Post on 16-Mar-2020
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
PRACTICAL USE OF THE
DESIGNER SDK
Rosalind Beasley, Web Intelligent Design, Inc.
SLIDE 2 COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
AGENDA
1. BusinessObjects COM SDK Roadmap
2. Designer SDK use and benefits
3. Demonstration
4. Object model basics
5. C# code walk through
6. Conclusion
7. Q&A
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. SLIDE 3
BUSINESSOBJECTS COM SDK
ROADMAP
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 4
Choosing the correct COM SDK
BUSINESSOBJECTS COM SDK
ROADMAP
Are you automating Desktop Intelligence or the
Universe Designer application?
Are you automating Desktop Intelligence or the
Universe Designer application?
Desktop
Intelligence
COM SDK
Desktop
Intelligence
COM SDK
Universe
Designer COM
SDK
Universe
Designer COM
SDK
BusinessObjects
Enterprise COM
SDK
BusinessObjects
Enterprise COM
SDK
Depreciated
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 5
BUSINESS OBJECTS DESIGNER
SDK REQUIREMENTS
COM compliant development environment
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
Microsoft Visual Studio Visual Basic or C#
BusinessObjects Designer Module
Designer.tlb
BusinessObjects Designer SDK Documentation
boXI_designerSDK_OMD_en.pdf
Universe Designer API Reference
Diamond Community
http://diamond.businessobjects.com/developer/library
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. SLIDE 6
DESIGNER SDK USE AND
BENEFITS
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 7
Business ownership
Visibility into previous changes
Change impact analysis
Documentation standards
CHALLENGES
Can the Designer
SDK help?
Why don’t the objects
have business meaning?
Which objects are affected by
the proposed change?
Didn’t we fix this last
month?
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 8
METADATA EXPORT UTILITY
USE AND BENEFIT
Practical uses
Object description management
Agree universe class structure and object names
Export the list of classes and objects to Excel
Distribute list to data stewards
Data steward to update object descriptions in Excel.
Benefits
Object description management
Business owns and maintains object descriptions
Object descriptions have business meaning
Business data stewards use Excel to update object descriptions
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 9
METADATA EXPORT UTILITY
USE AND BENEFIT
Practical uses
Design specification creation
Export universe metadata to Excel or Word
Benefits
Design specification creation
Format flexibility
Meet corporate standard
Design principles/guidelines
Design decisions
Smaller & more readable document
40 versus 400 pages
Include information not available in standard universe printout
Object incompatibility
Shortcut Join Flag
Alias List
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 10
METADATA EXPORT UTILITY
USE AND BENEFIT
Practical uses
Change history capture
Export universe metadata details to an RDBMS
Timestamp metadata
Benefits
Change history capture
Supports change request process
Universe change logs provide insight into change recurrence
Object change impact/effort analysis
Comparison of two different universes
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 11
METADATA IMPORT UTILITY USE
AND BENEFIT
Practical uses
Object description management
Import the list of objects maintained by the business owner
Benefits
Object description management
Business retains ownership of object descriptions
Objects have business meaningful descriptions
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. SLIDE 12
METADATA IMPORT AND
EXPORT DEMONSTRATION
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 13
OBJECT DESCRIPTION
MANAGEMENT DEMO
Demonstration Scenarios
Scenario #1 Scenario #2
ExcelExcel C# Application
C# Application
UniverseUniverse
Update
Read
Update
Stewards
ExcelExcel C#
Application
C#
Application
UniverseUniverseExport
Traverse
Stewards
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 14
SCENARIO #1 - EXPORT
METADATA UTILITY
Select a universe file as the source
Select a destination type of Excel
Provide Destination path and filename
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 15
SCENARIO #1 - EXPORT
METADATA UTILITY OUTPUT
Excel Workbook
Object List - Worksheet
Class Name
Object Name
Object Description
Object Select Clause
Object Where Clause
Date Object Auto Hierarchy
LOV Export with Universe
Object Data Type
Object Type
Hidden Flag
Pre-Defined Condition List –
Worksheet
Class Name
Condition Object Name
Condition Object Description
Condition Object Where Clause
Table List – Worksheet
Table Name
Alias Flag
Bases Table Name
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 16
SCENARIO #2 - IMPORT
METADATA UTILITY
Select a universe file as the destination
Provide source path and filename
Review changes
Import changes
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 17
CHANGE HISTORY DEMO
Demonstration Scenarios
Scenario #3 Scenario #4
Developer
Universe AUniverse A Universe BUniverse B
C#
Application
C#
Application
Change
History
Database
Universe
Comparison
Development
Universe
Development
Universe
CCB DeveloperApprove
Change
Test UniverseTest Universe
Production
Universe
Production
Universe
C#
Application
C#
Application
Change
History
Database
Change
log
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 18
SCENARIO #3 - EXPORT
METADATA UTILITY
Select a universe file as the source
Select a destination type of RDBMS
Run Change History report
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 19
SCENARIO #3 - EXPORT
METADATA UTILITY OUTPUT
Universe
Name Class Object Id Object Name Object Description Job Date
Universe
Modification Date
eFashion Product 165 Lines
Product line. Each line contains a set of
categories. 8/25/2007 8/26/2007
eFashion Product 165 Product Lines
Product line. Each line contains a set of
categories. 8/25/2007 8/26/2007
eFashion Product 508 Category
Each category contains the individual SKU codes
(and product descriptions). 8/25/2007 8/26/2007
eFashion Product 508 Product Category
Each category contains the individual SKU codes
(and product descriptions). 8/25/2007 8/26/2007
• tblJob• tblUnvHist
Change
History
Database
Change
History
Database
UnvHist.unvUnvHist.unv
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 20
SCENARIO #4 - EXPORT
METADATA UTILITY
Provide a universe file as the source
Select a destination type of RDBMS
Repeat for second source
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. SLIDE 21
OBJECT MODEL BASICS
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 22
DESIGNER OBJECT MODEL
OVERVIEW
ApplicationApplication
UniversesUniverses
UniverseUniverse
ClassesClasses
ClassClass
ObjectsObjects
Predefined
Conditions
Predefined
Conditions
ObjectObject
Predefined
Condition
Predefined
Condition
ListofValuesListofValues
TablesTables
TableTable
ColumnsColumns
ColumnColumn
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A. SLIDE 23
C# CODE WALK THROUGH
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 24
C# .NET COM
INTEROPERABILITY
Any code running outside the CLR is unmanaged
COM, COM+
WIN32 API
C++ Components
ActiveX
The BusinessObjects Designer SDK is a COM component
COM components are added to Visual Studio.NET projects
as references
Interop.Designer.dll will be
distributed with the application
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 25
C# CREATE CLASS
Create a class in Visual C#
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
namespace BOUNVMain
{
public class clsBOUnvManager
{
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 26
C# DECLARE OBJECTS
Declare BusinessObjects Designer objects
Declare hash table to store objects
public static Designer.Application dsApp;
public static Designer.Universes dsUnvs;
public static Designer.Universe dsUnv;
public static Designer.Classes dsclss;
public static Designer.Class dscls ;
public static Designer.Tables dsTables;
public static Hashtable colCls;
public static Hashtable colTbls;
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 27
C# DESIGNER LOGON
Logon to Designer passing user information
public static bool DesignerLogin(string strUserName, string
strPassword, string strCMSName,string strAuthentication)
{
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp = new
Designer.Application();
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.LoginAs(strUserName,
strPassword, strCMSName,strAuthenticaztion);
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.Visible = false;
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.Interactive = false;
return true;
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 28
C# DESIGNER LOGON DIALOG
Display the standard Designer login screen
public static bool DesignerLoginDialog()
{
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp = new Designer.Application();
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.LogonDialog();
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.Visible = false;
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.Interactive = false;
return true;
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 29
C# OPEN UNIVERSE FROM FILE
SYSTEM
Open a specified universe
public static bool OpenUniverse(string strUnvName)
{clsBOUnvManager.dsUnv =
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.Universes.Open(strUnvName);
clsBOUnvManager.GeUniverseMetadata(clsBOUnvManager.dsUnv);
return true;
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 30
C# OPEN UNIVERSE FROM
REPOSITORY
Import a universe from the repository and open it
public static bool ImportUniverse(string strUnvName, string
strFolder)
{clsBOUnvManager.dsUnv =
clsBOUnvManager.dsApp.Universes.OpenFromEnterprise(strUnvName,
strFolder);
clsBOUnvManager.GeUniverseMetadata(clsBOUnvManager.dsUnv);
return true;
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 31
C# GET UNIVERSE METADATA
Navigate the universe structure
Populate hash table with universe objects
private static bool GetUniverseMetadata(Designer.Universe dsUnv)
{
clsBOUnvManager.colCls = new Hashtable();
for (int i = 1; i <= clsBOUnvManager.dsUnv.Classes.Count; i++)
{
dscls = clsBOUnvManager.dsUnv.Classes.get_Item(i);
clsBOUnvManager.colCls.Add(dscls.name,dscls)
clsBOUnvManager.TraverseUniverse(dscls);
}
return true;
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 32
C# TRAVERSE UNIVERSE
Navigate through the hierarchy of the current class
private static void TraverseUniverse(Designer.Class boclsRoot)
{ Designer.Class clsCurrent;
if (boclsRoot.Classes.Count != 0)
{ for (int i = 1; i <= boclsRoot.Classes.Count; i++)
{clsCurrent = boclsRoot.Classes.get_Item(i);
clsBOUnvManager.colCls.Add(clsCurrent.Name, clsCurrent);
TraverseUniverse(clsCurrent);
}
}
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 33
C# EXPORT UNIVERSE
METADATA TO EXCEL
Create new workbook and add worksheet
Excel.Workbooks xlsWorkBooks;
Excel.Workbook xlsWorkBook;
Excel.Worksheet xlsWorkSheet;
Excel.Application xlsApp = new Excel.Application();
xlsApp.ScreenUpdating = false;
xlsApp.DisplayAlerts = false;
xlsApp.Visible = false;
xlsWorkBooks = xlsApp.Workbooks;
xlsWorkBook = xlsWorkBooks.Add(Excel.XlSheetType.xlWorksheet);
xlsWorkSheet = ((Excel.Worksheet)xlsWorkBook.ActiveSheet);
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 34
C# EXPORT UNIVERSE
METADATA TO EXCEL
Update worksheet with universe metadata
int iCellRow = 1;
foreach (Designer.Class dsclass in clsBOUnvManager.colCls.Values)
{for (int i = 1; i <= dsclass.Objects.Count; i++)
{xlsWorkSheet.Cells[iCellRow, 1] = dsclass.Name;
xlsWorkSheet.Cells[iCellRow, 2] =
dsclass.Objects.get_Item(i).Name;
xlsWorkSheet.Cells[iCellRow, 3] =
dsclass.Objects.get_Item(i).Description;
xlsWorkSheet.Cells[iCellRow, 4] =
dsclass.Objects.get_Item(i).Select;
x++;
}
}
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.SLIDE 35
C# IMPORT UNIVERSE
METADATA FROM EXCEL
Update universe metadata with Excel content
foreach (Designer.Class dsclass in clsBOUnvManager.colCls.Values)
{for (int i = 1; i <= dsclass.Objects.Count; i ++)
{for (int iArrayIndex = 1; iArrayIndex <
xlsArray.GetUpperBound(0); iArrayIndex++)
{if (xlsArray.GetValue(iArrayIndex, 3) != null)
{if (dsclass.Objects.get_Item(i).Name ==
xlsArray.GetValue(iArrayIndex, 2).ToString()
& dsclass.Objects.get_Item(i).Show
& dsclass.Name ==
xlsArray.GetValue(iArrayIndex, 1).ToString())
{dsclass.Objects.get_Item(i).Description =
xlsArray.GetValue(iArrayIndex, 3).ToString();
}
}
}
}}
SLIDE 36 COPYRIGHT © 2007 BUSINESS OBJECTS S.A.
CONCLUSION
Designer object model is easy to learn
Start immediately with the foundational knowledge acquired today
Enhance your design documentation
Track and manage changes more effectively