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How to Backup a BO Universe and Maintain its CUID

Backing Up and Restoring Universes While Maintaining CUIDs

Import Wizard BIAR File – The ultimate backup

The sections that follow this one will tell you how to create a backup of a universe on your machine from which you are running Designer. The steps in those sections are “tricks” that allow you to maintain the Business Objects XI ‘s universe’s CUID. With practice they can be executed quickly and on the fly to permit the Universe Designer/Developer to create a back-up more quickly than if they were to use Business Object XI’s Import Wizard’s BIAR file backup method.

With regards to maintenance of the Universe’s CUID and general backup/snapshot capabilities Import Wizard’s BIAR file backup has proven to be quite reliable. This is not to say that I have never seen issues, but these have been limited to large BIAR files and large numbers of objects. Creating a BIAR file backup of a single universe or just a few should 99% of the time be reliable. The drawback is that creating such a backup on the fly can be a rather significant workflow disruptor, you must chose just the right settings in Import Wizard, and because you must switch to Designer, you can only backup what has been loaded to the CMS. All of these attributes might steer you to look for another on the fly backup technique, if so, keep reading…

Make Back-up of a universe

Using Business Objects Designer import the universe. Then making no changes, close the universe. This will create a fresh, unaltered copy of the universe on your local computer.
Locate the universe file (*.unv) and the folder (has the same name as the universe file) in the following folder path on the computer on which you are running Designer:
C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataBusiness ObjectsBusiness Objects 11.5Universes@DevelopmentWorking Area
Select both the universe file and the folder (hold CTRL and use mouse). Then right-click either the selected file and chose “WinZip -> Add to Zip File…” Note: Any compression tool will do.
Enter a name that is meaningful to you; it may indicate the version of the universe, the date/time, or editor. Click “OK” and notice the new Zip file you created. This is your backup.

Restore a back-up of a universe

As has been stated many times on this website, you must be very careful with Universes and their CUIDs. Many logical work flows for handling universes can result in changing CUIDs and lost report bindings. Nevertheless, if properly back-up a universe can be restored to a prior state by following this work flow.

Open Designer, but do not open any universe
Locate the desired corresponding Universe folder and zip file. They should be located in:
C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataBusiness ObjectsBusiness Objects 11.5Universes@DevelopmentWorking Area
Back-up the existing universe file and folder to a new Zip file
Delete the existing universe file and folder
Unzip the backed-up universe file and folder to this same location. Note: They must be in the same local folder as the universe file and folder they are replacing.
Open the universe file that you just unzipped and export it to the folder in which you are working:
You will receive a prompt similar to the following. Click “Yes”.

Prompt reads, “A newer version of this universe exists in the repository. If you continue with the export you may overwrite existing changes. Do you want to continue?

WARNING: if you receive any messages asking you to Move, Copy, or Overwrite a universe then you may not be restoring to the exact location that the universe previously resided. Prompts asking to overwrite the universe will be received if the universe you are attempting to restore does not have the same CUID as the backup universe. In this case, double-check your directories and analyze everything in Query Builder.
At the end of the export close the universe and import the universe you just exported.
Verify that this is the correct universe.
You have successfully restored the universe

@Prompt Functions: The Next Step – Optional Prompts

For most of us the @Prompt function syntax can be a bit confusing at first. Sure we catch on quickly, however, we often need to review the business objects @Prompt syntax available online or refer to a previously created @Prompt. After we get comfortable with the @Prompt and the available options such as custom list of values, constrained/free, mono/multi, and default/purge values (link to article), many of us are ready to take our @Prompts to the next level.

Prompt Conditions – Fancy Lines in a SQL WHERE Clause

Of course, if we are discussing @Prompt then we are discussing work done in Business Objects’ Designer. I suppose you could hard-code one in the SQL of a WebI report, but if you are doing that then I don’t think you are ready for the next level. Anyway, back to Designer, @Prompts are placed in condition objects (the little filters). Conditions become part of the WHERE clause of a report’s SQL. Therefore, much of what you can do with the WHERE clause in SQL can be replicated in Designer’s condition objects. This means that you can include AND and OR logic, for starters. This is where the magic starts, because “OR” logic is the drive behind optional prompt conditions. Anyway yo get the technical discussion started here is an example of basic business objects @prompt syntax:

Products.product_num IN @Prompt('Enter Product Number(s)','A',,MULTI,FREE)

Multiple @Prompt Applications Using @Variable

Let me take one step back and discuss the BO syntax briefly. @Prompts are translated into SQL by BO with the values submitted to them. Sometimes this translation is frustrating (dates date types for example). The interesting thing is that this translation can occur for each instance of the @Prompt in the report’s SQL. So you could place it in various parts of your report’s WHERE clause and each would be executed and evaluated. HOWEVER, the prompt values are all consolidated under a single @Prompt text string. This because the unique identifier of the @Prompt is the text displayed to the end user, you know the first string following the “@Prompt(“. Another way to reuse a prompt in the SQL of a report is to use the @Variable function with the exact same prompt text string. This allows you to use the input from the user without replicating all of the rest of the syntax in the @Prompt. Using @Variable is preferable where possible because it will avoid having to make changes to an @Prompt in too many locations (when changes are inevitably needed).

Creating a True Condition

SQL WHERE clauses function much like most logical programming; they evaluate to “True” or “False”. I don’t really want to get into a tutorial on logic, but it is important that you understand a bit about it. In short, this is what you need to know:

true and true = true
true and false = false
true or false = true
false or false = false

In order to create an optional prompt you will need to create a clause that has the ability to evaluate true based on a valid parameter value or a submitted keyword that you have configured for the prompt. Therefore you want an OR clause. Here is the key to the whole thing and it looks like this:

Employee.employee_id = @Prompt('Enter a value (* to bypass filter)','A','',MONO,FREE) OR '*' = @Variable('Enter a value (* to bypass filter)')

The keyword that is pre-configured in this prompt is: * (the asterisk character). So do you see it? If I enter a valid value for Employee.employee_id then my optional prompt clause will return those employees. If I enter a “*” character (minus the quote characters) the prompt clause will evaluate “TRUE” for all records and this will make as though the enter Prompt clause were not even present. It has been bypassed.

Standard Practices with Business Objects Optional Prompts

I have seen various keywords used over the years. The “*” (asterisk) is the most common. The word “All” is used by some, but when using letters you have to be prepared to handle or prevent mixed case responses. I have also seen the keyword added to a List of Values and the Business Objects prompt set to constrained to prevent upper/lower-case issues. This would for MONO or MULTI prompts, but please know that putting multiple values together with the keyword will still result in a complete TRUE clause/statement (or bypassing of it). Often the keyword is included in the prompt text or at least in any auxiliary training documentation. Remember, the keyword doesn’t help anyone who is not aware of it or how to use it. Finally, the keyword should not be similar, close to, or the same as any possible valid value for the prompt condition (nothing close to Employee.employee_id in this case); this would REALLY confuse the end-users of the BO prompt.

Optional Prompts in Business Objects XI 3

BO finally caught up with its competitors with the release of BO XI 3.0. In this release it began to include the ability to make report-level prompts optional through a check box. The unfortunate part is that this requires the user to create his or her prompts in the report and not follow the best practice of creating them in the universe. I haven’t yet seen any way to make a universe-level @Prompt optional based on configuration initiated at the report level. Perhaps this is by design; it allows the universe author to perfectly control both the composition and the optional nature of the prompt.

If you haven’t yet seen how to make a report level prompt option, please take a look at the image below. To get to this point you need (1) open the report or create a new one, (2) click on “Edit Query”, (3) locate a report-level prompt or create one, (4) click on the prompt properties button, it looks like a question mark in a blue circle over-lapping a small window with an “X”, (5) click on the “Optional prompt” check box, (6) click “OK”, (7) switch to the “Edit Report”, (8) test the prompt and save the report.

Modify Report > Edit Query > Prompt Properties > Optional Prompt

What is an Unbound Report and Why Should I Care?

You may have read something on this web site or in one of our guides that mentioned “unbound reports” in a less than favorable light. Hopefully this article explains what we mean by this.

What is an unbound report?

With the migration to the Business Objects XI platform many things changed. One of these changes was the method used to connect (or bind) documents to universes. I wrote an article on this binding and relationship, it is called “Business Objects XI – Changing BO Report / Universe Relationships“. So I won’t revisit that discussion beyond saying that in BOXI reports and universes are primarily and securely bound to each other through a set of unique identifiers of the objects: CUID and Object ID. If a report loses this relationship to its universe we call it and “unbound report”.
There may be other names for this phenomenon, but I believe this is the one the experts in SAP Business Objects use, and if they don’t I like it and I think it fits very well.

What causes a report to become unbound from its universe?

The basic event that occurs causing a report to become unbound from its universe is that the unique identifier of the universe is removed from the system. Some of the actions that remove this unique identifier may seem rather innocuous, but they can all be potentially deadly to your reports:

Deleting a Universe: OK, this one is not innocent, but it is the most obvious and it actually has a few variants
Replacing a Universe Using Designer: Many people use Designer to migrate universes from a development environment to a production environment. If during export you are prompted to “overwrite” a universe and you accept… kiss your report binding good-bye. If you quickly delete the original universe and then upload the new one, same story.
Improper Use of Import Wizard: The “Merge” option causes so much trouble because it is not understood properly by many. If you use this or even if you use the much preferred “Update” option and you see that a new universe named with a “(2)” suffix was created, you haven’t ruined your report binding yet, but you next actions might. You must manually bind each report to the new universe with the “(2)” using the Java Report Panel to transfer the binding and make it safe to remove the old version of the universe. Failure to do this will fill your day with regrets.

But It Worked Fine in Business Objects 6.5

You are correct, but that doesn’t change anything. Remember, the game changed with Business Objects XI. The fusion with Crystal Reports created all new rules that Business Objects has barely explained to its customers. In BO65 the report-universe relationship was name based. Thinking this is still the case is the biggest issue facing Business Objects XI administrators and developers. Now it is all about unique identifiers and you can only maintain them by using the properly workflows.

I Followed a “Bad” Workflow but My Report Still Works, Why?

Many times unbound reports will continue to perform just fine, for a while. The first question is how long with that while be. The second question is, are you sure the report is using the right universe??? The CMS record of the report has meta data that lists a universe short name which many times will allow a report to find a universe to use. The problem with this is that it is unreliable and universe short names can change and be duplicated. In such cases a well-behaved unbound report might start to use a universe other than the one you intend or it might just fail. If it uses an unintended universe this could be a HUGE problem as it may not raise any errors to the end-user and the end-user may be making business decisions on wrong, bogus, or out-dated information!!!

The Nearly Unrecoverable Error – Error: WIS 00501

If your report cannot locate a universe, even with using the hidden short name stored in the report’s meta data then this is the error you will see:

Refreshing Data
Universe not found. See your Business
Objects Administrator. (Error: WIS 00501)
(Error: INF )

Once you see this error, you should expect the worst. In some rare and mostly undocumented cases some lucky BO developers have been able to recover from this issue by replacing the original universe. However, please don’t count on this; it is only worth an attempt.

So What are the Proper Development and Object Promotion Workflows?

I have hinted at a few and skimmed over others. To be honest there is a lot to discuss on this topic that exceeds the scope of a simple article. I am working on a new guide that details these workflows and how to properly design or retrofit a Business Objects XI system to best avoid these pitfalls and provide the maximum stability. As the guide materializes I will post some of the content here. I also hope to receive comments that will help shape part of the guide as well.

Selective Operators: Allowing Users to Decide Which Operator to Use

Everyone once in a while you come across something that makes you say, “that is great, now why didn’t I think of that?”. Recently I came across such a thing: an idea of how to make operators in the WHERE clause of a query definable by the user at the moment of report refresh through creative use of SQL and Designer. Honestly I think everyone could benefit from a greater understanding of SQL. This like piece of code is the proof of that:

Selective Operators in Business Objects XI Web Intelligence or Desktop Intelligence at Run-Time

( 'Lesser than or Equal' = @Prompt('Select Operator:','A',{'Lesser than or Equal','Equal','Greater than or Equal'}, MONO,CONSTRAINED) AND Emp.salary <= @Prompt('Enter Salary:','N',,MONO,FREE) ) OR ( 'Equal' = @Variable('Select Operator:') AND Emp.salary = @Variable('Enter Salary:') ) OR ( 'Greater than or Equal' = @Variable('Select Operator:') AND Emp.salary >= @Variable('Enter Salary:') )

The value in this case does not come from fancy Business Object prompt syntax, but rather from creative combinations of SQL and prompts. Note: Please remember this is just an example that you should use to learn the technique and then adapt it to your database’s SQL and to your business requirements.

How it Works

Although this example code has three clauses they can all be bound to each other through their placement in a single universe-level condition, or you could place them in multiple conditions for mixing and matching at the report level. The power of this logic is that it uses one dedicated prompt to collect the desired operator from the user: ‘Lesser than or Equal’,'Equal’, or ‘Greater than or Equal’. Then using hard-coded string values it creates a scenario where only one of the three statements can be true.

And Example with SQL Substitution

In each statement the hard-coded operator text is matched with the actual operator following “Emp.salary”. Therefore, if the user selects “Equal” for the @Prompt(‘Select Operator:’) and “1000″ for the @Prompt(‘Enter Salary:’) then the following substitutions will be made for the actual SQL run by Business Objects:
( 'Lesser than or Equal' = 'Equal' AND Emp.salary <= 1000 ) OR ( 'Equal' = 'Equal' AND Emp.salary = 1000 ) OR ( 'Greater than or Equal' = 'Equal' AND Emp.salary >= 1000 )
Because of the magic of SQL and logic only the clause ( 'Equal' = 'Equal' AND Emp.salary = 1000 ) can execute; the others are ignored because the first part of the SQL evaluates to FALSE. In the rules of logic a statement of “FALSE and TRUE” is always FALSE. In this case we don’t know if the second part could evaluate to true, because we don’t know the underlying data, but regardless the entire clause is FALSE when one of the components is FALSE and it is linked to the others using “AND”.

A Few of the Other Details

OK, I feel I got a little technical on the logic, but I think the examples speak clearly enough just in case I lost someone. Again, the whole point that I am making with this code is that it allows users at run time (a.k.a. report refresh) to select the operator for they want to use. If a user wants they can also use the Java Query Panel and change the operators all they want, but they would need access and training to accomplish this.

Some notes: In order to keep it simple I only used the @Prompt statement once and I use @Variable for all of the other instances of the prompt’s use. This helps to avoid problems if I accidentally set the @Prompt differently and it makes it easy to modify Prompt syntax later. The parenthesis around each clause is necessary. Please let us know what you think and share your modifications or spin-offs or alternate uses if you have any.