Downloads

Integra Solutions has developed numerous tools which have been made generally available to make your life a little simpler.  Browse through our technical notes and download those you can use!

Each application from the Business Objects product suite has its own issues and concerns.  By selecting a link from one of the choices below, you will be able to review technical notes written by Integra Solutions consultants.  Note that some documents may appear in more than one category, if appropriate.  If you find the information here useful, be sure to also check out the papers presented by Integra Solutions consultants at Business Objects User Conferences and other venues.

Documents are listed in alphabetical order.  Click on any document to read an abstract.  Additional links to review or download the document will be provided as appropriate.

Architecture

Filter and Export via VBA
Using a VBA macro you can process a report by selecting an object in a report, applying a filter for each value of that object, and then exporting the resulting data set to a RTF file. Note that this macro requires 5.x or higher.  To export to a PDF format you must have version 5.1 installed. The downloadable zip file includes the online review as well as a sample BusinessObjects document that includes the VBA code.  The sample document is based on the Island Resorts Marketing universe distributed with the product.

Review Online
VBA Version 5.x (23 K)

Back to Top

Security

Don't Deactivate Your Users
This document covers information on how to turn off the three strikes and you are out login strategy that BusinessObjects currently uses. Of course, you should not use this information if you want to prevent brute force password hacking. But it might make your life easier.

Review Online
Download (3K)

Generic Document Domain Universe
This tip requires BusinessObjects 4.1 or higher, as some of the column values in the repository tables have changed from version 4.0. Note that much of the information required to set up this universe is provided in the FreeWare directory on the distribution CD-ROM.

So what is it? Simply put, this is a universe built against the Security Domain that contains information about documents scheduled in Document Agent. You can get most of this same information from the Console. What makes this universe generic? No database functions or outer joins were used in its creation. Instead, the "decoding" logic is provided via a BusinessObjects report that has been built using this universe.

The downloadable package includes the online information, a BusinessObjects universe, and a BusinessObjects document.

Review Online
Download (56K)

Back to Top

Design

Generating Constant Range Values with SQL
This document shows a quick and easy way to turn raw data into range buckets. As shown, the technique allows a universe designer to set up range objects in a universe, but the same idea could be applied to a report variable as well.

Review Online
Download (12K)

Creating and Using Custom Oracle Database Functions
This document contains information on how to create a user-defined function in your Oracle database, and then make that function available to Universe Designers or Query Users. Sample source code for a Fiscal Calendar function is included.

Review Online
Download (160K)

Handling SQL Challenges in BusinessObjects
SQL presents certain challenges to the BusinessObjects designer. A one-many-many relationship (fan trap) or many-one-many relationship (chasm trap) can occur in many different database designs, and the generic framework provided by BusinessObjects can have problems with these situations. Another challenge is handling aggregate functions. Measure objects are designed to have aggregate functions applied to them, but which ones? And how do they coordinate with the measure Projection Functions provided by the Designer application?   These and other issues are discussed in this 27-page document.

Review Online
Download (232K)

List of Values: Help or Hindrance?
This document presents three different ideas pertaining to the List of Values query automatically created for each object in the universe..

Review Online
Download (214K)

Making Prompts Case Insensitive
If your database contains all uppercase data, building a consistent query is not difficult. Simply train all of the query writers to build conditions using upper case values and everyone should be happy. But what if your data is not consistent? This technical note contains an interesting idea that can be used to build a Predefined Condition (Filter) object for a BusinessObjects universe that provides a case insensitive search while still taking advantage of any database indexes that may be available or appropriate.

Review Online
Download (54K)

User Selectable Outer Joins
This document covers an interesting use of outer joins in a BusinessObjects universe. Adding an outer join to an object instead of a join allows the users to specify when/where they would like to use outer join logic.

Review Online
Download (93K)

Back to Top

Reporting

Crystal Report Secrets
Twenty (20) secret shortcuts and workarounds for Crystal Reports designers and developers.

Review Online

Alternate Row Shading
This downloadable BusinessObjects document shows the steps that can be used to shade every other row on a report block.  Step by step instructions are included in the 5 tab document.  The document is based on the Island Resorts Marketing universe distributed with the product.

Review Online
Download (34 K)

Feature Set:  WebI vs. Reporter
This spreadsheet file (MS Excel format) shows a listing of features and where they are implemented.  For example, WebIntelligence does not currently support local variables, while the Full Client does not currently support hyperlinks in a document or polar graphs.  The online file is in Adobe Acrobat format; the download link will provide a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format instead.

Review Online
Download Excel Format (4.5 K)

Denoting Contexts on a Report
In designing a universe, BusinessObjects provides two standard ways of resolving a loop.  Aliases are simple, Contexts are more complicated.   Plus, selecting a different context can result in a totally different query result!  This document shows how standard BusinessObjects Reporter functions can be used to denote which context was selected by a user during the construction of the query.

Review Online
Download (33K)

Detecting Filters on a Report
This document answers the question, "How can I tell if there are filters on a BusinessObjects document?"  This can be important if reports are distributed (meaning someone other than the original author is reading the information).  By using this trick a user can create a formula that shows X of Y Rows Displayed at the end of each block.  Anyone looking at the report will immediately be able to tell if a filter has been applied or not.

Review Online
Download (471 K)

Filter and Export via VBA
Using a VBA macro you can process a report by selecting an object in a report, applying a filter for each value of that object, and then exporting the resulting data set to a RTF file.  Note that this macro requires 5.x or higher.  To export to a PDF format you must have version 5.1 installed.  The downloadable zip file includes the online review as well as a sample BusinessObjects document that includes the VBA code.

Review Online
Download (23 K)

Hiding Single Item Subtotals
This document reviews an interesting use of the Alerter feature to hide subtotals. You may review the documentation online, or download a package that contains both the online information and a BusinessObjects document that shows the solution in action.

Review Online
Download (35 K)

Multi-item Breaks
This document shows how to use multi-item breaks to avoid the #MULTIVALUE error that can occur when you try to position different objects in the header of a document.  You may review the documentation online, or download a package that contains both the online information and a BusinessObjects document that shows the solution in action.

Review Online
Download (103 K)

Printing Labels in BusinessObjects
This downloadable file includes a sample BusinessObjects report that shows some ideas for printing mailing labels.  Basic instructions are included in the zip file in text format.

Download (10 K)

Back to Top

Relational Database

SQL Tips for Oracle Developers
This document contains a number of tips and tricks for using different Oracle database functions.  This document includes some ideas on how to use:

• sysdate – Obtaining the server system date and time, and what to do with it
• to_char – Converting dates or numbers to character format
• to_date – Converting character strings to date or numeric format
• sign – Translating an infinite number of numeric values to a finite set of choices
• nvl – Providing an alternative to a null or missing value
• substr – Extracting a portion of a character string value
• decode – An Oracle database "if" statement.

Several examples are provided to show how they can be combined effectively.

Review Online
Download (22K)

Back to To