HCL Domino Reporting in OBIEE with the HCL Domino JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for HCL Domino is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to HCL Domino data into your Java-based reporting server. This article shows how to deploy the driver to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and create reports on HCL Domino data that reflect any changes.

Deploy the JDBC Driver

Follow the steps below to add the JDBC driver to WebLogic's classpath.

For WebLogic 12.2.1, simply place the driver JAR and .lic file into DOMAIN_HOME\lib; for example, ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\MY_DOMAIN\lib. These files will be added to the server classpath at startup.

You can also manually add the driver to the classpath: This is required for earlier versions. Prepend the following to PRE_CLASSPATH in setDomainEnv.cmd (Windows) or setDomainEnv.sh (Unix). This script is located in the bin subfolder of the folder for that domain. For example: ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\MY_DOMAIN\bin.

Restart all servers; for example, run the stop and start commands in DOMAIN_HOME\bitools\bin.

Create a JDBC Data Source for HCL Domino

After deploying the JDBC driver, you can create a JDBC data source from BI Publisher.

1. Log into BI Publisher, at the URL http://localhost:9502/analytics, for example, and click Administration -> Manage BI Publisher.
2. Click JDBC Connection -> Add Data Source.
3. Enter the following information:
   • Data Source Name: Enter the name that users will create connections to in their reports.
   • Driver Type: Select Other.
   • Database DriverClass: Enter the driver class, cdata.jdbc.domino.DominoDriver.
   • Connection String: Enter the JDBC URL.

     Prerequisites

     The connector requires the Proton component to be installed. Normally, Proton is distributed as part of the AppDev pack. See the HCL documentation for instructions on acquiring and installing Proton or the AppDev pack.

     Once the Proton service is installed and running, you will also need to create a user account and download its Internet certificate. This certificate can be used to set the connector certificate connection properties.

     Authenticating to Domino

     • Server: The name or IP address of the server running Domino with the Proton service.
     • Port: The port number that the Proton service is listening on.
     • Database: The name of the database file, including the .nsf extension.
     • SSLClientCertType: This must match the format of the certificate file. Typically this will be either PEMKEY_FILE for .pem certificates or PFXFILE for .pfx certificates.
     • SSLClientCert: The path to the certificate file.
     • SSLServerCert: This can be set to (*) if you trust the server. This is usually the case, but if you want to perform SSL validation, you may provide a certificate or thumbprint instead. See the documentation for SSLServerCert for details.

     Additional Server Configuration

     The connector supports querying Domino views if any are defined. Before views can be queried by the connector they must be registered with the design catalog.

     Please refer to the Catalog Administration section of the AppDev pack documentation for details on how to do this.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the HCL Domino JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.domino.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     A typical JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:domino:Server=https://domino.corp.com;Database=names.nsf;Port=3002;SSLClientCertType=PEMKEY_FILE;SSLClientCert=full_path_of_certificate.pem;SSLServerCert=*
   • Username: Enter the username.
   • Password: Enter the password.
4. In the Security section, select the allowed user roles.

Create Real-Time HCL Domino Reports

You can now create reports and analyses based on real-time HCL Domino data. Follow the steps below to use the standard report wizard to create an interactive report that reflects any changes to HCL Domino data.

1. On the global header, click New -> Data Model.
2. On the Diagram tab, select SQL query in the menu.
3. Enter a name for the query and in the Data Source menu select the HCL Domino JDBC data source you created.
4. Select standard SQL and enter a query like the following: SELECT Name, Address FROM ByName WHERE City = 'Miami'
5. Click View Data to generate the sample data to be used as you build your report.
6. Select the number of rows to include in the sample data, click View, and then click Save As Sample Data.
7. Click Create Report -> Use Data Model.
8. Select Guide Me and on the Select Layout page select the report objects you want to include. In this example we select Chart and Table.
9. Drop a numeric column like Address onto the Drop Value Here box on the y-axis. Drop a dimension column like Name onto the Drop Label Here box on the x-axis.
10. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the HCL Domino data.