I’ve done some universes based on v5 but i guess that there is few change between v6 and v5. It depends what you need to do (user rigths, universe description,…)
for XI I believed that nobody is able to query directly against the database except using the infoObject model
described here :
http://devlibrary.businessobjects.com/BusinessObjectsXIR2/en/en/BOE_SDK/boesdk_dotNet_doc/doc/boesdk_net_doc/html/SDKFundamentals68.html
How will we document our universe using the CMS repository. Impossible since universes are no longer stored. Using the universe builder and CWM model ??? 
Just a tips when you are using the forum (a lot of huge awesome and incredible posts 
): search
here is what you may find :
hope this help
Regards
4TearsLux 
(BOB member since 2006-06-23)