Globally change RPD changes to catalog file - I

Many a times we face the situation where any changes on RPD presentation layer, causing lots of rework on web catalog side by manaully changing references of the column/table/subject area.

Instead of maunally changing the references in all the reports, we can use Catalog manager's option of XML Search and Replace for small changes. If there are significant changes, we can explore XML file option to write all the changes in one file and make changes in ONE Go.

Option 1 :- XML Search and Replace

This option is straight forward and easy to use. You should know what is the change required in catalog files. To give you an example, I have changed subject area folder column from Revenue to Actual Revenue.  Shown the change below.

Now I need to change all the references in the catalog files to replicate this change. (I know keeping Alias on the Presentation later will also work, but dont want to keep aliases in my first build).

• Open Catalog Manager. Open catalog file in offline mode (preferred).
• Make sure you have already taken a backup of the code.
• Select the Folder from the catalog tree. (My case, I wanted to change it globally, so selected "Shared"
• Now Navigate to Tools -> XML Search/Replace Option (Ctrl +H)
• New window opens up with options like Old Text/New Text.
• Provide the change as needed. I have changed from "Revenue" to "Actual Revenue"
• ( Import File Option will be covered in next blog.

 

•  Click OK to start search/Replace operation.
• Once completed, results will be shown with the changed on the reports/analysis in catalog.

Once these changes are completed, deploy the new files and start the services. If this is done online, server restart is not required.

Assuming, server is restarted, I will now login to portal to do sanity check on the changed dashboards.
Here you go. I can see the changes reflected in catalog files and existing dashboards remain intact. :-)

Please note that, this option is not receommended as it might change other part of the code if same name is used for report name, subject area, conditions,etc. Always prefer to go by "Import From File" option.

Now, I will explain how to use "Import from File" in next blog.

Cheers...

How to implement Type Ahead/Auto Complete Functionality

OBIEE 11.1.1.6 has come up with some new features. Auto Complete is one of the new features which is being introduced with this version.

Oracle BI EE provides auto-complete functionality for prompts, which, when enabled, suggests and highlights matching prompt values as the user types in the prompt selection field. Auto-complete can be excluded or included on dashboards, and users can turn auto-complete off for their accounts.

Constraints :-

1. Option is available with OBIEE 11.1.1.6 version only.
2. Available only for the Choice List prompts.
3. Must select the "Enable user to type values" in the prompt dialog.
4. Auto Complete is not available for hierarchical prompts.

Options available are :-

1. case-sensitive or case-insensitive
2. Matching level can be set up as Starts With, Word Starts With, Match All.

Steps to configure Auto Complete Option :

A. System Settings 

Administrator will modify the system configuration file to enable this option. 

When  this functionality is turned on, all users can view this functionality.

1. Open the instanceconfig.xml file located at $OBIEE_HOME\instances\instance6\config\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\ instanceconfig.xml
2. Include elements and their ancestors as shown below. (should be put before end of </ServerInstance>

 

Syntax :-
<Prompts>

<MaxDropDownValues>256</MaxDropDownValues>

<AutoApplyDashboardPromptValues>true</AutoApplyDashboardPromptValues>

<AutoSearchPromptDialogBox>true</AutoSearchPromptDialogBox>

<AutoCompletePromptDropDowns>

<SupportAutoComplete>true</SupportAutoComplete>

<CaseInsensitive>true</CaseInsensitive>

<MatchingLevel>MatchAll</MatchingLevel>

<ResultsLimit>50</ResultsLimit>

</AutoCompletePromptDropDowns>

</Prompts>


Matching level can be set as “MatchAll “, “StartsWith”, “WordStartsWith”

ResultsLimit: - Specifies the number of matching values that are returned when the auto-complete functionality is enabled.

 3. Save your changes and close the file.

 4. Restart Oracle Business Intelligence.

B. Dashboard Settings : 

While creating a new prompt, choose user input as choice list and click on Enable user to type values. Save the prompt and Navigate to Dashboard.


C. Dashboard Execution :

As shown above, when user starts typing the values, OBIEE will generate matching values and display in the drop
downlist. Goal Achieved :-).

Now, I will describe what if we only need to enable it for specific dashboard/user.

D.Steps to disable the functionality from dashboards:


 1. Dashboard Settings:

     This functionality can be disabled for an individual dashboard as shown below.

    i. Click on Edit Dashboard -> Dashboard Properties

       ii.      Change Prompts Auto Complete as “Off”

  

      2 User Level Settings: - Individual user can set turn off this feature by going to  

                                                   My Account as shown below.

      Click on My Account -> Preferences. Select Prompt Auto Complete as Off.

Cheers... I hope this helps..

Changing the color of Menu links in portal header

Here are the steps to modify global menu links on portal headers in OBIEE 11g. Requirement is to change blue color of links (like HOME,Search,Catalog,etc).

Steps :-

1. Open Common.css located at $Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\app\res\sk_blafp\b_mozilla_4
2. Find Entry with .HeaderSearchGo.
3. You will find colort propery of thie class as .HeaderMenubar, .HeaderQuickSearchPrompt, .HeaderSearchGo{HeaderSearchGo{color:#A9DFF5;}
4. Now change according to the need. In my case, I wanted to change it to #99CC00.
5. Ex. .HeaderSearchGo{color:#99CC00;}
6. Save the file.
7. Replicate the same change in tmp file located at user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\tmp\_WL_user\analytics_11.1.1\silp1v\war\res\sk_blafp\b_mozilla_4.
8. Save the file.
9. Restart the services.
10. Sometimes, need to clear the browser cache also.

This post is just an example. You can change most of the CSS files as per need.

One more example is how to change color of the dashboard headr container to green. For that I have changed HeaderContainer's background color property like shown below.

.HeaderContainer {

    -moz-font-feature-settings: normal;

    -moz-font-language-override: normal;

    -x-system-font: none;

    background-color: #339966;

    font-family: Tahoma;

    font-size: 11px;

    font-size-adjust: none;

    font-stretch: normal;

    font-style: normal;

    font-variant: normal;

    font-weight: normal;

    line-height: normal;

}

Header after these changes looks like

Cheers..

OBIEE11g -- changing Gauge view scale properties

Recently I was working on Gauges design and I had to display %Ratio of the % column in gauges. It looks straight forward requirement but could not find out a way to change % display on scales to data values easily.

searched google/helps, but could not solve it. My % Ratio column shows %of total in scales which makes no sense for the user to analyze it.

1. This is what being displayed at first when you pull the column in the Gauges view.

2. I thought there will be an option available in properties to change the % values to actual values. Tried multiple options under Layout/Settings but no change on the scales, yet :-(

3. Then I clicked on Edit Gauge Properties Properties and looked at all the options. Went through all the options like Style, Scale, Titles and Labels but no luck.

4.  Did I miss something? Well, Yes. Going through the options again, I show options called Scale Labels in Titles and Labels. Initially I thought it would be only for the formatting of the scale.

Along with options of Font/Number Format, this also gives you an option of "Display Options". Here I could change Scale Labels to Actual Values instead of Default (Percentage of Total)

5. After making this change, I could achieve my guage layout as expected. Wow, there was no bug :-). I feel, placement of this option should be placed at the first tab under Gauge properties :-).




Cheers...