On Linux Systems

If you installed Web Reports on a Linux system, you do not have to install extra components to export reports as PDF documents, but you must run some configuration steps if they apply to your environment.

If BigFix server uses a proxy connection to communicate over the Internet and you run Web Reports using Firefox on the Linux system where you installed the Web Reports.
Ensure that the Firefox browser is not configured for the system's fully qualified hostname. For example, if your network domain is mynetwork.com, configure the Firefox connection settings as highlighted in the following picture:
Firefox connection settings
If the DISPLAY variable is set to a value different from DISPLAY=:0.0
Manually change the export statement in the /etc/init.d/beswereports file as follows:
  1. Stop the Web Reports service by running:
    /etc/init.d/beswereports stop
  2. Edit the file /etc/init.d/beswereports.
  3. Set the DISPLAY variable to correctly point to your X server.
  4. Save the file.
  5. Restart the Web Reports service by running:
    /etc/init.d/beswereports start
If the runlevel set on your Linux system is different from 5.
Modify the runlevel and set it to 5, or use xvfb.
Run these steps if you decide to use xvfb:
  1. Set up the optional channel as follows:
    rhn-channel --add --channel=rhel-x86_64-server-optional-6
  2. Install the packages: 
    yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb.x86_64
yum install gstreamer-plugins-base-XXX
yum install urw-fonts-XXX
    where XXX depends on the specific version number of the packages installed, for example: gstreamer-plugins-base-0.10.36-10.e17.x86_64.
    Note: On Red Hat Linux 8, the library to use for the yum install command is urw-base35-fonts-XXX, where XXX depends on the specific version number of the packages installed.
    You can get the full, current name of these packages by running the following commands on your system: 
    rpm -qa | grep urw-fonts
rpm -qa | grep gstreamer
  3. Modify the script that manages the PDF exports as follows:
    1. Edit the script /var/opt/BESWebReportsServer/BESReportsData/BESExe/wkhtmltopdf.sh
    2. Prepend:
      xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 1024x768x16"
      before the statement:
      /var/opt/BESWebReportsServer/BESReportsData/BESExe/wkhtmltopdf
--enable-plugins --use-xserver --javascript-delay 5000 
--no-stop-slow-scripts $optionalparms $arg1 $arg2
      so that it is a unique command line as follows:
      xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 1024x768x16" /var/opt/BESWebReportsServer/BESReportsData/
BESExe/wkhtmltopdf --enable-plugins --use-xserver --javascript-delay 5000 
--no-stop-slow-scripts $optionalparms $arg1 $arg2
    3. Save the script file.
If you experience a slow rendering when the PDF is generated.
If the generation of the PDF takes longer than 5 seconds to display the Web Reports exports to the PDF only the data that were available before the 5 seconds elapsed. To bypass this limitation, increase the delay as follows:
  1. Edit the script /var/opt/BESWebReportsServer/BESReportsData/BESExe/wkhtmltopdf.sh
  2. Increase the value that is assigned to --javascript-delay in the statement:
    /var/opt/BESWebReportsServer/BESReportsData/BESExe/wkhtmltopdf
--enable-plugins --use-xserver --javascript-delay 5000 
--no-stop-slow-scripts $optionalparms $arg1 $arg2
    The value is expressed in milliseconds and 5000 ms is the default vale.
  3. Save the script file.