Strange Behavior

building reports desktopintelligence
1

Several of our users have noticed what appears to be strange behavior with Business Objects. I would like to know if anyone else has noticed this behavior and whether it should be considered a bug.

Here is the situation…

Create a report with several columns of data. Use Slice and Dice to change the order of the columns, add some breaks, sorts, totals, etc. Then, edit the data provider to return data from a new object. Run the query again. In some cases, Business Objects does not show a new column of data on the report, other times, especially when Slice and Dice was never used, the new column appears on the report automatically. Business Objects does seem to be returning the data in all cases, it just doesn’t always display the data on the report. If you insert a new column, and edit the formula, you can add the new object to report.

FYI, we’re using BusinessObjects 4.1.1.

Is this a bug? If so, does anyone know when it will be fixed?

Thanks,
Dennis Edgecombe
Washington State University

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

2

This is in fact not a bug. Once a report has been created and Sliced and Diced, Business Objects doesn’t really know where you’d like the new column to go. If you haven’t played with the report, then it assumes you want it added.

If you think about it, this really makes sense. If you create several report blocks from a single query, you probably don’t want a new object added to every block. You want summaries and details, but you should be able to decide.

In 4.1.x, you can make much better use of the Slice and Dice panel. Shrink it down so that the only thing you see are the report variables. You can simply drag them out of the panel and drop into your report.

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