Configure Change Password for Weblogic users in OBIEE 11g

Initially at my current engagement, we were using the inbuilt WebLogic LDAP for controlling user access to OBIEE 11g. We have since switched to using the EBS-ICX cookie SSO method (blog post on how to set this up coming soon), and are currently researching OID integration for SSO.

Side note, the "EBS-ICX" cookie method does not allow for use of Agents or BI Publisher within OBIEE. These are known oracle bugs, but according to the SR I had opened, they are not high on the list to be fixed.

[Update - 10/30/2013: I found a solution to this. Read my post here.]

One of the draw backs to using Weblogic for your Identity Store is that if a user wants to change their password, there is no means of doing so from within OBIEE. I searched the web, and found articles that covered parts, but not the whole thing. Continue on to read step by step instructions to get setup.


The scope of this post is to cover basic Jdeveloper tasks and OBIEE tasks. It also includes general setup instructions to customize the placement of the change password link within the OBIEE Global Header.

JDeveloper Steps

I used JDeveloper to build and deploy the webservice, so this blog post outlines the steps using that tool.

• Open JDeveloper.



• Create a New Application called Changepwd, and select Generic Application. Click Next.



• Name the project PasswordChange, select Java as a Project Technology. Click Next.



• Name the Default Package as Changepwd. Click Finish.



• Create a new Java class file called Changepwd.



• Paste in the contents of Changepwd.java to your new class file in JDeveloper.
• Changepwd.java
• Note: You will need to update the variables for weblogic hostname, port, username, and password.


• Right Click on your main class and select Webservice Properties.



• Select the default (Java EE 1.5, with support for JAX-WS Annotations), and click on Ok.



• Select Methods and confirm that the method passwordChange is selected and click Ok.



• Let’s now deploy the web service to the Weblogic server. Right Click on the project and click Deploy –> Webservices



• Select Deploy to Application Server. Click Next.



• Click to add a connection to the Weblogic server. Name it LocalWeblogic.
• Note: This guide walks through setting up your local weblogic server, but you can easily replace your local info with the main server info you want the WAR deployed to.





• Select the Application Server you just added, in our case LocalWeblogic. Click Next.



• Select the second radio button, Deploy to selected instances in the domain. Make sure to check only the BI_cluster, not the AdminServer. Leave Deploy as a standalone Application selected. Click Next. Then click Finish.



• A new tab in Jdeveloper should appear at the bottom of the screen called Deployment. Monitor here for a successful deployment message. This can take a few minutes.

OBIEE 11g Steps

The following steps take place from within OBIEE. They will create a simple Agent to invoke the webservice deployed above, and then create a hidden dashboard page to be a launch point for the agent.

• Login to the OBIEE portal (http://localhost:9704/analytics)



• Create a new Dashboard,called User Settings.
• Under Location, select Browser…
• From the Shared Folders folder, select New Folder. Name it User Account.



• Select the radio button for Add content later (Create empty dashboard). Click Ok.



• Click on the Catalog link, and navigate to the newly created folder, User Account.
• Select Permissions to set the appropriate permissions on the new folder, BI Administrator should have Full Control. BI Consumer should have Open.
• Make sure that Apply permissions to sub-folders and Apply permissions to items within folder are both selected.
• Click Ok.



• From the New menu in the OBIEE global navigation, select Action.



• Choose Invoke Web Service from the popup menu.



• Plug in the WSDL and click Open.
• The URL would look like: http://<weblogic host>:<obiee port>/<package name>-<project name>-context-root/<package name>Port?WSDL
• On my local, it is: http://localhost:9704/Changepwd-PasswordChange-context-root/ChangepwdPort?WSDL
• Drill down until you can select passwordChange, and select it. Click Ok.



• This opens up a new dialog box, enter the following values for the prompts (no quotes):
• passwordChange_arg0 = "Username:"
• passwordChange_arg1 = "Old Password:"
• passwordChange_arg2 = "New Password:"
• passwordChange_arg3 = "Confirm Password:"
• For the Username argument, for Value select Session Variable, then type in USER and mark it as fixed and hidden.
• This will force the password change to only work for the current logged in user.



• Click the Options button to personalize the messages (again, no quotes):
• Set Dialog Title to "Change Password"
• Set Action Help Text to "Please enter your existing password and new password below."
• Set Execute Button Text to "Change Password"
• Leave all other options blank.



• Click on the Action Results tab and enter the parameters for the return messages (again, no quotes):
• Set Dialog Text to "@{passwordChangeResponse}"
• Create one XPath variable:
• Name: passwordChangeResponse
• XPath Expression: Body/passwordChangeResponse/return
• Set Dialog Title to "Result"



• Click Ok. Click Save Action.
• Save the action as Change Password into the User Account Shared Folder you created above.



• Navigate to your newly created Dashboard, User Settings. Edit the dashboard by placing a new section. In that section, add a text item. Place the following into the text item (making sure to check the Contains HTML Markup box):

<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById("idPageOptions").style.display = "none";
</script>
Welcome to the change password page. This page will allow you to change your password for access to the Business Intelligence reporting application.<br><br>
You are currently logged in as <b>@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.USER']}</b>.<br><br>
Please click the link below to begin the password reset process.




• Click Ok. Edit the Column Properties. Click on Custom CSS Style Options (HTML Only) and add the following to the Use Custom CSS Style:

position:absolute;height:120px; margin-top:40px;





• Click Ok.
• Drag an Action Link below your text item in that same section. Name the link Change Password, and navigate to the saved Action Link you saved to the Shared Folder. Don’t define any values, just click on the Ok button.
• Click Ok to close the Action Link Properties window.



• On the main section properties, unselect Collapsible. Additionally, from the Section Properties, set the border position to None.




• Click the icon to save the dashboard. Click the icon to view the results.



• Click on Catalog. Navigate back to the new User Account folder you created. Select the folder, and then select Properties. Select Hidden, then click Ok.

OBIEE Server Steps

The following steps take place on the OBIEE server. All files references are for a Linux/Solaris install, but file locations will be similar for Windows.

• Update the following files, to place a link to the Change Password in the header bar:
• /apps/applobi/OBIEE11g/Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/web/app/res/b_mozilla/header.js
• /apps/applobi/OBIEE11g/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/servers/bi_server1/tmp/_WL_user/analytics_11.1.1/7dezjl/war/res/b_mozilla/header.js
• For these two files, find the line:



b.push(new obips.ContextMenu.MenuOption(saw.header.getLocalizedString("kmsgHeaderMyAccount"),"",null,new obips.Callback(this,this.onMyAccount)));




• and replace it with:



b.push(new obips.ContextMenu.MenuOption(saw.header.getLocalizedString("kmsgHeaderMyAccount"),"",null,new obips.Callback(this,this.onMyAccount)));b.push(new obips.ContextMenu.MenuOption(saw.header.getLocalizedString("kmsgHeaderCustomURL"),"",null,new obips.Callback(this,this.onCustomURL)));




• then find the line:



saw.header.NavBar.prototype.onMyAccount=function(){saw.header.Menubar.getManager().hidePopupPanel();var a=new saw.ondemandload.FuncProxy("obips.AccountInfo.launchDialog",{messageTemplate:"kuiMyAccountDialogHead"});a.exec()};




• and replace it with:



saw.header.NavBar.prototype.onMyAccount=function(){saw.header.Menubar.getManager().hidePopupPanel();var a=new saw.ondemandload.FuncProxy("obips.AccountInfo.launchDialog", {messageTemplate:"kuiMyAccountDialogHead"});a.exec()};saw.header.NavBar.prototype.onCustomURL=function(){var w = 1920, h = 1080; if (document.all) { w = document.body.clientWidth;h = document.body.clientHeight;x = window.screenTop;y = window.screenLeft;} else if (document.layers) { w = window.innerWidth;h = window.innerHeight;x = window.screenX;y = window.screenY;} var popW = 450, popH = 276;var leftPos = ((w-popW)/2)+y, topPos = ((h-popH)/2)+x;window.open('saw.dll?PortalPages&PortalPath %2Fshared%2FUser%20Account%2F_portal%2FUser%20Settings','passwordresetwindow','toolbar=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=no, resizable=no,location=no, directories=no, status=no, width='+popW+',height='+popH+',top='+topPos+',left='+leftPos);};





• Note: Replace the bold part with the path to the location you saved the Action Link in OBIEE above.
• Update the following file to add the resource id
• /apps/applobi/OBIEE11g/Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/web/msgdb/common/saw.header.xml
• For this file, add the following line:                          

<resource id="kmsgHeaderCustomURL" />


• The next file will not exist out of the box, and needs to be created, along with any folders along the way.
• /apps/applobi/OBIEE11g/instances/instance1/bifoundation/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obips1/msgdb/l_en/customMessages/uicmsgs/saw.header.xml
• For this file, you will be creating it, so make the contents:



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<webmessagetables xmlns:sawm="com.siebel.analytics.web/message/v1">
<webmessagetable lang="en-us" system="saw.header" table="Messages">

<webmessage name="kmsgHeaderCustomURL"><text>Change Password</text></webmessage>

</webmessagetable>
</webmessagetables>



• Restart the OBIEE services. You should now see a link under the User menu called Change Password. This will open a new window providing the user with simple instructions to change their password.