BI 4.2 Launchpad Custom Support Links

We wanted to make it easier for users to submit service desk tickets, improve ticket routing and capture all possible relevant contextual information. After some experimentation we discovered how to inject custom links into the Business Objects environment.

Disclaimer – Create backups of any modified files. These changes could likely be overwritten by subsequent Business Objects patches.

Prerequisites –

Knowledge of HTML and web development.

Enable editing of JSP files by following the process described here: http://davidlai101.com/blog/2012/12/20/how-to-unlock-jsps-so-that-we-can-edit-them-in-bi4/

Note on Tomcat – Apache Tomcat web server uses two folders:

<Business Objects Installation Folder>/Tomcat/webapps – This folder contains the source of web applications used by Tomcat. During Tomcat startup / war deployment, these files will be copied over to the ‘work’ directory below.

<Business Objects Installation Folder>/Tomcat/work – This folder contains cached/deployed web application objects that are used while the Tomcat server is running. These can and will be overwritten by the objects contained in the ‘webapps’ folder. It’s a good idea to test out changes here before applying them to the files contained in the ‘webapps’ folder.

1) Login page – We added a support link to the bottom of the login page. Under normal circumstances the user will never have to enter login information (single sign-on). If a user is seeing this login screen, there is a high priority issue with either the Business Objects server or the user’s Active Directory login information. Clicking the ‘Contact Support’ link will create a high priority ticket related to the login screen.

Another use for this functionality may be self-service password recovery.

File location: BOE/eclipse/plugins/webpath.InfoView/web/logon.jsp

Add the following <div> and <br/> tags inside the <h:form> container:

<h:form onsubmit="return onSubmitLogon();">
    <cwl:logonComponent
      id="logon"
      logonProperties="#{logonBean.properties}" />
		
    <div style="font-size: 16px; color: red; font-weight: bolder; font-style: italic;">
      Problems logging in? <a href="http://www.google.com/? 
      objectType=LoginScreen&objectName=LoginScreen">Contact Support</a>
    </div>
    <br/>
</h:form>

2) Business Objects Launchpad – This generic support link will open a new ticket form and allow the user to enter a description of the issue/request. The ticket will be automatically assigned to the Business Objects support group.

File location: BOE\eclipse\plugins\webpath.InfoView\web\jsp\listing\main.jsp

Adding custom image:

a) Add image here:

<Business Objects Installation Folder>\tomcat\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\eclipse\plugins\webpath.InfoView\web\images

b) Modify web.xml, add a link to the image:

<Business Objects Installation Folder>\tomcat\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\eclipse\plugins\webpath.InfoView\web\WEB-INF\web.xml

<!--- custom icons -->
<context-param>
    <param-name>img.customer.support</param-name>
    <param-value>customer-support-icon.png</param-value>
</context-param>

Modify main.jsp. Within the existing <c_rt:choose> tag, added <a class=”headermenubutton… and additional linkSeparator span):

<c_rt:choose>
                        <c_rt:when test='<%= !embedded %>'>
                            <input type="button" class="headermenubutton userLink" id="helpmenubutton" name="helpmenubutton"
                                     value="<fmt:message key='main.menu.help.tooltip'/>" title="<fmt:message key='main.menu.help.tooltip'/>">
                            <div id="helpmenu" class="headermenu yuimenu" style="visibility: hidden; display: none;"></div>
                    
 			    <span class="linkSeparator" style="<%= DirStyle.auto("padding-left: 0px", "padding-right: 0px") %>">|</span>

			    
			    <a class="headermenubutton userLink" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/?objectType=Launchpad&objectName=Home">Contact Support 
				<img src="<%=imageServiceUrl + "img.customer.support"%>" style="width: 20px; height: 20px;"/>
			    </a>

                            <span class="linkSeparator" style="<%= DirStyle.auto("padding-left: 0px", "padding-right: 0px") %>">|</span>
                    
                            <input type="button" class="headermenubutton userLink" id="logoffLink" name="logoffLink"
                                         value="<fmt:message key='main.menu.logoff.tooltip'/>" title="<fmt:message key='main.menu.logoff.tooltip'/>">
                        </c_rt:when>
                     </c_rt:choose>

 3) Additional useful support links were added to Webi, Design Studio Applications, Crystal reports. These links will automatically populate the support ticket with the name of the application/report.

Troubleshooting

If your changes aren’t visible –

• Clear the browser cache, try Chrome Incognito mode.
• Stop Tomcat, delete contents of the ‘work’ folder, restart Tomcat. This will take objects from the ‘webapps’ folder and deploy them into the ‘work’ folder.