Document a universe using Excel and the Designer SDK

system · January 23, 2009, 2:32pm

Thanks,thats a good tool,BUT How to get information of DERIVED TABLES?

Naveen Vanaparthi (BOB member since 2008-07-02)

system · January 27, 2009, 11:50am

Hi, posting your question twice isn’t really going to help get it answered any quicker … and especially not when the answer to your question lies within the very same thread you asked the question in

HINT: Try page 5 and see if that helps

Peter Hughes (BOB member since 2005-11-21)

system · January 27, 2009, 12:31pm

sandeepk66, please do not bump your post until at least one business day has passed.

Nick Daniels (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

system · February 11, 2009, 2:03pm

I am trying to document a XI 3.1 universe, but I am getting an out of memory error. It is in the LictConditions() section.

Franko418 (BOB member since 2004-07-07)

system · February 11, 2009, 11:27pm

Thanks

I was wondering if there is any tool that can document by report name, the corresponding classes/objects & the table/column name. i.e. Excel with report → class/ objects used → Table.column name? The reason for this is I am looking at 250 odd XIR2 reports that needs documenting.

pravin_kadambi (BOB member since 2005-05-18)

system · February 12, 2009, 2:20pm

Assuming you mean full client reports, look here … List objects used in a series of reports. If you mean WebI reports, there is also a WID Scanner tool here in BOB’s Downloads.

The full client utility will document the classes / objects used, but not the tables / columns directly. Remember, a single universe object could reference many tables / columns. That said, you could use the output from the full client documentation and link it (on your own) to the universe documentation, and get very close.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · February 12, 2009, 3:00pm

Thanks Dwayne. As you rightly said, I can get pretty close

Anyway, two awesome contributions from you. Hats off!!!

pravin_kadambi (BOB member since 2005-05-18)

system · February 16, 2009, 3:07pm

This was great information and this macro worked wonders for me. Just wanted to say thanks

klongmire (BOB member since 2009-02-09)

system · February 19, 2009, 9:42am

while running the excel sheet for XIR2 which u posted the execution was failing at the end so can you please check and send me the correct one
it would help alot for me

Thanks & regards
krishna
09620202420

ummalety (BOB member since 2009-02-19)

system · February 19, 2009, 2:04pm

While I could be available to do some custom work for you, I’m fairly sure you won’t like my rates!

That said, if you could give me a few more details than “was failing at the end,” I’ll be glad to see if there is anything wrong in the utility itself. Please include what version of the utility, and what version of Designer you are using.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · February 25, 2009, 9:25pm

Dwayne Hoffpauir:

rajesh_tns:
Hi all

After downloading and opening the excel sheet I double clicked on Document a Universe Button then it opened a page and i saw this

Private Sub DocumentUniverseButton_Click()
Call DocumentUniverse
End Sub

what is my next step? how do i go from here to document the universe
Open the workbook, then press Alt-F11 (opens the VB editor). Go to Tools, References, and look for a Business Objects Designer library to be selected. What does it say (what version, etc.)? Go to Debug, Compile VBA project. Any error messages?

I’m having this same problem.

I have Business Objects Designer 12.0 Object Library.

Doesn’t appear to be any error messages (blank pane when I click Compile VBA project).

Thanks,

Moira

moiram (BOB member since 2009-02-20)

system · February 26, 2009, 1:46pm

If you are double-clicking the button and getting a code page, it means Excel is in Design mode. Turn off Design mode, click the button once, and it will execute.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · March 3, 2009, 11:36am

Dwayne Hoffpauir:

Ramprasad:

Failure in ListObjects()

VBAProject- -2147417851: Automation error
The server threw an exception.

Any chance that the description on an object is extremely long … like more than 1,024 characters?
Try changing the line of code that says this…
Rng(RowNum, 4) = Obj.Description
… to this
Rng(RowNum, 4) = Left(Obj.Description, 1024)

Hi Dwayne,

I am also getting a error in the ListObjects() : VBAProject -7 : Out of Memory. I made the change suggested above and I still get the error. The universe is 871kb in size; I saved universe as text document and none of the objects look too long

Any thoughts?

jemstar (BOB member since 2006-03-30)

system · March 3, 2009, 3:07pm

A few people have reported an “out of memory” error, but no one has ever provided a repeatable example I could research. All I can suggest is standard debugging techniques. Try it on a co-worker’s machine to try to eliminate a corrupt installation. Turn off the error handling in the code, and step through line by line to try to find the culprit. Not the answer you hoped for I’m sure, but without more concrete information that’s all I can offer.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · March 3, 2009, 3:37pm

Hi Dwayne,

I think the size of my column names might be a factor - they all have table names tacked on the front of them. If it would help, I could send you a copy of the universe for you to research? I was able to re-produce the issue when I tried to document the universe on my laptop

jemstar (BOB member since 2006-03-30)

system · March 6, 2009, 3:54pm

I am having a similiar issue… when i use the tool on a smaller universe, it works perfectly, however, when I try to use this on a much larger, and more complex universe, I get this error. The only difference is that my error says ListContexts not ListObjects.

Can someone tell me what the solution is for this error?

thank you

Alandwehr (BOB member since 2008-02-20)

system · March 6, 2009, 9:41pm

Let’s try some debugging. In the DocumentUniverse procedure, there is a section with the following lines of code:

Call ListTables(Univ.Tables)
Call ListColumns(Univ.Tables)
Call ListJoins(Univ.Joins)
Call ListContexts(Univ.Contexts)
Call ListClasses(Univ.Classes, 1)
Call ListObjects(Univ.Classes, 1)
Call ListConditions(Univ.Classes, 1)

Comment them out, and run maybe one at a time. In your case, run only the ListContexts line. See if it runs then.

Honestly, I’m still suspicious of simply “too large / complex” of a universe. I have a universe with 10,000 objects, 1,000 joins, and 200 contexts, and it runs just fine. I still suspect it is something about the particular “thing” being looked at, but let’s see if the debugging turns up anything.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · March 12, 2009, 8:21pm

Hi,
Great Utility.

I was wondering if there is a way to identify hierarchy of classes within this utility. What I mean is identify parent class from child class.

Thanks,
Wasi

wasinoor (BOB member since 2005-08-16)

system · March 13, 2009, 2:15pm

In the ListObjects procedure, Cls.RootClass.Name would return the parent class name.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · March 13, 2009, 2:37pm

Thanks Dwayne.

I did tried that but for couple of classes (which are already at root-level) it gave error something like “Cannot find mother class”.

I will try it on other Universes and see if it works.

Thanks,
Wasi

wasinoor (BOB member since 2005-08-16)