BO Universe OLAP Designer

Designer's Guide Supplement for OLAP Universes

BusinessObjects XI Release 2

Windows

Patents Business Objects owns the following U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and sold by Business Objects: 5,555,403, 6,247,008 B1, 6,578,027 B2, 6,490,593 and 6,289,352.

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Copyright Copyright © 2005 Business Objects. All rights reserved..

Part Number 307-10-610-01

Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 5
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6What is a OLAP universe? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6What OLAP data sources can be used to create a universe? . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2 OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s Guide 9Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10What is available to OLAP universes in XIR2? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Duplication of Name and Caption in a Dimension Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . 11Managing Lists of values (LOV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Updating OLAP universes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Designer’s Guide Supplement for OLAP Universes 3

Contents

4 Designer’s Guide Supplement for OLAP Universes

Introduction

chapter

IntroductionOverview1
Overview
This document is not a compete guide to creating OLAP universes with Designer. It provides a quick overview of the creation process, and important supplementary information that was not available when BusinessObjects XIR2 was released. the supplementary information is in the chapter “OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s Guide” on page 9.For information on creating and managing OLAP universes, refer to the Designer’s Guide.

What is a OLAP universe?A OLAP universe is a BusinessObjects universe that has been generated from a OLAP cube or query. The universe is created automatically from a selected connection to a OLAP data source using an OLAP query flattening driver that is installed as an add in to Designer XIR2.Once the universe has been created it can be exported to the Central Management System (CMS) as any other universe, and is then available to Web Intelligence users to run queries and create reports.You create a OLAP universe by selecting a OLAP connection to a QueryCube or InfoCube. The universe creation process is automatic once you have selected the connection. OLAP structures are mapped directly to classes, measures, dimensions, and details. The universe structure appears in the Universe pane. There is no table schema in the Structure pane.Once you have created the OLAP universe, you can modify any of the universe components as for any other universe.For complete information on creating OLAP universes refer to the Designer’s Guide.


IntroductionWhat OLAP data sources can be used to create a universe? 1

What OLAP data sources can be used to create a universe?

You can use Designer to create OLAP universes from the following OLAP data sources:

OLAP data source Description

OLAP cube sources• BW SAP• Microsoft Analysis

Services• Essbase

Designer creates universe automatically from a connection to a InfoCube or QueryCube. The cube elements are mapped directly to equivalent structures in the universe. A OLAP flattening driver is used to build a relational view from the cube. The universe is then generated from the view.Refer to the Designer’s Guide for general information on creating connections to OLAP cube data sources and creating OLAP universes.

Designer’s Guide Supplement for OLAP Universes 7

IntroductionWhat OLAP data sources can be used to create a universe?1


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s Guide

chapter

OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideOverview2
Overview
This chapter provides a brief summary of what is available to OLAP universes created with Designer, and certain features that are not available to OLAP universes.This information is useful if you are already familiar with generating OLAP universes with Designer, and you want a quick review of what you can do and potential problems that you may encounter.If you are generating OLAP universes for the first time, this chapter will be most useful to you when you have become familiar with the OLAP universe chapter in the Designer’s Guide.

What is available to OLAP universes in XIR2?

The following is a brief summary of what you can expect from OLAP universes created by Designer XIR2, as well as some limitations to their use:• All Classes, Dimensions, Details and Measures labels can be renamed.• All Classes, Dimensions, Details and Measures can be duplicated.• Hierarchies can be created, and modified.• Lists of values (LOVs) can not be customized. See the section “Managing

Lists of values (LOV)” on page 13 for more information.• Object data types can be changed, but only the following data types are

supported:• Character• Number

• Pre-defined Filters are not allowed.• There is no table schema created for OLAP databases.• Parsing and check integrity tools in Designer are not available.• Index Awareness is not supported. It can be defined for an object, but it

has no impact on query generation.• Name and Caption can be duplicated in a Dimension Hierarchy; See the

section Duplication of Name and Caption in a Dimension Hierarchy for more information.

10 Designer's Guide Supplement for OLAP Universes

OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideDuplication of Name and Caption in a Dimension Hierarchy 2

Duplication of Name and Caption in a Dimension Hierarchy

Name and Caption can be duplicated on the same branch or on different branches of the Hierarchies. This applies to SAP BW, Essbase, and Microsoft Analysis Services.Designer generates for each Dimension Level an associated list of values (LOV) that reflects the Level definition, for example, [Geography].[City].[Name] or [Geography].[City].[Caption]Note: It is also possible to generate manually Cascading LOV for each dimension for SAP BW, Microsoft and Essbase.When a user creates a Web Intelligence query and adds a Prompt filter, the following cascading LOV display is obtained.

Designer's Guide Supplement for OLAP Universes 11

OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideDuplication of Name and Caption in a Dimension Hierarchy2

The Month duplication causes each member to refer to its direct parent, but not to its ancestor. The caption (and not the unique name) is used to display the hierarchical tree. In the following example, the City “PARIS” is duplicated but it has 2 different parents:

When you select “PARIS” from “FRANCE”, you expect to retrieve only one “Paris”.However, the result, shows that the two “Paris” have been retrieved.

It should not be possible to select the two “Paris” in the filter. This is due to Caption being taken into account in the filter.


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideManaging Lists of values (LOV) 2

Managing Lists of values (LOV)You can create Cascading lists of values (LOVs) for relational universes. You can also generate Cascading LOVs for OLAP Universes, for example:

However, it is not possible to modify manually LOVs for OLAP universes.Once you have created Cascading LOVs, if you want to return to using flat LOVs, you need to you create a Cascading LOV that holds only one level for each dimension level.Note: By default, Cascading LOVs are generated for Microsoft and Essbase.The examples below show Cascading LOVs with only one Level (flat LOVs)


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideManaging Lists of values (LOV)2

Example: 1) Cascading LOVs with only one level.

Example: 2) Cascading LOVs with only one level


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideUpdating OLAP universes 2

Example: 3) Cascading LOVs with only one level

Updating OLAP universesYou use Designer to automatically generate a OLAP Universe. However, you can not automatically update a OLAP Universe.If a OLAP cube definition has changed, you need to manually update the universe with the new modifications.There are two ways to update a universe manually:• Update universe with modifications from a newly generated universe• Edit the current universe directly

Update universe with modifications from a newly generated universe1. Generate a new universe based on the existing OLAP connection.2. Open the old universe and copy classes, objects, and measures from the

new universe to the old universe.3. In the old universe, delete obsolete classes, objects, and measures, and

classes or objects that don’t reference a level, dimension or attribute in the OLAP Cube.

Edit the current universe directly1. Delete obsolete classes, objects, measures, and classes or objects that

don’t reference a level, dimension or attribute in the OLAP Cube.


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideUpdating OLAP universes2

2. Copy and paste classes, objects or measures within the same universe and change their definition.

Syntax used in Objects definition for SAP BWYou can use the following syntax when defining objects in a OLAP universe.

SAPBWYou can use the following syntax when defining objects in a SAPBW OLAP universe.

All Display Attributes become Characteristics, so are translated into Classes and ObjectsNote: It is not recommended that you modify or create new SAP variables that are identified by prompts and hidden objects in the universe.


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideUpdating OLAP universes 2

Microsoft Analysis ServicesYou can use the following syntax when defining objects in a Microsoft Analysis Services OLAP universe.

Hyperion Essbase and IBM DB2 OLAP ServerYou can use the following syntax when defining objects in a Hyperion Essbase and IBM DB2 OLAP Server OLAP universe.Note: Essbase Connection contains the following:

• Alias Name• Dimension type as “Measures”


OLAP universe information supplementary to the Designer’s GuideUpdating OLAP universes2


BO Universe OLAP Designer

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