Posts Tagged ‘Java Report Panel’

Web Intelligence Hangs, Allocate More Memory to Java

Myth: Business Objects XI Web Intelligence Requires No Software Install

Business Objects IX’s Web Intelligence is a light client. You may think that it does not require you to install anything on your PC, but then you would be wrong. Firstly, obviously WebI requires that your PC have a browser. Secondly, Web Intelligence Java Report Panel requires that your client PC has a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installation (1.5 and 1.6 are good to go).

Third, your client will need to download the WebI Java Report Panel application (in the form of temporary Internet files stored usually in your JRE installation folder). If you ever dump these (for example, as discussed in the article “Clearing the Browser and Java Cache: Do This First!“) then you will notice that your subsequent visit to the Java Report Panel (create new or modify a document) will result in a longer load time while your web client downloads the BO WebI java application.

Java Runtime Environment Installs with a Wimpy Configuration

By default I believe that the default Sun JRE’s will almost always install themselves with a very conservative (small) heap/memory consumption size. These settings can be managed on your client PC by going to “Control Panel” and double-clicking on “Java”. Once there click on the “Java” tab and then click on the “View…” button:

In here, you may have multiple JRE version installed as I do. I think you can figure out which one is being used by your WebI Java Report Panel by clicking on the toolbar icon when you are running the WebI JRP. Otherwise, you will have to disable some and see what happens, process of elimination. When you find the correct one you will see the memory configurations in the “Runtime Parameters” column.

Web Intelligence Power User? Put Your Memory Where Your Mouth Is

Once you know which one to tweak and you focus on the “Runtime Parameters” you will see that there is an “Xms” and an “Xmx” parameter here. “Xms” is the minimum starting size of the heap or memory allocated to the process. “Xmx” is the maximum or limit of the heap/memory allocation. A good starting point here is: -Xms128m -Xmx256m, but you can go higher if you feel you and your PC are up for it. This link points to a great article on the topic of mistakes to avoid when configuring these parameters. Most importantly, always include “m” or “g” at the end of the number, never exceed your machines physical memory, and I read some where else that the effective limit here is 1 gigabyte on Windows XP/Vista (-Xms1g -Xmx1g). Sun has a good guide on this topic too(link).

Making the Change

I would first back-up your current settings, email them to yourself or something like that. Make the change and follow the syntax. Change the setting(s), then click “OK”, then click “Apply” then click “View” to confirm your changes were saved. If you do not click “Apply” and you click “View” right after clicking OK your changes will be wiped out. Of course, you should probably not be using your JRE while making these changes, or at least close everything down and restart your WebI Java Report Panel after the changes are made. I don’t think rebooting your PC is necessary. Be sure to test your changes by launching Web Intelligence Java Report Panel and keep your eye on your system’s memory to see the impact there while testing your wonderful WebI skills to test the potential improvements you just made.

Why Would I Do This?

I have seen this change both improve performance and stability of the Business Objects XI WebI client machine. Truthfully, many support engineers recommend this change anytime a user reports that WebI is hanging or sluggish. I recommend increasing these settings. Now, I wonder if by increasing them I can reliably run to Java Report Panel sessions at the same time. Hmm… I wonder.

Understanding and Suppressing the Report Message “No data to retrieve”

Receiving the dreaded “No data to retrieve in …” or “There is no data corresponding to this query…” pop-up boxes can be confusing and disorienting for many end users. Heck, it even bewilders me sometimes when it pops up unexpectedly. The truth is that there are many occasions when this “error” is quite valid and even desirable. Like almost everything, it depends.

Causes for the “No data to retrieve in ” message

Firstly, let’s explain what causes this. Simply put one or more of the queries in your report is not returning any records. So what causes that to happen? Many things:

• The data is missing in the database. This one can be either expected or very scary for the the business intelligence administrator.
• The filters on the query are too restrictive or negating each other. Here the filters will also be a product of the values that you submit to any report-level prompts. Of course, if you for example select the value “Sacramento” for a city, the value “Chihuahua” for a state, and “India” for a country; then unless each prompt condition is joined to the other prompts with “Or” logic you should expect the “No data to retrieve” message.
• Row-level restrictions and other kinds of “universe overloads” can ultimately cause the final SQL submitted to the database to evaluate false for all records in the tables. This can be more subtle and can be revealed by studying the SQL.
• Universe connections can be changed and redirected to different database with similar structures but less or different data. No integrity or structure errors could be raised. This might also happen when moving a universe between environments and expecting the universe connections in all environments to be the same.
• Unbound reports can suffer from this. They can attach to different universes without anyone noticing on the front-end. This is especially true when more than one universe share the exact same objects. I have seen this with universes based on calendar years, for example.

How do I suppress the “No data to retrieve” message?

There are times when you may expect that certain users will not receive data for any or all queries. In many cases, you have designed the report to handle this case, but you may not want the user to be bothered by the “No data to retrieve” message. This is a common requirement. There is a hard, non-standard way of suppressing the message using a VB macro or some other SDK integration, but I don’t recommend this route; too much overhead and too hard to maintain.

The easier way is to handle this at the query level. If you want to suppress the error, make the cause of the error go away. What? Yes! Create a union in your query such that always one of the queries returns a value. In some cases you can use queries you already have and just splice them together, but in most cases, the simplest way to create this is to add a second SQL UNION query with the same number of objects and object types in the “Result Objects” and make it always return one value. Then you may need to filter this value out of your reports by adding a simple report level filter in order to keep everything clean. You may also use this value in a variable or alerter to present the report user with your own custom message regarding the absence of data returned by the report queries.

Additional Notes

This error is seen in all forms of Web Intelligence (viewers and Java Report Panels) and Desktop Intelligence. The suppression method of creating a “UNION” in the “problem” query will work for all of the different flavors of reports. That is what also makes this a superior work around. When possible, I ALWAYS recommend avoiding the use of macros and other hacks that are not part of a standard BO solution. Of course, if you do use this 100% BO union hack then you may want to keep track of it in a document or in the report comments for future generations of report jockeys who may have to support it, migrate it, or reverse engineer it.

Possible Recovery from Business Objects Error WIJ77778 and WIJ20003

Business Objects WebI report development is challenging enough already, session timeouts in BO XI R2 are mostly annoyances to the report developer, often causing the developer to lose work and time (and money of course). I have found a few ways to recover from a couple errors some of the time. These tips have saved me from losing hours of work (cumulative) in the past.

The eternal busy/hourglass in Java Report Panel?

Have you ever been working on some tedious report-level variables or alerters and found that suddenly your WebI Java Report Panel session cannot validate your variables? I mean it just sits there with a seemingly eternal busy or hourglass icon. When this happens to me the first thing I do is to stop the validator by pressing the escape button, “esc”, on my keyboard. This usually returns me to my unvalidated formula. Then I proceed to “Step 2″ (see below).

The Variable Editor won’t do anything with my variable!

Or depending on if you are working in the variable editor the screen might just flash teh screen and “ding” at you without doing anything more when you try to validate the formula or save changes to it. If this occurs to you STOP and immediately proceed to “Step 2″.

The Formerly Dreaded WIJ 20003 Error

I used to beat on the things around my desk or my own forehead every time I receive the WIJ 20003 error. In the past, most efforts to overcome this led to me closing my Java Report Panel window and losing me work. Lately, I have not run into one of these errors form which I could not safely recover. Much of the instances of this error that I receive seem to be related to a timer that can easily be reset at the InfoView level with a… wait, proceed to “Step 2″.

Have you ever thought your save was successful only to find nothing was saved?

This is one of the worst consequences of a partially timed-out session. This happened about once every few weeks for a while. Now, I think I have been able to avoid it by carefully checking my session by trying to validate a variable or cell contents and then if any issue is detected proceeding straight to “Step 2″.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A knowledgeable SAP-BO engineer once told me that clicking the “Save” button is not the first thing I should do if I suspect that my session is timed out. He suggested trying to validate a variable or the contents of a cell first, or modify the format of the report and display the results even. Then click the “Save” button. From this and some observations it seems that the “Save” button in many version of Business Objects XI Web Intelligence does not reset all session timeouts and can therefore appear to work without any error. I always keep my eye on the lower left-hand corner of my Java Report Panel window and look for the flashing “Saving document” message. I suggest you do too.

Step 2: Resetting Non-Java Report Panel Timeouts

As we have discussed in previous articles there are many many different timeout timers working against the Business Objects report developer. Not all of these timeouts are reset by most or any of the actions taken in the Web Intelligence Java Report Panel. Even regular saving may not spare you from timing out in other ways that have nothing to do with your refined report editing work practices.

Due to these often inevitable timeouts experienced during long report editing sessions, a very good practice is to do the following:

• Always use the “View my documents…” setting of “fullscreen browser window”, it is under preferences. There are actually two options and I believe that I am a power user and as such I 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 then you will not be able to try this trick and you are probably working less efficiently than you would otherwise.
• Go back to the original InfoView browser window. Click on something here. I usually click on the folder that I am already logged in to. This will get all of your other session timers reset.
• Now return to your Java Report Panel session and re-attempt the action that you did not previously complete with any high level of confidence, such as variable validation. After this completes then save your report, or save a version with “Save As”.

Preventing BO WIJ77778 and WIJ20003

We all know by now that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This remains true in Business Objects land too. So how can you prevent these errors:

• Follow “Step 2″ as detailed above. Set a timer to remind you to do this occasionally.
• If your connection to the web server is spotty/iffy/dodgy/unreliable (such as through remote network access) then always execute “Step 2″ as quickly as possible following any confirmed or suspected connection interruption once the connection is confirmed to be restored. This will in many cases allow you to return to your Java Report Panel session and save your work.
• Save often and version your saves, use “Save As”.

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.

1. 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!
2. 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.
3. 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!

4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.

Clearing the Browser and Java Cache: Do This First!

There are certain rules, tried and true practices, that you always try first before you call someone. In IT the first one is restarting an application and the second one is rebooting the computer. After those two, the order becomes debatable. Unfortunately, many of us know folks that call us before even trying one and two.

The Third One

I present to the world of Business Objects and in fact, the world of most web based applications, a third practice that you will always want to try before calling someone (or have your users try before they call you): clearing the browser cache and the java cache.

How do I clear the browser cache?

In Mozilla FireFox follow these instructions:
In the drop-down top menu navigate as follows:
Tools > Options > Privacy (tab) > Clear Now (button)
or just
Tools > Clear Private Data
Make certain that "Cache" and "Authenticated Sessions" are selected, the other options are up to you if you want to include them. You may want to add "Offline Website Data" too.

For Internet Explore follow these instructions:
In the drop-down top menu navigate as follows:
Tools > Internet Options > Delete Files (button)
I usually select to delete off-line content too.


Sometimes You Need to Dump the Java Cache Too

There are times when the Java Query Panel won’t load or it misbehaves on the client. Instead of wasting time debugging or wishing you had “Full Client” back, just dump the Java Cache. Here is how to do it in my current Java version:
Open the Java Control Panel by looking in your PC's control panel or by double clicking the Java icon in your system tray.
On the "General" tab click the "Settings" button. Click "Delete Files". You could also click the "View" button and then hand pick the BO related applications, resources, or deleted applications that you want to dump. Be aware that the next time you access java web components, such as the java query panel, expect the initiation to take some time.

Errors that Indicate Issues Resolved by Clearing the Cache

My favorite error is “Internal Error: the value of parameter lang is invalid”. It is perhaps one of the least helpful in a sea of un-descriptive errors. This error is a client-side error and can be quickly resolved with just a clearing of the browser cache in many cases.

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:

1. Deleting a Universe: OK, this one is not innocent, but it is the most obvious and it actually has a few variants
2. 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.
3. 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.
The truth is that there are many permutations of actions that can lead to this. Many of them start with improperly creating backups of the universe (using Save as) and generating new unique identifiers for the modified universe. Others start with bad migration or promotion techniques.

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.

Use Web Intelligence (WebI) Java Report Panel Structure View

Many new BO WebI users, especially former “full-client” users, complain about how slow and inefficient it is to develop reports on WebI. Most of the time when I hear these complaints I come to discover that the complainer is missing some basic knowledge about WebI report editor.

First the Basics of BO WebI Client Server Relationship

Business Objects XI WebI is a web application that depends on the web server and CMS repository for quite a few things. This is not a stateless web application. Initially the server provides the editor, GUI, parser… to the client. Once the editor application (a.k.a. Web Intelligence Java Report Panel) loads locally the server maintains a constant communication channel with the editor. The WebI Java Report Panel starts by default in the “Results Viewer” mode.

What is the “Results Viewer” / “View Results” mode?

The results viewer mode of WebI is the complete WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode of Web Intelligence. It present the report almost exactly as it will appear to end-users (there are a few differences). Complete communication with the BO server is required in order to generate the WYSIWYG view as it applies all formatting, filtering, aggregation, and calculating on the report’s variables and the query’s results. Some may argue that this should not require server communication beyond the first iteration; however it certainly does in the present “online” WebI versions (“off-line WebI” should change this drastically). It seems that the standard “online WebI” is in many ways a “light client” application. All of this means that EVERY change made to the report while in “View Results” or “Results Viewer” mode will require communication to and from the server and this will make editing the report VERY slow.

WebI Java Report Panel’s Structure View to the Rescue

What is surprising to many is that certain mundane actions that normally would not even register with the server do require server processing when executed in the default “Results View”, but not in the “Structure View”! To switch to the “Structure View” click on the button labeled “View Structure”. This will switch you to a template of the structure of the report you are building. Now changing fonts, cell shading, column order, header titles, cell contents and much much more become instantaneous. Most of the changes you make to the report are cached on the local client; this explains the new found speed.

Additional Advantages of the Structure View

The structure view also allows you to view and easily manipulate certain elements of the report better than the “results view”. For example, table footers can be quickly accessed and section within the report are represented with gray lines that mark their beginning and end. A cell’s object(s) or variable(s) can also be immediately visually identified in the structure view as well.

A Disadvantage of the Structure View

All of the speed of the Java Report Panel Structure View is because server communication is reduced to the minimum. This minimal level of communication means that most report formatting actions and several common report editing actions are not communicated to the server at all. Big deal? Yes, this means that the server is not being reminded that you are working hard on your report and it is certainly not saving those wonderful changes you are diligently working on. In other words, when working in the “structure view” save often!

BO InfoView WebI Session Timeout = Developer’s Worst Enemy

Business Objects has been encouraging report writers/developers to stop using the “full-client” and start using WebI. There are quite a few obstacles to overcome to be able to make the switch to WebI (training, functionality adjustment, server capacity planning, etc.), but perhaps the most difficult adjustment is learning to development under a timed session.

For many reasons Business Objects administrators configure their systems to timeout a web session and an InfoView session after a certain period of inactivity. With finite resources, which we all definitely have, this is always a good idea. However, this limiting concept has two problems. The first issue is that “full-client”, ZABO, or Desktop Intelligence developers are used to working in a virtually limitless development environment: their own desktop PC. The second problem is that system administrators need to find just the right balance between flexible the valid and acceptable dormant session limits and the obvious session abandonment.

Business Objects Administrator Settings

When Business Objects system admins find that magical median, which will be different for every user community, they need to set it at a few different places:

1. The web server “connection timeout” setting should be increased first. This one is usually stored in seconds, not minutes.
2. The InfoView application within the web server should also have its “Session Timeout” value increased.
3. The web.config file also needs an update to the “” section, setting “” (using the number of seconds in place of the “#” character.

BusinessObjects Report Developer Adjustments

Report developers or writers, including ad-hoc report writers, will need to adjust their methods and habits. Initially, business objects report developers will assume that as long as they save before any periods of inactivity they are safe. However, they will face the harsh facts of this assumption if they are working on the query the whole time.

In BO XIR2 editing the query of a Web Intelligence report does not reset the session timeout timer. Therefore it is entirely possible for a developer to be actively developing a report’s query and find that their session is lost, along with all of their work. In fact, in the WebI java editor panel there are many actions that are registered only on the client and they are not communicated to the server until a logging action takes place such as saving a document. Among these actions you may find general formatting, query editing, and even adding fields to a report.

The safest bet is to require all of your report developers to develop a habit of saving their report every 5 minutes. This will certainly reset the timeout timer and it will ensure that no report development work is lost. From my own personal experience I would say that I have probably lost about 10 to 20 hours of work because of lost session.

Enhancement Request for Business Objects XI R2

To be honest, I would like to see BO add some functionality to the report editor and even InfoView that would help avoid this issue. They could implement an auto-save function. Or perhaps a pop-up box prompt which warns the report developer that they are about to lose their session. Either one would be a wonderful improvement and would probably save BO users thousands of lost hours of work. Until then save every 5 minutes!