Share Sisense web application externally (Windows only)
Sisense dashboards can be shared easily within the same private network, but the Sisense web application is not configured to be publicly accessible by default. This page details the steps and best practices to make your Sisense instance accessible to anyone on the internet, so that dashboards can be shared with users outside of your organization and Sisense can be accessed by users not on the same local network as the Sisense server. * Note: These settings make your Sisense web application publicly accessible. Users will still need to authenticate and be shared on a dashboard to access Sisense content. Implementation Steps To access Sisense using the Sisense server's IP address (for example, "192.0.2.0"), confirm that the server has a static public IP address. Consult your IT professional, internet service provider (ISP), or hosting service for more details. To access Sisense using a subdomain/domain name (for example, "analytics.example.com"), update your DNS to point to the machine's IP. You must own and control the domain name you wish to use. Sisense does not manage or assist with domain names or their configuration. Open the inbound TCP port in your firewall. This port is 8081 by default but configurable in the installation process (https://docs.sisense.com/win/SisenseWin/installing-sisense.htm#CustomizingtheInstallation). Nominally, this can be controlled in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, but many customers have superseding rules from their organization or hosting service. If Sisense is still not accessible over your port after opening it in Windows Firewall, confirm with your IT department whether firewall rules may be in place elsewhere. Implement a security layer using SSL to ensure that all network traffic between your Sisense server and client machines is encrypted. For steps to do so, see here: https://docs.sisense.com/win/SisenseWin/setting-up-ssl-for-sisense-windows.htm. After implementing SSL, ensure the port used (typically 443) is also open for inbound TCP connections. Once these settings are implemented, external users will be able to access Sisense by entering the Sisense DNS/IP address and port (for example, "192.0.2.0:8081" or "analytics.example.com:8081"). * Note: If you don't want users to have to enter a port (for example, "192.0.2.0" or "analytics.example"), use port 80 for http communication and 443 for https communication, as these ports will be hidden from the URL. Troubleshooting If a user is unable to connect remotely after the settings were applied, you can test the communication between the machines to understand the source of the connectivity failure by doing the following: Confirm the Sisense web application is running and accessible locally on the server Use the 'nslookup' command in the Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe) to confirm your domain/subdomain points to the correct IP address for your Sisense server. For example, 'nslookup example.com'. Try pinging the machine's IP address in the command prompt. This will show if there is communication available between both machines. For example, 'ping 192.0.2.0'. If you are able to ping the machine, use the telnet command to ensure you are able to communicate through the required port. For example, 'telnet 192.0.2.0 8081' Further troubleshooting or review may require your IT team's assistance. Further Reading More information is available here: https://docs.sisense.com/win/SisenseWin/setting-up-your-production-environment.htm. Helpful general information about web applications and security is available from Mozilla: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SecurityHow to Export a Certificate using the Certificate Export Wizard (Windows only)
How to Export a Certificate using the Certificate Export Wizard In Sisense version 7.2 and later, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) settings have moved from Microsoft IIS into the Sisense Configuration Manager. For organizations moving to Sisense 7.2 and above from an earlier version that would like to continue using SSL, it is necessary to obtain the certificate to make SSL work. See the steps below to attempt to obtain the certificate from the server's certificate store if your organization previously had SSL set up on the Sisense web server. Organizations can also opt to contact their Certificate Authority (CA) to obtain an up-to-date copy of your site's .pfx or .crt and .key files. This explanation utilizes mmc (Microsoft Management Console) to export the certificate. On your webserver, search programs for mmc and select mmc.exe In the window that appears, click on "Add/Remove Snap-in..." In the "Available snap-ins" column, click on Certificates then click "Add >" to add it to the "Selected snap-ins" column In the resulting pop-up, select "Computer account" then click 'Next' Leave the settings as is on the next screen and click Finish Click on OK to add the Certificate snap-in On the left-hand side of the screen, expand Certificate (Local Computer) > Personal > Certificates Right-click on your certificate, go to All Tasks > Export The Certificate Export Wizard will appear which will assist you in exporting your organization's certificate to the appropriate format. Select the Next button. On the Export Private Key screen, select "Yes, export the private key". The private key is necessary for SSL to work in Sisense 7.2 and higher. Then select the Next button. On the Export File Format screen, select the Personal Information Exchange (.PFX) file option and hit the check boxes that correspond to the options below, then select the Next button. ☐ Include all certificates in the certification path if possible ☐ Export all extended properties ☐ Enable certificate privacy On the Security screen, select the Password checkbox and enter a password. Make sure the encryption setting is TripleDES-SHA1. Then select the Next button. Select the file location in which to save the exported certificate. Then select the Next Button. On the last screen select the Finish button to complete the setup. Complete the setup in this guide to set up SSL in Sisense.Host a New Webpage on IIS (Windows only)
It some situations, it may be useful to be able to use IIS to host website that work with Sisense. A common example would be hosting a webpage that contains the code for an embedded dashboard. Additionally, it could be useful in scenarios when you want to host a web page to be used as your custom home page during rebranding, or when hosting a webpage for the iframe widget This article shows a simple way to host your own webpages using IIS. 1. Add a New Directory to IIS The directory we will add to IIS needs to exist like any other file path, and needs to contain the webpage we want to use. We will create a reference to this directory in IIS so it can be accessed by other users, and parsed correctly by a browser. To do this, open IIS, right click on SiSenseWeb, and go to Add Virtual Directory For this example, I created a new folder to hold all of my webpages at C:\embedded, and I gave it the alias of 'testpages' in IIS. Since I used the default installation settings (localhost:8081), the file C:\embedded\adventure_works.html will be accessible at localhost:8081/testpages/embedded/adventure_works.html. After this, right click the new virtual directory you've created, go to Edit Permissions..., go to the Sharing tab, and click share. From here, use the drop down list to find Everyone, and give them Read access permissions. If a popup appears asking if you like to turn on network discovery, click Yes. In this example, I'm going to host a simple html web page that uses an iframe to display an embedded dashboard. This webpage can be created with notepad. Just be sure to save it with a .html file extension. If you are unfamiliar with embedding dashboards, you can find more information about them here: https://docs.sisense.com/main/SisenseLinux/embedding-dashboards-and-widgets.htm In the example from the documentation, the basic iframe code to embed a dashboard will look something like this: <iframe id=”ifm” name=”ifm” width=”100%” height=”100%” frameborder=”0″ src=“http://mysite.com/app/main#/dashboards/536f3a54d093e26c28000114/widgets/536f3a54d093e26c2800011b?embed=true″ scrolling=”auto”></iframe> However, you'll need to wrap this code in some standard html tags, so it gets parsed correctly by the browser. These tags will give you the format of: <html> <head> </head> <body> <iframe id=”ifm” name=”ifm” width=”100%” height=”100%” frameborder=”0″ src=“http://mysite.com/app/main#/dashboards/536f3a54d093e26c28000114/widgets/536f3a54d093e26c2800011b?embed=true″ scrolling=”auto”></iframe> </body> <html> Now, save the this file in the physical directory you created to be used by IIS. (In my case its C:\embedded). Now we can access this embedded dashboard, with the html code that's attached to this post.How To Find Your Sisense Version? (Windows only)
Question: How can I find the exact version and build of my Sisense environment? Solution: There are 3 easy ways to find the exact version of your environment: On the web application Open your Sisense web application On the top toolbar, click on the person icon. The version will be the last item on the menu which pops up: On the Desktop ECM Note: Not relevant for Sisense Linux Open the desktop Elasticube Manager Click the Help & How-To's button on the top scroll bar Click the About button The version will be here: On the web application Open dev tools - console (F12) Copy this and press enter: prism.version The version will be displayed as output:Resizing System Volume Information (SVI) Windows only
Question: Sometimes your server might run out of space on because the SVI (System Volume Information) is eating up all memory. The system volume information is used in windows in order to save information related to system restore which is used when a restoration of the system is performed. The problem is that if there is no size limit to this feature, it might take a significant amount of the system memory, without ability to directly delete it. Answer: There are two ways to resize the SVI: Through the system properties - follow these instructions: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-make-system-volume-information-folder-smaller-3613911/ Through the command line - if you don't see the system protection tab according to the above method, you can resize it through the command line: https://indrajitc.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/reclaiming-disk-space-from-system-volume-information/REST API - Adding Data Level Security
When building code to automate the process of adding users (or groups), it may be beneficial to add security around those users. Follow the steps below to learn how to add data level security through the REST API: Step 1 From your SiSense home page, navigate to the Manage tab and choose the option for REST API. From here, click on the link to the REST API Reference interface. Step 2 From here, choose the 0.9 version and expand the Elasticube section and scroll down to the POST /elasticubes/datasecurity section. Step 3 The sample code below shows a valid JSON object to use as part of the REST API request. Starting from the sample code, replace the value for party with a user identifier that already exists in your system. Then paste the code into the REST API interface and click run. You should see a response of 200, which indicates a successful operation. [{ "server": "LocalHost", "elasticube": "Sample Lead Generation", "table": "Lead Generation", "column": "Country", "datatype": "text", "shares": [{ "party": "5c0f85690ca2f66cc242e266", "type": "user" }], "members": [ "United States", "England" ] }] Notes The server name value is case sensitive, so make sure it matches with your system. The sample provided is specific to one of the sample databases that comes with SiSense. To modify this to a different system, just update necessary fields to include your specifications. The sample provided is an array that consists of a single element. This could be modified to contain several entries all sent at once.Custom UI Colours (Instead Of Yellow)
Download: For V7.0 - V7.1, For V7.2 and V7.3, For V7.4 Plugin allows changing Sisense yellow color to any color you wish. This plugin causes instability with some Sisense versions and is not supported. Use at your own risk. STEPS STEP 1 - ADD THE PLUGIN Download the attachment and unzip the contents into your C:\Program Files\Sisense\PrismWeb\plugins\ folder. If the plugins folder doesn't exist, just create it. After those files have been unzipped there, you may also have to restart the web server. STEP 2 - USE THE PLUGIN Reload sisense web app. BEFORE: AFTER: CONFIGURATION: Navigate to .../styles in the plugin folder and edit config.less (or config.scss) file with colors according to your desire. Change log: 05/17/2019 - Support for V7.4 and change color for button on login page. NOTE: In the latest versions of Sisense (Windows and Linux - 8.2+), you have this feature baked into the product - Look & Feel (on the Admin tab)Quickly Add Unique Identifier to Blox Action Buttons Without Modifying Blox Template
A customer recently had the unusual request for a method to select and distinguish, via a CSS selector used within a custom Javascript action, for a specific Blox buttons in a existing Blox widget that contained multiple identical buttons, identical in inner text and all other parameters, without adding any new lines to the Blox template to add unique identifiers.Ranking range
Introduction Many times we'd like to analyze our data according to top/bottom ranking positions, for this we have out-of-the-box ranking filters. At other times, we'd like to see certain ranges, such as the ranking range between certain ranks, i.e. positions 5-10 or 11-50. Our standard top/bottom ranking filters will not suffice for this analysis. Example In this example, we'd like to focus our attention on our product categories ranking 4-6 to see how to improve our medium-selling items. For this, we'll use a combination of the RANK() function (https://docs.sisense.com/win/SisenseWin/function-references.htm) and then determine which ranking indexes we'd like to display: Steps 1. Regardless of the ultimate widget you'd like to use, tart with a pivot table to see all the categories and actual data. 2. Add the RANK() function, the first argument within this function should be the measure according to which you'd like to apply the ranking, in our case SUM(Quantity). The second argument is the manner in which we'd like to arrange our ranking, "ASC"/"DESC" in our case we'll use "DESC": This will create the Categories' indexing according to our top ranking. 3. We will now apply a filter by value on our newly created RANK function, use the range which you'd like to display, in our case, we'd like to show the ranking values that are between 4-6: That's it! you will now be able to show the specific ranking range required, you can even go ahead and disable the RANK function toggle switch so it will not be displayed within the widget.Personio API Pre-Processing Data
Question Is there a way to add pre-processing (python script) to the data that will be uploaded from a custom API connector? Or should I run the script locally on a fixed schedule and use the Sisense API to upload after the data is processed? Answer Some info about your questions (as we already come across with that many times before): You can run any python script that you would like automatically before or after a Build is done using an ElastiCube Plugin , scroll to the part where is talks about python scripts. Sisense doesn't provide an API to modify data within your cube. So if you would like the Python script to do some extra processing before it gets pushed to the cube - you can save that data locally on the Sisense machine in csv format and then use another another post-build plugin to delete that csv once the build is finished. - Notice that you can use any python version you'd like (in their code sample they are using the old 2.7)
