Enabling ReportCaster Privileges for Managed Reporting Users

Important: Non-Managed Reporting users must be enabled for ReportCaster using the User Administrator tool in the ReportCaster Development and Administration Interface. Therefore, if ReportCaster is not configured with Managed Reporting, you can proceed to Enabling ReportCaster Capabilities for Non-Managed Reporting Users.

To enable ReportCaster privileges for Managed Reporting users, you must be a Managed Reporting Administrator with the ReportCaster Administrator privilege. If you are a Managed Reporting Administrator and you have been assigned the ReportCaster Administrator privilege, you can use the Managed Reporting Administration Interface to change ReportCaster privileges for Managed Reporting users. Any changes made using the Administration Interface are also made to the ReportCaster Repository tables.

The Analytical User and Developer roles can optionally be assigned Schedule and Report Library privileges, and the User role can optionally be assigned Schedule privileges. These are not set by default. The Managed Reporting Administrator role may optionally be assigned Schedule, Library, and ReportCaster Administrator privileges. These are not set by default. When the ReportCaster Administrator privilege is assigned, the Schedule and Library privileges are automatically assigned as well, and the Schedule privilege cannot be unassigned.

Any role can be assigned Library and Schedule privileges except for the User role, which can only be assigned the Library privilege, and the Library Only User role, which restricts Dashboard users to only viewing content in the Report Library. Privileges within roles can also be customized for each user. For details about creating roles and assigning privileges using the Managed Reporting Administration Interface, see Creating Domains, Groups, Roles, and Users in the WebFOCUS Managed Reporting Administrator's Manual.

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Reference: Schedule Privilege

The Schedule privilege differs between Managed Reporting user roles as follows:

Analytical User and User. The Schedule privilege enables the user to schedule Standard Reports or their own My Reports. For more information, see the ReportCaster End User's Manual.
Developer. The Schedule privilege enables the user to schedule all Task Types. However, Developers can only schedule their own My Reports.
MR Administrator. The Schedule privilege enables the user to schedule all Task Types.

Note: For more information about the ReportCaster user interfaces the different user roles can access, see Configuring Access to the ReportCaster User Interfaces.

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Reference: Library Privilege

The Library privilege enables Analytical Users, Developers, and MR Administrators to view content in the Report Library to which they have been granted access. The user becomes a member of the public library directory and can be added to Library Access Lists. The MR Administrator has the added ability to manage Report Library content using the Library Management Interface. For more information about accessing and using the Report Library, see Report Library.

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Reference: Considerations When Creating ReportCaster Users and Assigning Privileges

A Managed Reporting Administrator with the ReportCaster Administrator privilege can change Managed Reporting user IDs. However, if you change a user ID with Schedule, Library, or ReportCaster Administrator privileges, you must use the Tools option in the ReportCaster Console to globally replace the user ID (Owner) in schedules, Distribution Lists, and Library Access Lists that contain the changed user ID. For more information, see Globally Replacing Field Values in the ReportCaster Repository.
Information Builders does not recommend creating a Managed Reporting or ReportCaster user ID named 'system', as a 'system' ID is used by ReportCaster for internal log purge and library expiration processing.
A ReportCaster Administrator who does not have the Library privilege can access the Library Management Interface but cannot view content in the Report Library.
After creating a user ID, you should assign the user ID to a group within Managed Reporting that has access to one or more domains.

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Securing the Managed Reporting/ReportCaster Administrator Account

The default user ID for both the Managed Reporting Administrator and the ReportCaster Administrator is admin. When Managed Reporting and ReportCaster are installed, the admin user ID is stored in the Managed Reporting Repository and the ReportCaster configuration file, but it does not exist in the ReportCaster Repository. However, if you make changes to the admin user ID using the Managed Reporting Administration Interface, the admin user ID and its privileges are added to the ReportCaster Repository.

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Procedure: How to Secure the Managed Reporting/ReportCaster Admin Account

Information Builders recommends performing the following steps to secure the Managed Reporting/ReportCaster Administrator account.

In the Managed Reporting Administration Interface, change the password and assign a valid e-mail address (required for the Report Library) for the admin account. Assign the account to the appropriate groups for access to Report Library content (Report Library content is authorized based on Managed Reporting group associations).
For more information about this interface, see Creating Domains, Groups, Roles, and Users in the WebFOCUS Managed Reporting Administrator's Manual.

In the ReportCaster Server Configuration tool, change the password of the Administrator setting (located in the General tab) to match the password specified for the admin account in Step 1. For more information about the configuration tool, see ReportCaster Server Configuration.
Restart the ReportCaster Distribution Server.

Reload the WebFOCUS and ReportCaster Web applications.

After reloading the Web application(s), all users currently logged on must restart their sessions to obtain the current configuration information. Since the user's session does not have information cached pertaining to the ReportCaster configuration, the user interfaces must be restarted to obtain any updated information.

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Syncing Managed Reporting Users Into the ReportCaster Repository

If ReportCaster is installed with an existing Managed Reporting installation, or if groups or users in the Managed Reporting Repository with ReportCaster privileges do not exist in the ReportCaster Repository, you can use the synchronize Managed Reporting users utility to replace ReportCaster groups and users with Managed Reporting users in the ReportCaster Repository. For more information about how to use this utility, see the Syncing Managed Reporting Users section in the ReportCaster Post-Installation Tasks chapter in your WebFOCUS and ReportCaster Installation and Configuration manual.

Note: For information about bulk loading ReportCaster groups and user IDs into the ReportCaster Repository from an external source, see Loading User IDs Into the ReportCaster Repository.

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Configuring Access to the ReportCaster User Interfaces

By default, Managed Reporting Developers and Administrators are configured to access the ReportCaster Development and Administration Interface. Managed Reporting Analytical Users can only access the ReportCaster Scheduling Wizard and HTML User Interface.

The Managed Reporting Applet Interface can be configured so that Managed Reporting Developers and Administrators access the ReportCaster Scheduling Wizard and HTML User Interface rather than the ReportCaster Development and Administration Interface.

You can change the ReportCaster user interface through the WebFOCUS Administration Console, as described in the following procedure. For information about accessing and using the WebFOCUS Administration Console, see the WebFOCUS Administration Console chapter in the WebFOCUS Security and Administration manual.

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Procedure: How to Change the ReportCaster User Interface

Access the WebFOCUS Administration Console.

In the left pane, click Utilities. The MR Tool Type Selection options appears, as shown in the following image.

Select Administrator or Developer.
The MR Tool Type Selection window appears with the Java Swing applet-based ReportCaster Development and Administration Interface selected by default.

Note: The ReportCaster User Interface cannot be configured for Managed Reporting Analytical Users, who must use the HTML-based Scheduling Wizard and User Interface.

To change the interface to the ReportCaster Scheduling Wizard and HTML User Interface, select the HTML option button and then click Save to save your changes.

For the change to take effect, reload your WebFOCUS Web application. In addition, users must log out of the Managed Reporting environment and log back in.