It would be great to have the power of creating a weighetd average measure in teh universe irrespective of the database capabilities.
reemagupta (BOB member since 2002-09-18)
I thought the problem with creating average objects in the universe was that changing the level of aggregation displayed in the report messed the results up? How do you aggregate the average in the report?
Paul.
Paul Williams 
(BOB member since 2002-07-10)
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the interest and the insights pointed. As you pointed out, I agree that these can be done.
But to get these done with reference to prompt is not possible from the reporter module alone. Since any prompt defined in reporter module alone will filter the data right away. And all the examples pointed out need data for dimensional values other than the one pointed out in the prompt.
We will have to utilize the designer and make the universe designed for report. This removes the generic nature of universe. And also if u start building report specific universes, the no. of universe will sky rocket, for the user who has tasted the achievement will surely ask for more without regard to the effort and feasibility. It also poses a problem in maintenance. So better not to disturb the universe for reporting need.
Humpty number of advantages will be garnered by making prompts independent of WHERE clause. I am not against using it in WHERE clause. As u had rightly pointed out, its main functionality is to go with the WHERE clause. But let it not be restricted to only that. Hence my WISH is that an option for using/NOT USING prompts in WHERE clause to restrict/un-restrict the result set be provided. Also let it be used without restriction for:
i) Usage in alerts/formatting/ranking
ii) Usage for filtering/hiding blocks
iii) Usage to define the calculation context
The hiding of entire blocks for accomplishing some tasks is good work around. But will it not translate into more complex report for later maintenance. Also, there are also lots of advantages by making the work-around as a direct approach. It helps a lot in cajoling the users to use the Reporter module, hence delegating considerable effort of Technical Staff. Hence i also persist with my following WISHes for 
direct approach Options for:
i) Formula based Pivot Hiding.
ii) Formula based Fold Hiding.
iii) Formula based Chart Type display.
iv) Filtering/Hiding based on Aggregates.
v) A hide option in Alert
vi) A direct formula to calculate the difference in Time period
Some more NEW WISHES:
- Give an option for a Report to act as a direct data provider. This helps in attaining some sort of security for data coming from flat files. Instead of giving access to Flat files without authentication, a Report data source will be helpful since it will be more secure.
- Show the names of Query and the table column/objects, which are removed from the Query when the universe was pointed to different version due to Incompatibility.
- The previous function output needs to be previous in block instead of giviving the result of the previous value of the result set. Ex: Say revenue exists for only 1994,95 and 97. But due to join it is shown as null for 1995. Now a previous value for revenue for year 1997 will show the revenue for 1995 instead of showing as blank.
When the processes and approaches to be taken for Work-around are known why not automate the things in the module itself so that BO becomes great and BO Reporter becomes synonymous to a tool for a Common man rather than a Tech gadget.
Thanks and Regards,
Srinath M.K
mksrinath (BOB member since 2002-09-19)
What are you looking for with this? Do you want the user to answer a prompt and use the answer to that prompt as criteria for the selection list of the next prompt? If so you can do that now.
Scott Bowers 
(BOB member since 2002-09-30)
Hi,
First of all,
WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
That’s what i am looking for in Cascading Prompts. Say first prompt is Country, when I select the country, the next prompt should appear displaying a picklist containing the states in the country. After selecting the states, the cities in that state needs to be displayed for selection. If such a provision is provided directly without need of coding, then it is great. If this is made available my that WISH has come true in the new year. Thanks for giving me this pleasant gift for the new year.
Here are my new NEW YEAR WISHes:
i) Optimise the way images are stored. Say you paste a *.GIF file of size 10k in a report, the report size increases by about 400k. This may be because of internal storage as .BMP. This needs to be optimised. It would be better if all images while saving with report are converted to either .GIF/.JPG.
ii) For data coming from Personal data files, i have faced the following inconsistency. May be these are resolved now… but still want to make a WISH that these are resolved:
a) When the Format is Text files(.asc, *.prn, *.txt, *.csv), even if the delimiteris specified as Character, the text box for specifying the Charecter is greyed. 
Crazy thing (work around) is you know what: instead of selecting Format as Text files, select it as All files and then abrachadabra the text box gets enabled :crazy: .
b) An option to select the column data types needs to be made available like in importing process of MS Excel. Ex:Say you have a flat file with only one column with 3 vaues say:1,2-A and 3. Now say i bring this to report. BO recognises this column as Numeric since the first value is a number. It takes the second value as 2 (only the number part) which is wrong. And this feature is very inconsistent. While retrieving data from some text files, it doesnot accept some data. It fetches the #EMPTY(no value) even if some value exists. The work around which i was using was to import the flat file to MS Excel, put Quotes for the text fields and then import to BO from the Excel. But this is cumbursome and inconsistent. Hence if this feature is imporved so that data types of the columns and other properties can be specified while importing as in MS Excel, then it will be great.
Hey I am sorry 
if my huge number of WISHes are annoying someone… I just hope that nobody WISHes that i stop WISHing 
Cheers,
Srinath M.K
mksrinath (BOB member since 2002-09-19)
This you can do. We’ve talked about it quite a bit lately and a couple of twists to it have been discussed that can’t be done without doing something programmatically. Search on cascading. I’ve added it to our list of ‘things to be added to the faq’s’. We’ve got quite a huge list waiting…which reminds me. If anyone is interested in writing up a faq answer it would be helpful! I’ll see if I can find some time this weekend to get all the proposed faq questions into this format.
Note how the first question is a link and clicking it takes you to the answer. The unanswered questions aren’t links. ‘Us moderators’ have been keeping links to things we think should be added but maybe if we get the questions in the faq post, you guys will help? How 'bout it? Surely you can give back a little for all the help you’ve gotten from Bob 'eh?
Oh and back to cascading prompts…see if this helps 
.
Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)
Hi Cindy,
We will definitely contribute towards Bob. I could not know how we can contribute. In the FAQ section it will be better to give certain instructions in the begining of the section on how the non moderators can contribute(if this is ur expectation). Also i have a suggestion to just put only the questions in the begining page and let the link of question take to the next page where answers are listed. Also it will be helpful if the answers have sections like:description, related links, examples etc. so that formatting and answering pattern is consistent/complete.
Thanks again for all the contribution / learning / knowledge sharing activity done… we hope this site reckons as the best…
Regards,
Srinath M.K
mksrinath (BOB member since 2002-09-19)
When applying a master detail section the navigation pane/map on the left in BO Reporter should show the master/details formatted as specified in the universe, for example:
Start_date of Data type Date in oracle, universe object defined as:
Trunc(Start_date)and formatted in the universe as mm/dd/yyyy.
But when this object is being used in a master/detail section the navigation pane/map on the left will show the format:
mm/dd/yyyy 12:00:00 AM
Even though in the report itself the object is correctly displayed as mm/dd/yyyy.
Andreas 
(BOB member since 2002-06-20)
I put a link to this wish list in the BO survey I just filled out
Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)
YES, YES, YES! That’s been one of my pet peaves, Andreas. It’s really irritating to Webi users, as well. Especially when you got an object defined as TRUNC(Date,‘Mon’) and formatted as “Mmm yyyy”. I would love to see this fixed.
MichaelWelter 
(BOB member since 2002-08-08)
Oh how I wish that Supervisor would warn me before I unlink a universe that the universe has row restrictions that I will lose when I unlink. 
Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)
Is this already on the list I wonder?
When building universes, it should be possible to create objects that are equivalent to Report Variables.
e.g. if a report variable uses something like IF/THEN/ELSE
These could also contain context operators, and automatically drag all other objects required into the query.
I think cognos does this?
philmorris (BOB member since 2002-11-12)
Another quick one 
The Query Panel should indicate the name of the data provider being edited!
philmorris (BOB member since 2002-11-12)
How about a global data provider universe change. Change one DP from a common universe and get a prompt to change all DP’s with the “From” universe to the “To” universe. This would come in handy when changing a “test” document to the “production” universe!
MikeMcErlain (BOB member since 2002-06-08)
Here’s something simple that almost always makes me wonder what logic is used sometimes in the interface design process. Why doesn’t “Format Cell Height and Width” show up on the right-click context menu in the reporter body!
How come one of the most common functions I use when formatting a report is only available on the “Format” menu 
!
MikeMcErlain (BOB member since 2002-06-08)
Yep. Good one Mike! 
Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)
Ding ding ding! I asked for that one a little bit back! That would make life much easier. Maybe people will read this thread. I’ve done everything possible to get it in front of the eyes of people from BO
Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)
Some of us wish that WebI on Windows servers would get a real background process to refresh full client reports (like bolight on Unix servers).
Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)
I also wish that WebI would continue to support current browsers on various operating systems, in particular that recent Netscape and especially I.E. browsers would be supported natively on a Macintosh running OS-X.
Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)
Here-here for better Mac friendliness. 8)
Something I would like to see added in Reporter.
In Format Cell … Appearance, we have the option hide the cell.
How about an option to not print the cell.
That way I could add user instructions on how to use the report on the screen but not print those instructions.
scott copeland (BOB member since 2002-08-15)