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?

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.