[Cindy moved from Reporter to Designer]
Does anyone know of a method for getting a complete object list for a Universe, probably from within Designer?
Someone here posted a VBA macro that I was able to edit to work (the Globals needed fixing) to give a list of Objects Used in your reports. Now I would like to get a list of the Objects Available…
Thanx
SG1_Guy (BOB member since 2003-02-28)
You can do it by
a) print option (printing the list of obejcts to the printer/file)
b)there is a universe located in freeware dir under BO named managero.unv
Hope it helps
Reema
reemagupta (BOB member since 2002-09-18)
You can get the universe definition (read only) from the Business Objects object model. No need to use the Designer object model at all.
I have a “spiffed up” version of the “objects used” utility mentioned here that Dave is going to post it in the code samples forum when he has a chance. If you’re comfortable with the SDK it could be modified to gather universe obects. Actually, an enhancement that I have pondered for the utility is to gather that information and produce an “unused objects” list as candidates for deletion.
Dwayne Hoffpauir 
(BOB member since 2002-09-19)
Well, SDK always meant to me that there was a, well, Kit… So I guess you could say I am not comfortable with one for B.O. I have been digging around trying to figure out how the Objects Used code “knew” what the objects, methods and properties were for B.O. specific variables. For example, I had never seen a data type of DataProvider before…
I know enough about VB to be able to modify the code if I knew what the values were for the objects actually Used by the report. The existing code only shows you what has been selected by the Data Provider(s) which doesn’t necessarily bear much resemblance to what’s really Used by the report. An Objects Not-Used report would be a really useful thing, indeed.
But right now, what I’d like to get is a similar list to the file produced by the Objects Used code for each of our Universes. (Bugs one of my senses of reality that there can be more than one Universe, ya’ know? I want to say they should have called them Galaxies… 
) List Mode in designer looks useless, at least to me… I know the Tables, not worried about the Joins. I want to see the individual objects.
If there’s a good 'splanation for using VBA in B.O., I’d love to get my hands on it. (with apologies to Ricky Ricardo/Desi Arnaz…)
SG1_Guy (BOB member since 2003-02-28)
VBA is Visual Basic for Applications. Each application publishes (I believe the proper term is “exposes”) parts of its application model to the VBA engine. So when you include the BusinessObjects data model in your VBA code (which is done automatically when you develop in VBA inside of the BusinessObjects application) you can reference specific data model items like busobj.Documents, busobj.DataProviders, busobj.Variables, and so on. It’s just like in Excel where you can reference Worksheets, Workbooks, and Cells. They are the components that are exposed.
In the VBA editor, you can browse the items (properties and methods) that are exposed with in busobj. You can also add the Excel data model, so you can drive Excel from within BusinessObjects. Or vice versa, if you are so inclined.
There is an object model diagram that you can download from the tech support site if you are licensed for the SDK. It shows all of the items that are available. Note that just because something is exposed doesn’t mean you can alter it; many of the items are read only.
Dwayne: I have not forgotten about posting your code. I just needed to be nagged a bit more. 
I will put it on the list to get done this weekend. If it makes you feel any better, there are several folks in the queue with code to be posted…
Dave
Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)
Yeah, I knew what VBA was about. I probably was having a Blonde Moment, there.
I have no idea if we are licensed for the SDK. I’ll have to try to find out.
Thanx for the brain refresh…
SG1_Guy (BOB member since 2003-02-28)
Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)