Posts Tagged ‘Report’

What Are the Differences Between Breaks and Sections?

Meridianblues asked us all what the difference was between breaks and sections. I started to answer the question where it was asked, but then I thought the answer might be of value if exposed more broadly in its own article:

What are Web Intelligence Sections?

In Business Objects XI Web Intelligence sections are easily created and often even by mistake (drag a single object to the report and you will see what I mean). They can be made more complex and wider (taller) with greater scope. Sections apply to the entire horizontal area of page over which they are defined (best viewed/managed in Structure View). In other words, you can have multiple tables, graphs, cells in a section if you want. The section is also defined usually by a dimension so that each unique value of the dimension becomes an instance of the section in which all content placed in the section is repeated. All of the content in that instance is filtered to that unique dimension value.

So what are Breaks then?

A break is something that I rarely seem to get these days. No seriously, a Business Objects WebI report break has similar properties to those of a section. It is a sort of pivot around each distinct value of a dimension or formula. However, a break occurs only in a single table/block. Breaks cause the table to be broken up in instances of the break, sub-tables usually. These are easily created, usually by highlighting the desired dimension’s column and then right-clicking or section the top-menu icon.

A Distinction between the Two

Sections can be applied and formatted to function more or less like breaks; however, breaks can never function as sections do, they are limited to the scope of the block on which they are defined. I tend to prefer sections as they allow for greater flexibility and they seem to have more options. Nevertheless, breaks can be excellent for grouping relatively small amounts of data and then aggregating the measures at the bottom of the table.

Personally I would love to hear you all opinions or observations on this topic. Please share openly in the comments.

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.

@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

In Business Objects how can I get a list of reports using a specific universe?

I have been asked the following related questions a few times in the past months and I thought it would be a good idea to post a public answer to them. First the questions:

• Is there any way to get a list of reports that are using a specific universe?
• If I change this universe which reports will be affected?

The Answer – Yes, Definitely, Using Query Builder

The short answer to these questions is “Yes, you can”. The slightly longer answer is, “Yes, this can be done through Query Builder, the BO Auditing data*, or through the Business Objects SDK.” For the purposes of this article, I will confine my further comments to the Query Builder and BO Auditing data solutions; the BO SDK solution requires a set of skills and even licenses that many BO Developers and Administrators do not possess.

I haven’t been keeping track, but I expect that those who have emailed me this question have not studied The Best Query Builder Guide Ever Written. I just wanted to point out that our Query Builder Guide answers these questions, and provides so much more.

The Resolution using Query Builder

For those of you familiar with SQL or just the concept of tables you might think that all you have to do is join up the record of the specific universe with all of the records of the reports where it is used. Well, this is partially true. Firstly, if you know something about query builder you know that reports and universes are stored in separate logical tables and you know that you can’t really join two tables together. The solution here is two part: (1) query the record for the specific universe retrieving all associated report IDs and then (2) query for for each of those report IDs to get the reports’ identifying information.

Query the Universe’s Reports

This is a straightforward query, but be careful if you do not have the universe’s object ID, because it is possible to have two universes with the same name and you wouldn’t want to get wrong data from the start. Here is the SQL statement you need to put in Query Builder:

SELECT
si_id,
si_name,
si_webi,
si_cuid
FROM
CI_AppObjects
WHERE
si_name = 'UNIVERSE_NAME' AND
si_kind = 'Universe'

From this you will get some additional universe info and a list of all reports that are bound to this universe. Copy that list of report object IDs to a text editor and proceed.

Query the Report’s Identifying Information

Take that list of report object IDs from the previous step and parse the list so that each ID is separated by a comma. Then substitute that list for the string “111111,222222,33333 below in the SQL:

SELECT
si_id,
si_name,
si_universe,
si_cuid
FROM
CI_InfoObjects
WHERE
si_id IN (111111,222222,33333) AND
si_kind = 'WebI' AND
si_instance = 0

The output should be your desired list of reports. Now that you see the “si_universe" property you might ask yourself why I don’t query the report table for my universe’s object ID. Good idea, but Business Objects’ Query Builder query language doesn’t yet support filtering on “property bags”, and si_universe, just like “si_webi” are property bags. They hold multiple values in a single property.

The Resolution using BusinessObjects Auditing Data

If you have enabled auditing on your environment’s report servers then you can look to your Auditing data for an answer to this question. However, auditing data is not meta data; it’s records are created as the objects are used. Therefore if a report is never used then it will not be present in this data set. If this is not a concern, or if you would like to know which reports have been used belong to a certain universe, then querying the auditing data is an option for you.

Querying the Auditing Records

There are many ways to mine this data source for the data you need. For most folks the best, easiest method is to use the “Activity” universe. Here you will find the objects you need. A tutorial on this universe and the auditing data is out of scope here, but I’d like to put together a guide on the topic if I hear of any interest. Another way to mine your data is directly against the database tables (these tables are not encrypted like the Business Objects XI CMS Infostore. This certainly allows for better query tuning, but it will increase the complexity for you. You could even use the SQL of a report created against the “Activity” universe as a starting point, but be careful as that universe is full of derived tables.

Final Thoughts

Both of these steps might seem difficult at first, but with a little practice you will find that you can whip out answers to these kinds of questions rather quickly. In fact, now you have the tools to answer the reverse as well: “How can I get a list of universe using a specific set of reports?”. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Using BO Query Builder to Detect Report-Universe Binding Status

The loss of binding between reports and universes is a common problem experienced by BO XI users. Often the issue can go unnoticed for quite a while, but like a dormant disease it can spontaneously begin to demonstrate severe symptoms that can result in the loss of your report. Sound serious enough? It is! The following article is intended to help you detect report-universe unbinding proactively, before they cause you serious trouble.

The best tool for detecting of Report-Universe Binding Status is Query Builder. As far as I know there is no third part tool or BO utility for this other than Query Builder, but honestly, Business Objects’ Query Builder works quite well and it is available to you for free. Here and the queries that you will need:

Business Objects Query Builder Query: Universe Binding Status

This query brings back a limited set of properties for the desired universe. I lifted it from our Query Builder Guide. Like most problems there are multiple ways to attack and starting by looking to the universe is one way.

SELECT
si_id,
si_name,
si_webi,
si_cuid
FROM
CI_AppObjects
WHERE
( si_name = '' OR si_id = ) AND
si_kind = 'Universe'

You need to put in the universe name (upper or lower case is not important) or the Object ID of the universe (most people are more familiar with name, but object ID (si_id) provides more precise results. From this query we will see only the reports to which this universe is bound. It won’t list the reports to which it should be bound. The report name nor the report’s query name are given here, but the reports si_id or object ID is given here. And so you my need to do some additional queries to identify the reports listed here. Which leads us to the other way to start looking at this issue.

Business Objects Query Builder Query: Report Binding Status

For many people this is the query they will lead with in QueryBuilder. Usu

SELECT
si_id,
si_name,
si_universe,
si_cuid
FROM
CI_InfoObjects
WHERE
( si_name = '' OR si_id = OR si_parentid = ) AND
si_kind = 'WebI' AND
si_instance = 0

Using the query will require you to provide at least one of the following: report name (si_name), report object ID (si_id), or parent folder object ID (si_parentid). This query’s result will list all of the universes to which the report(s) is/are bound. How can a report be bound to more than one universe? Multiple queries in the report (also called the classic name of “data providers”). This fact makes this query the most important query in my opinion. If it fails to list an expected universe then you have identified and unbound report. My sympathies and congratulations!

What does an Unbound Report Look Like in Query Builder?

Words are often not as valuable as pictures. Now pictures of words, well their value is questionable, but not in this matter. The following image show what the report Query Builder query looks like when a report is showing that it is bound to its universe (just a single universe in this example):

In the rather unfortunate case that a report is not bound to its universe you will see output that looks like this:

Note:This query will return only WebI or Web Intelligence reports. You will need to modify it if you are interested in other reports in your CMS InfoStore.

A Note About the Query Builder “si_universe” Property

Many properties in Query Builder are compound in nature, meaning they have multiple values for a single object. For example and report can have multiple universe and in fact its si_universe property has multiple sub-properties (si_total and the universes’ object IDs). We call properties like si_universe property bags. The unfortunate fact here is that in Query Builder you cannot filter on a property bag. Therefore, you cannot create a query that only returns all of the unbound reports.

What about the CUIDs?

If you have read my other articles such as “Business Objects XI – Changing BO Report / Universe Relationships” then you know that the relationship between reports and universes is really at the CUID level and not the Object ID level. Well, the truth is that Object IDs are specific to an environment, but CUIDs are portable between environments (with the write methods). Anyway, Query Builder and the CMS InfoStore will show the binding at the Object ID level, but this binding will look different in another environment to which you have correctly and successfully migrated the report and universe because the Object IDs will be different (but the CUIDs will be the same). Anyway, for now, just know that the CUID is very important with regards to report-universe binding; however, when detecting the status of that binding they are not important.

Important Note about Business Objects’ Import Wizard

I said earlier that there was no other tool for identifying unbound reports, but I fibbed a bit. It is possible to use Business Object’s Import Wizard to detect unbound reports. If you select a report and the option to automatically select its universes then if Import Wizard fails to select all of the expected universes you know that the report is in an unbound state. This is a tedious way to detect report-universe unbinding, BUT if you find yourself using Import Wizard and you are experiencing an issue with Import Wizard selecting reports’ universes then you have a good indicator that something is probably wrong with the report-universe binding.

Knowing is Half the Battle

The next logical question is, “Now that I have identified an unbound report, how can I correct it?”. That my friends is a topic for another article. My family and hobbies are calling to me now; please remind me if I forget to write that article soon.

Want to Know More About Query Builder?

I recommend that you take a look at our “Business Objects Query Builder Guide“, it is most likely “The Most Complete Business Objects XI Query Builder Guide Ever Written” and it will help you to discover and master the secrets of Business Object’s Query Builder, such as the one discussed in this article.

OpenDocument – An Introduction to a Powerful Tool

If you are not yet using the OpenDocument function in your reports you might want learn a bit more about it and see if it could not meet some of your current business requirements, or better yet allow you to amaze your business partners by giving them something they didn’t yet know that they needed!

What is OpenDocument

OpenDocument is simply the ability to open a “document” (a.k.a. report, usually) directly; without having to locate the report and even without having to submit any parameters to the report (optional). A properly constructed OpenDocument URL can be placed on an page that can serve up a URL/link and then users can click on it and be taken directly to the report that the URL specifies.

Major Capabilities of OpenDocument

The OpenDocument function provides a few excellent capabilities:

• Abstraction: users don’t even need to knwo the report name. They could be given a URL on a web page, email, Word Document, etc. which says “Click Me to Access Your Important Report“
• Simplicity/Efficiency: users are spared navigating to a report and selecting predictable parameters each time (static or dynamic, your web coding skills are your only limits)
• Linking Reports Together: create summary and detail reports that allow for in-depth drilling on specific data or create other interesting and useful relationships between reports

Additional Information about Business Objects’ Open Document Function

BO XI introduced OpenDocument, replacing the “viewrpt.cwr” command in previous versions of the Business Objects Enterprise. OpenDoc accepts many optional parameters allowing various customizations, such as display format, parameter values, and refresh flags.

A Simple Example of an OpenDocument URL

The following is an example of a very simple OpenDocument URL using a .NET web server:

http://myserver/businessobjects/enterprise115/infoview/scripts/
opendocument.aspx?sDoc=My%20Favorite%20Report

Cautionary Note #1: Please note that OpenDocument calls use URLs and therefore they are bound to the special character limitations of all URLs. That is to say that spaces and certain other characters are not permitted. Spaces can be replaced by “%20“; however, Business Objects Web Intelligence also has a native function called “URLEncode()” that can resolve any necessary special character formatting.

Cautionary Note #2: In Business Objects XIR2 it is entirely possible to have two documents with the same name and therefore this simple example should be received in this context. The OpenDocument function supports many parameters that will allow you to pin-point your desired document and in our next article on this topic we will show you how to do this gracefully and With maximum portability across any environment.

Business Objects XI – Changing BO Report / Universe Relationships

Common Ground – Terminology

Firstly, let me lay down some terminology in order to make this concept easier to discuss. “Classic BO” refers to any version of Business Objects between 5.X and 6.X. “BOXI” or “BO XI” refers to the Business Objects XI Release 1, 2, or 3 (R1/R2/R3), the injection of BO to the Crystal platform.

BO Classic Universe-Report Binding

In Classic BO if you wanted to replace a universe that was deleted from the repository or swap out one version of a universe for another version all that you had to do was place a universe in the repository which had the same name as the universe upon which the report was initially developed. The binding between report and universe was on name. For this reason universe name, for the most part, was the unique identifier for the universe. It made sense and it was a relationship everyone could understand regardless of technical background. When a report was selected from the repository its universe was also found based on the name of the universe listed in the report’s properties.

BO XI Universe-Report Binding

In BOXI, reports are bound to their universes not by the universe name, but by the unique identifier of the universe, the Cluster Unique Identifier (CUID). While this may seem a small change at first glance, one begins to see the full scope when one thinks beyond the simple workflow of universe creation and report creation. For example, what happens when you want to move the universe and report to another BOXI environment? What about if someone deletes the universe and reloads it from a back-up copy on their PC? What if you copy the universe to a different universe folder? Do you know how to answer these questions? Will your answers always result in preservation of the universe’s CUID?

Appearances are Deceiving

At first glance BusinessObjects has brought Full-client, WebI Intelligence, and Universes almost as they were in BO 6.5 (with a few improvements) into the the new Crystal platform with BOXI. The fundamental problem here is the phrase “as they were”. To the end user, it will appear that, despite the InfoView improvements and addition of multiple data providers to WebI, everything else is “as it was”. While familiarity is good, here it also creates the problem. Most end users do not realize that the binding mechanism between report and universe has changed, because for the most part everything else has not, and many training courses do not alert users either to this binding change. Therefore most users will follow development work flows based on the misconception that reports are bound to their universes based on universe name.

How to Maintain Business Objects XI Universe-Report Binding

Getting Started – Creating BOXI Universes and Reports

First of all you do not need to do anything special to create the proper CUID-level binding between the universe and the report. Creating a new report and selecting the universe will create the proper binding. In fact, if you copy a report, that is properly bound to a universe, you will end up with a duplicate report that is properly bound to it’s universe. Like I said before, if this is all that you are doing then you need not think differently about Universe and Report Binding. The problem is that most of us do more with reports and universes then just create them once, save them, and leave them alone.

Making Changes – Proper Universe Editing

Editing a report and a universe requires no special instructions as long as you obey some guidelines. Universes require the most delicate and precise handling. A universe that is imported from the repository, edited, and exported back to the repository will maintain it’s CUID and relationship to its reports. If you create a copy of the universe, using either CMC or Designer, the copy will receive its own CUID and it will not be associated with the original’s reports. Moving a universe between universe folders will maintain the CUID; HOWEVER if a universe of the same name exists in the destination DO NOT overwrite the universe. This will definitely cause the moved universe to receive a new CUID (this is true at least in Business Objects XI Release 2). NEVER USE THE OVERWRITE FUNCTIONALITY OF DESIGNER, terrible, unreliable results are nearly guaranteed. By the way, moving a universe cannot be done in CMC, BO Designer is required.

NOTE: A CUID is a unique identifier. It is impossible for two objects in the world (or same BO XI platform for that matter) to possess the same CUID, unless IMPORT WIZARD (or some other such tool) is used to “clone” the object from one environment to another.

Making Changes – Proper Report Editing

With regards to retention of the universe-report binding, editing a report does not require much delicacy at all, beyond that one would normally employ. However, if your goal is to retain the Business Objects report’s CUID (for reasons of cross-environment synchrony, for example) then there are some rules of engagement. A new CUID will only be created for a report if the report is duplicated, for example: the report is copied, the report is saved using “Save As”, the Import Wizard is used (various options could result in a duplicate with a different CUID).

NOTE: Once you understand the basics you will begin to ask yourself more profound questions such as… How can I tell if a report is not bound to its universe? Many unbound reports continue to work fine, why is that and if this is true why should I worry? How can a revert back to an old version of a universe without losing my universe’s CUID? Why do unbound reports spontaneously go berserk? These are all excellent questions that I will answer if you confirm to me (through your comments) that you are interested in the answers.

Closing Thoughts

In order to maintain CUID parity/synchrony within your Business Objects XI environment and across multiple BOXI environments you will need to learn more than can be covered in the scope of a single article. If this article has piqued your interest or assisted you in understanding the basics, and you would like to learn more then please leave your comments. I could present a couple more focused articles on this topic. Nevertheless, I would also like to know if there is interest in a more comprehensive guide that we could make available for sale at a reasonable price. If so, I would invest more time in this (many hours).