BusinessObjects™ XI Release 2 for Dummies®

BusinessObjects™ XI Release 2 for Dummies®

by Derek Torres, Stuart Mudie, Julie Albaret
Released April 2008
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780470181126

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Book description

BusinessObjects XI Release 2 For Dummies

In no time, you'll be finding your way around Universes to see how everything is shaping up, viewing and creating reports, building powerful queries on your organizations database, and measuring your company's performance using BusinessObjects XI Release 2. This completely jargon-free handbook will put you in complete control of the ways and means of a truly exciting and powerful suite of business intelligence tools. Discover how to:

  • Make business decisions with help from BusinessObjects

  • Use BusinessObjects XI wizards

  • Perform a server installation

  • Create and define a Universe

  • Set up desktop reporting

  • Customize and use InfoView

  • Measure performance with Dashboard and Analytics

  • Take advantage of data marts and understand how they fit into your BusinessObjects system

Created by a team with more than 15 years combined experience working with BusinessObjects tools, BusinessObjects XI Release 2 For Dummies comes complete with several short lists of useful information, including tips on how to prepare for a successful BusinessObjects integration and helpful resources beyond the pages of this book. You'll also find an overview of Crystal Reports, BusinessObjects’ companion reporting tool.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedications
  2. About the Authors
  3. Authors’ Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher’s Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Getting Started with BusinessObjects
      2. Part II: Universes
      3. Part III: Using Your Desktop for Reporting
      4. Part IV: Making Web Intelligence Work for You
      5. Part V: Keeping Track of How Your Organization Is Doing
      6. Part VI: Getting the Best Possible Data with Data Marts
      7. Part VII: The Part of Tens
      8. Part VIII: Appendixes
    4. Icons Used in This Book
    5. Where to Go from Here
  6. I. Getting Started with BusinessObjects
    1. 1. Business Intelligence and BusinessObjects XI Release 2: Working Hand in Hand
      1. Fitting Business Intelligence into Your Business
      2. Taking a Closer Look at BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Enterprise
        1. Tools for migrating from previous installations
          1. Import Wizard
          2. Repository Migration Wizard
          3. Data Source Migration Wizard
          4. Report Conversion Tool
        2. All it takes to design a universe
          1. Designer
          2. Universe Builder
        3. BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence
        4. BusinessObjects Web Intelligence
        5. Enterprise Performance Management
        6. Publishing Wizard
        7. InfoView
        8. Central Management Console
    2. 2. Deploying on a Single Computer
      1. Making Sure You’re Ready
      2. Installing BusinessObjects Enterprise on Your Computer
    3. 3. Performing a Server Installation
      1. Making Sure You’re Ready
        1. Minimum requirements
        2. Choosing an application server
        3. Database software: Repository of all knowledge . . .
      2. Installing BusinessObjects XI R2 on Your Server
    4. 4. Taking Control with the Central Management Console
      1. Knowing Your Rights: The BusinessObjects Security Model
        1. Objects, groups, and users
        2. How it all hangs together
      2. Discovering the Central Management Console
        1. Launching the CMC
        2. The CMC Home Page
      3. Managing Users
        1. Adding a new user account
        2. Adding users to groups
          1. Adding one user to one or more groups
          2. Adding several users to one group
        3. Deleting a user account
        4. Setting passwords
          1. Changing password or password settings for a single user
          2. Changing password settings for every user
      4. Using Groups (To Make Your Life Easier)
        1. Creating a new group
        2. Adding subgroups
        3. Deleting a group
      5. Exploring the Rights Tab
        1. Displaying the Rights tab
        2. Reading the Rights tab
        3. Understanding access levels
        4. Understanding inheritance
      6. Managing Applications
  7. II. Universes
    1. 5. Creating a Universe from the Safety of Your Desk
      1. Working with BusinessObjects Designer
        1. Starting BusinessObjects Designer
        2. Creating a universe with the Quick Design Wizard
      2. Building a Universe the Old-School Way
      3. Becoming Master of the Universe (Builder)
        1. Starting Universe Builder
        2. Creating a universe with Universe Builder
    2. 6. Defining a Universe
      1. Planning for Your Universe
        1. Analyzing your data
        2. Creating a structure for your universe
      2. Importing Universes
      3. Saving Universes
      4. Exporting Universes
    3. 7. Joining Your Universe
      1. Before You Join: Creating Tables
      2. Creating a Join
        1. Creating joins manually
        2. Using auto-detected joins
        3. Deleting a join
      3. Using Loops
    4. 8. Adding Dimensions to Your Universe
      1. Creating Objects
        1. Taking the manual-y approach
        2. Doing things automatically
      2. Creating a Measure
      3. Creating Classes
        1. Creating a brand, spankin’ new class manually
        2. Creating a class automatically
        3. Using subclasses
      4. Creating a List of Values
  8. III. Using Your Desktop for Reporting
    1. 9. Reporting Live from the Desktop
      1. Getting Yourself Connected
      2. Interfacing the Desktop Intelligence Interface
        1. Importing a universe
        2. Feeling the LOV (list of values)
        3. User objects (users in the universe)
        4. Setting the (default) style
      3. Changing Your Password
      4. Exploring Your Options
        1. General
        2. Save
        3. Display
        4. Drill
        5. File Locations
        6. New Document
        7. Macros
    2. 10. Building Queries
      1. Using the Query Panel
        1. The DeskI Query Panel
        2. The WebI Query Panels
      2. Creating a New Query
        1. Querying in DeskI
        2. Querying in Web Intelligence
        3. Looking under the Query Panel’s hood
          1. Limiting the results you get
          2. Drilling through your document
      3. Handling Multiple Data Providers
        1. Using multiple data providers in DeskI
        2. Adding data providers in WebI
        3. Linking your data sources
          1. In DeskI
          2. In WebI
      4. Changing a Query to a BusinessObjects Universe
    3. 11. Documents in BusinessObjects
      1. Knowing the Difference between Documents and Reports
      2. Creating a New Document
      3. Saving Your Document
      4. Opening a Document
      5. Making Your Document Work for You
        1. Naming your document
        2. Naming your report
          1. Dressing up your report title
          2. Applying standard styles
          3. Working with variables
        3. Setting the table
          1. Flipping your data
          2. Charting your data
          3. Drilling your data
  9. IV. Making Web Intelligence Work for You
    1. 12. Getting Your Hands Dirty with InfoView
      1. Logging On to InfoView
      2. Customizing InfoView
        1. Generally speaking
        2. Desktop Intelligence
        3. Web Intelligence Document
        4. OLAP Intelligence
        5. Crystal Report
        6. Password
        7. What’s it all about?
      3. I Did It MyInfoView’s Way
        1. Contemplating your template
        2. Defining content or being happy with MyInfoView
    2. 13. Setting Up Your Documents
      1. Creating a Document
      2. Creating Other Types of Files
      3. Using Prompts
      4. Save a Document, Save a Life
        1. Saving your document
        2. Adding new categories
        3. Saving documents in other formats
        4. Making Saved As documents available
      5. Printing Your Document
    3. 14. Working with Your Completed Documents
      1. Accessing Saved Documents
        1. Finding a saved document
        2. Going straight to the man
      2. Getting the Lowdown on Your Document
        1. Knowing your history
        2. I’ll put it on my calendar
        3. Viewing the properties
        4. Making changes
      3. Viewing Documents
        1. Your documents, please
        2. A document with a view
        3. The other, lesser menus
      4. Sending Documents to Colleagues
        1. Sending to the Inbox
        2. Sending an e-mail
        3. Sending over FTP
        4. Sending to a file location
      5. Exporting Documents
  10. V. Keeping Track of How Your Organization Is Doing
    1. 15. A Different Kind of Dashboard
      1. Accessing Dashboard Manager
      2. Creating a Dashboard
        1. Constructing a new corporate dashboard
        2. Constructing a personal dashboard
      3. Filling Up Your Dashboard
        1. Adding a menu
        2. Adding a submenu
        3. Inserting an analytic
      4. Adding free text and Web pages
        1. Adding BusinessObjects reports or other documents
      5. Defining Your Layout
        1. Applying a predefined style to your dashboard
        2. Adding a custom style
      6. Organizing Your Dashboard
      7. Viewing Dashboards
        1. Opening your dashboard
        2. Making sense of a window
      8. Making a Dashboard Your Home Page
    2. 16. Making Better Decisions through Analytics
      1. Understanding the Value of Analytics
        1. Barometer
        2. Traffic light
        3. Pareto chart
      2. Creating Analytics Based on Universe Measures
        1. Building your own Thermometer
          1. Viewing your data
          2. Saving the analytic
        2. Inserting an analytic into a dashboard
      3. Creating a Map Analytic Based on a Universe
    3. 17. Using Performance Manager to Set Goals and Track Achievement
      1. Configuring Your Environment to Build Metrics
        1. Setting up a universe to build metrics
        2. Declaring a universe
        3. Declaring dimensions
        4. Creating a calendar
      2. Creating a Metric
        1. Creating metrics automatically with the New Metric Wizard
        2. Creating a metric manually
      3. Creating a Goal
      4. Creating a Metric-Based Analytic
        1. Interactive Metric Trend
        2. Metric Tree
        3. Strategy Map
  11. VI. Getting the Best Possible Data with Data Marts
    1. 18. Putting Data Integrator to Work for You
      1. Figuring Out Data Integrator
        1. What is the Repository Manager?
        2. What is the Data Integrator Designer?
        3. What is the Data Integrator Web Administrator?
      2. Getting the Hang of Data Integrator Designer
        1. Getting on to Designer and getting started
          1. Setting up your repository
          2. Logging in
        2. Creating jobs for your project
        3. Creating workflows
          1. From the object library
          2. From the tool palette
      3. Playing Administrator with Data Integrator
        1. Logging on
        2. Adding repositories
        3. Setting up a repository
        4. Accessing your repository
        5. Managing your roles
        6. Working with users and groups
        7. Scheduling batch jobs
    2. 19. Working with Data Marts
      1. Choosing Between a Data Warehouse and a Data Mart
        1. Starting with data marts
        2. Starting with a warehouse
      2. BusinessObjects Rapid Marts
  12. VII. The Part of Tens
    1. 20. Ten Ways to Prepare for BusinessObjects Integration
      1. Do Your Research!
      2. Check Out businessobjects.com
      3. Pick the Right Computer
      4. Are You Upgrading?
      5. Back Up Your System
      6. Organize Your Computer
      7. Organize Your Organization
      8. Verify Troop Readiness!
      9. Check for Any Service Packs or Hot Fixes
      10. Be Patient!
    2. 21. Ten Resources to Help You
      1. The Business Objects Web Site
      2. Diamond Community
      3. Insight Blog
      4. BOB: BusinessObjects Board
      5. GBS — Business Objects Admin and Security Solutions
      6. Business Intelligence.com
      7. ITtoolbox Business Intelligence Knowledge Base
      8. Business Intelligence Network
      9. The Interop Vendor Alliance — Business Objects
      10. Crystal Reports Links
      11. BusinessObjects XI Release 2 For Dummies Companion Web Site
  13. VIII. Appendixes
    1. A. Reporting on Crystal Reports
      1. What Is Crystal Reports?
      2. Crystal Reports versus WebI
        1. Building the report
        2. Making your report pretty
        3. Mass reporting
    2. B. Glossary

Product information

  • Title: BusinessObjects™ XI Release 2 for Dummies®
  • Author(s): Derek Torres, Stuart Mudie, Julie Albaret
  • Release date: April 2008
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470181126