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.

     Connecting to Domino

     To connect to Domino data, set the following properties:

     • URL: The host name or IP of the server hosting the Domino database. Include the port of the server hosting the Domino database. For example: http://sampleserver:1234/
     • DatabaseScope: The name of a scope in the Domino Web UI. The driver exposes forms and views for the schema governed by the specified scope. In the Domino Admin UI, select the Scopes menu in the sidebar. Set this property to the name of an existing scope.

     Authenticating with Domino

     Domino supports authenticating via login credentials or an Azure Active Directory OAuth application:

     Login Credentials

     To authenticate with login credentials, set the following properties:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to "OAuthPassword"
     • User: The username of the authenticating Domino user
     • Password: The password associated with the authenticating Domino user

     The driver uses the login credentials to automatically perform an OAuth token exchange.

     AzureAD

     This authentication method uses Azure Active Directory as an IdP to obtain a JWT token. You need to create a custom OAuth application in Azure Active Directory and configure it as an IdP. To do so, follow the instructions in the Help documentation. Then set the following properties:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to "AzureAD"
     • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
     • OAuthClientId: The Client ID obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
     • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
     • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:33333
     • AzureTenant: The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. Supply either a value in the form companyname.microsoft.com or the tenant ID.

       The tenant ID is the same as the directory ID shown in the Azure Portal's Azure Active Directory > Properties page.

     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;AuthScheme=OAuthPassword;User=my_domino_user;Password=my_domino_password;
   • 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.