ReportEngine (XI-R3.1) is not Serializable and fails on a wbelogic cluster

Question

In our J2EE web-application we store <b><code>com.businessobjects.rebean.wi.ReportEngines</code></b> in the <b><code>HttpSession</code></b> as recommended.
<br>From this instance we retrieve the appropriate report "<b><code>ReportEngine</code></b>" instance based on the storeagetoken.
<br>We retrieve the ReportEngine instance by:
<br>
<br><b><code>ReportEngine reportEngine = reportEngines.getServiceFromStorageToken(strEntry);</code></b>     
<br>
<br>The above works in a non-clustered single application server environment (weblogic-10).
<br>
<br>But in a cluster, if the storage-token and "ReportEngines" are created in one Node, then we get a <b><code>null</code></b> when we try retrieving the <b><code>ReportEngine</code></b> in another node.
<br>
<br>We dug in and discovered out that while  "<b><code>ReportEngines</code></b>" implements Serializable  "<b><code>ReportEngine</code></b>" does not implement the same.
<br>
<br>We noticed that the .NET SDK implementation of "<b><code>ReportEngine</code></b>" is serializable though (unlike Java).
<br>
<br>Does anyone know of any patch for the above.
<br>
<br>We have worked around by serializing the <b><code>DocumentInstance</code></b>in the DB and retrieve this using teh storage-token itself as a key.
<br>Obviously, we use this route only as a workaround (only when we encounter a <b><code>null</code></b> <b><code>ReportEngine</code></b>,due the cluster node switches).
<br>
<br>----
<br>There are other ways to get it to work without our workaround. One is by getting the load-balancer to retain the same weblogic node all thru the user-session (and in this case it works), but he cannot use that kind of a setup in our production environment.
<br>We have to have the loadbalancer distributing requests to all nodes in the cluster regadless to the session.
<br>--
<br>
<br>Would be glad to know of a SDK-patch for the above serialization issue.
Edited by: savincent on Aug 11, 2010 9:56 PM
Edited by: savincent on Aug 11, 2010 10:24 PM

Answer 1

There's no patch for that in the XI 3.1 and previous product line.
Your workaround sounds nice, i.e., sticky sessions for the session, and retrieve from token for failover.  When retrieving from the storage token, it serializes the report back from the WebI Report Server.
Sincerely,
Ted Ueda