Friday, May 31, 2013

[OBIEE 10g] Directing A User To A Default Dashboard





OBIEE Directing a user to a default dashboard




One of our customers wanted the OBIEE users after login directed to a default dashboard based on the department they work in. First we created a view containing P_USER, DEPARTMENT and PORTALPATH.





In the variable manager we created an initialization block

 



We connected this to a session variable called PORTALPATH. This is a OBIEE reserved word so will get a warning, just ignore it.



You need to restart the BI-server and the Presentation server!

Let’s try it:

USER1


USER2


USER3







[OBIEE 10g] Multiple Connection Pools

 


OBIEE Multiple connection pools




Most BI-Server setups use shared connections to the database. But if we "generalize" the connection users we can see several groups: 


  • Reportbuilders; needs access to all tables, can transport a lot of data during development, are in the habit of "killing" query's when they "take to long"
  • Answers users: create there own "new" request each time.
  • Dashboard users: Only use predefined query's
  • BI-publisher: Can do a lot of query's in succession.
  • WriteBack users: need insert/update rights on the DB.


The help the DBA ask him for five users named: OBIEE_R (Reportbuilders), OBIEE_A (Answers_users), OBIEE_D (Dashboard users), OBIEE_B (BI-Publisher) , OBIEE_W (WriteBack Users).



In your RPD create five connection pools:





Create five Groups:






Now set the permissions for the Connection Pool:






Don't forget to disable "Everyone".


Assign the users to there groups and check in TOAD or SQL Developer if the right connections are made:





This way you can ask your DBA to assign the right resources to every group instead of an average setting for every one.





[OBIEE 10g] Catalog Search And Replace


 


OBIEE Catalog Search and Replace




Say we have 100+ reports where we need to replace the subject area from

PA_Production to SA_Production






Open the catalog in off-line mode.






Select folder which contains the reports you want to change:



Go to Tools > XML Search and Replace



 

Do the replace:









Press Refresh:




Check the result:








[OBIEE 10g] ODBC Client


 


OBIEE ODBC Client




One of the features you get when doing an OBIEE install on windows is the ODBC Client application. 





After starting the application you have to click:





File > Open Database to make a connection:





The usage of the database field is unclear for me at the moment.


From the utility menu you can directly test your BI-server sql:









From the View Schema you get an very unusable info of the catalog:






I couldn’t get the query list to work….






It seems this is a R&D/Q&D tool for the development team which somehow made it’s way into the production release. I you have some more info or usage- for it please let me know.