Sap Business Objects Page5
page51.How Do U Create Report in BO, if given fixed length file ( Notepad) as source?
To create a report using notepad (.txt files) :
1.Open BusinessObjects --> new report
2. Select data provider as others instead of universe,
- from "Others" drop down list, select "Personal Data Files",
- File selection box appears, specify the location of your text file,
- if you have separated data by tabs in text file select "Tabulation" if by comma then "Comma Separated" (I don’t remember the exact caption for this option) & if space separated then select "Characters"(I don’t remember the exact caption for this option)
- if you have specified column names in your text file, check the box "First Row contains Column names"
Run the report.
2.How to execute the plsql procedure from the report by clicking with mouse
We can select either tables or procedures or views as our data to generate our reports. In the designer in bo's we can select tab "insert" n select the particular data source for generating the report through mouse click.
3. What is a derived table in data warehousing
Derived tables are not real tables at the Database level , but are the selection of few columns in the Table with some aggregations, specific to the report.
This feature is available in BO 6.5 and later versions.
Sel a1,a2,a3,max(a4)
From a ,
(Sel b1, b2, max(b3) as B3, Min(B4) as B4 from B group by b1,b2) as BX
where BX.B1= a.a1
group by a1,a2,a3
order by a1,a2,a3
The (Sel b1, b2, max(b3) as B3, Min(B4) as B4 from B group by b1,b2)Â in the above query is a derived table.
The same definition has to be added in the Universe - by going into Insert >> Derived Tables.
Type the Query - parse it and the new table inserted can be used to any type of join / Contexts etc in the Universe.
4.What is report template in B.O?
Report Template is a specimen for your future reports.
You create a report from scratch, say make it Master-Detail Report with charts, put your company logo, add some default colors(something like same colors your company uses for its documents, WebPages etc.) & then save it as BO Report Template file.
Next time when you are creating new reports, & select use Templates option, your report saved as template will be listed in the box. If you select it, your new report will automatically use all color formats, & table-chart structures, logo....whatever you used in your template report file.
Advantage : 1 time development of display & structure format, for multiple reports use. I.e. Time Saving. No need of formatting for all standard reports
Definition of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the industry term used to describe a broad set of activities supported by multi-module application software that helps a manufacturer or other business manage the important parts of its business. These parts can include product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders. ERP can also include application modules for the finance and human resources aspects of a business.
Definition of Etl (extract, transform, load)
Short for extract, transform, load, three database functions that are combined into one tool to pull data out of one database and place it into another database.
Extract -- the process of reading data from a database.
Transform -- the process of converting the extracted data from its previous form into the form it needs to be in so that it can be placed into another database. Transformation occurs by using rules or lookup tables or by combining the data with other data.
Load -- the process of writing the data into the target database.
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What is OLAP?
Short for Online Analytical Processing, a category of software tools that provides analysis of data stored in a database. OLAP tools enable users to analyze different dimensions of multidimensional data. For example, it provides time series and trend analysis views. OLAP often is used in data mining.
Functionalities
Before we speak about OLAP tool selection criterion, we must first distinguish between the two types of OLAP tools, MOLAP (Multidimensional OLAP) and ROLAP (Relational OLAP).
1. MOLAP: In this type of OLAP, a cube is aggregated from the relational data source (data warehouse). When user generates a report request, the MOLAP tool can generate the create quickly because all data is already pre-aggregated within the cube.
2. ROLAP: In this type of OLAP, instead of pre-aggregating everything into a cube, the ROLAP engine essentially acts as a smart SQL generator. The ROLAP tool typically comes with a 'Designer' piece, where the data warehouse administrator can specify the relationship between
The relational tables, as well as how dimensions, attributes, and hierarchies map to the underlying database tables.
Right now, there is a convergence between the traditional ROLAP and MOLAP vendors. ROLAP vendor recognize that users want their reports fast, so they are implementing MOLAP functionalities in their tools; MOLAP vendors recognize that many times it is necessary to drill down to the most detail level information, levels where the traditional cubes do not get to for performance and size reasons.
So what are the criteria for evaluating OLAP vendors? Here they are:
Ability to leverage parallelism supplied by RDBMS and hardware: This would greatly increase the tool's performance, and help loading the data into the cubes as quickly as possible.
Performance: In addition to leveraging parallelism, the tool itself should be quick both in terms of loading the data into the cube and reading the data from the cube.
Customization efforts: More and more, OLAP tools are used as an advanced reporting tool. This is because in many cases, especially for ROLAP implementations, OLAP tools often can be used as a reporting tool. In such cases, the ease of front-end customization becomes an important factor in the tool selection process.
Security Features: Because OLAP tools are geared towards a number of users, making sure people see only what they are supposed to see is important. By and large, all established OLAP tools have a security layer that can interact with the common corporate login protocols. There are, however, cases where large corporations have developed their own user authentication mechanism and have a "single sign-on" policy. For these cases, having a seamless integration between the tool and the in-house authentication can require some work. I would recommend that you have the tool vendor team come in and make sure that the two are compatible.
Metadata support: Because OLAP tools aggregates the data into the cube and sometimes serves as the front-end tool, it is essential that it works with the metadata strategy/tool you have selected.
Popular Tools
- Business Objects
- Cognos
- Hyperion
- Microsoft Analysis Services
- MicroStrategy
5.Objects infer SQL structures displayed in a schema
The objects that Business Objects and Web Intelligence users see in a universe
Infer SQL structures that you have inserted into a database schema. You, as the
Universe designer, create this schema based on the tables and joins that are
Required to return the data, needed by users for their analysis and report creation.
Object type Description
6.What is BO Main Key?
Bo Main Key file contains the information about the repository site i.e. it contains the address of the repository security domain.
7.What is metrics? –
Metrics are a system of parameters or ways of quantitative and periodic assessment of a process that is to be measured; these are used to track trends, productivity.
8.Why do we need metrics and sets?
- Metrics are used for analysis and Sets are used for grouping.
9.What is a Set?
Its nothing but grouping of users.
10. What is the use of AFD? Where it can be stored?
Used to create dashboards. It can be stored in repository, corporate or personal.
11. What is the source for metrics?
Measure objects.
12. Is there any bug in 6.x?
In earlier version of 6.0 they had, but 6.5 is the best version with out any bugs.
13. Analysis in BO?
Slice-Dice and Drill analysis.
14. Are Data mart and DWH normalized or demoralized ? Do both of them exist in
The same tier ?
Yes both can exist on the same tier because Datamart is a subset of data warehouse and it supports a particular region, business unit or business function.
The data in the Datamart and DWH is Denormalized and optimized for OLAP systems.
15. What is a Data Cube ? What is its use ?
Data cube will present in BO tool.
Data cube is used for storing the data values which we are using in the documents.
We can clear the data cube by using purge command.
Data provider is used to retrived the datas from data cube to documents.
Data cube is the representation of data along every possible dimension included in the query.
Data cubes are processing units composed of fact and dimensions.
16. Are Data mart and DWH normalized or demoralized ?...
Yes both can exist on the same tier because Datamart is a subset of data warehouse and it supports a particular region, business unit or business function.
The data in the Data mart and DWH is Demoralized and optimized for OLAP systems
17. Can we apply Rank and Sort at a time on a single report?
No we can’t apply rank and sort at a time on one object in one single report. If we try to apply, BO asks if you want to over write the previous condition.
http://www.geekinterview.com/Interview-Questions/Business-Objects/page9
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18. What is Thumbnail?
Business Objects Enterprise lets you preview a report using thumbnails. You can request the server to take a snapshot of the first page of the report and return it to the browser as an image file. This image can then be displayed as part of the Report Details page.
To retrieve a thumbnail, a separate page needs to be created because the code that writes an image to the screen erases any text that may have previously been there.
19. What is the dense rank?
The DENSE_RANK function computes the rank of a row in an ordered group of rows. The ranks are consecutive integers beginning with 1. The largest rank value is the number of unique values returned by the query. Rank values are not skipped in the event of ties. Rows with equal values for the ranking criteria receive the same rank.
The DENSE_RANK function does not skip numbers and will assign the same number to those rows with the same value. Hence, after the result set is built in the inline view, we can simply select all of the rows with a dense rank of three or less, this gives us everyone who makes the top three salaries by department number.
ex:
Give me the set of sales people who make the top 3 salaries - that is, find the set of distinct salary amounts, sort them, take the largest three, and give me everyone who makes one of those values.
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT deptno, ename, sal,
DENSE_RANK()
OVER (
PARTITION BY deptno ORDER BY sal desc
) TopN FROM emp
)
WHERE TopN <= 3
ORDER BY deptno, sal DESC
/
DEPTNO ENAME SAL TOPN
---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
10 KING 5000 1
CLARK 2450 2
MILLER 1300 3
20 SCOTT 3000 1 <--- ! (in case of rank JONES will have 3 and dense rank will have 2)
FORD 3000 1 <--- !
JONES 2975 2
ADAMS 1100 3
30 BLAKE 2850 1
ALLEN 1600 2
30 TURNER 1500 3
20. How Do U Create Report in BO, if given fixed length file (Notepad) as source?
1. Open Business Objects --> new report
select data provider as Others instead of universe, from "Others" drop down list, select "Personal Data Files", File selection box appears, specify the location of your text file,
if you have separated data by tabs in text file select "Tabulation" if by comma then "Comma Separated" (I don’t remember the exact caption for this option) & if space separated then select "Characters"(I don’t remember the exact caption for this option)
if you have specified column names in your text file, check the box "First Row contains Column names" Run the report