Performance Tiles with OBIEE 11.1.1.7

In this post we are going throuugh an obiee 11.1.1.7 feature, that is performance tiles.
Performance Tile is a single aggregate measure value displayed in a simple way. It further simplifies the view of aggregated measures.
Feeling interested? Eager to create one?? then follow the steps!!!

1. Login to your OBIEE, then go to New Analysis> Your Subject Area (Here am using vanilla rpd)
2. Pull in some dimensions and facts.

3. Click Results tab.
4. Click New View>Performance Tile

 5. So here is your Performance Tile !!!

 6. You can customize your Tile  As Usual with "Edit View" Button

 7. Its interesting that oracle gave us some really good Performance Tile styles

Thank you for visiting intelbusi

ORA-01922: CASCADE must be specified to drop 'username'

Hi, this is a common issue when you try to delete OBIEE11G Schema (DEV_BIPLATFORM and DEV_MDS) from Database. The best way to avoid it is by using RCU itself. But if you want to delete it manually, read further.

This error is issued if someone tries to drop a user when the user to be dropped still has objects. In order to drop the user and all his objects, use key word cascade.
Like,

drop user DEV_MDS cascade;

drop user DEV_BIPLATFORM cascade;

Make sure that you have Admin privileges. Or connect as sys user and delete the user.  

BI Publisher Parameters in the URL

Through this post am discussing about the parameters specified in the report link / URL

Consider a URL like this

http://<ip/address>:<Port>/xmlpserver/Sales/Sales+Report/Sales+Report.xdo?_xpf=&_xpt=1&_xdo=%2FSales%2FSales+Report%2FSales+Report.xdo&Id=1-104x&_xt=Standard&_xf=html

The URL after the report name consists of:

?_xpf=&_xpt=1&_xdo=%2FSales%2FSales+Report%2FSales+Report.xdo&Id=1-104x&_xt=Standard&_xf=html

Note the following standard URL syntax:

? - The first parameter is added with a question mark in the beginning.

& - Additional parameters have to be specified like this.

The BI Publisher parameters are as follows:

_xpf - Its an application internal string. Not to be used by the developer.
_xpt - Chooses the report rendering way or style.

    0 - uses the BI Publisher window (iFrame)

    1- renders just the document

_xdo - Provides the path to the current report. To be note that it is not mandatory to give this parameter.

dept - Report specific parameter that we created in the report.

_xt - Specifies the template to be used. Usually for the reports which have more than one templates.

_xf - Controls format of the output file. Accepted values are: pdf, html, excel, rtf, or data.

ODBC not showing Oracle DB Driver, Windows 7

Most of the Win 7 users go for the 64 bit OS. Here in this OS let us install Oracle DB 32 bit. After the install go to run then type "odbcad32".

While trying to create an odbc connection to our db we wont be able to see the driver of our Oracle db.
The reason is that, its a naming convention in windows that ODBC should be called by "odbcad32". Even though you type odbcad32 its pointing to the 64 bit version of it. You can see this 64bit odbc from "c:\windows\system32". Since our driver is only 32 bit it wont get listed here.

The solution to this issue is go to your "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe" (Here I assume you have installed OS in C drive itself).This is the path to the 32 bit version, in this odbc you can see your 32 bit driver.

Steps to Enable BI Publisher logging

 When ever we face an issue in configuration of BI Publisher the easiest method to resolve is by looking into logs.Please find below the steps to enable BI Publisher logging:

1. In the Bi Publisher enterprise go to Admin > Server Configuration.
2. Under General Properties, set Debug Level to Debug.
3. Create a target folder for the logs like D:\BIPLogs.
4. Create xdodebug.cfg with the following test:
  LogLevel=STATEMENT.
  LogDir=D:\BIPLogs.
5. Place the file in jdk\jre\lib in the OraHome folder where the application server is installed.
6. Restart Bi Publisher server.
7. Do some activities in BIP like scheduling.
8. Wait for some time and attach the logs from D:\BIPLogs folder.

ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified

The cause of this error: SQL Plus cannot identify the connect string specified.
What can be the possible reasons:
1. The tnsnames.ora is not present under $ORACLE_HOME. You can check for it by typing %ORACLE_HOME% in command prompt.
2. The file is not accessible.
3. The file is invalid – because of the presence of junk characters or unmatched parenthesis.
4. The connect string that you have used – may not be present in the tnsnames.ora or present with somewhat different name – basically a mismatch of what you have entered and what is present in tnsnames.ora
5. Check the default directories for old or bad copies of tnsnames.ora
6. Please check with the database admins that the Listener is up and running for the connect string that you are trying to connect to.
7. Please check if TNSNAMES is present as one of the values for the NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH parameter present in the sqlnet.ora file
NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES)
Please find below sample tnsnames and sqlnet.ora
TNSNAMES.ORA
ORCL =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.3.90)(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME=ORCL)
)
)

Macro Cannot be found error in BI Publisher- MS Office

After installing BI Publisher for MS Office Suit I got an error stating "Macro Cannot be found..." Just like anybody else i was also frustrated when i saw the following error for the first time.

Solution
Close all MS Office Applications (Including Outlook, Groove etc)
For 64-bit operating systems, type the following in command prompt:
Regsvr32 "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOMCTL.OCX"
For 32-bit operating systems, type the following in command prompt:
Regsvr32 "C:\Windows\System32\MSCOMCTL.OCX"

It worked fine for me and my colleagues

.
Waiting for your valuable feedback.