Independence Blue Cross
Jenny Lalik, Solutions Engineer
April 23, 2010
WebFOCUS Roadmap
WebFOCUS Program Priorities
Exploit latest
hardware
Core
Product
innovations
Enhancements
Innovation Initiatives
BI Extension
Offerings
• Customer-driven, incremental
enhancements
• Implemented across product line
• Major new development effort
• New product offering or significant
upgrade to existing capabilities
• New products that expand
WebFOCUS platform via singlevendor, cost-effective alternatives
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 2
WebFOCUS Roadmap
Core Guiding Principles
Customer-driven development projects are
highest priority and are most visible throughout
support, development & product management
areas
Maximize utilization:
• Offer robust set of tools and technologies for
every need and employee skill level
 ROI and value maximization:
• Ease of use, deployment, and scaling
• Integration of auxiliary tools and technologies
• Unique model & architecture to leverage
open source
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 3
WebFOCUS Roadmap
WebFOCUS Release Highlights & Timelines
Feb. 2010
-Release 7.6.11
Incremental
Full GA - May 2010
- Release 7.7
 Targeted
enhancements driven
enhancements in
by strategic customer
Reporting Server,
requirements
performance,
WebFOCUS Magnify
metadata & adapter
evolves – scalability &
areas
performance
 New release of Data
enhancements
Migrator
Information assurance Active Technologies
certification
 XBRL Financial
New RStat release
Reporting Exchange
New Flex Enable
 zIIP support
release
4Q2010 ?
- Release 8
 Major upgrades
across the product
line
 RIA development in
Dev Studio
 New WebFOCUS BI
Portal initiative
 ESRI ArcGIS Server
Flex Support
 Next generation of
InfoAssist , RStat, &
Magnify, Flex Enable
New security model
Real-time offerings
 Ongoing research &
innovation
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 4
WebFOCUS Developer and User
Interface Enhancements
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 5
WebFOCUS Release 7.6.11 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 6
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Enhancements for BI Applications
 Incremental enhancements in Developer Studio based on field
and customer feedback
 Areas of focus
 Provide significant upgrades in PDF formatting
 Incremental improvements in WYSIWYG report & forms
development
 Drive toward more consistency in development across
most popular output types
 Speed guided ad-hoc forms development
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 7
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 In Excel –
 Column oriented
 Merge cells
 Align cells
 Create and style borders
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 8
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 In Excel –
 Column oriented
 Merge cells
 Align cells
 Create and style
borders
 Now in Developer
Studio –
 Column oriented
 Merge cells
 Align cells
 Create and style
borders
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 9
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 In PDF format:
 Align heading and footing columns with data columns
 Enhanced Alignment Grid in Report Painter - use Grid
and Cell Options to style headings
 Grid Options  Align heading/footing with data in the report
 Create borders for the entire alignment grid, or for
all cells within the grid
 Cell Options  Set borders for a selected cell in the alignment grid
 Span columns for the cell and set the align object
options for the cell
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 10
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
Page Heading lines
Subheading line
Data line (3 data visible columns)
Subheading line
Page footing
lines
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 11
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
PDF Format
Page Heading lines
Subheading line
Subheading line
Data line (3 data visible columns)
Page footing
lines
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 12
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 On heading (subhead, footing,
etc) –
 Select Alignment Grid from
the Properties menu or rightclick
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 13
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 Align with data – sets
up one cell for each
column of data
 Number of lines –
determines number of
heading lines
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 14
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 Grid Options – brings up
Properties dialog
 Select Borders – to customize
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 15
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 Assign border
properties
 Select Border all
cells in the grid
check box
Borders all
internal and
external cell
borders
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 16
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Alignment Grid to Style Grid & Cell
 Click Cell Options to merge
cells
Merge will also combine cells.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 17
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
When columns of PDF reports cannot be displayed on a single
page, the pages automatically panel
Subsequent columns
for that page placed
on overflow pages
Notice – no
heading on
paneled
page
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 18
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
In 7.6.11, headings/footings can be repeated on
subsequent panel pages
Heading
repeated on
paneled
page
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 19
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
To view repeating headings/footings in each panel
 Select option from the Format tab in Report Options dialog
 Select Repeat
headings/footings
per panel
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 20
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
You can also use the Special Field - Page Number to customize
page numbers that extend to panel pages
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 21
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
To add (default) pagination…
 Select option from the page numbering option in the
Output tab
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 22
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
To view sort fields with repeating headings/footings in each
panel
 Select Repeat sort fields per panel (new UI)
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 23
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Repeating Heading/Footings in PDF
Example showing the repeat sort fields per panel option in each
panel of a multi-panel report (pagination also on)
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 24
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Wrapping Across Column in PDF
When sorting a PDF report with a horizontal across column
 Report Painter displays sort field values horizontally and
creates columns (and 2 panels in this example)
Area Name is
the across
value
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 25
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Wrapping Across Column in PDF
You can wrap across values automatically which changes the
width of the across column so that it does not exceed the
width of the value underneath it
 Right-click and select Options from the context menu
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 26
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Wrapping Across Column in PDF
 Select Wrap option available from the Style tab of the
Field Properties dialog
 Wrap width
automatically set
based on largest
data column width
(Can change with
dynamic format or
squeeze)
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 27
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Developer Studio – Wrapping Across Column in PDF
With wrap enabled for the horizontal across column sort field
ASIA PACIFIC
as well as LATIN AMERICA
and MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
are wrapped
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 28
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
HTML Composer – Report Library Integration
 Report Library integration allows the user to design their own
page to display and retrieve Report Library output
 Create a control to list the library contents
 Create a frame to display the output retrieved
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 29
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
HTML Composer – Report Library Integration
 On the Parameters Tab, set the control to have Dynamic data
type, from “Other” and Library is automatically selected
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 30
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
HTML Composer – Report Library Integration
 On the Design Tab, set the Frame Properties
 Action is Library
 Source is the control used to list the Report Library
contents
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 31
WebFOCUS Release 7.7 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 32
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
Enhancements for BI Applications
Distribute reports in any format
Workload Management & Fail-Over
Vertical & Horizontal scaling
Report Library: Reports are always
available
Cached reports shared within
workgroups
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 33
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.7
Active Technologies
Implementation of new Flex-based charts in Active Report
chart menu
Add new RIA components to Active Dashboards, e.g.,
multiple combo boxes, tabs, etc.
Build in developer or business user (InfoAssist) tools
Upgraded chart aesthetics for Active HTML reports
Compound documents consisting of text, images, datadriven content (e.g., annual report, bank statements, etc.
New styling, bursting, and distribution options
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 34
WebFOCUS Release 8 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 35
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
Development Environment
 User interface and workflow changes planned
 Build Rich Internet Application (RIA) guided ad-hoc
applications via Developer Studio
 Implementation of RIA-based widgets
 Customizable pre-built interactive components that can
be used inside HTML pages to manage navigation,
animation, etc. w/in BI applications
 WebFOCUS AJAX- & Flex-based components within
Developer Studio
 WYSIWYG capability in Report Painter environment
 Advanced charting with much simplified UI
 Options available via ribbon-style navigation UI
 One charting tool for Developer Studio & InfoAssist
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 36
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
InfoAssist Enhancements
 Advanced features
 UI customization
 More control
over UI
 Customizable
application ribbon
(InfoMini)
 Select specific IA
options on a per
report basis
 Cube browsing
within report output
 Tool & data in any
language
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 37
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 38
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
New BI Portal Initiative
 Next generation of Business Intelligence Portal
 Built with Rich Internet Application (RIA) approach
 Consistent ribbon-style navigation for both building new
portal views and user-based personalization
 Component approach
 Integrate with major industry portals
 Additional capability exclusively for SharePoint
 New Web Parts
 Report templates for SharePoint Lists
 Report from underlying data model
 View & manipulate archived report content
 Note: Customer feedback is ongoing
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 39
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Default tabs at
login
Configuration
Menus
Report & graph
view for “Today”
dashboard
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Click “Settings”
to open
navigation menu
Opens
Properties
menu
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Multiple layout
options
Move to right
side
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Click “Hide” to close configure mode
New style sheet changes background to blue
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Choose page
layout
New page
append tab list
Customize dashboard at user level
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Choose
page
content
objects to
setup
layout and
design
Layout #1
Accordion
Layout #2
Tabbed
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Insert report
& graph into
layout
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Finalize dashboard properties, save and share
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8
Performance Enhancements for Data Visualization
 WebFOCUS Visual Discovery
 In-memory analytics
 New version exploits 64-bit architecture
 Tens of millions of records accessible in memory
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 48
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
XBRL & Financial Reporting: Highlights
 Becoming a standard
means of
communicating
financial data between
businesses
government agencies
 WebFOCUS provides
completely integrated
financial reporting
capabilities +
automatic creation,
validation & publishing
of XBRL documents
WebFOCUS Architecture and Security
Enhancements
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 50
WebFOCUS Release 7.6.11 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 51
Information Assurance
Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
 New emphasis on identifying & resolving emerging
vulnerabilities
 OWASP: Leading industry consortium focused on raising
awareness, indentifying vulnerabilities, providing open
source tools & best practices, etc.
 OWASP produces a Top Ten List of web vulnerabilities:
1. Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
2. Injection Flaws
3. Malicious File Execution
4. Insecure Direct Object Reference
5. Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
6. Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling
7. Broken Authentication and Session Management
8. Insecure Cryptographic Storage
9. Insecure Communication
10. Failure to Restrict URL Access
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 52
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.10/7.6.11
Security - Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
“The OWASP Top Ten represents a broad consensus
about what the most critical web application security
flaws are. Project members include a variety of
security experts from around the world
who have shared their expertise to produce this list.”
- Source: OWASP.ORG site
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 53
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.10/7.6.11
Security – WebFOCUS Commitment
 IBI Committed to provide industry leadership
 WebFOCUS deployments are public internet applications
 Major priority in our development program
 Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
 Not for profit organization focused on improving security
of application software
 List of “Top Ten Vulnerabilities” to be addressed
Proactive approach:
 Use latest scanning tools, hacker techniques, code
reviews as means to identify potential vulnerabilities
 Periodic audits and health checks implemented in
partnership with industry specialists
 Certified @ Level 3 Application Security Verification
Standards
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 54
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.10/7.6.11
Security – WebFOCUS Level 3 Certification
Level 4 security
needs to be
addressed in the
applications you write
using WebFOCUS.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 55
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Administration - Session & Request Monitoring
 Provide client administrator operational capabilities
 See all active sessions in the client
 Client userid, server userid
 Count of requests to reporting servers
 See all requests sent to reporting servers
 Currently running requests
 Last completed for each session
 Turn on request logging for session(s)
 Turn on tracing for individual sessions
 Client and server traces
Copyright 2009, Information Builders. Slide 56
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Administration - Request Controls
 Users can stop their running requests
 BID Utilities -> Stop Requests
 Sends stop requests for all running requests tied to the
same session
 Uses special connection/request to server
 Server responds as if server administrator had killed an
agent
 May take a few seconds – up to 65 seconds
 Run requests from HTML pages have optional request ID
parameter.
 Can stop requests by request ID
Let’s look....
Copyright 2009, Information Builders. Slide 57
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Administration - Session Monitor
Copyright 2009, Information Builders. Slide 58
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.6.11
Administration – Stop Request
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 59
WebFOCUS Release 7.7 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 60
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 7.7
Architecture & Integration Enhancements
 New & upgraded adapters
 iWay Transactional Adapters configured from Reporting



Server’s Data Management Console
Netezza is now available as named adapter
Adapters upgraded to support newer versions of native
databases and improved cube interfaces
Parameterized CONNECTION and TABLENAME values for
ACX files.
SEGNAME=GRANGE1, TABLENAME=&&TABNAME, CONNECTION=&&CONN, $
 Performance & other optimizations throughout the core codebase
 New initiative for IBM System z environments: FOCUS &
WebFOCUS: Exploit zIIP processor
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 61
WebFOCUS Release 8 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 62
WebFOCUS Roadmap – Release 8.0
Security – Information Assurance
 Authentication
 Are you who you claim to be?
 Userids/passwords
 Authenticating systems
 Authorization
 What are you allowed to do?
 Which objects (reports, users, tools)?
 Delegation of authorities
 System hardened against attack by malicious users/systems
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 63
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Security - Improved Authentication
 WebFOCUS named users
 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards
 Password expiration
 Lockout after n bad attempts
 “Must change password” status
 Password standards
 Minimum length
 Mixed case, use numbers, etc.
 Logging of ALL relevant changes
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 64
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Security - Granular Authorization
 Based on roles
 Set of permissions mapped to which objects and tools
a user or group of users can access
 Can be highly customized, flexible
 List, create, delete an object
 Read, update
 Execute (report, report template, etc.)
 New model is RDBMS-based and provides single
repository for the entire product (including ReportCaster)
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 65
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Security - Granular Authorization
Where
What
Who
Copyright 2009, Information Builders. Slide 66
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Security - Administration Delegation
 Combine as needed to meet your processes:
 Userid management (passwords, expiration, etc.)
 Group membership
 Role assignment
 Role definition
 What are people in the role allowed to do
 More than one role can be assigned per group, e.g.,
admin in “Sales” folder, but basic user in “Finance”
 Content management
 Tool accessibility
 Content execution
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 67
Please take a moment to fill out your
evaluation and give us an idea of the
features/functionality that interest you most.
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 68