We have a Universe with two contexts. We don’t want users to have to answer a context question. We know that one context should always be chosen and would like to be able to define it as the default context.
Does anyone know how to solve our question?
P.S. Our database uses a star schema design and this particular Universe is trying to sit on top of two fact tables (two stars), therefore we have this dilemma, and are trying to avoid creating two universes or using aliases.
Christopher Jeter
HIMCO (Hartford Investment Management Company) Hartford, CT USA chris.jeter@thehartford.com
We have a Universe with two contexts. We don’t want users to have
to
answer a context question. We know that one context should always
be
chosen and would like to be able to define it as the default
context.
Chris,
The good news is that when you create contexts over a star schema, 99% of the time, the users will not be prompted for a context. The user chooses the objects desired … if all the objects fall into the same context, BusinessObjects is smart enough to resolve the context on its own (no prompting) to create the SQL. On the other hand, if the user chooses objects from two (or more) contexts, in the background, BusinessObjects generates two synchronized queries (one for each context) and the user is none the wiser. As you can imagine, this really quite a powerful feature.
When using contexts, watch out for …
(1) contexts and aggregate aware
(2) If the objects are from two dimension tables of the star such as Customer and Address, BusinessObjects does prompt the user for a context since both tables would be part of both contexts and BusinessObjects does not know how to resolve the loops. In this case, I instruct the users that they can choose either context and not be concerned. (I submitted an enhancement request to change this as regardless of the context chosen, the same SQL is generated)
In the universe, you can insert contexts on your own or you can have BusinessObjects create the contexts by MenuBar Tools | Detect Contexts. For this detection to occur accurately, all cardinalities must be set. Incidentally, Business Objects tech support can provide a nice white paper regarding how the tool determines contexts.