[9] Admin Logging in as Different user

This one is my favorite ...

Many a times it is needed that 'Admin' ( or Support Staff ) needs to login as different user in Clarity. Primarily it's Support/Admin person's perspective to login as User who is facing some issue(s) and attempt to resolve it. So far it has been bit lengthy process of Disabling the ldap and changing the password of user in database and reverse the process after 'troubleshooting' is done.

I faced this problem initially ( after my bootcamp ) and thought to evolve a easy solution where 'Admin' should be able to log in as any user with ease.. Many thoughts came in mind like creating a SP based Clarity job or a Web page to creating a user Session through Web service and redirect to Overview page using that Session ID and many others... but then finally came up with workaround which according to me was less hassle when compared to other ones...

Workaround : Admin user ( cmn_sec_users.user_name = 'admin' ) can now login as other user ( say williamR ) from Clarity Login page itself. What Admin user would need to do is simple... In Login field ( of Clarity login page ) type Admin/williamR and supply Admin's own password ( Like Screenshot below ) and Hit 'Login' button to login as williamR user.






Solution : Download. This zip file contains instruction for Both SQL Server and Oracle based Clarity instances. Take the backup of the file which is being changed to some safe location, should there be need to revert for any reasons. ( I have tested it on Clarity 7.5.x, 8.x & 12.x versions )

* Post your comments or email the blog's email id, if you face any issues or this doesn't work for you.

[8] CA World 2008

   Thanks for Attending my Session on "Integration with Clarity using Web Services" at CA World 08 at Las Vegas.  

   For those who attended, Here is the code that I used in Live Demo. This basically tells the steps to follow if you want to call an External Web Service from Clarity (Say Google's Search Web Service ) using GEL Scripts. 

   In this Example, A Custom Object instance is created and any google Search string is provided in "Name" field of the instance. When Save/Submit is clicked, a Process runs which calls a Gel script. Gel Script then calls Google Web Service and gets the data in XML format. Gel Script breaks the XML, Loops through, extracts required data elements, stores them in variables and then finally Inserts them into a Custom Table. Portlet is created and NSQL query based on that Custom Table displays the Google Search Result data. 

     In this Example, for simplicity Google Search Web Service is used, but in Real life scenarios you can pull Stock/Currency Exchange etc information on Periodic basis through Clarity job. Likewise you can also pull and use other Web Services provided by Internal applications like SAP, .NET/Java Applications, CA Service Desk, HR/Asset Management applications or product Suites.  

    In similar fashion, Other Internal Apps can also access Clarity's data through Web service. Clarity exposes it's Web Services at http://clarity-server-name/niku/xog that others can use. 

    Post a comment or mail me if you need some other/related  examples or have any specific query.