Essential Viewer ReportService could not be found

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Beernink
Posts: 22
Joined: 26 Mar 2012, 00:57
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

I installed Essential Project and after issues with trying it with the latest version of Protege, I've got it all just about running. The one problem that I've struck is that I get the following error when I try to publish the repository from within the Essential Architecture Reporting tab:
Failed to send snapshot to the Report Service :
Essential Viewer ReportService could not be found at this URL.


I am running Windows 7, Protege 3.4.4, Tomcat 7.0.26, and installed from the essentialinstall.jar version 1.3.3. When I run the latter, it found the Protege installation ok but I had to specify the path to the (Tomcat) web server.
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jonathan.carter
Posts: 1087
Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 15:44

Yes, the installer needs to be told where to install the essential_viewer.war because different application servers have different structures. If you are using Tomcat, then select your <TOMCAT INSTALL>/webapps folder. The installer should have some instructions about this on the relevant step of the install process.

The error message that you are seeing means that the Essential Architecture Reporting Tab cannot connect to Essential Viewer. I think we should start by making sure that you have installed Essential Viewer correctly.

First, check that the installer has deployed the file 'essential_viewer.war' to the <TOMCAT_INSTALL_FOLDER>/webapps folder. Start Tomcat and this WAR file should then be unpacked to create a folder called 'essential_viewer' in the <TOMCAT_INSTALL_FOLDER>/webapps folder, e.g.

<TOMCAT_INSTALL>\webapps\essential_viewer

If you do not have this folder in your webapps folder, then the Essential Viewer has not been installed correctly. You can either find the 'essential_viewer.war' file (e.g. in the <TOMCAT_INSTALL> folder?) and copy it to the 'webapps' folder or re-run the installer and select ONLY the Essential Viewer pack to install.

If you do have the 'essential_viewer' folder in 'webapps', then Essential Viewer has been installed correctly. In this case, ensure that Tomcat has been started and test that it is responding by opening a web browser and navigate to the Essential Viewer homepage:
http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer

You should now see the Essential Viewer homepage. If not, check again that Tomcat is running and that Essential Viewer has been installed correctly. The Essential Architecture Reporting Tab in Protege should now be able to successfully connect to the ReportService.

If you are still having trouble, check that you have the correct URL in the Essential Architecture Reporting Tab. The default URL is:
http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer/reportService

If you are still having problems, check that there is not a firewall between the server hosting Tomcat and the client running Protege.

Hopefully this should get the Reporting Tab connected to Essential Viewer. Let me know how you get on.

Jonathan
Essential Project Team
peter.fuzi
Posts: 11
Joined: 30 Jul 2012, 08:52
Location: Telki, Hungary
Contact:

Jon,

am a three-days old newbie on the board. My config is standalone on Windows XP (SP3). After iterative install-try runs I need to report the same problem: Protege cannot start the Viewer.

Your test
ensure that Tomcat has been started and test that it is responding by opening a web browser and navigate to the Essential Viewer homepage:
http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer
ran with no problem. The nice Viewer homepage comes up and works perfectly. The second test
If you are still having trouble, check that you have the correct URL in the Essential Architecture Reporting Tab. The default URL is:
http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer/reportService
however runs into 404 error ("Unrecognised URL requested") replied by the Viewer.

Pressing Publish Repository key of Essential Architecture Reporting tab in Protégé results in this message: "Success.Repository snapshot generated and sent". Where can we find the snapshot files, what type of they are?

I tried to follow my Essential AM installations precisely according to the standalone process published. Still I was needed to unpack the Essential Viewer war file manually into the Tomcat webapps folder. Fyi - I practice Tomcat manual startup and shutdown reliably, so it must not have caused uncertainty. Well at this point I feel a bit lost in the jungle of Java - Tomcat - Essential Viewer - Graphviz :roll: .

Can you give some idea what to check, where to tune the setup?
With many thanks,
Peter
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jonathan.carter
Posts: 1087
Joined: 04 Feb 2009, 15:44

The Publish button makes a snapshot and sends it to the Essential Viewer. This is an XML document that is found in the root folder of the Essential Viewer web application in Tomcat.

However, there is nothing further for you to do. If you are seeing the Success message in the Reporting Tab, then the snapshot has been successfully received by Essential Viewer and what you see at the http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer URL is the Viewer environment updated with the contents of your repository that is being managed in Protege.

The http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer/reportService URL is not intended to be used from a web browser. Rather, it's what the reporting tab uses to send the snapshot to the selected Essential Viewer environment (you can have as many Essential Viewer environments as you need). You should NOT be using this URL to view the reports in Essential Viewer.

If the http://localhost:8080/essential_viewer URL is working and you're seeing the homepage, then the Essential Viewer has been started and is running correctly.

Jonathan
Essential Project Team
peter.fuzi
Posts: 11
Joined: 30 Jul 2012, 08:52
Location: Telki, Hungary
Contact:

Thanks Jonatan for your care. My practice has confirmed perfectly your hints.

With regards, Peter
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