How to set session variables using url variables

All OBIEE services are up but the application page is not opening
March 5, 2009
Removing My Dashboard
March 11, 2009

The goal is to set session variables using url variables, but can you also do this for the user and password ?
url variable (&Upwd) is not passed to session variable USER_PWD.
The variable USER is correctly passed, the variable USER_PWD is not!

Solution

The steps to set an OBIS session variable via a URL call utilizing the
instanceconfig.xml tag should be as follows

1. Create a session init block that will act as a ‘placeholder’ for the
session variable to be set via the url call – the variable can be set to
anything.

2. Set the ‘Enable any user to set the value’ option for the variable.

3. Add the following tag block to the instanceconfig.xml file anywhere
between the <ServerInstance></ServerInstance> tags:

<Auth>
<UserIdPassword enabled=”true”>
<ParamList>
<Param name=”NQ_SESSION.TEST_VAR”
source=”url”
nameInSource=”SETVAR”/>
</ParamList>
</UserIdPassword>
</Auth>
“TEST_VAR” should match the session variable name (case sensitive).

4. The following option will need to be appended to the OBI url passed –
&SETVAR=’variable value to pass. So a full example would be:
http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&nqUser=USER001&nqPassword=US
ER001&SETVAR=SomeValue

However, note that you cannot set the value of any System Security Session variable (specifically USER, PROXY, GROUP and WEBGROUPS) using any source method (e.g.: url, cookie, httpHeader) by design. Having this ability would open possible security breaches.

If you attempt to set the USER variable with the following instanceconfig.xml setting:

<Param name=”NQ_SESSION.USER” source=”url” nameInSource=”nquser” />

You will get the following error when using the url: http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&nquser=user1&nqpassword=public :

nQSError: 10018: Access for the requested connection is refused
nQSError: 1315 You do not have the permission to set the value of the variable :USER

9 Comments

  1. tuck says:

    Thanks for the help. I think my question isn’t too far from what you’ve suggested here. I want users to be able to put the url in their browser, and go straight to presentation services, without having to input a username and password. I tried uncommenting out in the NQSCONFIG.ini AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = BYPASS_NQS;, restart the bi server, try logging in, and it’s still asking for a username and p/w. How can I do this?

    thanks

  2. Andriy Yakushyn says:

    Tuck,

    Do you want to disable security all together?

    Or do you want to set up SSO-login?

  3. Andriy Yakushyn says:

    Thank you! How did you put your custom avatar? I still can’t figure it out.

  4. Ken says:

    Is there some way to disable the ability to set the NQUser on the URL when running in SSO mode?

  5. Sujith says:

    Hi,

    Do you know how this can be done in OBIEE 11g?. It looks like the tag names have changed in the new version and making the above changes in 11g is causing the Presentation server to ‘not come up’. There is nothing in the OBIEE documentation either which tells how this can be done.

  6. Alex says:

    Hi, this article is very helpful.

    How can i set a default value at the “Param name=”NQ_SESSION.TEST_VAR” variable??

  7. beth says:

    i cannot login to paychex.com it is for my work it used to work and now i get message that says set variable..how do i fix it??

  8. beth says:

    it says cannot find SSOSetVariable not found?? what do i do when i try to login at paychex.com/loginplease Help!!??????????

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