TN WIS101 Creating custom folders for Static and On Demand Reports in Information Server

Description

By default, the directories in which you are able to publish reports to the Information Server Portal are:

<installation_path>\<report_website_name>\Output\Static

<installation_path>\<report_website_name>\Output\On Demand

This Tech Note from InSource will walk you through creating custom folders that you will be able to publish reports to. 

• Author: Michael Walker
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Applies to: Wonderware Information Server 3.0 and later

Details

The folder configuration is held in an XML file called the configuration.config located in the following directory:

<Installation path\inetpub\wwwroot\<report website name>\

Make a backup of this file that can be restored if needed, then open the file to edit it. Although you can use notepad, try to use an XML editing tool such as visual studio to help you keep the XML structure of the file.

Find the element in the XML file for <scheduledreportspath>. After this element is where you will add the XML code for your customer Static and On Demand folders. The basic structure for the code is as follows:

 <report_name> 

<FOLDERNAME>Type the folder name here</FOLDERNAME>

<DESCRIPTION>Type the description here</DESCRIPTION>

</report_name> 

The following will create a custom folder structure for On Demand reports. The following example will create a folder called “MichaelsFolder” and then another folder called “Plant1” with a nested folder called “Line1”. Under the <scheduledreportpaths> element, add a new element called <ondemandreportpaths>. Be sure to keep this element on the same XML hierarchical level as the <scheduledreportpaths> element.

Next, using the basic structure of the XML code to add a report folder, create the folder you want, the code for the example is as follows:

</SCHEDULEDREPORTPATHS>

<ONDEMANDREPORTPATHS>

<ONDEMANDONE>

<FOLDERNAME>MichaelsFolder</FOLDERNAME>

<DESCRIPTION>Michaels On Demand Folder</DESCRIPTION>

</ONDEMANDONE>

<ONDEMANDTWO>

<FOLDERNAME>Plant1</FOLDERNAME>

<DESCRIPTION>Folder for Plant1</DESCRIPTION>

</ONDEMANDTWO>

<ONDEMANDTWOA>

<FOLDERNAME>Plant1/Line1</FOLDERNAME>

<DESCRIPTION>Folder for Line1 in Plant1</DESCRIPTION>

</ONDEMANDTWOA>

</ONDEMANDREPORTPATHS>

To create a nested subfolder, include a forward slash ( / ) in the folder name. In the <ONDEMANDTWOA> element the <FOLDERNAME> is “Plant1/Line1”, the use of the (/) in the <FOLDERNAME> nests the “Line1” folder under the “Plant1” folder.

After this save and close the configuration.config file. The next step is to get these settings into the Runtime Database for the Historian so Active Factory clients will recognize the newly created customer folders. To do this we need to restart the “aahistclientreportingservice” on the Web Server hosting the WIS portal.

To do this, in windows, go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services Find the “aahistclientreportingservice” and restart it. At this point the aahistclientreportingservice has noticed the new folders and added them to the Runtime database. Now when publishing a report you will see the new report groups:

Once a report has been published to one of the new folders, you can browse to the the WIS Portal and see the custom folder and published report. Even through the folder structure appears to be flat, once published it will show correctly. The example fill publish to the nested folder "Plant 1". 

*note that the folder structure will NOT show until a report has been published.