Category: Business Intelligence

BusinessObjects Universe Design Tool: Each calculated column must have an explicit name

BusinessObjects Universe Design Tool: Each calculated column must have an explicit name

In SAP BusinessObjects Universe Design Tool, you might get the following error – “Each calculated column must have an explicit name”. Even though the query runs fine in the underlying database, but Universe Design Tool doesn’t accept it. The reason is it expects ‘AS’ keyword between the calculated column and its alias. So that query…

Read More Read More

Completed SAP BusinessObjects course on ‘BI Clients and Applications’ from openSAP

Completed SAP BusinessObjects course on ‘BI Clients and Applications’ from openSAP

This is my first openSAP course where I managed to stick around till the end. Generally I found the content on openSAP to be a bit dull. At times it seems that you watching a marketing video rather an educational one. Anyway, there is a lot of useful content also. This six-week online course was…

Read More Read More

SAP BusinessObjects Universe: Using ANSI92 SQL syntax

SAP BusinessObjects Universe: Using ANSI92 SQL syntax

When writing SQL queries, I prefer the JOIN clause syntax over (+) in where clause for creating table joins. It is more readable and maintainable as join logic is separated from the where clause. BusinessObjects Universe can be configured to generate JOIN clause (ANSI92) syntax by setting a parameter in ‘Universe Parameters’ dialog available from…

Read More Read More

BusinessObjects Universe: Defining Complex Outer Join

BusinessObjects Universe: Defining Complex Outer Join

A complex join contains more than one condition in the join expression. Consider the following expression where one line of sales order joins with a line on invoice, INVOICE_LINE.ORDER_NUM=ORDER_LINE.ORDER_NUM and INVOICE_LINE.ORDER_LINE_NUM=ORDER_LINE.ORDERLINENUM If we define a complex join in BusinessObjects Universe Design Tool, than the option to make it outer becomes disabled. There are three possible…

Read More Read More

Designing BusinessObjects Universe: Join problems in schema and resolution techniques

Designing BusinessObjects Universe: Join problems in schema and resolution techniques

An essential aspect of creating a BusinessObjects universe is to define joins among tables in ‘Universe Design Tool’. Even if the joins are correctly defined from relational point of view, the universe might not generate the correct results in certain cases. There are few pitfalls to avoid which are specific to the business of designing universe.  These pitfalls,…

Read More Read More

Chasm Trap: Designing SAP BusinessObjects Universe

Chasm Trap: Designing SAP BusinessObjects Universe

While designing SAP BusinessObjects universe with Universe Design Tool, Chasm Trap is one of the major join problems that one can come across. We are in Chasm Trap when a table joins with two others in one-to-many relationship. Chasm Trap produces more data than expected. Example Consider the following ER diagram where DEPARTMENT is having 1-to-many…

Read More Read More

SAP BI Suite – BI Designer or Consumer Tools Overview

SAP BI Suite – BI Designer or Consumer Tools Overview

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4 contains a number of designer or consumer tools which connect to various data sources and perform data analysis, monitoring and reporting. Each tool has its own strengths and there is overlap in their functionality. It can be a bit confusing to decide which one to use for a particular task.…

Read More Read More