Date Values and the 'Values' list box...

In a message dated 99-01-06 10:50:05 EST, you write:

I’m wondering if this is a Business Object limitation. I am having the same
problems with date objects (month, quarter and year) in drill down. They
look fine as columns on the report, but when you drill down the formatting
in the cell at the top is not the same. Specifically, my years are coming
out as numbers (1,997.00).

This is a known “feature” of the product. The formatting set up by the
universe designer is NOT applied to the object when used in a Master / Detail
or drill-down report. I do not know if this feature is going to be carried
forward to the 5.0 product or if it will be “fixed”.

One possible work around is to define the “year” object as a character object
in designer. This is a datatype change, not a formatting change. BusObj will
likely complain during the parsing of the object, but strictly speaking it
should still work. By defining the year as a character, the default numeric
format (with the two decimal places) will no longer be used.

Regards,
Dave Rathbun
Integra Solutions
www.islink.com


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Dave Rathbun replied:

One possible work around is to define the “year” object as a character
object
in designer. This is a datatype change, not a formatting change. BusObj will
likely complain during the parsing of the object, but strictly speaking it
should still work. By defining the year as a character, the default numeric
format (with the two decimal places) will no longer be used.

Dave,

Unfortunately, I have to do both: a conversion function on the column
(which is a number in the database) and set the data type to character. If
I only set the data type, all of my years are coming out as 1905. Really
strange. I’m trying to avoid doing the to_char conversion, because I need
to use the universe against SQL Server two and wanted to avoid database
specific functions (to_char vs. convert). Any more ideas? My email is
marian.cooney@hboc.com.

Marian Cooney
HBO & Company
Malvern, PA


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Marian,
This probably won’t be your ideal solution, but it should work.

Try using the ‘link’ feature in Designer. Define one universe as the
‘kernal’ universe-- this one should have all of the objects that are
not database-specific. Then create two ‘derived’ universes (one for
Oracle and one for SQL Server) by using the link universe function to
create a dynamic link between each of the derived universes and the
kernal universe. All of the objects from the kernal universe will
then appear (grayed) in the derived universes. You will not be able
to modify those objects in the derived universes-- all maintenance on
them will need to be done in the kernal universe, and will
automatically flow through to the derived universes. Then for your
date objects, or any other objects that use database-specific
functions, create individual objects in each of the derived universes.

This will be a little more maintenance, but ultimately, it will
provide you with more flexibility.

Hope this helps–

Sheila A. Vachher
RCM Technologies
at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
sheila.vachher@occ.treas.gov

—“Cooney, Marian” Marian.Cooney@HBOC.COM wrote:

Unfortunately, I have to do both: a conversion function on the column
(which is a number in the database) and set the data type to
character. If
I only set the data type, all of my years are coming out as 1905.
Really
strange. I’m trying to avoid doing the to_char conversion, because
I need
to use the universe against SQL Server two and wanted to avoid
database
specific functions (to_char vs. convert). Any more ideas?


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Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Hi Ferd,
Ferd wrote:

I understand that I can format the date object how I like in the report
itself. But any formatting that I have tried applying, in a number of
ways, does not seem to affect the formatting of the dates produced in the
‘list of values’ box.
==
In the past I had also problems using DATE LOV’s, in case of Oracle try
this:

In this example I used the Beach.unv which was converted into Oracle 7.3

First check in BO directory \Oracle the Ociv7.sbo:
-RUNINIT should be set to RUNINIT=1
-InputDateFormat=‘DD-MM-YYYY’ (should the same as your regional settings)
-InitDateFormat=‘DD-MM-YYYY’ (fetching dates on database using this format)

In Designer:
-Create a “Date” ObjectA with Select Sales.invoice_date
-Create a “Character” ObjectB with Select to_char(@Select(Sales\Invoice
Date))
-Edit the properties for ObjectA, edit the LOV for ObjectA, choose ObjectB
in the QueryPanel, then run this query (the date values should displayed
according the settings specified in .SBO file)
-Hide ObjectB

Create a query in Reporter with for example
Country,Resort,SalesPerson,Revenue
Create a condition with a prompt for ObjectA

Run it … the LOV should be ok now.

Good luck.

Best regards,

Vides Tamaëla
Consultant

PROPHECY
URL: http://www.prophecy.nl
Villawal 7
3432 NX Nieuwegein
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 (0)30 6050744
Fax: +31 (0)30 6050690

Email: v.tamaela@prophecy.nl (business)
Email: maeva@wxs.nl (private)


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)