What is the difference between 'REST' and 'WebFOCUS Client REST' data connectors in WebFocus 8207?

[Debra Waybright]

What is the difference between 'REST' and 'WebFOCUS Client REST' data connectors in WebFocus 8207?

[Guest]

Hi Deb

I think the WF Client REST only lets you ask WebFOCUS questions about it's repository much the same as you could by using the web interface via your browser. You can do things like this the contents of folders or check the security settings of an item in report form.

Normal REST - or what I think we're calling Open Portal Services now - lets foreign applications run WebFOCUS reports. For example you might have a sharepoint site with some container on a page and you want that container to show you a WebFOCUS generated chart... That's when you'd be using the 'real' Rest services.

So one just aims at WebFOCUS Client to query info - the other lets you run WebFOCUS content inside other applications.

To see some of the things you might be able to do with the WF Client Adapter - you might check out this page on your environment:

http://yourmachine.com/ibi_apps/rs?IBIRS_action=TEST

I think that will give you an idea. I bet this is all documented somewhere too. When you create the WF client adapter, it'll volunteer to make a bunch of useful masters /acx files that will land in the app folder of your choosing.

Hope that helps. I'm not 100% certain of these as I'm not using them right now.

[Debra Waybright]

@Toby Mills​  My first stab at looking for documentation wasn't very successful. This is good information, but doesn't sound like what I am actually looking for. I was looking to be able to use REST to create an API call to get data from a source that didn't already have a adapter defined in the "Get Data" list.

Thanks.

[Guest]

Hi Deb

Yeah - I think of REST as a tool to pull a report from WebFOCUS into another application (like maybe a sharepoint portal). Sounds like you need something more akin to an adapter.

Think you can use JDBC to pick up your data? What's the data source that you're hoping to read?

[Debra Waybright]

We're looking to use Mulesoft to access data from other systems. The inhouse direction is to use Mulesoft as a semantic layer. I'll reach out to our Mulesoft team and see about JDBC.