Integrating Oracle OBIEE Content using GO URL

This blog discuss various techniques to integrate Oracle OBIEE content into external web content using GO URL. Also we can customize the OBIEE functionality (Navigation) using GO URL.

Topics Covered :

1. Structure of the GO URL
2. Arguments to this URL syntax
3. Syntax for GO URL supported in OBIEE
4. Use of GO URL
   • Link an Answer to get Another Answer (Navigate)
   • issue sql
   • Pass filters
   • get BI publisher report using url

Structure of the Go URL

Basic structure of the Go URL is as follows:

saw.dll?Go&Path=/shared/Test/ParameterReport

Here, the path is the catalog path for the analytics report ParameterReport. This basic URL syntax displays the default result view for the report in standard style.

There are number of optional arguments to this URL syntax

Parameters	Format	Definition
NQUser	&NQUser=x	User ID
NQPassword	NQPassword=x	Password
Path	&Path=x	Path of the answer to execute. You can find it in the properties page (Answers/Manage Catalog/ and click on the properties icon (a little hand) of the object that you want. See picture above
Link Options	&Options=x	The x can be one or more of the following letters: * m : Modify Request * f : Printer Friendly * d : Download to Excel * r : Refresh Results
Printer Friendly	&Action=print	Results are in a printer-friendly format, without the paging controls, hot links, and so on.
Passing Filters	&Action=Navigate	To apply filters to the answer
Application Friendly	&Action=Extract &Action=Scroll	Results are displayed in an application-friendly format, such as for Microsoft Excel, without the paging control, hot links, and so on. The Extract action also acts as a Navigate action (read Passing Filters to the Oracle BI Presentation Services Go URL Through a URL (Navigation)) so you can filter the results that are returned by the call.
Specific View	&ViewName=x	This shows an individual result view rather than the default compound view
Specific View	&ViewID=go~x	This shows an individual result view rather than the default compound view where x is the name of the view
Specific Style	&Style=x	This shows the results using a specified style. If the style does not exist, the default is used.
Result Format	&Format=x	This controls the format of the results. This is the format, where x is XML or HTML

Authentication with the GO URL

It is assumed that analytics web site has Single Sign On (SSO) enabled. Single Sign On (SSO) authentication information is not required as a part of the “Go URL”. If Single Sign On (SSO) is not enabled then additional authentication parameters must be supplied with the Go URL.

http://server_name_or_ip_address/analytics/saw.dll?Go&NQuser=xxx&NQPassword=xxx

Syntax for GO URL supported in OBIEE

1. New syntax for Go URL in Analytics 10.1.3.2 onwards.
You can now pass as many parameters and values as you want note the syntax &col1=&val1=
http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Go&Path=%2Fshared%2FTest%2FRegionDollars&Action=Navigate&col1=Periods.%22Year%22&val1=%221999%22&op1=eq&nquser=Administrator&nqpassword=Administrator
2. Old syntax for passing parameters works both in OBIEE and previous releases
Pass one parameter
saw.dll?Go&Path=/Shared/Test/Sales%20Reportt&Action=Navigate&P0=1&P1=eq&P2=Periods.Year&P3=1+1999
Pass 2 parameters
saw.dll?Go&Path=/Shared/Test/Sales%20Report&Action=Navigate&P0=2&P1=eq&P2=Periods.Year&P3=1+1999&P4=eq&P5=Customers.State&P6=1+CA
3. Also an operator can be included in the URL, default is ‘eq’ if op1 etc. are not included

Operator	Meaning	Sign
eq	Equal to or in	=
neq	Not equal to or not in	<>, not in
lt	Less than	<
gt	Greater than >
ge	Greater than or equal to	>=
le	Less than or equal to.	⇐
bwith	Begins with	Begins with
ewith	Ends with	Ends with
cany	Contains any (of the values in &P3)	Contain any
call	Contains all (of the values in &P3)	Contain all
like	You need to type %25 in place of the usual % wildcard. See the examples that follow.	Like
top	&P3 contains 1+n, where n is the number of top items to display.	Top n
bottom	&P3 contains 1+n, where n is the number of bottom items to display.	Bottom n
bet	Between (&P3 must have two values).	Between
null	Is null (&P3 must be 0 or omitted)	Is Null
nnul	Is not null (&P3 must be 0 or omitted)	Is Not Null

Path of an OBI Presentation Service Object

To find the catalog path : Answers > Manage Catalog > Item Properties

For example, the following go URL command returns the default result view as defined in the request, where =”/shared/Test” is the catalog path.
saw.dll?Go&Path=/shared/Test/ParameterReport

The Go URL is used to

1. Link an Answer to get Another Answer (Navigate)

One of the common tasks in OBI reporting is to create navigation links from request to another request.
There is a two different type of navigation to a new request.

One is option value interaction = navigate, on the column properties:

The second, advanced option is to using GO URL.

In our case we are using one report to pass context such as filters to a destination request. This is done by adding additional parameters to the call for parsing current row column.

Source Request :

Target Request :

Filters of Target Request :

GO URL on the source report:

This is required to set before:

Result :

You can also pass Presentation variable in form @{variable_name} as a filter using GOURL.
And static variable in form VALUEOF(static_var_name)

Ex : 
'<a href=http:// '||VALUEOF(domain_name)|| ' :9704/analytics/saw.dll?GO&path=/shared/Operational%20Reports/Scorecard&Options=d&Action=Navigate&P0=3&P1=eq&P2=%22Reporting%20Line%22.%22Reporting%20Line%20Domain%22&P3='||REPLACE("Reporting Line"."Reporting Line Domain",' ','%20')|| '&P4=eq&P5=Geography.Dominion&P6='||REPLACE('@{DominionPromptVar}',' ','%20') ||'&P7=eq&P8=Geography.%22Country%20Name%22 &P9='||REPLACE('@{CountryNamePromptVar}',' ','%20') ||'>' || Link || '</a>'

Note : Passing Parameters to the Report using GO URL is optional argument

The Go URL can also be used to pass context such as filters to a destination request. This is done by adding additional parameters to the call. You need to make sure that any columns you are passing are set up in the destination with Is Prompted filters, or specific default filters.

2.  Issuing SQL
The Go URL command can be used to issue Oracle Business Intelligence SQL. These forms of the Go URL return tabular results. The basic options from &Style= and &Options= can be used here as well.
To issue Oracle Business Intelligence's simplified SQL, include the escaped SQL as a parameter to the Go URL. For example:

saw.dll?Go&SQL=select+Region,Dollars+from+SupplierSales

where the FROM clause is the name of the Subject Area to query.

Alternatively, the command IssueRawSQL can be used to bypass the Web processing and issue SQL directly against the Oracle BI Server.

Note : The resultant request is always show in Title view

Calling BI Publisher reports directly similar to GO URL
Calling BI publisher report from OBIEE URL similar to Go URL syntax
Use ExecuteReportObject syntax
http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?ExecuteReportObject&Path=/Business%20Intelligence/Sample%20Sales/Sample%20Sales.xdo