Switch OBIEE Repository and Catalog

At times, for development you may need to setup another OBIEE Repository and Catalog. In this post I will show how to do this.

First, stop Oracle BI and Presentation Services from Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Also stop OC4J.

Configure Repository
Copy new repository to Drive:\OrabeBI\Server\Repository folder.

Open NQSConfig.INI file from Drive:\OrabeBI\Server\Repository folder. Under [ Repository ] section, add new repository alias. See the screen below. I added Star2 = MyProject.rpd.



Create ODBC DSN for Repository
Goto Control Panel > Administrative Tools and open Data Source (ODBC). Under System DSN tab click Add. Follow the steps in the wizard as shown below:

Step1
Select "Oracle BI Server" from the drivers list.


Step2
Provide a name for the ODBC DSN. I used "AnalyticServer"
Specify BI Server name.


Step3
Specify alias of the repository you want to connect to. We added alias in NQSConfig.INI.
Not needed if you want to connect to default repository.



Step4
Click Finish.



Configure Presentation Service
Copy new catalog under Drive:\OracleBIData\web\catalog\ folder. In case you want to create new catalog just add an empty folder under it.

Open instanceconfig.xml from Drive:\OracleBIData\web\config folder. Change the DSN name to the one we just created (AnalyticServer). Change the CatalogPath to point to path for the new catalog.


Finally, start OC4J, Oracle BI and Presentation Services.

Falling Back
To fall back to original repository and catalog

• Stop OC4J, Oracle BI and Presentation Services.
• Revert the DSN and CatalogPath in the instanceconfig.xml
• Start OC4J, Oracle BI and Presentation Services.

OBIEE Showing Data on a Calendar

Sometimes there's need for the business data related to promotional events, holidays etc. to be presented on a calendar to improve readability. In this post I will explain how to achieve this in OBIEE using mooTools and javscript calendar (http://dansnetwork.com/mootools/events-calendar).

Here's Sales report of an ogranization by day. Wouldn't it be great if we can plot this on a calendar and higlight the day when it's holiday.



Prerequisites:
To render the calendar we will need mooTools Core, mooTools More and mooTools events calendar. Here are URLs for download: (I used No Compression for all downloads)

MooTools Core: http://mootools.net/download
MooTools More: http://mootools.net/more
Select Date, Scroller, Tips while downloading mooTools More.
Events Calendar: http://dansnetwork.com/mootools/events-calendar/download/

Here's the list of all files you should have after download:

• mooECal.css
• mooECal.js
• mooECalLarge.css
• mooECalSmall.css
• mootools-1.2.4-core-nc.js
• mootools-1.2.4.4-more.js

Create a folder name mooTools on OBIEE server under Drive:\OracleBI\oc4j_bi\j2ee\home\applications\analytics\analytics\res\ folder and copy all the files to it.

Narrative View to render Calendar
I added Narrative View to the report I showed earlier.




Added following information to each textbox and selected "Contains HTML Markup" checkbox.

Prefix:

<link rel="stylesheet" type"text/css" href="./res/mooTools/mooECal.css">
<script language="javascript" src="./res/mooTools/mootools-1.2.4-core-nc.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" src="./res/mooTools/mootools-1.2.4.4-more.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" src="./res/mooTools/mooECal.js"></script>
<div id="calBody"></div>
<script language="javascript">

function getDiv(holFlag)
{
if(holFlag=='Y')
{
return '<div style="background-color:#990000;color:#ffffff;">';
}
else
{
return '<div>';
}
}

new Calendar({calContainer:'calBody', newDate:'1/21/2010',
cEvents:new Array(

Narrative:
{
title: getDiv('@3') + '@4</div>',
start: '@2',
end: '@2',
location: ''
}

Row Separator:
,

Postfix:
)
}); </script>

Please note:

• The path to .js and .css files is ./res/mooTools.
• getDiv function returns div tag with red background when it's holiday. You can do other event specific handling if required.
  
• Calendar instance is passed an array of events. In our case this is sales information.
  Sales value is passed in the title. Start and End date are sale date.
• The comma (,) in Row separator will separate event array element.
• You can change mooECal.css in prefix section to mooECalSmall.css or mooECalLarge.css if you want smaller or bigger calendar.
  

Here's data rendered on calendar. Note, background color for holidays.



Please read licensing terms of mooTools and event calendar before making commercial use.

Common OBIEE Errors and Resolutions

In this post I am going to cover some common errors faced during OBIEE implementation and its resolution, in the windows environment. I am hoping this will be handy to anyone who is new to OBIEE.

Unable to Log In
Error connecting to the Oracle BI Server: Could not connect to the Oracle BI Server because it is not running or is inaccessible. Please contact your system administrator.
Error Codes: WH4KCFW6:OPR4ONWY:U9IM8TAC

Common cause(s):

• "Oracle BI Server" windows service is not running. Starting the service could resolve the issue.
• In case the BI Server service is running and still the error occurrs, check the port the service is listening to is matching with the port specified in the ODBC DSN for the analytic repository. In NQSConfig.ini file look for RPC_SERVICE_OR_PORT. The default value is 9703. The ODBC DSN name can be found in instanceconfig.xml

"Oracle BI Server" windows service is not starting.
Common cause(s):

• The RPD file specfied in the NQSConfig.ini doesn't exist in the repository folder.
• RPD file may be inconsistent. Open it using Admin tool in offline mode and fix the consistency errors.

Error Generating Chart
Error Codes: ETI2U8FA

Common cause(s):

• "Oracle BI Java Host" windows service is not running. Starting the service could resolve the issue.

Access denied for user to path /users/username/_portal.
Error Codes: O9XNZMXB

Common cause(s):

• The specified user doesn't have permission to read/write to the his/her catalog folder. To resolve the issue, login as Administrator and grant permission to the user to his/her catalog folder using catalog manager.