Remove "From" Box from BILaunchPad - Schedule your Report

Hello,

Today, I will be writing about scheduled reports - removing from section on Business Objects 4.1.

First of all, logon to your Business Objects server, and stop Tomcat on Central Configuration Manager 

When you stop Tomcat, users will not be able to connect web services. (BI, CMC etc)

Create a copy of BILaunchpad.properties file, which is located in
\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat\webapps\BOE\WEBINF\config\default

Original file will not be changed.  We will be working on the copy of the file.

Open the file in notepad and find the line below :

# Shared Destination From Field.  Enables or Disables the From field when scheduling a object to a destination.  When the value is set to false the From field will not be rendered and the system will first attempt to get the email value from the report default, if report default is not available it will attempt to get the value from the email address on user profile of the logged on user and lastly if the user profile email address in not available it will use the job server default SMTPFrom=true

If you change it to SMTPFrom=false , users will not see "From" box when they schedule their report.

You can manage the default from e-mail address through CMC - Adaptive Job Server.

With this configuration, users will receive the scheduled reports from a single e-mail address.

When you finish your work on BILaunchPad.properties, copy the file to

Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat\webapps\BOE\WEBINF\config\costum

To make your changes stable, also copy BILaunchPad.properties file to

Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\warfiles\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\costum

If you don't copy the file under warfiles, your changes will be lost after a SP - FP upgrade, and the system will be back to default settings.

When you are done with BILaunchPad.properties file run Wdeploy.

I prefer to delete Catalina folder and restart Tomcat. You can find Catalina folder under

Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat\work

Catalina folder will be recreated, and it may take sometime.  Usually, folder size is near 1,35 GB.  It depends on the system components.  For example, if you install SAP Explorer on your system, the file size will be increased.

Please reach me from my e-mail address if you have any questions.

Useful Tips Vol.1

Hello,

I want to share a couple of tips which will save your time!

Changing Business Objects Repository Database

If you want to change your Repository Database after installation, follow the steps below :

1. Launch Central Configuration Manager (CCM)

2. Stop Server Intelligence Agent (SIA) 

3. Right click on SIA and launch Properties

4. Choose Configuration 

5. From CMS System Database Configurations, click on  Specify and change your database

* Quick tip for Oracle Users:
Change TNS connections on your tnsnames.ora  (don't change TNS name) and your audit and repository database connection will be changed.

1 Solution for Information Design Tool 

If you get error message when you try to retrieve a .unx universe on Information Design Tool, follow the steps below:

1. Launch folder : /Users//.businessobjects/bimodeler_14 

2. Backup bimodeler_14 folder and delete the original

3. Launch Information Design Tool and open a new project.

1 Solution for Universe Design Tool 

If you get this error message when you are trying to logon to Universe Design Tool (UDT) 

[repo_proxy13] SessionFacade::openSessionLogon with user info has failed(Transport error: No response from server, timeout exceeded. 
You should follow the steps below :

1. Be sure that your firewall is off on Business Objects server.

2. Disable antivirus program on Business Objects server.

You won't get the same error message again.

Tomcat TimeZone

If you are using timezone other then GMT, then you should follow the steps below:

1. Launch Tomcat and with right click, go to Properties.

2. Choose Java tab.
3. Type in the code below to Java Options box.

        -Duser.timezone=EET

Your timezone will be your local time.  You won't be having trouble on your scheduled jobs.

If you want to share something please leave a comment or mail me.

See you on the next post!

Events in Business Objects

Aloha!

Today I want to talk about a great feature of Business Objects. Events!

What is "Event"?

Basically, they are flags.  I also call them safety belt :)
With event mechanism, database tables can be watched and afterwards reports on BO can be triggered.
Also reports can be triggered sequentially.

Events are created on CMC, but can be used both on CMC and BI.

What are the types of "Event"?

1. Custom Event
2. File Based Event
3. Scheduled Event

1. Custom Events
Not much to do!  Type in the name and description. Totally manual.

2. File Based Event
My favorite.  This event waits for a file on a location to be triggered.
For example, let's say your report is created by the data of Table A, then you will need to be sure ETL process of Table A has finished.
If your ETL process leaves a flag after completion, you can create an event, and let your report wait for this flag.

 3. Scheduled Event
This event is used to run your reports sequentially.  Status can be modified by the user.  Success / Fail / Both  
For example, report B to be run when report A has finished successfully.
Or when report A fails, report C has to run.  

How do we create Event?

•  Log on to CMC  
• Select Events
• Choose New Event
• Choose your Event Type

• Type in event name (necessary), description (optional)

How will you use Events on your Reports?

When BO reports, publications etc. are being scheduled, you can see Events tab on the left corner.

You can easily add the events to your schedule.

Events to wait for 

When you add your event to this section, your schedule will wait for this event to occur first.  

** If you add File Event to this section, flag must be placed to the stated location, 

after the reoccurrence time

Event names are not parametric, so this is a great way to control your events.

Events to trigger on completion 

This option is used for schedules to run sequentially.  You can only add schedule based event to this section.

I think Event mechanism is a great way to inhibit wrong report distribution.  

Take care and please write me your ideas.

See you on the next post!

Errors which drive you crazy vol.1

Hello everyone,

This is my first English post, and I'm looking forward to translate my other posts as soon as possible.
Today, I will talk about an error which drove us crazy for a couple of days.

Although I'm using BO 4.1, we still have .unv, and we still have developments on them.

However, one of our developers couldn't open Universe Design Tool, it suddenly failed to open.
First, we checked the system if the firewall was turned off.

There was no problem about firewall.  Then we disabled Symantec and developer launched Universe Design Tool.

But, wait a minute.  The story did not end.  He retrieved all .unv universes, other than he wanted to make changes.  

Finally we found the solution, after a couple of days!

Go to this path (Don't forget to show hidden files):
C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\SAP Business Objects\SAP Business Objects Enterprise 4.0\Universes

We deleted Universes folder. And that was it! 
Problem was solved!  Basic solution but it took us couple of days to solve.

Don't hesitate to write me, happy to hear your solution stories.


Take care!