OBIEE -- Writeback update while keep the update history

Hello I implemented the writeback in OBIEE as mentioned in this post, however the writeback feature in OBIEE is very basic, it does simple overriding of the data and it doesn't keep the historic changes. I have tried playing around with the writeback.xml file with insert or update tags, but i had no luck with it. Therefore, I decided a different approach. The original table that I was using for writeback and reporting will be kept as it is. Now I am going to create another table with the same table structure. Then I will create a trigger that...

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OBIEE: Dynamically calculate quarterly difference without using time series function

Sometimes, you have a custom report built from custom schema, it could be a materialized view or view that were custom made, where the number is at a certain granularity without hierarchy defined. Like you have a quarterly report, but now the requirement is to display the numbers not only in the quarter that user pick, but also display the previous quarter of that user defined quarter along. Not only that, you also need to display the difference...

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OBIEE vs Tableau Report

Having used both technologies quite extensively, I can't help but to make some comparisons between the 2 tools. For those that are not quite familiar with Tableau, it is a pretty cool technology that also provides very good look and feels of the reports. It is a pretty popular technology in a lot of companies. Here are some of the cool things that tableau has to offer: 1. Tableau allows developers to bypass the metadata design and go directly into the report building phases. In other words, there is no equivalence of Admin Tool in Tableau. You...

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How to report on 2 datasets across different database in OBIEE

Hello Today I want to talk about this feature in OBIEE that allows you to do cross-db reporting, which I think is pretty cool. Say you have 2 different result sets, they could be 2 tables or could be 2 queries. Now I want to see an OBIEE report that joins these 2 result sets based on some common dimensions, so how do we do it? First of all, these 2 objects will be residing on different physical folders with different connection pools, this makes...

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How to update report and automatically store updated by and updated time through writeback in OBIEE

Today I am going to talk about writeback in OBIEE. As you know, writeback is a feature in OBIEE that allows users to update reports that they see in OBIEE without having to deal with the ETL process and reloading table.  There can be reasons why users would want to be able to update the records they are seeing in the report. There could be a known error that users are aware of in their accounting system that is producing the wrong Journal Entries...

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About Merging 2 rpd in OBIEE -- The only article that matters

Hello All About merging rpds. You all know this merge button under 'file' in Admin tool right? This launches the merge repository wizard, which is easy. The confusing part is, how to determine original master rpd, Modified rpd, Current Rpd? This is what I do to remember: Let's say there is a scenario that I have RPD1 and RPD2. I want to merge these 2 rpds so that there will be a new RPD that has both RPD1 and RPD2 objects.  In...

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Evaluting BI tools: Compare OBIEE with open source reporting tools

Having worked for various BI projects, often it comes to time to make decision on what tool or technology to use to implement the requirements. Often, the company has a great vision knowing where they want to go and what roadmap they want to follow, but they don't know what technology will be the best for them to achieve their goals and meet their budget. So many OBIEE projects are having difficulties and issues because from the beginning, OBIEE simply wasn't the most ideal tool for what the clients want to do. Not saying OBIEE can't do certain...

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Interview for OBIEE position and how to succeed

Hello All Today's topic is everybody's favorite, that is about interviews. Interview is a pain in the ass and it is for a lot of people. The more senior you are (or you think you are), the more you dislike interviews. Doing the work and talking about your work are completely two different things. When you are at work, you may run into challenges, but at least you don't have to come up with a working solution in the next 30 minutes if you can't. However in interviews, you are expected to provide proper responses in 5 mins. Therefore, if you want...

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Create Pixel Perfect Report using BI Publisher that includes charts, tables and dynamic SQL query

Hello This time I want to share with you how to create a pixel perfect BI Publisher report out of an existing dashboard that includes different type of reports. When it comes to reporting, the BI Dashboard is highly interactive, it allows navigation, ad-hoc query and other dynamic features. That's the value of OBIEE. However, sometimes when you want to send the results with pdf or other formats, it is not so pixel perfect. In some areas people...

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Case Study: Emailing OBIEE dashboards with ad-hoc agent that dynamically passes dashboard prompt values based on user request -- Part 3

After rpd work is done, let's go to the dashboard. Well before that, I am manually creating these users with '_1' and so on in weblogics and make sure they all have their OBIEE account set up with the proper emails. Now go to dashboard and we will copy the existing dashboard and reports and create another version for emailing agents. First, modify the date and month prompt and manufacturer prompt Here in the default section, we are adding...

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