WebFOCUS Web Services: How They Work

By Efrem Litwin

The release of WebFOCUS 5.2.1 brought support for Web services. Many companies today develop their own applications in the .NET development environment with languages such as Visual Basic, C++, or C#. They also develop applications in a Java development with tools such as JBUILDER.

In both these development environments companies have the ability to incorporate WebFOCUS report output into their applications. They also have the ability to perform certain Managed Reporting security maintenance tasks via WebFOCUS Web services.

What are Web services? They are building blocks for developing distributed applications on the Internet or an intranet. Web services allow applications to communicate with one another.

Why are Web services important? Web services can work across a variety of platforms. A Web service offered by a company using a Java environment may be used by a different company that uses a .NET environment.

How does the WebFOCUS Web service work? The first step is the development of the WebFOCUS report. A WebFOCUS report would be developed within the WebFOCUS Developer Studio environment or the WebFOCUS Managed Reporting environment. The report could contain any styling and any of the supported output formats. HTML, EXCEL, PDF, and XML are all formats of output that might be integrated into a .NET or Java™ application.

Screen 1 shows a formatted report run from within the Developer Studio environment. The output for this report is in PDF.

Screen 1

The second step is the creation of the Web services Description Language (WSDL). WSDL gives the application using a Web service the information it needs to communicate with the Web service provider. With WebFOCUS reports, WebFOCUS is the Web service provider.

The WSDL file would contain information such as the WebFOCUS reports to be used within the .NET or Java application and the parameters needed to run the report. The address to access the WebFOCUS utility that creates the WSDL file for WebFOCUS Reports is http://machinename/ibi_ html/workbnch/webservice.htm.

In a .NET environment, you would select Add Web Reference from the Project menu item. From there you would enter the address to access the WebFOCUS utility that creates the WSDL file. Once the WSDL file is created, you would click the Add Reference button to create the .NET code needed for calling the Web service. This is the creation of a proxy to the Web service.

For self-service applications, the utility will prompt the application developer to choose the WebFOCUS application and WebFOCUS reports to be included in the WSDL file. For MRE reports, the utility will prompt the application developer to choose the WebFOCUS domain, the WebFOCUS Reporting Group, and the WebFOCUS reports to be included in the WSDL file.

The third step is to write the .NET or Java application. This application could be a customized front end for running WebFOCUS reports, a portal that has a component to display WebFOCUS reports, or a WebFOCUS report used as input for a Web service call to another Web service provider (e.g., The reordering of products from a supplier). Screen 2 shows a Visual Basic program within the .NET environment that calls HRRANKN report. Notice that the parameters for the report are sent as part of the WebFOCUS Web service call.

Screen 2

Screen 3 shows the result of running an application that asks for parameters and then runs the WebFOCUS report HRRANKN. The output in this example is displayed through an ActiveX browser. Notice how the output matches the output in Screen 1.

Screen 3

The WebFOCUS Web service brings back output. It is not intended to be another method of running WebFOCUS functionality. For example, drill-down is WebFOCUS functionality. The WebFOCUS Web service has a function for determining the URL associated with a report line. But, the drill-down functionality has to be programmed within the application.

Some of the MRE-type security functions included in the WebFOCUS Web service are create a new user, delete a user, create a reporting group, delete a reporting group, add a group to a user, delete a group from a user, create domain, rename domain, and change user password. Some companies may need to develop their own front ends for maintaining security.

Currently, ReportCaster is not supported as part of the WebFOCUS Web service. The ReportCaster Web services is in development and will be part of a future WebFOCUS release.