Business Objects Universes Defined

[arachnoid]

Could someone, in very simple terms define a BO Universe for me?

I am looking for a cubing solution within Business Objects Enterprise XI and was wondering if a Universe could work for me.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

 

[MJRBIM]

BO Universes are Relational OLAP (ROLAP) cubes - they generate SQL on the fly against you relational database to allow you to slice and dice within that Relational cube construct from within WebIntelligence. BO Universes work well, but can put a heavy load on your underlying relational data base and the Business Objects Enterprise infrastructure depending on how many active users you are supporting, and how much slice-and-dice or drill-down they are doing within the Relational cube construct.

The other alternative is using a Materialized OLAP (MOLAP) cube tool - (eg. MicroSoft Analysis Services). This sort of solution allows you to create a physical data-cube that is separate from your underlying relational database. The MOLAP cube is usually refreshed during off-hours (eg. Daily/Weekly/Monthly) so there are issue of data latency, but it is more robust and doesn't stress your relational database.

You can then connect to your MOLAP cube from Business Objects XI using Crystal Reports XI or OLAP Intelligence XI.

 

[hilfy]

Universes can also be defined as a Meta-Data layer between the user and the database. All of the links between tables are defined in the universe, fields (called Dimensions) are given plain English names, and common calculations and formulas are set up with plain English names. This way your users don't need to know much, if anything, about the underlying database in order to build reports.

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.