Catalog Object Links in OAC dashboard

Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle

Hi all,

We are migrating OBIEE 12c reporting to OAC. In OBIEE, some PDF, XLS files were kept in res/s_Alta directory. These files could be opened from dashboards by adding a ‘Link or Image’ object and putting the /res/s_Alta objects as a URL. Clicking this URL opened the object without downloading.

In OAC, we are keeping the files within the catalog and are accessing it in the dashboards using the convention-

analytics/saw.dll?downloadFile&path=%2Fshared%2Fxxx%2Fxxx.pdf

Since this URL has a download file option, it is downloading the file before opening. No browser setting is able to stop the download and simply open it like before.

Is there any way to achieve the aforementioned OBIEE functionality in OAC? We want to open the file in a new window, instead of downloading and opening.

Thanks

Debadrita Ghosh

Federico Venturin

Hi @Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle ,

In OAC:

• Files uploaded directly to the catalog can only be downloaded using a link
• You can't deploy a shared folder on Weblogic and expose it as a path you defined (e.g. res/s_Alta)

As a workaround, you could upload your files to a bucket in OCI Object Storage, or any other location that you access remotely through a link.

Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle

Hi Federico,

Thanks for your confirmation.

Do you know any way to allow existing OAC users to be able to access OCI object storage? If I simply provide the link to bucket file, I get an error: Either the bucket named xx does not exist in the namespace xx or you are not authorized to access it. Since they are not OCI users, we can't add them to a group and give it access through a policy.

Or is there any way for OAC to access any shared file system?

Thanks

Debadrita Ghosh

Federico Venturin

Hi @Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle ,

You could make the bucket public, which means that there will be anonymous, unauthenticated access to its content (it's sufficient to have the link).

If your files are already in a shared file system and you can access it through a public IP, then you don't have to setup anything special in OAC. You only have to provide the link through a text object, a custom column, or whatever you prefer.

Madasamy -Oracle

@Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle Couple of inputs on your questions.

Or is there any way for OAC to access any shared file system?

Not that we recommend anything since the files maybe specific to business, else, you may add them to the Safe Domains and get it working. But recommended approach would be to host the files into the OCI Object Storage like @Federico Venturin mentioned and use that as a direct URL

Do you know any way to allow existing OAC users to be able to access OCI object storage? .. Since they are not OCI users, we can't add them to a group and give it access through a policy.

To begin with, you shall create a public bucket and upload your files there, get the public URL for the files, use them here on OAC, you dont need any authentication for that

https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Object/Tasks/managingbuckets.htm

Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle

Hi Federico, Madasamy

Thanks for the solutions. Public Bucket solution is working.

However, customer wants to use a private URL, which only OAC authenticated users can access. If I create a private bucket and create a policy to allow a particular group or any-user to manage buckets and objects in tenancy/compartment, I'm still getting an error - Either the bucket named xx does not exist in the namespace xx or you are not authorized to access it.

Can we achieve the same functionality with private bucket?

Thanks

Debadrita Ghosh

Federico Venturin

Hi @Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle ,

You have to define a dynamic group in OCI Console, map your OAC application to the dynamic group, and then grant it access to your private bucket.

Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle

Hi @Federico Venturin ,

Thanks for the steps. Unfortunately, I'm getting the same error. I followed the following steps-

1. Create a dynamic group
2. Add a matching rule to include ALL resources from the compartment, where OAC is provisioned.
3. Created a policy in the same compartment to read,manage buckets and manage objects in the compartment.

Thanks

Debadrita Ghosh

Federico Venturin

Hi @Debadrita Ghosh-Oracle ,

I'm afraid that OCI policies may not be applied to file links in a dashboard page, so this could be the cause of your error..

What about creating a pre-authenticated request for your private bucket? The only issue is that your users could share the links with unauthorized people as well..