BusinessObjects Board

Universe and Data Access enhancements

building semantic layer
#7

Idea: possibility to reuse once-defined keys for index awareness.

Scenario: I have a dimension table (DT) and a fact table (FT). They are joined via primary key and foreign key. There are many objects defined based on DT.

If I want to set up an index awareness, I need to define keys (primary and foreign) for each of the objects individually. I need to go to Keys tab of properties of each and every object and add keys manually again and again for each object individually.

I would like to have a possibility to define keys between 2 tables once and then to reuse this information for all objects where I need it.

Marek Chladny :slovakia: (BOB member since 2003-11-27)

#8

But Marek, that won’t work. :slight_smile: You can’t use the same key for anything other than attributes that are unique to the table. If you use a key for a value that is not unique, you get weird LOV results.

I understand where the request is coming from, and in some cases it might work, but it’s not guaranteed to be correct. A simple universe like eFashion can demonstrate that.

Dave Rathbun :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

#9

Dave, would you believe that I had discovered this problem maybe 30 minutes ago and found why it worked like that in your last-year Ninja presentation No.1 ? :smiley:

Marek Chladny :slovakia: (BOB member since 2003-11-27)

#10

Yes. Yes, I would. :slight_smile:

Dave Rathbun :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

#11

Idea : to have an “awareness” functionality on conformed dimensions.

When we have conformed dimensions in a data model, we tend to create aliases for the tables in the schema. Each alias would have to be created as a class to be used with different scenarios.

Instead, if we could have just one class for the conformed dimension and use a kind of @aware(Alias_manualErr.description, AliasEngineerErr.description, Alias_MobileErr.description) and the right column or columns would get picked based on the objects chosen from ManualErr and/or EngineerErr and/or MobileErr tables.

The point here is that these are not measure and need not be aggregated. But to reduce the number of redundant classes that needs to be created based on aliases. Making desinger more intelligent.

itsani07 (BOB member since 2007-07-09)

#12

Universe-defined report-level variables. Smart Measures are close, but not quite there.

Improved List View and Context Edit dialog - ability to sort and filter the list of joins by table name.

Ability to sort objects and subclasses in a class.

Auto detection of Aggregate Navigation.

Better SQL editor - syntax coloring, table/column/class windows that don’t have to be scrolled on every use.

Merge support - allow multiple developers to work on a universe, then merge changes into a single version.

Get rid of the “Groups” list when exporting!

Ability to store Connections in universe folders, and inherit the parent folder’s rights.

Ability to associate universes with preferred Job Servers or Server Groups.

Ability to add a table by name, rather than scrolling through a list.

Direct support for database links.

Define objects to automatically include Predefined Conditions in reports when they are added (giving the user the ability to remove the Condition if so desired).

General PIA fixes - if I’m editing the SELECT of an object, alt-tab away, then alt-tab back, cursor moves to “Name” field and highlights it.

Ability to set which parse warnings are displayed.

Better Help - why, why, why is there nothing in Help about @Prompt syntax?

I could go on :slight_smile:

Joe

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

#13

Better hurry, BO/SAP: MicroStrategy just implemented this feature in their core BI product.

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)

#14

The advantage would be that you could have schedule queries, and you have multiple reports using the same query.

I remember that in the past you could do something with Impromptu (Cognos). A queryresult (report) could be reused in another report.

fta :belgium: (BOB member since 2006-11-16)

#15

they had this in seagate info they were called views. you could even run the “view” on a schedule and the view data would be shared in many reoprts. like a little snapshot.

LANFIELD :us: (BOB member since 2006-05-18)

#16

More Excel import-and-export options, particularly for bulk operations. There are a robust set of VBA-based utilities in BOB Downloads, because of gaps in the basic functionality. BO implementations of any size and complexity will need to document and research on a regular basis.

For example, today I had a need to search all 40 of our universes for any Joins between TABLE_A.COL1 and TABLE_B.COL2. This is a royal pain to do today. If I had a way of searching through all Universes for this, rather than opening each one and visually inspecting…

Yes I could code something with the SDK, but that’s not a good use of my time. :slight_smile:

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)

#17

Idea: An option to allow multiple queries to be run in parallel instead of in serial. (Or would this be a report option.)

Idea: Create measures objects in Designer that are processed in the reports. This would be useful for Percentages. Where I need the report to divide numerator/denominator in the report. Because pre-calculated percents can’t be drilled or rolled up correctly. Thus, I want to maintain the formula in designer but the calculation to happen in the report.

Dustin :us: (BOB member since 2003-07-07)

#18

I like it! In the Universe object, you could have a checkbox that says “calculate in report”. I’m guessing that for these objects, they could only include other object references, rather than raw SQL, since BO will need to “know” which other objects it has to forcibly pull into the result set, for you.

Maybe this should even be another class of object, rather than the usual Measure object. Call it a “report-side Measure”, and if your object is of this type, it almost acts like a Detail object and brings in the other related objects, so that a report-time calculation can be made.

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)

#19

Great idea :slight_smile:

I don’t think it would work to have it as a checkbox in a regular object, since its definition will be in WebI formula language, not SQL. (and actually, you’d need a separate entry for WebI formula and DeskI formula).

A separate object type would be perfect – and I like the idea of automatically including in the query the universe objects that it references.

This would be a huge win if implemented.

Joe

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

#20

Mmmm, good point. But maybe BO could do this solely using Webi, since it’ll be one more reason to get people to switch away from deski. And therefore lessen the development effort on BO’s part, rather than having to update Deski to understand these objects too.

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)

#21

yep, true - not like this would be implemented as part of an SP on 3.x!

joepeters :us: (BOB member since 2002-08-29)

#22

Idea: Spell Check

Dustin :us: (BOB member since 2003-07-07)

#23

Hi,

Today an idea in my head was born. Suppose in your company you want to have control of all metadata you have in your systems. Who does not want this? Everybody, I think!
But : the most common answer is : How do we set up this and how can we avoid doubling information about definitions and last but least : it should be easy in setting it up and userfriendly to its users!

And now…
A possible solution. Use 1 metadata tool and point to the definitions with your BI reporting tool with a hyperlink. Of course at object level!

So, suppose we have 1 metadatatool where all metadata is defined and controlled. In our Deski or Webi reports we can hyperlink to the metadata info by clicking on it!

Let’s think about the following idea of putting an extra component in the object description in the Designer. Create an extra field in every object where you can fill in an url. Create a toggle button that is set default on “Off”. Universe designers can decide to use it whether or not at object level. If you switch it to “On” all report users can hyperlink to the definition (html location) if necessary and see e.g. which metadata is behind this measure/dimension/detail object. No more discussions about what is profit, cost definitions…

Of course you set set some properties to set the hyperlink behaviour (colouring, mouse-over actions, etc…) in the designer.
Of course the metadatatool itself should be a web product where every object has its own URL.
I will create some screenshots in the attachment file (zip) later on to show how it should be.
And if I am wrong because this functionality is already there somewhere please let me know.

All other discussions are welcome!
:wink:

TurningPointHolland :netherlands: (BOB member since 2006-09-06)

#24

Perhaps to describe what you’re saying, in a different way:

Have Universe Designer become a focal point for metadata. You can put in a long description in the object but that it somewhat limited. Why not provide a place where you could put in an URL that goes to some outside place (a wiki, or corporate dictionary), for a complete description?

I do think you get some of this integration if you’re using BO Metadata Manager.

Also, the same table.column – the same universe object like “Customer Age” – could be reused across many universes, so you wouldn’t want to have to maintain that link in many universes. Here’s where true object inheritance across universes would help.

dnewton :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-30)

#25

Hi Dnewton,

Good remark!
We here have 1 dimension universe that is linked to several child universes. In this dimension universe all dimension objects are stored only 1 time.
But all measures are not in 1 universe. But every measure is not in more than universe I hope. Otherwise you have to copy the url and there starts the duplication.
Thanks for the remark about the Metadata Manager. I will search for the whitepaper and read it.

TurningPointHolland :netherlands: (BOB member since 2006-09-06)

#26

Hey all,

A couple of ideas spring to mind.

I would find it useful if we could save the results of the integrity check to a file. When I’m releasing a universe from dev to test to pre prod environments a quick integrity check makes sure the universe and underlying data mart are in synch. And when doing this it would be good to save the integrity check result as test evidence to a file or at least copy to clipboard.

Another idea is security related. Currently we can use the bo_user universe variable to get the users logon name and then use this for row level security. However in my current project I have a security requirement not based on username but on the user location - I already have users in location groups in BusinessObjects and so what would be useful here would be to get the user group in a similar manner - bo_group variable?

regards

AL

agulland :uk: (BOB member since 2004-03-17)