I am struggling on which to use in my Universe design. A context or a Alias. I am trying both and cannot get my universe to stop prompting my users for the context to use, even if I set a where clause.
I know there is not one best answer but I am being told by a expetrienced BO person that I am using too many alias’s for tables that could be considered conformed dimensions and restircting my ad hoc capability.
Any ideas on what is best?
I am on 3.1 SP6.
MaxVonM 
(BOB member since 2013-02-14)
Old discussion, rule of thumb:
Use universe contexts for multiple fact tables, and use alias tables if they play different roles as dimension tables such as Calendar Table (Billing Date, Posted Date, Due Date or Location table (Shipped To Location, Shipped From Location) etc.
The universe contexts are defined by facts/measures, so as soon as one selects a measure object as a result object in your query panel BusObjects can determine the appropriate universe context automagically/no prompting.
Andreas 
(BOB member since 2002-06-20)
Sorry if its an old discussion to you but I am just switching from Cognos to BO. Trust me, I wish I was back using Cognos.
I also do not understand why I am getting prompted for a context if I am clearly within one context in my query. Is it because the objects exist in 2 different context? Is that a bad design to have an object in 2 different contexts?
M
MaxVonM (BOB member since 2013-02-14)
The problem is that your objects used in your query do not identify a single matching universe context but more than one therefore BusObjects prompts you to choose among the context candidates.
Your contexts seem not to be designed the right way.
See alos here for a lengthy discussion: Read Me: Best Way to Resolve Loops Context? Alias?
Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)