BusinessObjects XI (Release 2): The Complete Reference

BusinessObjects XI (Release 2): The Complete Reference

by Cindi Howson
Released September 2005
Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 9780071491280

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Book description

This book is a must read for anyone deploying BusinessObjects. It covers everything from planning your upgrade to the latest release, to best practices in universe design, and powerful report creation that maximizes business insight. This book covers the most frequently used features for the full BI suite, in one comprehensive book. There's in depth coverage of Designer, security via the Central Management Console, InfoView, Web Intelligence, and Desktop Intelligence. It goes beyond step-by-step instructions to cover how and why in a business context. Transition notes are interspersed for version 5 and 6 customers to understand the biggest changes in XI Release 2. If you drive BI requirements in your company or are a data warehouse program manager, Business Objects administrator, report author or consumer, this book is for you.

Table of contents

  1. Cover 
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. About the Author
  6. Contents at a Glance
  7. Contents 
  8. Foreword
  9. Acknowledgements
  10. Introduction
  11. Part I Getting Ready for BusinessObjects
    1. 1 Introduction to Business Intelligence
      1. The Background of Business Intelligence
        1. Business Intelligence Is Born
        2. Data Warehouse Speeds BI Adoption
        3. The Internet Influence
      2. A Broader BI Suite
        1. Data Integration
        2. Query and Reporting
        3. Analysis
        4. Analytic Applications
        5. Dashboards and Scorecards
        6. Data Mining
      3. The History of Business Objects the Company
        1. Product Innovation
      4. The Future
      5. Summary
    2. 2 Goals of Deploying BusinessObjects XI
      1. IT Goals
        1. Reporting Directly Against a Transaction System
      2. Business Goals
      3. BI Standardization: A Joint Goal
      4. Measures of Success
        1. ROI as a Measure of Success
      5. Summary
    3. 3 Understanding Your Users
      1. What Is Segmentation?
      2. Others Who Affect Implementation Efforts
        1. Gatekeepers
        2. Influencers
        3. Deciders
      3. When to Analyze Segments
      4. Project Roles
      5. Summary
    4. 4 Marketing BusinessObjects XI
      1. When to Develop a Marketing Plan
      2. Elements of a BI Marketing Plan
      3. Situation Analysis
      4. Marketing Mix: The Four Ps
        1. Product
        2. Price
        3. Place
        4. Promotion
      5. Approaches to Training
      6. Customizing per Segment
      7. Summary
    5. 5 Under the Covers: Migrating to a New Architecture
      1. File-Based Repository
      2. Optimized Processes
      3. Migration
        1. Planning Your Migration
        2. Testing the New Environment
        3. Implementation Phase: Going Live with Your BusinessObjects XI Migration
        4. Ramp Up and Redesign
      4. Import Wizard
      5. Report Conversion
      6. Summary
  12. Part II A Better Universe
    1. 6 Universe Design Principles
      1. Keep It Simple
        1. Technical Realities
      2. Align with Business Goals
        1. Existing Data Warehouse
        2. New Data Warehouse
        3. Transaction System
      3. Evolving the Universe
      4. Universe Components
        1. Parameters
        2. Classes and Objects
        3. Tables, Joins, and Contexts
      5. How Designer Works
        1. Universe Storage During Development
        2. Universe Storage for Deployment
      6. Crystal Business Views
      7. Summary
    2. 7 Using Designer to Build a Basic Universe
      1. Launching Designer
      2. Opening a Universe
      3. Folders and Domains
      4. Designer Workspace
      5. Designer Toolbars
      6. Universe Parameters
        1. Definition Tab
        2. Summary Tab
        3. Strategies Tab
        4. Controls Tab
        5. SQL Tab
        6. Links Tab
        7. Parameter Tab
      7. Universe Connections
        1. Connection Types
        2. Two Approaches to Login Parameters
        3. Advanced Connection Parameters
        4. Custom Connection Parameters
        5. Creating a Connection Step-by-Step
      8. Designer Options
        1. Database Options
      9. Quick Design Wizard
      10. Summary
    3. 8 Universe Joins
      1. Join Graphics
        1. Show Row Count
      2. Basic Joins
        1. Cardinality
      3. Outer Joins
      4. About ANSI 92 or SQL 92
        1. Setting Universe Parameters for ANSI 92
      5. Loops and Contexts
        1. Valid Business Questions That Demand Contexts
        2. Inserting a New Context
        3. Processing Contexts on the RDBMS
        4. Chasm Traps and Contexts
        5. Fan Traps and Many-to-Many Joins
        6. Contexts Versus Aliases
      6. Composite Keys and Complex Joins
      7. Aliases
        1. Detecting Aliases
        2. Renaming the Alias
        3. Inserting Aliases Manually
      8. Self-Joins and Aliases
        1. Forcing a Join
      9. Shortcut Joins
      10. Summary
    4. 9 Classes and Objects
      1. The Universe Pane
      2. Types of Objects
        1. Dimension
        2. Measure
        3. Detail
      3. Object Ordering
      4. Naming Conventions
        1. Customer Oriented
        2. Clear
        3. Consistent
        4. Concise
        5. Warning: Cutting and Pasting Objects and Object IDs
      5. Working with Classes and Objects
        1. Rename an Object
        2. Delete an Object
        3. Hide
        4. Modify a Dimension
        5. Object Keys
        6. Source Information
      6. Modify a Detail or Attribute
      7. Insert a Measure
        1. About Aggregates
      8. Object Formats
      9. Summary
    5. 10 List of Values
      1. How List of Values Works
      2. List of Values Settings
        1. When to Disable LOVS
      3. Simple Customization
        1. Adding a Description Object to an ID Object
        2. Cascading Lists of Values
        3. Tabular vs. Hierarchical Views
      4. Reusable Lists of Values
      5. Incorporating Personal Data Files
      6. Summary
    6. 11 Advanced Objects
      1. Reducing Maintenance with Base Objects and ©Select
      2. The SQL Editor
      3. Some Caveats about SQL Functions
        1. SQL Parameters and the PRM File
        2. Multiple Arguments and Prompt Messages
      4. Condition Objects
        1. Time Conditions
      5. Objects with Prompts: Interactive Objects
        1. Pseudo Optional Prompts
        2. Reusing Interactive Objects with ©Variable
        3. Reusing Interactive Objects with ©Where
        4. Prompts in Objects vs. Reports
      6. Aggregate Awareness
        1. Creating Aggregate Fact Tables
        2. Identifying Dimension Tables Irrelevant to Aggregate Tables
        3. Adding Aggregate Awareness to Measure Objects
        4. Specifying Which Objects Are Not Compatible with the Aggregate Table
        5. Testing and Viewing SQL Statements
      7. Derived Tables
      8. HTML Links
        1. About HTML
      9. Popular SQL Functions
        1. Concatenated
        2. Time Objects
        3. If-Then-Else Logic with CASE
        4. Count
        5. Rank
        6. Ratio to Report
      10. Summary
    7. 12 Multidimensional Analysis
      1. What Is Multidimensional Analysis?
      2. Time Hierarchy
        1. Limitations with Automatic Time Hierarchy
        2. Custom Hierarchies
      3. OLAP Universes
      4. Summary
    8. 13 Securing the System
      1. The Enterprise Environment: What Needs Securing
      2. Introducing the Central Management Console
        1. Transition Notes: Crystal and BusinessObjects
      3. Authentication
        1. Enterprise Authentication
        2. Adding a User
        3. External Authentication with Windows NT
        4. Defining Groups
      4. Planning for Authorization
        1. Understanding Your Company’s Organization
        2. Access Levels
        3. Folders and Categories
        4. Checking Rights
      5. Centralized or Decentralized Security: Who’s My Supervisor?
        1. Designating a Supervisor for a Group
        2. Allowing Supervisors to Add Users
      6. Granting Access to Universes
      7. Further Securing the Data: Column- and Row-Level Security
        1. Object-Level Security
        2. Object Restrictions
        3. Universe Parameter Restrictions: Connection, Controls, SQL
        4. Row Restrictions
        5. Table Mappings
        6. Setting Restriction Priorities
        7. Previewing Net Restrictions
      8. Summary
    9. 14 Design Principles: Where to Put the Intelligence
      1. What Is Intelligence?
      2. Places for Intelligence
      3. Evaluating the Pros and Cons of Each Alternative
        1. OLAP Databases
        2. User Objects
        3. User Reports
      4. Summary
    10. 15 Minimizing Universe Maintenance
      1. Linked Universes
      2. What Gets Linked
      3. How Linking Works
      4. How to Add a Link
      5. Permanently Importing Universe Components
      6. Removing a Link
      7. Object Sort Order
      8. Approaches to Development, Test, and Production Universes
        1. Multiple CMSs and BIAR files
        2. Test Folders
      9. Multiple Designers
      10. Metadata Integration
      11. Summary
    11. 16 Getting Ready for Production
      1. Universe Integrity
        1. Checking as You Go
      2. Universe Documentation
      3. Quality Assurance Checklist
      4. Benchmark Reports
        1. Use Cases
        2. Performance Bottlenecks
      5. Monitoring User Activity
      6. Summary
  13. Part III Reporting and Analysis
    1. 17 Navigating InfoView
      1. Logging In to InfoView
        1. About Passwords
      2. The InfoView Panels
        1. The Header Panel
        2. Navigation Panel
      3. Accessing Documents
        1. Organizing Documents
      4. InfoView Preferences
        1. General
        2. Document Options
      5. My InfoView Dashboard
      6. Summary
    2. 18 Working with Documents
      1. Opening a Document
        1. View Modes
        2. Navigation Map
      2. Understanding a Document’s Structure
      3. Components of a Report
        1. Sections
        2. Blocks
        3. Variables and Cells
      4. Refreshing a Document
        1. Canceling a Query
        2. Time Limit Interruptions
      5. Handling Prompts and Lists of Values
        1. Customized Lists of Values
        2. Multiple Prompts
      6. Saving Documents
        1. Save To My Computer As
      7. Scheduling a Document
        1. E-Mail Recipients
        2. Events
        3. Viewing Instances and Status
      8. Logging Off
      9. Summary
    3. 19 Analyzing the Data
      1. The HTML Interactive Viewer
      2. Block Types
        1. Table
        2. Crosstab
        3. Chart
      3. Master/Detail
      4. Sort
      5. Breaks
        1. Break Options
      6. Calculations
      7. Filter
        1. Removing the Filter
        2. Measure Filters
        3. Report Filters
        4. Nested Filters
      8. Ranking
        1. Server-Based Ranking
      9. Drill
        1. Understanding the Data
        2. How Is the Data Aggregated?
        3. Drill Down
        4. Drill Up
        5. Drill By
        6. Drill Across
        7. Snapshot
      10. Drill Through To Detail
        1. Synchronized Drilling
        2. Drill Options
      11. Sharing Your Analysis: Discussions
      12. Summary
    4. 20 Creating a New Query
      1. Formulating a Business Question
      2. Choosing a Query Panel
      3. The Query Panel
        1. Building a Query Step-by-Step
      4. Result Objects
        1. Scope of Analysis
      5. Query Filters
        1. Adding a Query Filter
        2. Operators
        3. Operands
        4. Filters on Dates
        5. Predefined Conditions
        6. Prompts
      6. Query Options
        1. Query Refresh on Open
      7. OLAP Access
      8. Summary
    5. 21 Advanced Report and Chart Formatting
      1. The Formatting Toolbar
      2. What and How to Format
      3. Formatting a Cell
        1. Formatting a Cell via Toolbar
        2. The Formatting Dialog
      4. Formatting in the Java Report Panel
        1. Adding or Removing a Report
        2. Navigating Properties Within the Report Manager
        3. Inserting a New Table
        4. Formatting Crosstabs
      5. Structure Mode
        1. Additional Tabular Formatting
        2. Additional Table Format Options
        3. Alerters
      6. Formatting a Chart
        1. Chart Properties
        2. Chart Page Layout
      7. Page Layout
      8. Formatting Master/Detail Reports
      9. User Settings
      10. Summary
    6. 22 Formulas and Variables
      1. Web Intelligence Functions
      2. Types of Formulas
      3. Syntax Differences Between Web Intelligence and Desktop Intelligence
      4. Creating a Formula Step-by-Step
        1. The HTML Report Panel Formula Editor
      5. Saving Formulas as Variables
        1. Creating a New Variable
      6. Using Operators in Formulas
        1. Mathematical
        2. Conditional
        3. Logical
        4. Where
        5. Context
        6. Function Specific
      7. Using Functions in Formulas
        1. All Functions
        2. Aggregate Functions
        3. Character Functions
        4. Date and Time Functions
        5. Document Functions
        6. DataProvider Functions
        7. Miscellaneous Functions
        8. Logical Functions
        9. Numeric Functions
        10. Calculation Contexts and Extended Syntax
        11. Some Popular Formulas
      8. Creating Variables in Desktop Intelligence
      9. Summary
    7. 23 Complex Queries
      1. Multipass Queries
      2. Multiple Data Providers
        1. Synchronizing Data Providers
      3. Measure Conditions /Having Clause
      4. Complex Query Filters
        1. OR Operand and Nested Conditions
        2. Combined Queries
      5. Subqueries
        1. Creating a Subquery
      6. Object Equal to Another Object
      7. Summary
    8. 24 Desktop Intelligence
      1. Why Desktop Intelligence
      2. Online Mode vs. Offline Mode
      3. Types of Data Providers
        1. Combining Personal Data Files with Corporate Data
        2. Synchronizing Data Providers
      4. Complex Queries
        1. Query on Query
      5. User-Defined Objects
      6. Advanced Formatting Capabilities
        1. Hiding a Table
        2. Templates and Standard Report Styles
        3. User-Defined Hierarchies
        4. User-Defined Groups
      7. Publishing to the Repository
      8. Summary
  14. Bibliography
  15. Index

Product information

  • Title: BusinessObjects XI (Release 2): The Complete Reference
  • Author(s): Cindi Howson
  • Release date: September 2005
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
  • ISBN: 9780071491280