BO Designer Interview Questions And Answers

Aggregate awareness is a term that describes the ability of a universe to make use of aggregate tables in a database. These are tables that contain precalculated data. You can use a function called @Aggregate_Aware in the Select statement for an object that directs a query to be run against aggregate tables rather than a table containing non aggregated data.

Pros:
Speed up the execution of query and Improve the performance of Sql transaction.

If you are using the aggregate tables then you must refresh the aggregate table with all fact tables to have the consistency in your result.

1.instead of selecting standard report format we can select the template in which we wish to fgenerate a report.

for ex:-if we want our report to be in cross-tab format we can select that template.

templates are very helpful bcoz we can select the template in which we want to generate the reports accpording to our choice.

2.data providers are the sourse data to generate the reports

some of the data providers are

ex:-universes,excel sheets,text documents n blah blah

Restrict Top 26 Rows: Depends on how you want to do it.

In a report: Drag the Dimention and measures into report. Click on the Dimention object and use the RANK button on the tool bar. you can specify the the Top 26 or Bottom(Depending on the requirement) values of a measure. It also provides some calculation like Sum/Percentage

If you want to restrict the Top 26 in the query itself, you might have to create an object in the universe. May have to use the analytical functions based on which you need to Rank the Data.

1.each n every object n class must be given description so that it is very clear to non technical users also n each n every object must me given a understandable clear name so that by just looking at that one can be able to find out whether it is a measure object or dimension object.

2.there must no loops,fan traps or cham traps while designing the universe.

3.we must check the integrity of the universe.

Right click on any object,go to the properties.specify the query in select and put the next query in where clause,

like select COLNAME from TABNAME1 where COLNAME IN(select colname2 from tab2)

Index awareness is the ability to take advantage of the indexes on key columns to speed data retrieval.

In DESIGNER Level
1)eliminate the unnecessory joins
2)use conditions as much as at the database level
3)edit the SQL query in the Query Panel as per requirment

In REPORTER level

1)eliminate the filters as much as possible
2)try to reduce the user variables

Select the component business object Designer
Now it will prompt for userid/password/security domain
You will find a Help button, click that and find out what ever you want

Functional Differences :

1.BusinessObjects client needs to be installed on every PC from where you want to build / access reports. WebI needs just a browser & URL(of the server from where it will access BO).

2.BOMAIN.Key file needs to be copied on every individual PC that uses BO client. WebI doesn't need it.

3.You need to stick to those PCs which have BO client installed, WebI can let you access even when you are roaming anywhere in the world(provided the access conditions i.e. internet/VPN enabled WebI web server)

Architectural Differences :

1.BO Client : client machine calls BOMAIN.key on it's local drive, that sends info to BO Server's BOMAIN.key, validates it, then checks it into Repository, after repository validation user can access the BO services.

2.WebI : user logs into WebI using InfoView from web-browser, it talks to the WebI Web server, web server's BOMAIN.key checks the privilages of that user, send info to BO server's BOMAIN.key, that validates the info & forwards to Repository, if it validates the info, gives access to the universe & underlying dabase.

elect @@version is the command that will give the said details

if you have source system > source location field.

double click source system > edit properties menu will display, click properties tab and click edit you will get query pane there you pull down source location object in condition pane and click inlist and click type new prompt type there "XXXXX" and save that.

now you click display button first source system lov will display and you select any one, based on that selection the source location lov will display.

this is cascading prompt

Slice & Dice is facility in BO. we can enables change the positions of data in Report..here in Bo we slice & dice panel by using this we can create cross tables and masterdetails tables.

pragma pack preprocessor dirictive specifies the byte boundary for packing members of c structures.syntax: #pragma pack(n)

Tfollowing steps to link two diffrent universes!!!!!!!!!!

1>1st export one universe in designer and then reimport it before linking it.

2>Open other universe.

3>From file menu in designer click on parameter and then select link tab to select other universe to link it .

then export it and you can start using

Using quick design wizard for developing the universe will invoke the built-in strategy

Guidelines are provided in the Universe guide:

Here is the Summary:

1) Modify the array fetch size in SBO file

2) Assign table weights and change the default order of the tables in a query by changing parameter in PRM file

3) Use shorcut joins to avoid unnecessary tables that may come in Query

4) Use aggregated tables

We can set the predefined condition in the universe level. In the task bar of the designer there is an icon for filtering. Just click on the icon. It asks for the condition name. After giving the name for the condition type the sql for that condition. finally submit the sql.

Creating a filter in designer is different from creatind a filter in business object

if u create a filter in designer it can acessible to all the reports ur r using i'e,it can used for further applications where as creatin a filter vin business object is dynamic(run time) it will applicable to only tht particular report

To create context :

goto Tools --> Detect Loops, BO will detect loops if there are any & will suggest the context candidate (something like Sales, Costs that is related to that specific subject area)

Select the suggested candidate & click on create Context. It will map all those joins that are required for say Sales subject area & put it in Sales Context. same with Costs.

So it will avoid the confilcts in path by using Contexts.

This Auto Detection works in most of the times....but not always.

We have securities in business objects

Like

1.Windows authentication

2.RDBMS securities

3.supervisor level securities, ie User name/ password

Business Objects deals with databases, for every universe you need to specify a database connection. flat files dont have the database format so you'll need to convert them into some database. to do that, you will need to write a procedure which will read data from flat files & relate it according to surrogate keys, then using that procedure populate the database & then use that database for the source of the universe.

using flat files ONLY , you can not create universe. because there is nothing as database connection available for flat file.

If your database consist all dates something like 01/02/2000 or 01-Feb-2000, you will need to break the date field into year, qtr,month & if required date.

to do this, create a class named TIME, under that create new object, in it's select box use oracle's date functions to get required information.

For E.g. : to_char(sales_date, 'YYYY') for getting only year from the date.

similarly, for quarter you can use to_char(sales_date, 'Q')

& for month to_char(sales_date, 'MM') for month number, instead of 'MM' if you use 'MON' it will return you abrevations like Jan for January & so on. for full name of month use 'MONTH'

Measure objects are the objects which have facts i.e all $ amounts

a dimension object cannot be calculated with another dim object

in order to have a seperate identity for $ amounts we define as measure objects

just create an object for ex:revenue then right clicck on the object or double click on the object n then change the property of that object to measure its that simple

At-least one object in the class must be present in the other class so that they can have a join n afcourse the datatypes.

The design method consists of two major phases.

During the first phase, you create the underlying database structure of your universe. This structure includes the tables and columns of a database and the joins by which they are linked. You may need to resolve loops which occur in the joins using aliases or contexts. You can conclude this phase by testing the integrity of the overall structure.

During the second phase, you can proceed to enhance the components of your universe. You can also prepare certain objects for multidimensional analysis. As with the first phase, you should test the integrity of your universe structure. You may also wish to perform tests on the universes you create from the BusinessObjects User module. Finally, you can distribute your universes to users by exporting them to the repository or via your file system.

For a universe based on a simple relational schema, Designer provides Quick Design, a wizard for creating a basic yet complete universe. You can use the resulting universe immediately, or you can modify the objects and create complex new ones. In this way, you can gradually refine the quality and structure of your universe