ARServer=$ARSERVER$;ARAut
hentication=$ARAUTHENTICATION$;ARReportLocale=$LOC$;ARVUITyp
e=1&Password0=$PWD$&SF=$RPTQUERY$
BOCurrentMidtierURL=$CRTXILOC$/arsys/
$RPTLOC$?init=$CRTVWR$&User0=$USR$;ARServer=$ARSERVER$;ARAut
hentication=$ARAUTHENTICATION$;ARReportLocale=$LOC$;ARVUITyp
e=1&Password0=$PWD$&SF=$RPTQUERY$
BORemoteMidtierURL=$CRTXILOC$/arsys/
$RPTLOC$?init=$CRTVWR$&User0=$USR$;ARServer=$ARSERVER$;ARAut
hentication=$ARAUTHENTICATION$;ARReportLocale=$LOC$;ARVUITyp
e=1&Password0=$PWD$&SF=$RPTQUERY$
AR System reports
You can create AR System reports on the Web using the ReportCreator form.
Reports created using the ReportCeator form automatically create an entry
to the Report form when submitted.
For information about creating and editing AR System reports using
BMC Remedy User reporting tools, see BMC Remedy User help.
Crystal reports
Crystal reports are created using the Crystal Report Designer application,
which is a Windows application that BusinessObjects sells separately. Report
definition files created using the Crystal Report Designer application are
saved with the file extension .rpt. Once saved, the definition files can then be
made available for web reporting with an entry to the Report form.
Additional Crystal Web-related settings that might need to be configured
depending on the web server installed. See “Configuring web server settings
for Crystal reports” on page 191 for more information.
Additionally, when saving, select the Save Without Data option and
deselect the Report Refresh on Open option to prevent the original data
from being displayed each time a report is displayed.
Note: If you run a report from the Web that contains a subreport, Crystal
Enterprise 10 prompts you for user credentials for the subreport.
When users open the ReportCreator form to create or edit reports, the Form
Name field is filled automatically only if no aliases are specified for the form
that opens the Report Selection window. The data dictionary menu attached
to the Form Name field displays Plural request aliases of forms (or form
names if there are no aliases). As workflow has no access to the Plural request
alias, the Form Name field cannot be populated.
The following figure displays the ReportCreator form with sample entries for
creating a report definition file for a report called Sample: ClassList.
Note: To be sure that reports can be saved, the permissions for the
ReportCreator form must be Visible for the Public group (the default).
The arsys within the URL assumes that you used the installer-supplied
Web Application context path of /arsys/ in ServletExec JSP Engine. If
you used a different context path, change arsys to the name you specified.
The ReportCreator form opens in New mode.
2 In the Report Name field, enter a unique, locale-specific name for the report;
for example, MyReport-en.
3 From the Report Format drop-down list, select one of the following choices
for the format of the report:
Record—Displays each field of the request on a separate line.
Column—Displays each field as a column heading, and displays
information from each request in a separate row.
Compressed—Compresses the information with commas, white space, or
any other specified character between the columns. On the Web, the
compressed format is viewed in a column format.
4 In the Server name field, enter the name of the server where the form being
reported on is located.
5 In the Locale field, enter the locale of the report in the following format:
<language_country>
For a list of standard choices for this field, open the Manage Views dialog box
in BMC Remedy Administrator. Only the language portion should be
entered, allowing for all country variations of a language. For example, an
entry of fr would include all country variations of French.
6 In the Form Name field, click the menu button to select the form from which
data is being reported on.
7 In the Report Set field, enter a locale-independent description for the report.
The Report Set field is used to identify locale variants of the same report. The
combination of Report Set and Locale must be unique.
8 Update each of the ReportCreator form tabs as described in the following
sections. Entries that are specific to Windows reports are identified in each of
the tabs. Those settings are ignored for Web reports.
Fields tab
In the Fields tab, define the fields on the form from which data is being
reported to be included in the report.
Sorting tab
In the Sorting tab, select fields to sort on and set the sort order and grouping
for each field for the report. You can select up to five fields for sorting.
Statistics tab
In the Statistics tab, define expressions that will calculate statistics for the
requests contained in the report. Use the Statistics tab to specify what type of
statistics to include.
If you are defining a Count operation that includes an expression, only rows
with a value that is not null for the specified expression are counted when the
report is run. If you are defining a Count operation that does not include an
expression, all rows returned are counted, including those with null values.
The menu list displays all numeric or date fields in the form. Expressions can
include any of the following values:
Numeric fields
Date fields
Status history fields
Keywords
The most commonly used keywords are $DATE$, $NULL$, $TIME$,
$TIMESTAMP$, $USER$, and $WEEKDAY$. Keywords are case-sensitive and
must be entered in all capital letters. For a complete list of AR System
keywords, see the Workflow Objects guide.
Note: For reports to run properly on the Web, you must add a backslash to
the keyword in the Expression field, for example, $\TIMESTAMP$.
Numbers
You can type numbers directly into the Expression field, for example, 5.25,
33, and so on.
Arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /, and %)
You can type arithmetic operators directly into the Expression field,
similar to the way they are entered in the advanced search bar.
3 In the Label field, type the label to identify a statistic on the report.
You can use text, keywords, or field values, and enter as many as 128
characters. To use keywords for the Label field, click the menu list and select
the appropriate keyword. Include one of the following results formats:
%* % Default format
%#% Numerical format (total number of seconds)
%:% Time format (hh:mm:ss; hours, minutes, and seconds)
4 On the report, the statistic will appear inside the label. For example, a label
created as Statistical result is %#% days will appear on the report as
Statistical result is 123 days.
You can also include any of the following control characters in a label field:
\b Backspace
\n Return
\t Tab
\\ Backslash
\<nnn> ASCII character
2 Enter text in the Header field. The header appears at the top of every page.
3 Enter text in the Footer field. The footer appears at the bottom of every page.
To use keywords for the Title, Header, and Footer fields, click the menu list
and select the appropriate keyword. The data in the Title, Header, and Footer
fields must be a single line. Embedded carriage returns are not allowed.
Qualification tab
In the Qualification tab, specify which records to include in a report. If a
report is run from a results list, any qualifications defined in this tab are
ignored. For information about building qualifications, see the Workflow
Objects guide.
Description tab
In the Description tab, enter a description of the report. This field provides a
helpful summary to your users.
Permissions tab
In the Permissions tab, use the Assignee Groups field to define who has access
to a report.
If the server is configured to allow multiple groups in the Assignee Group
field, then this field will allow multiple groups to be specified, separating each
group with a single space. If the server is not configured to allow multiple
groups, then only one group can be specified in this field.
Leaving the Assignee Groups field blank allows only the submitter to view the
report. Specifying Public allows anyone to view the report.
Administration tab
In the Administration tab of the Report Creator form, enter the user name of
the person who is creating the report, and define the status of the report. The
fields on this tab are required.
1 In the Submitter field, enter the name of the user creating the report.
2 In the Status field, select one of the following options:
Active—Makes the report available for selection in the ReportSelection
form.
Any file created in BMC Remedy User will be incompatible because it does
not support Unicode. Instead, use the ReportCreator form to create
reports on a Unicode server.
3 Select the entry you want to delete from the results list.
4 Click Delete.
Note: To make a report unavailable without deleting it, select Inactive in the
Status field on the Report form for the report entry. You can make the
report available again later by changing the status back to Active.
Note: The arsys within the URL assumes that you used the installer-supplied
Web Application context path of /arsys/ in ServletExec . If you used a
different context path, change arsys to the name you specified.
The following table describes the buttons and options on the ReportSelection
form and their functions in web reporting.
Buttons Function
Refresh Updates the table with the most recent AR System data.
Report Opens a new browser window for the ReportSelection form.
Select All Selects all entries in the table to be included in a report.
Selective reporting is also possible using the following keystrokes:
SHIFT key—To report on a range of entries, click an entry and
hold down the SHIFT key. Click another entry above or below the
original selection, and then release the SHIFT key.
This action includes all entries between those selected in a report.
CTRL key—To report on multiple entries, click an entry and then
hold down the CTRL key. Continue to click the entries you want
to include in a report, still holding down the CTRL key. When you
have finished selecting table entries, release the CTRL key.
This action includes selected entries in a report.
Deselect All Clears all selections in the table. If no entries in the table are selected,
the report will show all entries that match the table search. If a table
search has not been defined, then all entries are printed.
You cannot have more than one results list field on a single form, but you can
have multiple table fields on a single form. Figure 11-5 on page 230 shows a
form containing a table field defined to hold data from another form.
If you selected File, you will be prompted for a file name and destination.
Note: If you select Crystal Report in the Report Type field, then Edit and
Create are not valid options for the Operation field.
g For the Query Override field menu, select Yes or No from the menu.
Some report engines allow the Qualification String (or Entry IDs) to
override a query that might be stored as part of the report definition. This
value specifies whether the report engine should do so.
h In the Character Encoding field, select the character set to be used for the
report, or select Use Server to apply the same character set encoding used
by the server.
5 Click Add Action.
6 Save the active link and close the window.
Note: Check the Advanced check box at the bottom of the active link window
to select local field values from a menu for each attribute. For more
information about how to create an active link, see the Workflow Objects
guide.
File types
The file type you choose for exporting will depend on the original data source
and how you will use the data. File types are explained in the following
sections.
AR Export
AR Export (.arx) is the default file type, and yields the cleanest results when
data is exported and imported within AR System. The AR Export format is
designed to properly format data that you will import into an AR System
form using BMC Remedy Import.
AR System XML
AR XML (.xml) is a BMC Remedy XML standard derived from the W3C
XForm standard, and it contains several elements that are required for
AR System use. If you plan to import XML data into an AR System form
using BMC Remedy Import, your data must conform to the AR XML data
specification. Data exported to the AR XML file type conforms to this
specification. You can also convert XML data obtained outside AR System to
the AR XML standard.
Conversely, you can export AR XML data, parse it with any tool that parses
documents that conform to the XForm specification, and use the data
outside AR System. For information about XForms, see the W3C website.
Attachments are handled in the same manner as in the .arx file type.
Note: When you export AR System data from Crystal Reports to HTML 3.2,
HTML 4.0, or XML, your default export directory depends on whether
your computer is connected to a network. If your computer is connected
to a network, and your login profile has a temporary directory setting
under Windows, your default export directory will be
%USERPROFILE%\LocalSettings\Temp. If your computer is not connected
to a network your export will default to whatever temporary directory is
set in your Windows environment settings, for example, C:\Temp or
C:\Windows\Temp.
Comma-separated values
You can use the comma-separated values (.csv) format if you plan to use the
report data in other applications, such as Crystal Enterprise or in
spreadsheets. For example, if you want to use the report data in a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet, export it as a .csv file, open Excel, and import the data
into the Excel file.
Note: You cannot export the content of an attachment with a .csv file. If you
export a .csv file with an attachment, only the file name of the attachment
is exported.
Note: The Compressed format is not supported on the Web. When you select
Compressed as the report format, your report will be displayed in Column
format instead.
4 In the Report Format field, select the format in which you want to export the
report. For more information, see “File types” on page 233.
5 Click Run.
A dialog box appears with the default file name Report.<file_type>, where
<file_type> is the extension for the file type you selected in step 4.
6 In the Report File Name field, replace the default name Report with a file
name under which you want to export the report; for example, MyDocuments.
The file name will then be (for example) MyDocuments.csv.If you want to use
a different file format for this report, change the extension also. For example,
to export as an .arx file instead of a .csv file, change the extension from .csv
to .arx.
Note: In BMC Remedy User, you must enter a fully qualified path name that
includes the name you want for the report; for example,
c:\temp\MyReport.csv.
7 Click OK.
The File Download dialog box appears.
8 Select a location for the file (for example, c:\temp).
9 Click Save.
AR XML .xml
ASCII .asc
Backward compatibility
Macros stopped being supported in the AR System 5.x release. You can view
reports created using run macro report actions with releases prior to
AR System 5.x in BMC Remedy User, or on the Web, by converting them to
an equivalent active link.
For details on the AR System Message Catalog entry required for localized
reports embedded in an active link, see the Form and Application Objects
guide.
Important: Crystal Designer and Crystal Reports use the user name and
password in the System DSN to log in to AR System. When you create
reports in Crystal Designer, you use a System DSN complete with a user
name and a password. If Crystal Designer requests user information, do
not provide it. The information in the System DSN should be sufficient. If
not, provide the required information in the System DSN, not in Crystal
Designer. Do not use a User DSN when you create or run Crystal Reports.
Before you run any reports, however, modify your System DSN to remove
the user name and password. This causes Crystal Reports to use the user
name and password of the user currently logged in. Failure to remove the
user name and password from the System DSN might give you unexpected
results when you run your report.
Important: Be sure to click the System DSN tab, not the User DSN tab. Never
use the User registered version of the ODBC driver to create reports.
6 Specify the server name and user name to connect to the database.
You do not need to fill in the password.
7 Select the Use Underscore check box in the ODBC dialog box.
This will confirm that the ODBC driver translates special characters such as
colons, spaces, and so on, into underscores.
8 Select the Use Labels check box to use field labels based on the locale you
specify in the Report Locale field.
Note: It is recommended that you deselect the Verify On First Refresh report
option in Crystal Reports. Then, you do not need to match the Use Labels
option for the report to run correctly.
If the Verify On First Refresh option is selected, you must match the Use
Labels option when you create the report and at runtime. For example, if
you select the Use Labels option when you create the report, you must also
select it when you run the report. Conversely, if you unselect the Use
Labels option when you create the report, you must also unselect it when
you run the report
9 In the Report Locale field, enter the locale for the language in which you want
to see the report.
Note: If you have installed two localized views (for example, German and
French), and you are using the German localized view and the report
locale setting is set to the French locale, the data returned will be in French,
though the static report text will be in German.
For reports displayed by BMC Remedy User, you do not need to specify a
value in the Report Locale field. BMC Remedy User supplies the correct
value.
10 Click OK to save the settings.
3 Click on the top and left page margins to make vertical or horizontal lines
appear in the designer.
4 Move the fields next to the guidelines to attach them to the guidelines. This
way the column headings and the column content can be left aligned as well
as top aligned.
Note: Guidelines are displayed only in the design mode and not when the
report is actually viewed.
Step 1 Install Crystal Reports Server 10 on the Windows system using the MS IIS
web server. (page 248)
Step 2 Install the mid tier on UNIX with iPlanet/ServletExec. (page 248)
Step 3 Install and configure Crystal Web Connector on the same system where the
mid tier is installed. (page 249)
Step 4 Install Samba (or similar network file sharing software) on the same system
where the mid tier is installed. (page 251)
248 Appendix A—Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
You will now copy parts of the following files to related files under the
<iPlanet_installation>/config directory:
4 Copy the contents of the Mime.type.conf file to the mime.types file (located
under the <iPlanet_installation>/config directory):
type=magnus-internal/rpt exts=rpt
type=magnus-internal/csp exts=csp
type=magnus-internal/cri exts=cri
type=magnus-internal/cwr exts=cwr
5 For initialization, copy the following two lines from the obj.conf file to the
magnus.conf file:
Init fn="load-modules" funcs=req_handler,req_init
shlib="<connecter_install_directory>/crystal/enterprise/
solaris_sparc/wcs/lib/libnsapi.so"
Init fn="req_init" WCSHosts="<hostname>.<your_domain>.COM"
ClientPool="5" ConnectorTimeou t="600000" WCSPathMap="/crystal;.rpt;
<Crystal_Enterprise_install_directory>/Web Content/,/crystal;.cwr;
<Crystal_Enterprise_install_directory>/Web Content/,/crystal;.csp;
<Crystal_Enterprise_install_directory>/Web Content/,/crystal;.cri;
<Crystal_Enterprise_install_directory>/Web Content/,/
crystalreportviewers;.csp; <Crystalreportviewer_install_directory>/
2.0/crystalreportviewers/"
You must substitute the locations of the two Web Contents and the
Crystalreportviewers directories from your Windows system. The default
locations are:
Crystal Reports Server 10 default location: C:\Program Files\Crystal
Decisions\Web Content
6 Copy the following the contents of the obj.conf file to the obj.conf file:
# Add to NameTrans part; /usr/webconn/.. is webconnecter installed
dir.
NameTrans fn=pfx2dir from=/crystal
dir="<connecter_install_directory>/crystal/webcontent"
NameTrans fn=pfx2dir from=/viewer dir="<connecter_install_directory>/
crystal/viewers"
NameTrans fn=pfx2dir from=/crystalreportviewers
dir="<connecter_install_directory>/crystal/viewers"
# Add following to obj.conf in Object session
<Object>
...
ObjectType fn=force-type type=text/plain
Service fn="req_handler" method="(GET|POST)" type="magnus-internal/
rpt"
Service fn="req_handler" method="(GET|POST)" type="magnus-internal/
csp"
Service fn="req_handler" method="(GET|POST)" type="magnus-internal/
cri"
Service fn="req_handler" method="(GET|POST)" type="magnus-internal/
cwr"
</Object>
# Add following to the end of obj.conf
<Object ppath="<connecter installed>/crystal/viewers/*.exe">
ObjectType fn=force-type type="application/octet-stream"
Service fn="send-file"
</Object>
250 Appendix A—Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
For example:
./configure --prefix=/usr/samba
5 Add the samba user to the samba password file by running the following
command:
smbpasswd -a -m <your_samba_user_name_without_the_$>
This command stores the machine account in the samba password file.
To change the password, run the following command:
smbpasswd <your_samba_user_name_with_the_$>
To create the password, do not include the $ in the user name. To change the
password, however, you do include the dollar sign ($) in the user name, for
example:
smbpasswd -a -m samba
smbpasswd samba$
This share directory on the UNIX system must be fully shareable on the local
network so that Windows systems can read files from the UNIX system and
write files to it.
7 Modify the /etc/inetd.conf file by adding the following lines:
Netbios-ssn stream tcp nowait root /<samba installed>/bin/smbd
Netbios-ns dgram udp wait root /<samba installed>/bin/nmbd
252 Appendix A—Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
8 Create an /etc/xinetd.d directory, then add two files to it: netbios-ssn and
netbios-ns.
9 Create the start script under /etc/init.d directory, for example, naming it
RunSamba.
10 Edit the directories in this start script to reflect your installation. The script
can then be used to manually start, stop, or restart Samba. You can also
return the status of Samba.
A sample start script might look like the this:
#!/bin/sh
#
# description: Starts and stops the Samba smbd and nmbd daemons \
# used to provide SMB network services.
termall() {
pid=`/bin/ps ax | /bin/grep -w $1 | /bin/sed -e 's/^ *//' -e 's/
.*//'`
echo -n "Stopping $1 now : "
for PID in $pid; do
[ "$PID" != "" ] && kill -0 $PID 2> /tmp/pid >&2 && kill -15
$PID
echo -n "$PID "
done
echo
rm -f /tmp/pid
}
running() {
listpid=`/bin/ps ax | /bin/grep -w $1 | /bin/sed -e 's/^ *//' -e
's/ .*//'`
if [ "$listpid" != "" ]; then
echo -n "$1 is running with PID = "
for pid in $listpid; do
kill -0 $pid > /tmp/pid 2>&1 && echo -n "$pid "
done
else
echo -n "$1 not running"
fi
rm -f /tmp/pid
echo
}
254 Appendix A—Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
echo ""
;;
status)
running smbd
running nmbd
$ROOT/bin/smbstatus
;;
restart)
If the stop command does not work, you can kill the two processes for
Samba.
256 Appendix A—Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
e Click Add.
f Select AR System ODBC Driver from the list and click Finish.
g Enter the data source name.
If the name is AR System ODBC Data Source, delete the User DSN entry
with this name to avoid conflict. (Crystal will pick the User DSN over
the System DSN if they have the same name. The web requires the
System DSN.)
Preferably, use a name other than AR System ODBC Data Source to
avoid conflict with the User DSN entry that is created upon
BMC Remedy User installation.
h Enter the name of the AR System server in the AR Server field.
i Select the Replace '.' in object names option.
j Select the Use Underscores option.
k Select the Use Labels check box to use field labels based on the locale you
specify in the Report Locale field.
Note: It is recommended that you deselect the Verify On First Refresh report
option in Crystal Reports. Then, you do not need to match the Use Labels
option for the report to run correctly.
If the Verify On First Refresh option is selected, you must match the Use
Labels option when you create the report and at runtime. For example, if
you select the Use Labels option when you create the report, you must also
select it when you run the report. Conversely, if you deselect the Use
Labels option when you create the report, you must also deselect it when
you run the report
l In the Report Locale field, enter the locale for the language in which you
want to see the report.
Note: If you have installed two localized views (for example, German and
French), and you are using the German localized view and the report
locale setting is set to the French locale, the data returned will be in French,
though the static report text will be in German.
For reports displayed by BMC Remedy User, you do not need to specify a
value in the Report Locale field. BMC Remedy User supplies the correct
value.
m Click OK.
8 Verify that Crystal Web Connector works for the Crystal examples.
You can find this information in the Crystal Web Connector documentation.
9 Run a Crystal report using the AR System.
258 Appendix A—Installing and configuring Crystal Web Connector on UNIX platforms
Index
Index 259
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
260 Index
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
exporting H
attachments 234 header content, editing 119
data from web to file 235 help for web applications 145
data to file 233 hierarchy of elements in style sheets 155
external files and .css style sheets 158 home pages
EXTERNAL keyword 232 form action fields 123
forms, opening 128
F opening forms from 128
field types, reporting 228 server 76, 110
fields URL 128
CSS classes 162
form action 122 I
passing data in URL 136 IIS web server and virtual directory 191
file locations, mid tier 15 importing attachments 234
files installation
See also log files components and patches 17
.css style sheets 158 overview 14
definition 222 troubleshooting 64
definition, saving 222 UNIX 35
exporting data to 233 UNIX worksheet 26
report 187 Windows 43
style sheet location 156 Windows worksheet 30
Flashboards internal Java, disabling 22
data points 98
definition interval 85 J
flush cache 86 Java SDK, troubleshooting 66
font styles, changing with style sheets 172 Java, disabling internal 22
footer content, editing 119 JAWS, configuring 147
form action fields 122
formats K
AR Export 234, 237 keyboard shortcuts 151
ASCII 237 keywords
comma-separated values 237 EXTERNAL 232
CSV, reports 235 reports and 219
XML 234, 237 URL, to connect reports to engine 209
formatting web pages 126
forms L
AR System Mid Tier Object List 77 legacy URLs 131
Home Pages, opening from 128 limitations for browser and CSS 154
Report 222 Linux, changing the group ID value 66
ReportCreator 214 load balancer, Mid Tier Configuration Tool 71
reporting 186 loading a search 179
ReportType 208 locale
configuring 107
determining 144
Index 261
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
262 Index
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
Index 263
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
264 Index
Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
web clients
order of precedence for CSS 155
ReportSelection form, accessing 224
web header and footer content, editing 119
web reporting
ARWebReportViewer 190
BOXI settings 198
components 186
Crystal Report Designer, using 213
Crystal Web settings 191
keywords, using 219
running reports 224
setting up configuration 200
steps 187
web services
configuring for mid tier 91
web toolbar 118
web views
Crystal web settings 191
direct access URL 131
external files and 126
page properties 126
preference 76
Web-Alternate view 116
Windows
file locations 15
installation worksheet 30
uninstalling 60
worksheet
UNIX installation 26
Windows installation 30
X
XML
formats for exporting 234, 237
Z
z-index 121
Index 265
BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.0
266 Index
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