Have you noticed weird prompt values in your reports after upgrading OBIEE from 10g to 11g? Below is an example of what you might see …
This is usually caused by calculated columns in the report. You will need to remove those columns, and then add them back to the report. And then, depending on what your calculated columns were being used for, you may want to consider using Selection Steps instead to accomplish the same logic.
If you know of another way to fix this scenario, please share.
There are 3 Informatica transformations (External Procedure, Lookup, and Stored Procedure) that can be unconnected in a valid mapping. An unconnected transformation is one that is not connected to the pipeline – that is, it is not connected to any other transformation via a link. Unconnected transformations, especially unconnected lookup transformations, are widely in OBIA mappings.
Unconnected transformations are defined in a mapping and are called / invoked from another transformation in the mapping. They can be called from any transformation that supports the transformation expression language.
Below is a list of the 3 Informatica Unconnected Transformations and how they are called or invoked from another transformation:
| Transformation | How its called / invoked |
| External Procedure | :EXT.external_procedure_transformation(argument1, argument2, …) |
| Lookup | :LKP.lookup_transformation(argument1, argument2, …) |
| Stored Procedure | :SP.stored_procedure_transformation( argument1, argument2, [, PROC_RESULT]) |
Any mapping with an unconnected transformation must also include another transformation that calls the unconnected transformation.
All of the 3 Unconnected Transformations can also be used in connected mode. However, when you want to execute the transformation logic for a subset of the rows passing through the mapping (especially when it’s a small percentage of the rows), you will want to consider using the transformations in unconnected mode and with conditional logic. The conditional logic will cause the unconnected transformation to execute only when necessary, and therefore, may improve perfiormance.
The example below shows a call to an unconnected lookup transformation (lkp_item_id) that is invoked only when the desired item_id value is NULL. In a case where only a small percentage of the rows have an item_id that is NULL, then the lookup would only be invoked for a small number of rows, as opposed to all rows if the transformation was connected.
IIF ( ISNULL(item_id), :LKP.lkp_item_id ( item_name ), item_id )
As a side note, the Sequence Generator transformation can also be invoked from a function call, but it is a connected transformation.
| Transformation | How its called / invoked |
| Sequence Generator | :SEQ.sequence_generator_transformation.CURRVAL |
When setting up security in OBIEE 11g, you may modify the default security realm (myrealm) that installs with OBIEE. But even better, you may create a new security realm and leave the default realm untouched.
My preference is to leave the default realm untouched and create a new realm – this is a best practice in my opinion. I think it is helpful to always be able to go back and look at the features and settings of the default security realm. And you can name your new security realm more appropriately, such as, ABCIncSecurityRealm.
The link below (Paul Cannon’s Blog) brings you to a blog post about configuring OBIEE to use LDAP authentication, and the first part of the post covers creating the new security realm. It is very detailed. I used it the first time I created a new security realm.
http://paulcannon-bi.blogspot.com/2012/07/configuring-ldap-authentication-for.html
Good luck creating your new security realm.
There is an issue with Internet Explorer 8 and Adobe Flash browser plugin that causes graphs/charts not to show up in OBIEE 11g. This is not the same as the issue that can be resolved by setting the thousand place separator property.
The versions that have the issue are Adobe Flash 11.8.800.168 and IE8. The same Adobe release works fine with IE9 and also works great with Firefox. So users on those browser versions would not have been affected.
The good news is … Adobe released an emergency release within 3 days of this problem release. The new version is 11.8.800.174. After downloading and installing this version, we were able to see all graphs/charts.
You can access the latest and previous Adobe Flash versions here …
http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html#main_Archived_Flash_Player_versions_for_developers
Good luck.
Frequently used Informatica Programs are:
Command-line and Interactive Execution
All 5 programs (pmcmd, pmrep, infacmd, infasetup, and pmpasswd) can be executed in Command-line mode.
Three of them (pmcmd, pmrep and infacmd) can be executed in Interactive mode.
Program Locations
All programs except infasetup are located in [InformaticaInstallDirectory]/server/bin. infasetup is located in [InformaticaInstallDirectory]/server.
Summary
Below is a table that summarizes the features/usage of each of these programs into one location:
In OBIEE, you can easily set a dashboard section to be “Collapsible” which allows a user to collapse or minimize that section when desired. By default, when a dashboard page is opened, the sections are maximized or expanded (i.e., not collapsed).
But what if you have a requirement to have a section minimized or collapsed by default? There is no flag or option to do that. This post shows you how to make a section minimized / collapsed by default.
I found the solution for making a dashboard section collapse by default here… http://www.orakelite.com/2013/01/iii-javascriptcss-tips-to-obiee-ui.html
However, the author did not include some details which I will cover here.
First, you need to make the section collapsible, by simply editing the dashboard…
… and then setting the “Collapsible” property of the relevant section.
You will need to add the following Java Script to the section you want to minimize by default.
The text highlighted in the Java Script is the Section ID of the section to be minimized by default. So first you will need to find this Section ID.
——–
var sectionId = “d:dashboard~p:ve9fga7bp3omltnr~s:9qfn1ms6bco9bsva“;
var sectionDiv = document.getElementById(“Embed”+sectionId);
var plusImg = document.getElementById(sectionId+”Max”);
var minusImg = document.getElementById(sectionId+”Min”);
var contentsTable = document.getElementById(sectionId+”Contents”);
minusImg.style.display = “none”;
contentsTable.style.display = “none”;
plusImg.style.display = “”;
sectionDiv.setAttribute(“minimized”, “true”);
——–
To determine the value of the Section ID, you need to go to the dashboard page and from the browser menu, select View –> Source.
Search for the section by name, or just search for the word “section”. This should help you to identify what Section ID is related to the section you are interested in. (In example below, the black arrow points to the SECTION ID, and the red arrow points to the user given section name that can be used to search. )
Use your Section ID in the Java Script code above.
Place the Java Script code in a “Text” dashboard object inside the section you want to control.
Save your dashboard page changes.
Now when you reopen the dashboard page, the section will be minimized / collapsed by default.
These are some direct links to various OBIEE User and Administration functions. These can be useful to know for efficiency and at times can also be useful for debugging security.
To go directly to “Home Page”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?bieehome
To go directly to “Dashboard”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard
To go directly to “Manage Privileges”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?PrivilegeAdmin
To go directly to “Manage Catalog Groups”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?ManageGroups
To go directly to “Manage Sessions”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Sessions
To go directly to “Manage Agent Sessions”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?ManageIBotSessions
To go directly to “Issue SQL”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?IssueRawSQL&Done=%2fanalytics%2fsaw.dll%3fAdmin
To go directly to “Manage Map Data”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?ManageMapData
To go directly to “Manage BI Publisher”
http://servername:9704/analytics/saw.dll?bipublisherEntry&Done=%2fanalytics%2fsaw.dll%3fAdmin&Action=admin
OBIEE Catalog Manager can be accessed from a client tool on Windows or from a server side process. There are times when it is required that you run the Catalog Manager in offline mode, and at those times you will be required to run it on the server.
Although there is a command line option for Catalog Manager, it is easier to work with it in a Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode and at times its necessary to use that mode.
Start Xming (or another X-Windows type tool) on your local PC or laptop. [This will allow the Linux screens to show up on your desktop when you run the shell script on the Linux server]
For more on Xming, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xming
Connect to your Linux server from your desktop/laptop using Putty (or other tool). Then go to the catalog manager directory:
cd [$FMW_HOME]/instances/instance1/bifoundation/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obips1/catalogmanager
Start up Catalog Manager by running: ./runcat.sh
This will start Catalog Manager, and it will be running on the Linux server, but the screens will be showing on your desktop/laptop.
From the main Catalog Manager window, you can then click on File –>Open Catalog
And then select the Type based on how you want to connect – Online or Offline mode. Accessing Catalog Manager in this way is most likely needed when you need to connect in Online mode.
And then of course, you need to enter the URL – which is the full path to the catalog, for example:[$FMW_HOME]/instances/instance1/bifoundation/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obips1/catalog/default
And enter the User and Password.
Assuming everything was entered correctly, you will be connected to the catalog. You can then use the interface to browse the catalog and perform other tasks on catalog objects.
Good luck!
If you are using Active Directory for authentication for your OBIEE system, and are experiencing situations where some users are taking a long time to authenticate/login, then this post might be helpful. This could also be useful for configuring LDAP systems other than Active Directory, but I cannot say for sure.
What could potentially be happening to users experiencing the problem is … they belong to Active Directory groups (or LDAP groups) with deep hierarchies, and the system has to traverse all those hierarchies to retrieve all their LDAP information which ends up taking quite a bit of time. A possible solution is to limit the number of LDAP levels that will be searched/traversed to get the users Groups information.
Login to WebLogic Administration Console (aka WLS or Admin Console), then click on “Security Realms” on the left, and then click the name of the realm that you use for security (for example, “myrealm”).
Click the Providers tab. And then click the name of your Active Directory provider.
Then select the Provider Specific tab.
Scroll down to the section titled “Groups”.
Change the Group Membership Searching setting from unlimited to limited.
And then set Max Group Membership Search Level – change it from 0 (no limit) to 1 (or to the smallest number necessary for your environment).
This will prevent long searches for those users that are in many groups with deep hierarchies (such as groups within groups within groups and so on). This could cut the search time tremendously, thereby reducing the authentication time and preventing login timeouts.
Good luck!
These are some of the Informatica transformations that are frequently used in Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (OBIA). The OBIA SDE and SIL mappings used to load the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse (OBAW) are built using these and other transformations.
1. Source Qualifier
The Source Qualifier transformation is used to bring data from one or more tables from the same source into the mapping. If being used for more than one table, then a join condition needs to be defined between the tables. The typical naming convention for a Source Qualifier transformation is SQ_* or sq_*.
2. Joiner
The Joiner transformation is used to join tables in different data sources. The typical naming convention for a Joiner transformation is JNR_* or jnr_*.
3. Expression
The Expression transformation is used to perform simple row-based calculations or derivations. The typical naming convention for an Expression transformation is EXP_* or exp_*.
4. Filter
The Filter transformation is similar to a where clause in SQL – it adds a conditional filter to the data passing through the mapping. The typical naming convention for a Filter transformation is FIL_* or fil_*.
5. Aggregator
The Aggregator transformation is used to perform aggregate calculations on the data passing through the mapping, for example, performing a sum or max. The typical naming convention for an Aggregator transformation is AGG_* or agg_*.
6. Lookup
The Lookup transformation is used to lookup values based on another known/submitted value, and pass the looked up value into the mapping. There are 2 types of Lookups – connected and unconnected. The typical naming convention for a Lookup transformation is LKP_* or lkp_*.
7. Update Strategy
The Update Strategy transformation is used to determine and perform the appropriate course of action for data in the mapping. Based on the determined state of the data, the transformation is used to insert, update, delete or reject records. The typical naming convention for an Update Strategy transformation is UPD_* or upd_*.
