QEMC Access Point URL

[#1]

The default Access Point url is: http://localhost/qlikview/index.htm. If I wanted to create a generic url that users could access regardless of the server name how would I go about doing that? The reason I ask is I'd like to have a more generic name for the url so we can have users point to one address regardless of which server we have QlikView on.

thanks,

rob

[Bjorn_Wedbratt]

Not sure if I follow you, but (as you already know) a web server is by default accessible using the default machine (netbios) name (i.e. http://win2k8 if the machine name is WIN2K8). It is also common that you have a Fully Qualified Name (FQN) registered in DNS for the machine, in the format "machinename.domain" (i.e win2k8.company.com) and in that case users can access the web server using http://win2k8.company.com.

It's not very uncommon that you have an internal naming convention on your servers that is not very user-friendly (USPRODQVS for a production QVS in the US as an example). In this case you can register alternative DNS-records in your environment, either HOST(A) records or ALIAS(CNAME) records. You can have multiple HOST(A)-records registered on the same IP-address if you want, which is common for example when hosting multiple web sites on the same IIS server:

USPRODQVS 10.0.1.10 (default HOST(A) record)
QVS 10.0.1.10
PORTAL 10.0.1.10

In this example you can reach each of the web sites on the server using:

http://usprodqvs (default site with default host header=NETBIOS name)
http://qvs (qvs site with host header=qvs)
http://portal (a site with host header=portal)

ALIAS(CNAME) records in DNS will point to already existing HOST(A)-records and can also be used. However, sometimes you need to pay attention to the type of DNS-record being used. Kerberos for example will not utilize the ALIAS(CNAME) records when generating tokens, but the HOST(A) record.

I suggest you have a chat with your DNS-admin and have him/her register appropriate DNS-records for your environment. If you later install QVS on a new machine (i.e. new IP address), it's easy to simply alter the DNS-record to point to the IP-address for the new machine and the end-users will still access the web site like they're used to.

Regards,
Bjorn

[#3]

Hey Bjorn,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, you have part of my question. Our Network admin was going to make all of the DNS changes that you mention above. My question is more around what would I need to change in the QEMC in order for internal users to access the access point from the new FQN. For example, by default our access point has the following URL: http://dcwebb99/qlikview/index.htm. If we change the DNS so the FQN is something like: http://bi-internal.companyname.com what changes would I need to make in the QEMC so when my end users type http://bi-internal.companyname.com that it points to the same Access Point location that http://dcwebb99/qlikview/index.htm . I'm guessing all I'd have to do is rename the URL in the QlikView Web Servers\General area to http://bi-internal.companyname.com . Currently, the name shows up as: http://dcwebb99:4750/qvws.asmx .

thanks again,

rob

[#4 · Accepted solution]

http://bi-internal.companyname.com takes you to the default page \ location of your web server.

To default it to access point, you could do in different ways.

1) To configure you webserver home directory to your access point.

2) You can place a small default.asp \ default.htm page to redirect to http://bi-internal.companyname.comqlikview/index.htm

sample ASP script.

<%

Response.redirect "/accesspoint"

%>

[#5]

idealbrain,

I used option #2 above and it worked like a charm. Thanks for your help.

rob

[MichaelRobertshaw]

The only place where the server name part of the URL is controlled in QEMC is in the Print properties of the QlikView Server. This URL is used to deliver Exported content for AJAX clients. Change http://xxxx/QvPrint to just /QvPrint and it will work with whatever servername the users use.

[#7]

idealbrain,

Where would I place the default.asp script if I'm not running IIS? We were running IIS on a previous server so I just placed the default.asp file in the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot folder. I have another machine where I'm not running IIS and I can't figure out where to put the default.asp redirect. Maybe it would be easier to go with you option #1? Could you provid a little more detail on option #1 or let me know where to place the default.asp file for the server that's not running IIS?

thanks so much,

rob

[#8]

Rob,

Default.asp is for IIS. Which webserver are you using on the another machine?

[Bjorn_Wedbratt]

Rob,

If you're using QlikView Web server, there are some additional "tweaks".

First of all, you need to configure QVWS to "listen" to the host URL. By default QVWS is configure to listen to http://server/qlikview (among other URL:s required).
If you open config.xml (%PROGRAMDATA%\Qliktech\QvWebServer) you notice there are a number of virtual folders defined. What you need to do to have QVWS listen to a root folder is to create an additional folder tag, but leave the <NAME>-tag blank:

<Web>
<Folders>
<Folder>
<Name></Name>
<Path>C:\Program Files\QlikView\Root</Path>
</Folder>
<Folder>
<Name>QlikView</Name>
<Path>C:\Program Files\QlikView\Web</Path>
</Folder>

In this case my root-folder would be in C:\Program Files\QlikView\Root (make sure to create this folder).
Restart QVWS and pay attention to the log generated in %PROGRAMDATA\Qliktech\QvWebServer\Log. Notice there's now a register prefix for http://+:80/.

2010-06-29 15:40:49.9097898 Information register prefix: "https://+:443/scripts/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qlikview/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qvanalyzer/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qvclients/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qvplugin/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qvjava/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qvajaxzfc/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/qvprint/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:4750/"
2010-06-29 15:40:49.9410402 Information register prefix: "http://+:80/scripts/"

Great, now we have a root folder for http://server. As you cannot use ASP in an easy way with QVWS, instead create a default.htm page in the root-folder (C:\Program files\Qlikview\Root). Use a meta-tag do redirect to /qlikview, like:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;url=/qlikview">

</HEAD>
<BODY>

redirecting please wait...

</BODY>

</HTML>

[#10]

idealbrain,

I'm using the QlikView Web Server on the other machine.

rob