Using Parameters to Call Web Applications

Use

You want to use parameters to call a Web application to change the initialization of a data provider or execute an additional command, for example.

Procedure

There are two ways of determining the URL parameterization:

By viewing the HTTP communication
By using the command wizard

Viewing the HTTP Communication

If you can view the HTTP communication, for example, with a HTTP watcher or sniffer, you can find the URL parameterization in the POST data section. Using the data from the POST data section, you can easily build the URL.

The following steps outline an example of how you would proceed:
Start Microsoft Internet Explorer with the browser enhancement (such as HttpWatch).
Call the required Web application.
Activate the browser enhancement.
Start recording the HTTP communication.
Execute an action in the Web application (such as filtering).
Stop recording the HTTP communication.
In the list of HTTP requests, select the entry that was used for the POST method. The remaining entries are generally not of interest.
The POST data section for this entry contains the URL parameters in the required syntax.
Select and copy all lines with "BI_COMMAND_..." in the POST data section. Do not include the parameters "PAGE_ID" and "REQUEST_ID".
Join the name and value of each parameter with an equal to sign (=).
Join the lines with an ampersand (&).

Using the Command Wizard

You can use the command wizard to create the required command. When you execute the Web application in the Web browser, you can test the command. In the XHTML view in the Web Application Designer, you can use the syntax for the command and convert it into URL parameters.

Insert a Web item into your Web application, with which you can execute commands (such as the Button Group Web item).
Use the command wizard to create the required command (see Commands ). This enables you to identify the required parameters and maximize the use of the input help.
Switch to the XHTML view of the Web Application Designer and search for the command you created.
You can use now this command as URL parameterization. Note that:
- Nested parameters must be converted to a flat notation: parent parameters are separated by a hyphen (-), which is placed before the parameters.
- Entries in lists are marked with the corresponding index as "_N".
- The command itself it passed using the command parameter BI_COMMAND_TYPE=Name.
- Command sequences are formed by preceding the actual parameters with the text bi_command_N, where "N" is the index of the command in the command sequence.

Allow for any special cases if required.

Special Case	Special Feature
Set Web Item Parameters (SET_ITEM_PARAMETERS)	For this command, the parent parameter for the Web item parameters is INIT_PARAMETERS. Tip INIT_PARAMETERS-VISIBILITY=VISIBLE
Set Data Provider Parameters (SET_DATA_PROVIDER_PARAMETERS)	For this command, the parent parameter for the data provider parameters is INIT_PARAMETERS. Tip INIT_PARAMETERS-INITIAL_STATE=QUERY

Note

Note that due to the flat notation of the parameters, the character limit for sending the parameters using URL GET can be quickly exceeded. To overcome this, use POST to pass the parameters to the Web application.

Example

Example 1

In the command wizard, you have set the command for setting attributes for a characteristic of the data provider. The XHTML view in the Web Application Designer displays the following result (only the INSTRUCTION node is show in this example):

<bi:INSTRUCTION >

<bi:SET_ATTRIBUTES >

<bi:TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_LIST type="ORDEREDLIST" >

<bi:TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF index="1" value="DP_1" />

</bi:TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_LIST>

<bi:CHARACTERISTIC value="0D_CUSTOMER" text="" />

<bi:PRESENTATION_AREA value="RESULT_SET" />

<bi:ATTRIBUTE_LIST type="ORDEREDLIST" >

<bi:INFO_OBJECT_ATTRIBUTE index="1" value="0D_COUNTRY" />

</bi:ATTRIBUTE_LIST>

</bi:SET_ATTRIBUTES>

</bi:INSTRUCTION>

This results in the following URL parameterization:

&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_ATTRIBUTES

&BI_COMMAND_1-TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_LIST-TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_1=DP_1

&BI_COMMAND_1-CHARACTERISTIC=0D_CUSTOMER

&BI_COMMAND_1-PRESENTATION_AREA=RESULT_SET

&BI_COMMAND_1-ATTRIBUTE_LIST-INFO_OBJECT_ATTRIBUTE_1=0D_COUNTRY

Example 2

In the command wizard, you have set the command for setting Web item parameters for the Web item ANALYSIS_ITEM_1. The XHTML view in the Web Application Designer displays the following result (only the INSTRUCTION node is show in this example):

<bi:INSTRUCTION >

<bi:SET_ITEM_PARAMETERS >

<bi:cmd_item_parameters type="ANALYSIS_ITEM" >

<bi:ALTERNATE_STYLES value="" />

</bi:cmd_item_parameters>

<bi:TARGET_ITEM_REF value="ANALYSIS_ITEM_1" />

</bi:SET_ITEM_PARAMETERS>

</bi:INSTRUCTION>

This results in the following URL parameterization:

&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_ITEM_PARAMETERS

&BI_COMMAND_1-TARGET_ITEM_REF=ANALYSIS_ITEM_1

&BI_COMMAND_1-INIT_PARAMETERS-ALTERNATE_STYLES=

Example 3

In the command editor, you have the set the command for setting the value of variable PRODUCT_VAR to PDS06. The XHTML view in the Web Application Designer displays the following result (only the INSTRUCTION node is show in this example):

<bi:INSTRUCTION >

<bi:SET_VARIABLES_STATE >

<bi:VARIABLE_VALUES type="ORDEREDLIST" >

<bi:VARIABLE_VALUE type="COMPOSITE" index="1" >

<bi:VARIABLE_TYPE type="CHOICE" value="VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING" >

<bi:VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING value="PDS06" />

</bi:VARIABLE_TYPE>

<bi:VARIABLE value="PRODUCT_VAR" text="Product" />

</bi:VARIABLE_VALUE>

</bi:VARIABLE_VALUES>

</bi:SET_VARIABLES_STATE>

</bi:INSTRUCTION>

This results in the following URL parameterization:

&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE

&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE=VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING

&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE_TYPE-VARIABLE_INPUT_STRING=PDS06

&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VALUES-VARIABLE_VALUE_1-VARIABLE=PRODUCT_VAR

Example 4

In the command wizard, you have set the command for setting variable VARIANT_1. The XHTML view in the Web Application Designer displays the following result (only the INSTRUCTION node is show in this example):

<bi:INSTRUCTION >

<bi:SET_VARIABLES_STATE >

<bi:VARIABLE_VARIANT value="VARIANT_1" />

</bi:SET_VARIABLES_STATE>

</bi:INSTRUCTION>

This results in the following URL parameterization:

&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_VARIABLES_STATE

&BI_COMMAND_1-VARIABLE_VARIANT=VARIANT_1

Example 5

In the command wizard, you have set the command for setting the filter value PDS06 for characteristic 0D_PH2 from data provider DP_1. The XHTML view in the Web Application Designer displays the following result (only the INSTRUCTION node is show in this example):

<bi:INSTRUCTION >

<bi:SET_SELECTION_STATE >

<bi:TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_LIST type="ORDEREDLIST" >

<bi:TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF index="1" value="DP_1" />

</bi:TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_LIST>

<bi:CHARACTERISTICS_SELECTIONS type="UNORDEREDLIST" >

<bi:CHARACTERISTIC_SELECTIONS type="COMPOSITE" index="1" >

<bi:CHARACTERISTIC value="0D_PH2" text="" />

<bi:SELECTIONS type="ORDEREDLIST" >

<bi:SELECTION type="CHOICE" index="1" value="SELECTION_INPUT_STRING" >

<bi:SELECTION_INPUT_STRING value="PDS06" />

</bi:SELECTION>

</bi:SELECTIONS>

</bi:CHARACTERISTIC_SELECTIONS>

</bi:CHARACTERISTICS_SELECTIONS>

</bi:SET_SELECTION_STATE>

</bi:INSTRUCTION>

This results in the following URL parameterization:

&BI_COMMAND_1-BI_COMMAND_TYPE=SET_SELECTION_STATE

&BI_COMMAND_1-TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_LIST-TARGET_DATA_PROVIDER_REF_1=DP_1

&BI_COMMAND_1-CHARACTERISTICS_SELECTIONS-CHARACTERISTIC_SELECTIONS_1-SELECTIONS-SELECTION_1=SELECTION_INPUT_STRING

&BI_COMMAND_1-CHARACTERISTICS_SELECTIONS-CHARACTERISTIC_SELECTIONS_1-SELECTIONS-SELECTION_1-SELECTION_INPUT_STRING=PDS06

&BI_COMMAND_1-CHARACTERISTICS_SELECTIONS-CHARACTERISTIC_SELECTIONS_1-CHARACTERISTIC=0D_PH2