How to find current value of each Server Variables?

If you want to know current assigned values of server variables with in your BI Server then follow these steps.

1. Open RPD

2. Goto Manage menu tab

3. From manage menu select “Sessions …”

From O.B.I.E.E

4. Pops up Session Manager

5. From available sessions choose a session

6. Now click on variables tab, it will show all server and session variables and respective values at that particular time.

From O.B.I.E.E

In general following type of variables you can see here

Session System: all these variables have specific purpose (reserved key words) with in BI system

Exp: USER, DISPLAYNAME, EMAIL, LOGLEVEL, GROUP, LAST_SYNCH_TIME, PORTALPATH, REQUESTKEY, SKIN, WEBGROUPS, PASSWORD

Session Non-System: These variables are created by admin, for various reporting purposes.

Exp: USERROLE, USERGEO, USERCURRENCY etc

Session System and Session Non-System variables are specific to user logged on.

Dynamic Repository Variables:

These variables can be used by any users with in BI system created by admin,

Exp: LASTWEEK, LASTMONTH, YESTARDAY, CURRENTYEAR etc

Static Repository Variables:

These are initialized when BI Server start remain same as long as server runs.

Exp: PATH_TO_RESOURCE_FILES, WELCOME_MESSAGE, etc.

For more information on variables and how to create variables look at here

Best practice: Optimally define dynamic repository variables.

Quickly find out which presenation columns are used in which report

There is no easy way to find out which presentation columns are used in which reports and dashboards. I have come across a situation where we need to quickly identify presentation columns used in each report. I didn’t have enough time to go thru all reports.

To save time, I have created a tool which will output the below information.

Report path and name

Dashboard page name

Presentation column subject area name

All the Filters in the report

All the presentation column names (comma separated)

How to use this tool?

1 Download ReportAnalysisConsoleApplication,

2 Launch cmd

3 In cmd pass parameters as following sequence database SID, Usage track schema user name, password.

Example:

C:\location_of_tool\ReportAnalysisConsoleApplication.exe oracle_database_SID usagetrack_USERID usagetrack_PWD > C:\output_directory_or_what_ever\AnalyzedDataOutput.txt

Prerequisites:

Report should access at least once after usage track enabled.

How to embed My Account link on dashboard page

One of question asked in BI Forum about how to move "My Accounts" link into "My Dashboard"

Here you can see half of solution i.e My Account embedding on to shared dashboard instead of My Dashboard.

To do that

Step 1: Go to C:\OracleBI\web\app folder

Step 2 Create a new file userPref.txt or what ever name you want.

Step 3 Place following code in this file userPref.txt then save the file.

< % @LANGUAGE="JScript" % >

< % Response.Redirect("saw.dll?UserPreferences"); % >(with out spaces between < % or % >)

Step 4 Rename the userPref.txt to userPref.asp (file extension type must be as .asp)

Step 5 Now Create a new dashboard page.

Step 6 Drag and drop Embedded Content object on this new page.

Step 7 Modify Embedded Content’s properties.

Step 8 In URL edit box place this url http://localhost/analytics/userPref.asp

Step 9 save the page.

Same way we can embed sessions, perfmon , Administration on Dashboard.

Leading or Trail Space Trim Issue

If you have column-values with leading or trail spaces those space will be trimmed by presentation services by default, if you drilldown to detail, will lead to no-results or wrong records.

Suppose in your column only these values are there ‘abc’, ‘abc ’ (spaced value),’xyz ’ (spaced value) if you drill on ‘abc’ you will get proper records of 'abc', if we drill on ‘ abc’ will display ‘abc’ records but not ‘ abc’ records, if we drill on ‘xyz ‘ then it will say no results.

To avoid these problems, change column’s data format property to “Plain text (don’t break spaces)” by this property presentation services will not trim leading or trail spaces.

Even in OTN once or twice asked this question, John and Stijn have suggested very good solutions.

I have faced same issue today, I cannot apply my logic because column selected from column selector, so went with Stijn's recommendation.

nQSError: 61013 Can not save changes to the repository

If you come across following error don’t be panic.

warning: can not save changes to the repository because,

[nQSError: 61013] File error: path= C:\OracleBI\server\Repository\paint.rpd , code=31: There has been a sharing violation.

May be its because of, you have started working on repository (offline mode) then started BI Server, after server services start, if you try to save repository you will see above message.

If you want to save all your changes just stop BI Services, and then save repository it will save all changes made to repository.

Obiee all Message Reference

Siebel Analytics Message Reference(click here to download) it’s a powerful tool for developer for debugging any problem occurred in obiee environment. It explains context of each message and suggests possible steps to overcome the problem.

Display Data Base Images on report

Inspired by one of post in OTN forum on how to populate data base images on a native report, here assumptions are database having image URL, images are residing in image resource folder.

To do that first keep all images files in OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10\images i.e fmap:images\xyz.jpg

Keep all image file names (with file extn) in database as required.

Exp: Suppose geo dimension with

South as south.jpg

West as west.jpg

East as east.jpg,

North as north.jpg

To display images on report:

Add image’s column to report

(Just to illustrate example I have added image file names in ERROR_TEXT in Usage track Schema.)

Click on Column Properties, go to Data Format tab

Check “Override Default Data Format” and from drop down choose “Custom Text Format”

In Custom Text Format edit box place following script.

@[html]" < !-- img src="\\analytics\\res\\s_oracle10\\images\\""@H""" -- > "(Please uncomment html tags)

Browse report, images url's will be fetched from database appended with resource file displayed on report.

Here is a good example on how to embed image on a web page with various options.