Informix WHERE CLAUSE DATE bug in SAP BusinessObjects
While creating a universe off an Informix database, I discovered a bug that SAP never took care of or provided any documentation on fixing, which was quite of surprising. Basically using a date object in the filter will generate an incorrect WHERE clause. In the following example, we create a simple universe off an Informix database via an ODBC connection Informix ODBC Connection Using...
November 29th, 2021 by David Lai
Connecting HANA Live to SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BusinessObjects (Part 2)
In this article we will go through creating different HANA Connections in SAP BusinessObjects and then using them in different applications. We’ll also talk about the differences between the different types of HANA connections. (more…)
September 8th, 2020 by David Lai
Connecting HANA Live to SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BusinessObjects (Part 1)
Being able to connect to a live HANA connection via SAP Analytics Cloud or SAP BusinessObjects is important, as query processing is all done on the HANA engine rather than SAC or SAP BOBJ. To accomplish this, you will need to setup SSL capabilities on the HANA side, setup correct user authorization, and then setup the connections on SAC and SAP BOBJ. Unfortunately, this is not so straight forward...
August 27th, 2020 by David Lai
Data masking vs Business object security in SAP BusinessObjects
In the previous article, we talked about how to implement data masking using data security profiles at the universe level to prevent users from viewing sensitive data. Data Masking in SAP BusinessObjects However we can also use business security profiles to limit users from accessing certain objects. In this article, I’d like to present my thoughts on both methods. (more…)
February 23rd, 2019 by David Lai
Data masking in SAP BusinessObjects
One of the cool features with Information Design Tool and UNX universes is the ability to point to different table views depending on your security profile. Because of this, we can easily perform data masking, which allows us to mask restricted data. For example, I have 2 different types of users. Group FULL who can see all revenue/cost measures, and Group PUBLIC who can see revenue measures but...
January 14th, 2019 by David Lai
Checklist of items to watch out for when applying an SAP BusinessObjects patch or service pack upgrade
Every time I apply a service pack upgrade or patch at a client site, I’m always excited about the features or fixes. However it is very annoying that any customizations get overwritten. This includes items such as: Branding, Single Sign-On, Modifications to the login page The following is a checklist of items that I backup beforehand when applying a service pack or patch upgrade (more…)
December 19th, 2018 by David Lai
How to bypass opendocument login screen
In this article I’d like to show you a simple example of how to bypass the opendocument login. This is especially useful if you are trying to use an opendocument call to open up a web intelligence document from a 3rd party application. It’s quite simple, and you can expand the example to use trusted authentication if desired. Download the custom.jsp here (more…)
April 9th, 2018 by David Lai
CurrentDate() not what you think in Web Intelligence
In Web Intelligence there are a variety of helpful date functions that you can use. 2 in particular are CurrentDate() and CurrentTime(). You would think that CurrentDate() returns just the current date and CurrentTime() returns the current datetime. However both return the exact same result which makes it confusing, especially if you are using date dimensions where the time is stripped off. The funny...
April 10th, 2017 by David Lai
Mixing unmerged dimensions in Web Intelligence
The concept of merging queries in Web Intelligence is quite simple, however once you have a requirement of mixing unmerged dimensions in an output table, this is when it gets messy! Let’s take a look at the 2 sample queries below: Query #1 (Sale Revenue by Year): Year, Quarter, Sales Revenue Query #2 (Quantity Sold by State and Year): Year, State, Quantity Sold Each query contains two dimensions...
March 3rd, 2016 by Daniel Li