OBIEE - Web Services API (SOAP, WSDL)

Web services are open standard ( XML, SOAP, HTTP etc.) based Web applications that interact with other web applications for the purpose of exchanging data.Web Services can convert your existing applications into Web-applications.

Web services are XML-based information exchange systems that use the Internet for direct application-to-application interaction. These systems can include programs, objects, messages, or documents.

The Web Services Description Language (WSDL, pronounced 'wiz-dəl' or spelled out, 'W-S-D-L') is an XML-based language that provides a model for describing the functions of Web services.

Need to make SOAP calls to OBIEE WSDL endpoint:

Obiee provides several webservices that can be reach with their own Url.

The URL has this form:

§  http://obiee_host:port/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=name_of_service

SOAP

SOAP was originally part of the specification that included the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). It is used now without WSDL and UDDI. Instead of the discovery process described in the History of the Web Services Specification section below, SOAP messages are hard-coded or genereated without the use of a repository. The interaction is illustrated in the figure below. More on SOAP.

Web Services Description Language

The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) forms the basis for the original Web Services specification. The following figure illustrates the use of WSDL. At the left is a service provider. At the right is a service consumer. The steps involved in providing and consuming a service are:

1.       A service provider describes its service using WSDL. This definition is published to a repository of services. The repository could use Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). Other forms of directories could also be used.

2.       A service consumer issues one or more queries to the repository to locate a service and determine how to communicate with that service. 

3.       Part of the WSDL provided by the service provider is passed to the service consumer. This tells the service consumer what the requests and responses are for the service provider.

4.       The service consumer uses the WSDL to send a request to the service provider.

5.       The service provider provides the expected response to the service consumer.

The Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) is located here:

http://obiee_host:port/analytics/saw.dll/wsdl/v7

Security Service: -            This service helps in identifying the user privileges. One can assign,  

                                          revoke privileges using Security Services.      

Ibot Service: -                   As the name suggests, this is a service for invoking Ibots. 

Web Catalog Service:-       This service is for managing the web catalog.

Replication Service:-          This service is used for replication. Export/Import of catalogs can be

                                           done using this. 

Metadata Service: -           This is for managing the BI Server metadata. 

Report Editing Service: -    This service is used to merge arguments and Oracle BI Web Services

                                            data to create and return the results. 

HTMLView Service:-           This service is used to embed Oracle BI HTML results in third-party        dynamic Web pages, such as Active Server Pages (ASP) or JavaServer Pages (JSP), and portal frameworks. The embed process merges Oracle BI Web Services content with the content of third-party Web pages. 

XMLView Service:                  This is used for retrieving the data from Oracle BI EE Server in the form of XML. 

SAWSession Service:  This is the service that would enable users to login, logout and maintain sessions. Now lets see how we can go about using these services from within Jdeveloper to create a sample custom report. 

USE of SoapUI :-

We can use web services of OBIEE to accomplish any task that we do in OBIEE like folder creation, report creation, setting permissions etc.

I used the web services to generate a session, executeSqlQuery, executeXmlQuery and so on. Below are the steps for the same:

Step1:-

To access and understand the structure of webservices I used a tool called SoapUI. It can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.soapui.org/. Download the tool and install it.

Step 2:-

Open the SoapUI and create a project in it using OBIEE’s webservices URL  

http://URL:port/analytics/saw.dll/wsdl/v7

Click Ok.

Following are the URLs that you would have to use for each service:-

XMLViewService –

http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=xmlViewService

SecurityService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=securityService

WebCatalogService –

http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=webCatalogService

SAWSessionService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=nQSessionService

JobManagementService -

http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=jobManagementService

ReplicationService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=replicationService

ReportEditingService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=reportService

IBotService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=ibotService

HTMLViewService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=htmlViewService

MetadataService - http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?SoapImpl=metadataService

Generate a session ID :-

    1) In SoapUI, navigate to SAWSessionService>getSessionVariable>Request1 under the newly created     Project.

     2) Right click to open the request editor to alter the xml.

     3) Add the Login Id and password in the xml as shown below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:v7="urn://oracle.bi.webservices/v7">

   <soapenv:Header/>

   <soapenv:Body>

      <v7:logon>

         <v7:name>test</v7:name>

         <v7:password>*******</v7:password>

      </v7:logon>

   </soapenv:Body>

</soapenv:Envelope>

4) Submit the request after adding the parameters (user, pwd) as shown in above script. This will generate the resulting xml with a session_ID as shown below:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:sawsoap="urn://oracle.bi.webservices/v7">

   <soap:Body>

      <sawsoap:logonResult>

         <sawsoap:sessionID xsi:type="xsd:string">pfec2ujndlfvchtthr2shpfoisi2kei85tbi2ei</sawsoap:sessionID>

      </sawsoap:logonResult>

   </soap:Body>

</soap:Envelope>

Use of XMLQuery:- (Read a obiee report) create a new folder test  at the following path  /sharad/Users/test

     1) In SoapUI, navigate to XMLViewServices  >executeXMLQuery>Request1

     2) Right click to open the request editor to alter the xml.

     3) Add the reportPath  and sessionID  in the xml as shown below

Use of IbotServices:-  create a new ibot   at the following  any path of OBIEE

    In my case created a IBot TEST12 /users/weblogic/test12

     1) In SoapUI, navigate to IBotServices>executeIBotNow>Request1

     2) Right click to open the request editor to alter the xml.
     3) Add the reportPath and sessionID  in the xml as shown below.

    

Now Check IBot Destination mail.

Actionable Intelligence

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