This was previously referred to as Tight Integration.


Overview

The easiest way to make use of Yellowfin's interactivity is to convert the platform as a re-branded, tightly integrated portal. The aim is to create a seamless link between the parent application and Yellowfin, so the end-user is unaware that they have navigated from one application to another. Using a development language other than Java should not increase the difficulty of implementing Application Integration.


Main Steps

The main requirements for implementing Application Integration are:


Add Links

The custom header should contain links that take a user to different pages within the third-party application and a “Reports” link that will take the user to Yellowfin. The action associated with clicking the “Reports” link will launch an SSO call to Yellowfin's web services allowing the user to be taken directly into Yellowfin (add Redirecting to Yellowfin with SSO token). A user can return to a particular page in the third-party application by clicking the other links in the header.

With SSO call to Yellowfin, you can determine where a user is taken after the log in has completed. This can be anything from a report or dashboard to the browse page or a time line. For more details on this, see our page on Session Options.


Multiple Entry Points

Individual links can be used for separate entry points into the application. For instance, one link could take you to the dashboard, another could take you to the Browse page. These different entry-points allow for a pseudo tight-integration implementation where the third-party application could load a list of the reports available for a particular user via web services. The list of reports could be rendered within the application natively and a user could view these reports which would be executed by performing SSO directly to that report in Yellowfin.

The process that performs the Single Sign-On into Yellowfin may need to perform other functions such as creating users and determining the correct group access depending on the nature of the implementation. For more details refer to our page on Single Sign On.


Rebranding

Some implementations will also require re-branding on a Client Org level. This can be done in different ways. Below are a few examples:


Limitations

An issue faced with Application Integration is session timeouts. Timeouts occur when the third-party application doesn't receive a request within a specified period while a user is using Yellowfin. This can be fixed by embedding an image from the host application in the custom header used by Yellowfin. This will cause the user's browser to make a request to the host application each time a page is loaded in Yellowfin.