How to link business objects Webi report to pdf files

building reports webintelligence
1

Sorry if I am asking the same question as my search showed linking webi to webi report or other files on the infoview but I am looking for link to be established in a different way.

We have static data and have like 100k records of data and each loan number is associated with PDF and don’t want to add those in webi and link I want those 100k pdf file located anywhere and establish link and I am not able to figure out how to do that.

Any ideas on this approach or how this can be done?
Thanks for help in advance.

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

2

You can build a hyperlink in a string and then set the cell to be read as html

3

I will build hyperlink but I wanted to know where can I save the 100,000 reports so I can make the hyperlink work to get that report from that location as I cannot save those hundreds of reports in the Infoview.
Any ideas/

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

4

The easiest thing to do would be to just put them on a web server somewhere.

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

5

I just need a way to do it like how to put on webserver and how to link it to BO report please share if you have any information on that.

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

6

This is the simplest possible way to do it:

On your BO server, in the Tomcat/webapps directory, create a new directory that will house the PDFs. Let’s call it “pdfs”.

Next, copy in all the PDFs into the pdfs directory.

You should now be able to access the PDFs in a browser: http://boserver:8080/pdfs/whatever.pdf

In your BO report, just add a hyperlink with the above URL.

Note that this method provides NO security. Anyone with network access to the server will be able to retrieve any of the published PDFs.

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

7

I have tried as mentioned and now I am getting Status 404 saying the requested resource is not available but I see PDF’s in the Tomcat/webapps directory.
Not sure what I am I missing?

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

8

They need to be in a subdirectory of webapps.

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

9

Yeah I found them the main link is working now trying to figure out how to add Open doc function or hyperlink where I want each associated pdf to be pulled when selected like if we select 1234 in report I want 1234.pdf to be populated.
Is that possible with hyperlink or open doc?

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

10

It’s just a plain ol’ hyperlink – no openDocument needed.

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

11

Thanks for the responses.
I am kind of not sure as this approach is I have to add http://boserver:8080/pdfs/whatever.pdf BUt I want to look for the report from main folder.

Like lets say I have a report with loan number 1234 and user selects it and I want PDF of 1234 to be populated and if I have a loan number 6545 and I need 6545.pdf but this approach is I am entering http://boserver:8080/pdfs/1234.pdf and same pdf is opened for all other different loan numbers which is not we want how do I make the link work from main folder and link to each associated pdf?

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

12

Build the url out of the variable interpolating the dynamic value into the part that is static. The concept is
=“http://boserver:8080/pdfs/” + [Loan Number] + “.pdf” where [Loan Number] is what you want to fill in specific to where that value per row. Then set that variable where it ends up in your report as a hyperlink.

tendernips (BOB member since 2017-07-27)

13

It is displayed as 1234.pdf for loan number when I did like above and still not linked to the associated pdf.

This is what I am doing.

  1. created loanpdf folder under webapps on tomcat directory
  2. The http://boserver:8080/pdfs/1234.pdf pulls that pdf and which emans the link is working
  3. On the report selected Loan number and said read content as Hyperlink and add URL http://boserver:8080/loanpdf
  4. On the report it reads as ="<a href=“http://boserver:8080/loanpdf"title=”“target=”_blank"nav=“web”>"+[Loan Number]+"".
    And after this when I refresh the report and select Loan number the page is showing Http Status 404
  5. after I created variable and added “pdf” I get .pdf in the report but still same page.
    Please guide me what I am I missing here?

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

14

There seems to be a mismatch between the two url paths you are using in your example. Are you using http://boserver:8080/pdfs/1234.pdf in step 2 style to test manually and it works? If so, that’s your target output and you will need that to be how you format the dynamic url variable which seems to be written as http://boserver:8080/loanpdf path in step 4.

tendernips (BOB member since 2017-07-27)

15

Build the url out of the variable interpolating the dynamic value into the part that is static. The concept is
=“http://boserver:8080/pdfs/” + [Loan Number] + “.pdf” where [Loan Number] is what you want to fill in specific to where that value per row. Then set that variable where it ends up in your report as a hyperlink.

Could you please give me advice on how to get this above step done as I am kind of confused since passing values to the server is limited after the report is refreshed.

Minne (BOB member since 2004-12-10)

16

To test function just paste this into a variable and change the server info/file path to what is working for you in testing specifically:
=“http://boserver:8080/pdfs/” + [Loan Number] + “.pdf”

Whatever value/values get passed in the report should exist and wherever the Loan Number occurs (be it something filtered in the report so each report is specific to a loan #, or there are 5 in the report and they show different data in the block dependent on what it is). Then right click and use Hyperlink from the Read contents as: dropdown.

If you can get that url to actually launch the desired report(s) based on the loan number, then you can move on to parsing it all out and using the Loan Number as the displayed value with the url launching the report as it seems you want to do.

If you can get that working then it will just be something like this (with whatever url path you need to make the correct reports launch based on what you find in the basic approach):
=“<a href="http://boserver:8080/pdfs/” + [Loan Number] + “.pdf” + “" + title="" target="_blank" nav="web">” + [Loan Number] + “”

tendernips (BOB member since 2017-07-27)