I didn’t even notice that. Thanks 
joepeters 
(BOB member since 2002-08-29)
As we are in a nostalgic thread, I didn’t resist to the tentation to share the initial patent of the BusinessObjects’s semantic layer found by chance
https://www.google.fr/patents/US5555403
bernard timbal 
(BOB member since 2003-05-26)
Bernard - very, very cool!
jwaterbury 
(BOB member since 2007-09-21)
Great Bernard! Thanks for sharing 8) .
Mak 1 
(BOB member since 2005-01-06)
Fantastic. Used to remember having two machines back then because BO3 was on Windows 3.11 and you couldn’t ALT+TAB out of a query when it was running. The noobs of today don’t know how good they’ve got it. 
I think the Java applet maze, complete with trap doors and monsters is more than enough for us “noobs”.
Mak 1 (BOB member since 2005-01-06)
well well well…semantic layer protected by patent? 
summoner 
(BOB member since 2008-12-18)
Wouldn’t happen with Deski.
Yes, because its dead!
Nick Daniels (BOB member since 2002-08-15)
It’s just sleeping. 
Not a wonder more and more companies are moving away from SAP BO.
Being in the middle of this tool it really took the cake on how things were intuitive enough for both developers and users alike… it was definitely ahead of its time and the Leader in BI.
That said, since SAP made some disastrous mistakes like getting rid of DESKI; pushing that Crystal; and with its latest dropping the ball move… screwing up XIR3 with bringing in 4.x where and quite frankly its just more hype than what it can deliver.
Its unbelievably slow, clumsy as it hangs WEBI not up to snuff as they said it would be and introducing DATA FEDERATOR built in to Universe Designer. That takes the cake of it all IDT although has been build to being a Multi-source universe is JUST NOT WORTH IT! A couple nice things but the overhead, clumsiness and unfriendly way it acts simply has made companies move away from SAP BO.
Some going back to Excel and Access if you can believe that. Their comments among others… too expensive for lack of support and OLAP tool. That is what I saw, used and liked about the ole Business Objects. It was closer to OLAP than any other tool out there!!
But again IDT… SUX for lack of a better term they should just 
It
BIGuru (BOB member since 2008-12-09)
Well, to put a positive spin on that, BIGuru, it seems there is a lot of cake 
Nick Daniels 
(BOB member since 2002-08-15)
I go back to the old days of Crystal reports ( early 90’) crystal is a good tool. Deski had its place also. I personally could do without Webi. I feel is is a weak attempt at replacing Deski and Crystal with a web based tool.
But I agree that since SAP took over it has been down hill on customer service. I remember when we could call support… now it is open a ticket and pray that they don’t just close it or if they do call it is 3 am at your place ( gotten many a call like that ).
As for being in Java hell don’t get me started. Maybe they will change direction on Java now that it is being abandon by Browsers.
JonnySpec (BOB member since 2008-08-01)
Yes, their hand was kind of forced in that regard. Though the HTML panel is 95% there, so they don’t have much further to go.
I actually find myself using the HTML panel more and more, and only using the Java panel for the few functions that require it.
joepeters (BOB member since 2002-08-29)
I’m still on the fence. HTML is sooo clunky…but Java gives my current client such a headache everytime they update it. Nearly there…
Nick Daniels (BOB member since 2002-08-15)
It’s been more than 5 years (!) since you started this topic writing
It looks like you are still around and still barking up the same wrong tree
I rarely write posts like this one but please stop complaining, it really has been enough of it in those past 5 years. It’s really useless. Learn the tool or have a consultant to teach you the tool or just simply do something else.
Marek Chladny 
(BOB member since 2003-11-27)
Unfortunately contract to contract I am brought onto sites that are rewriting their BI application, yes, going away from SAPBO.
On the positive side I keep trying to put up an argument in favor of BO as I remember and worked with it. But then I keep seeing how SAP keeps adding to the mess it started when it changed things…and I am basically running out of arguments for companies; some running old versions of BO, to keep it!
Maybe you’re right, I should just do the job I start out to do with each contract and get them off SAPBO. 
BIGuru (BOB member since 2008-12-09)
Complaining or IDT? 
In all seriousness, I am concerned about what SAP are doing with BusinessObjects but we obviously have little influence over it. They’ve bought the tool to use with BW rather than the traditional BO community, instead of “as well as” the traditional BO community it seems. I never thought I’d say it but I wish Microsoft had bought BO.
That’s an interesting “what if” scenario. MS has a very different strategy on BI as compared to pre-SAP BO. They are focused on Excel for ad-hoc querying, SSRS for enterprise reporting, and PowerView for visualization. They do not have a comparable tool to WebI, nor is their semantic layer as sophisticated as BO. An MS takeover of BO would have produced interesting offspring. I could imagine Crystal being dropped in favor of SSRS, and WebI being incorporated into SharePoint. Of course, all of the Java utilities that I’ve written would become useless 
And I may be the lone voice here, but I don’t think IDT is all that bad. It definitely has its flaws but they are not insurmountable. Designer/UDT is starting to show its age and IDT gives us a lot of needed functionality. Incidentally, on the WebI Social Hour the other day, I asked about a timeline for the unv format to be deprecated. I was surprised to hear that there isn’t one, so it seems that we will have both formats for some time to come.
joepeters (BOB member since 2002-08-29)
Complaining, of course
You are definitely not alone. I mentioned here some time ago already that IDT was not bad as everyone was talking/writing about it. One needs to get used to it because some things are done differently in IDT than in UDT. But it does not mean it’s worse or it’s better. It’s just different. And it (IDT) has some features that I was missing in Designer.
Marek Chladny (BOB member since 2003-11-27)