If Actuate supports your application server, you can deploy Visualization Platform client as a WAR file. See your application server documentation about how to deploy a WAR file. For information about application servers on which Actuate supports deployment of Visualization Platform client, see the Supported Products Matrix for this release on the Actuate Support site at the following URL:
Customize Visualization Platform client for your local environment, if necessary, before beginning deployment. To customize the application for your local environment, follow the steps in “Preparing the WAR file,” later in this section. Deploy the customized Visualization Platform client WAR file to the application server instead of the ActuateInformationConsole.war file that ships with Visualization Platform client.
About deployment formats
Actuate provides Visualization Platform client in WAR and EAR formats individually packaged for the latest versions of specific web and application servers. The formats suitable for deployment on different application servers shown in Table 2‑1.
The Apache Tomcat and WebLogic servers do not support EAR deployment. Only the JBoss and WebSphere application servers support EAR deployment.
General deployment tasks
You must configure the Visualization Platform client WAR and application server for integration. You must also verify that you have a standard J2EE installation.
To integrate your application server with Actuate, complete the following tasks:
Configure the application server to operate with Actuate products.
Configure the Visualization Platform client WAR to integrate with the application server as described in “Preparing the WAR file,” later in this chapter.
Deploy Visualization Platform client to the application server.
If the application server has deployment tools, use those tools to integrate the application server with Actuate products. For more information about deployment tools, see your application server’s documentation.
If your application server does not have deployment tools, add the Actuate context root to your application server, typically by modifying the application server’s configuration file.
Preparing the server
Actuate recommends the following configuration for best performance:
Use at least a two-CPU machine for Visualization Platform client.
If BIRT iHub system uses more than four CPUs, configure one CPU for Visualization Platform client for every two CPUs that iHub uses.
Set the following configuration values on the application or web server:
On a machine with 1 GB of available physical memory, set the Java heap size to a value between 256 MB and 512 MB.
Set the number of threads to a value between 50 and 75.
Preparing the WAR file
You can use a WAR file to deploy Visualization Platform client to many supported servers. To enable shindig 2.0 support for a deployable Visualization Platform client’s WAR or EAR file, modify the host name, port, and context root in the following configuration files:
The location of the standard templates and properties files that BIRT Studio uses. This location can be in a WAR file or on a disk.
If you specify a location on disk, copy the contents of the Visualization Platform client resources folder to this physical location on the file system.
DEFAULT_LOCALE
The default locale is en_US. You can leave this value unchanged. A user can select a locale at login.
If you change the locale, select the new locale from the locales in /WEB‑INF/Localemap.xml.
DEFAULT_TIMEZONE
The default time zone is Pacific Standard Time (PST). You can leave this value unchanged. A user can select a time zone at login.
If you change the time zone, select the new time zone from the time zones in the TimeZones.xml file, in the WEB‑INF directory.
BIRT_VIEWER_LOG_DIR
The location of the files that log Actuate BIRT viewer activity.
You must create this physical location on the file system.
LOG_FILE_LOCATION
The location of the files that log Visualization Platform client activity.
You must create this physical location on the file system.
TEMP_FOLDER_LOCATION
The location where Visualization Platform client creates temporary files.
You must create this physical location on the file system.
TRANSIENT_STORE_PATH
The location where Visualization Platform client creates temporary files.
You must create this physical location on the file system.
How to customize the WAR file
The following steps describe the general procedure for customizing an Visualization Platform client WAR file:
1 Create a temporary directory, such as C:/Temp/ic.
If you use an existing directory, ensure that this directory is empty.
2 Open a command window and type the following commands, replacing the X: drive letter with a drive letter or download path appropriate to your system:
1 Copy the appropriate Visualization Platform client WAR file for your environment, such as TOMCAT_ActuateInformationConsole.war, to the temporary directory, as shown in the following example:
cd C:/Temp/ic
copy X:/TOMCAT_ActuateInformationConsole.war .
2 Decompress the file, as shown in the following example:
jar -xf TOMCAT_ActuateInformationConsole.war
The Visualization Platform client files appear in the temporary directory. Leave the Command window open.
3 Using a text editor that accepts UTF‑8 encoding, edit web.xml to configure Visualization Platform client for the application server.
If you used the temporary path in step 2, the file location is C:/Temp/ic/WEB-INF/Web.xml. Refer to Table 2‑1 for a list of entries to modify in web.xml.
4 Save and close web.xml.
5 Perform this step only if you are deploying Visualization Platform client using one of the following WAR files:
WAS_ActuateBIRTJavaComponent.war
For deploying Visualization Platform client to the IBM WebSphere application server. WAS_ActuateBIRTJavaComponent.ear contains WAS_ActuateBIRTJavaComponent.war.
WL_ActuateBIRTJavaComponent.war
For deploying Visualization Platform client to the Oracle WebLogic application server.
Remove the WEB-INF/lib/el-api.jar file from the WAR file if the /lib directory for your application server also contains el-api.jar. The presence of el-api.jar in both the Information Console WEB-INF/lib directory and the application server /lib directory may cause errors.
6 Type the following command:
jar -cf ../newinformationconsole.war *
This command creates newinformationconsole.war in the /temp directory. This new WAR file for Visualization Platform client contains the modified configuration values.
Use newinformationconsole.war to deploy Visualization Platform client to your application server.
About clusters of servers
If the application server supports clustering, see the application server documentation for more information about setting up clusters and deploying web applications such as Visualization Platform client.
Avoiding cache conflicts after installing
Visualization Platform client uses Java Server Page (JSP) technology. Application servers and browsers cache pages. A browser can use a cached copy of a page instead of the new page. After you install, using a cached copy of some pages can lead to errors or missing functionality.
To avoid this problem, clear the application server cache after you install Visualization Platform client. With some application servers, you must restart the application server. For more information about the necessary steps for clearing the cache, see the application server documentation.
If possible, also clear the browser cache to ensure that the browser does not use an old copy of the page from its cache. Alternatively, you can refresh recently visited pages or clear the browser cache if a problem occurs. For more information about clearing the browser’s cache and refreshing a page, see the browser documentation.
Testing the installation
Complete the steps in the following section to test the Visualization Platform client installation.
How to test the installation
1 Start the Actuate iHub 3 service or the application server and web server, if necessary.
2 To start using Visualization Platform client, type the Visualization Platform client URL into the address bar of your web browser. For example, type a URL similar to the following:
http://Actuate1:8700/iportal/
Actuate1:8700 is the name of your computer and the default port to access Visualization Platform client.
iportal is the default context root for Visualization Platform client.
The Visualization Platform client login page appears.
3 On the Visualization Platform client login page, type a user name and password.
Configure the application server to operate with Actuate products.