WebFOCUS Amper Auto-Prompting Facility: Enhancements to the Default Autoprompt Form 

By Susan Trommer

Beginning with WebFOCUS 7.1, a great deal of attention and effort has gone into enhancing the functionality and improving the design of WebFOCUS Amper Auto-prompting facility because it is very useful for rapid parameter-based report development.  When WebFOCUS Amper Auto-prompting is enabled, a developer does not have to spend time creating a launch page to prompt for parameter values required to run a report request.

Changes in defaults are documented in the WebFOCUS Upgrade Considerations document available from the Information Builders Documentation Services web site accessible from the Technical Support web site.

Each release’s default autoprompt form is defined by a template that is stored in the WebFOCUS Client’s \ibi_html\javaassist\ibi\html\describe directory. Each release includes the autoprompt templates from the prior release. In Release 7.6.2 there are five autoprompt template files to choose from. There are more than five templates (XSL files) in the \ibi_html\javaassist\ibi\html\describe. The templates I do not cover in this article are used for other WebFOCUS features. 

Here is a list of the autoprompt templates in alphabetical order with brief functionality summary and filename information if the filename has changed across releases. 

autoprompt.xsl – the default in release 7.1.x.  Parameters are listed vertically on the left side of the page and the report appears on the right. A slider bar gives the user the option to hide or show the parameters so that more space is available to view the report. The “Run in a new window” option provides the user with the option of displaying the report in a new browser window.

autoprompt_checked.xsl – added in release 7.6.2. It has the design and functionality of autoprompt.xsl with the “Run in a new window” option checked.

autoprompt_simple.xsl – the default in releases 5.3.x with filename autoprompt.xsl. In Release 7.1.x the filename is autoprompt_old.xsl and the background color is changed to blue. In Release 7.6.x the filename is autoprompt_simple.xsl. When the report request (FOCEXEC) is run the report appears in the same browser window. No option to display report output in a new browser window. 

autoprompt_top.xsl – the default in release 7.6.x. The page is designed with a neutral gray theme and the font type is much smaller than the release 7.1.x default (autoprompt.xsl).  Parameters are listed horizontally at the top of the page with a horizontal control bar that when doubled-clicked collapses the parameter information. The “Run in new window” option is included and a “Clear Output” button has been added to clear the report from the page.

autoprompt_top_checked- added in release 7.6.2. Its design and functionality are the same as autoprompt_top.xsl with the “Run in a new window” option checked.

Now that you are aware of the autoprompt templates available, use the WebFOCUS Administration Console to configure the template to be used as the default. In Release 7.6.x’s WebFOCUS Administration Console, select the vertical menu “Configuration” option and under “Client Settings” select “Parameter Prompting.” 

In the right frame of the WebFOCUS Administration Console the WebFOCUS Client variables for parameter prompting are displayed. The IBIF_describe_xsl variable specifies the autoprompt template (XSL file) that the WF Client will apply. All the autoprompt template files (XSL files) distributed with WebFOCUS are lowercase names to avoid case issues on Unix operating systems.  

In Release 7.6.x the value of IBIF_describe_xsl the lowercase XSL filename. The IBIF_describe_xsl_location WF Client variable specifies the path to the directory that contains the autoprompt templates. The default setting of IBIF_describe_xsl_location is &IBI_HTML_DIR/javaassist/ibi/html/describe
At run time the value of &IBI_HTML_DIR is resolved by the WF Client to the fully qualified path to the of the WF Client ibi_html directory.

In Release 7.1.x the WF Client IBIF_external_xsl variable is used to specify the path to the directory where the XSL templates are stored and the template name. Value is specified as

&IBI_HTML_DIR/javaassist/ibi/html/describe/template

Where ‘template’ is a lowercase XSL filename available in release 7.1.x.

Before you select “Save,” check that you have entered the value correctly because there isn’t any validation to verify the filename you entered exists. After the save request has been completed, you do not need to clear the WF Servlet memory cache. The WF Client will apply the specified template with the next request that is run.

If you would like to use a different autoprompt template than the default you have configured for a specific report request, this functionality is available in Release 7.6.2.  In that release, a new feature is implemented to override the default autoprompt template by entering the name of the desired template in a FOCEXEC using

-<describe_xsl>template</describe_xsl>
where
template
Is the autoprompt template name (without .xsl extension) available in
the release you are using.

Site customization of an autoprompt template is possible but requires an understanding of the autoprompt template implementation. There have been a lot of enhancements and problem fixes made to the autoprompt template files in 7.1.x and 7.6.x, so Information Builders recommends you work with the latest available WebFOCUS release. 

In release 7.6.x the autoprompt templates are implemented in the WF Client using XSL, JavaScript and CSS files. The XSL creates the JavaScript structure that call JavaScript files. The JavaScript files construct the HTML autoprompt form. A CSS file styles the background color, font type and font color. When making site customizations, do not change the JavaScript files because the JavaScript files are used by multiple WebFOCUS product components.   

Make a copy of the XSL and CSS file you would like to customize and apply the customizations in the copy you have made. Working with a copy is recommended because a WebFOCUS service pack install includes updates to the autoprompt template files distributed with WebFOCUS which will overwrite your customizations. The service pack install backs up the WebFOCUS Client files to another directory, from which you can copy the files. However, if you do this, you will not be utilizing any improvements or problem fixes for the template you have customized.

If you create a customized version of an autoprompt template, you will have to manage the testing and migrating in later releases. Contact Information Builders Customer Support if you would like to submit your customized template to Information Builders to be included in our quality assurance testing. Your template will also be reviewed for addition to the templates that are currently distributed with WebFOCUS. This is how the templates with the “Run in new window” option selected by default were added to the templates distributed with WebFOCUS 7.6.2.

Before you go and check out the available WebFOCUS autoprompt templates, you need to take some time to understand the configuration parameters and options that control the WebFOCUS Amper Auto-prompting facility. Information on the WF Client variables IBIF_wfdescribe and IBIMR_prompting that control the amper auto-prompting are documented in the WebFOCUS Security and Administration Guide. In 7.6.1 the information for IBIF_wfdescribe is in Chapter 4 and the information for IBIMR_prompting is in Chapter 6. Information about the WebFOCUS Amper Auto-prompting Facility is documented in the Release 761 WebFOCUS Developing Reporting Applications in Chapter 4 Coding a User Interface subtopic Amper Auto-Prompting.

Keep in mind the default WebFOCUS configuration is to not prompt for parameters for self-service reports (IBIF_wfdescribe=OFF). This is to preserve upward compatibility as the WebFOCUS Amper Auto-prompting Facility was implemented in Release 5.2. Before Release 5.2 WebFOCUS applications needed custom HTML launch pages to prompt for parameters and the majority of WebFOCUS applications still use custom HTML launch pages. So before turning on dynamic parameter prompting, evaluate what applications are running from the WF Client installation or, ideally, work in a development environment. If you have Release 7.6.2 you can use the feature to override the default autoprompt template in the report request (FOCEXEC).

For Managed Reporting the default is to dynamically prompt for parameters that have no value or a default value. In Release 7.1.x the WebFOCUS Client configuration variable for Managed Reporting parameter prompting, IBIMR_prompting, is implemented. In Release 7.6.x’s WebFOCUS Administration Console the IBIMR_prompting variable is accessible from the Configuration option in the Client Settings Managed Reporting sub-option.  

In a follow-up article, I will cover the settings available for IBIF_wfdescribe and IBIMR_prompting parameter-prompting configuration variables and explain what the expected level of parameter prompting is for each setting. Until then, check out the templates available for the WebFOCUS autoprompt form and keep providing us with your feedback.