Java App Server and CMS On Different Machines, Edit “hosts” File Now
If you have deployed your Business Objects XI Central Management Server(s) and your Java Web Application Servers are on the same single machine then this article does not apply to you. If your Java Web Application Server ever needs to run applications (such as InfoView or CMC) that will connect to any CMS that is not running on the Java Web Application Server’s machine then you and your system will benefit from reading this article.
The Java Implementation of DNS Look-up
I’ve been told by a few very knowledgeable folks that either Java as a technology or Business Objects Enterprise’s use of Java results in a situation where if the CMS is not hosted on the same machine as the the Java Application Server then the look-up of the IP address of the CMS machine(s) is very inefficient and is the cause of much lag in the case of such actions as logging in. For example, an InfoView log in action may take up to 10 seconds extra due to iterative inefficient resolution of the CMS machine’s IP address from the host name.
Building a Short-Cut
One way to put an end to this inefficiency is to place hard coded entries in the hosts file of the machine hosting the Java Application Server. If your server is configured to first check the hosts file before hitting the network’s DNS server then you will see a huge boost in the performance of log in actions. This is simply due to the fact that the poor implementation of DNS look-up that BO’s Java call is doing is bypassed by the hosts file entry for that host name. I have seen log in actions for InfoView and CMC reduced from 8 seconds to less than 1 second by this change alone.
Making the Change
This is one of those changes that won’t cost you much to test, but there is a price. The truth is that there is a very big issue with hard-coding a server name and IP address in your hosts file. On the very rare occasion that your server is assigned a different IP address your application will be broken until you update the hosts file accordingly.
To make the change you need only locate the machine’s hosts file. On Windows this is usually in “\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc” and on Linux it will be in the “/etc/” directory. Once you locate the file I suggest creating a backup of it first. New lines are added to the file merely by adding first the IP address, then at least one space, then the fully-qualified domain name, and optionally you can add at least one more space and put in the simple short name of the machine. For example:
12.232.131.121 myserver.mydomain.com myserver
I am not an expert on editing hosts files, but I can tell you that it is worth trying out on your system in you are running at least one CMS on a machine different from the one that is running your Java Web Application Server. Give it a try and report your results by leaving a comment please. To the best of my knowledge you don't even need to restart your deployment for the change to take effect. Just make the change and test the results. Good luck.
The Over-Credited Destination Job Server
Would you get a little upset if someone else kept taking all the credit for the work you do. Would you get down right furious when that person couldn’t fix any issues relating to their ill-earned reputation when a real problem came along and then you had to come along and save the day without even getting an ounce of credit. You would have to be a saint not to get upset about that, wouldn’t you, or perhaps you would just have to be a Business Objects Reporting/Adaptive Job Server?
The truth of that matter is that the Destination Job Server is not really at fault. He was born with a very bad and confusing name. Then over time IT folk got confused with the name, fixed an issue by configuring destinations on every server and then credited the “Destination Job Server” with being the key solution. While one can learn a lot from forum discussions, some BO forums are ripe with incorrect advice to fix job destination errors by configuring the Destination Job Server’s destinations. So this little article is written in hopes of dispelling a myth and giving credit were credit is due.
Destination Job Server, What Is It Good For?
First of all, let it be known that the Business Objects XI Destination Job Server is only responsible for handling the requests submitted through the “Send To” command within InfoView. Yes, that is right. When you are in InfoView and you select a document (check the box next to it) and then proceed to select to send it to an inbox, email, or other destination. In Business Objects XI InfoView it looks like this:
When you use this InfoView “Send To” functionality you are in effect creating a job that only has the purpose of delivering a file to a destination. This, my friends, is what a Business Objects Enterprise XI Destination Job Server does; nothing more and nothing less.
So what about the “destination DLL disabled. CrystalEnterprise.Smtp:”error I get on my jobs server?
If you have this question still please read the above paragraph one more time and then read my previous article titled “Fixing the Business Objects XI “destination DLL disabled. CrystalEnterprise.Smtp:” Error” and now log in to CMC and configure your destination on all job servers in the cluster. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
Business Objects Tips and Tricks for Web Intelligence Reports – October 2009
Happy Halloween to all. I am going to try to start publishing short to medium length lists of my favorite tips. These have helped me a lot over the years and I think if I just try to jot them down as I use them I can end up with a fairly decent list of Business Objects tips and tricks that I can post with some kind of regularity.
- Use the “View my documents…” preferences setting of “fullscreen browser window”: There are actually two options and I believing that I am a power user, prefer to use the “in multiple fullscreen browser windows, one window for each document” option. If you don’t use one of these “fullscreen” options you are probably working less efficiently than you would otherwise. Do yourself a favor and try this tip out!
- Save New Versions Often: For many years, in full client (a.k.a. Desktop Intelligence) and in Web Intelligence Report creation and modification I have regularly used the “Save As” option every time I make a change that is just a bit more complex than a few formatting changes. I use the technique of starting with a base report name and then appending the date numerically to it. I don’t get down into a numerical representation of the time as it would be tedious I just use letters, starting with “a”. For example, the first version saved off today would be saved as the name “My Awesome Report 20091029a”. Doing the date and the letters in this format allows for simple alphabetical sorting within the InfoView or CMC object list. Later if the report becomes corrupt, or my great idea causes a huge mess I just start stepping back in version until I find the last known good one.
- Relative Positioning of Tables, Charts, and Cells: If you haven’t yet used this feature then your report design must be rather limited or just simple. I relatively position all of my tables, charts and cells. Always. Even if there is just one table on the report table I use relative positioning to get teh table exactly where I want it in relation to the page margins. Many times I am mixing tables, cells, and charts on the same report tab/page and I use relative positioning to make sure they never bleed together and that they are always spaced the same no matter how much data I pull in. My favorite trick is to create multiple tables and relatively position them to look like a single table. This is great when trying to make BO’s reports look and feel like the business user thinks they should.
How do you do this Business Objects magic trick. Easy, just click on the table, chart, or cell until you see a border around the object with a very small checkered pattern (with tables you need to click the border, with the other just click the object anywhere). Then right-click (with table, right-click the border) and select “Position”. Then your choices are flexible: horizontal, right and left, and vertical, top and bottom. Each one allows the space to be defined in pixels (px). Experimentation will pay off in allowing to to create some very professional looking reports and possibly even satisfy some otherwise impossible business requirements!
- What you see is not always what you get: For 98% of the components of a report what you see in the Java Report Panel is what the users will see in the regular HTML viewer they will use to open, refresh, and view the report. But there is that 2% that is not really quite the same (I just picked a low number, don’t quote me on the number). Most notably the prompts; they do not work exactly the same. Date prompts have different controls and selected dates in the HTML viewer will append the time to the date.
- Where is my data cube? What exactly was returned by the query?: Open the WebI report in the HTML viewer and click on Document > Save to my computer as… > CSV. The output will include all of the data from each query. The first query’s data followed immediately by the second query’s data ans so on. This is a good way to check things out without any concern about whether a BO table with all of the query objects is actually aggregating the query’s data when you don’t want it to.
- Cross-tab tables with totals in the first column: OK, this is nitpicking, but I keep finding business requirements that specify the totals should be in the first column and then the cross-tabbed data. Try to do this and you will find yourself in cross-tab hell. That is unless you click on the last dimension on the left and then add a column after. You just added a column in the “dimension” zone and now you can throw a measure variable in it. However, be prepared to format the column quite a bit to get it to look like a measure column; by default it will inherit the formatting given to measures.
- Alerts don’t work on dimensions: Yeah, this one sucks. I try about once a year to get an alerter to allow me to manipulate a measure in the header, for example create borders around quarters. It won’t do anything. Alerters are intended to bring attention to or apply condition formatting to measures. The alternative is to come up with some compromise involving semi-complex variables using the dimension objects.
Time Saver – Set Preferences for “My Initial View Is…”
Often we find ourselves returning to the same folder within Business Objects’ InfoView. The clicks and waits to get there came be rather annoying and time consuming when they occur repeatedly throughout the day and week. I have a suggestion that can save you some annoyance and time and allow you to focus on your BOXI WebI reports.
Set your Preference for “My Initial View Is…”
If you would like InfoView to take you straight to a certain folder upon successful login you should set your Preference for your initial view to that folder. To do so do the following:
- log in to InfoView
- click the “Preferences” button, next to the “Log off” button in the upper right-hand corner, the icon looks like a document with three check boxes
- on the “General” tab locate the “My initial view is…” setting
- select the options to set it to your desired folder, use the “Browse” button to navigate and find your desired frequented folder
With your next successful login you will be taken straight to this folder.
