Webi and Universe question...

[bessebo]

We have always been a Crystal shop. I implemented the free version of Seagate Info back in 2000, then we upgraded to Crystal Enterprise 9 a few years after that. Just recently we implemented Business Objects XI Release 2. I have been developing using Crystal Reports for the past few years and are obviously using Crystal Reports XI now. We are thinking seriously of rolling out Web Intelligence in the next few months because we are looking for a solution for end users to develop their own reports and queries using Webi and we don't think it makes sense to roll out Crystal Reports to the end users. I was wondering if it makes more sense to take a Webi Report design class before I took a Universe Design class. Also, for those of you who do use Webi what tools are you using to populate the universes? We run SQLServer 2000 and I am wondering how the universes get populated on, I presume, a nightly basis.

Also, any comments from anyone who is currently using Web Intelligence for end users and maybe any suggestions or other options would be appreciated.

Regards,
Bessebo

 

[groggle]

I don't think it really matters which way you do the training. I've done both and it's six of one and a half dozen of the other.

A Universe doesn't "capture" data, it is a metalayer that contains tables along with their joins, and the fields you select from those tables into your universe. You can also create calculations inside of a universe much like a crystal formula.

A Webi report uses the elements of a universe. The Universe components are Fields, Measures and Filters and you include them as required in your report(s). The report, when run, uses the universe components to generate the SQL that is run against the underlying database to feed the report.

So one "restriction" Webi has that crystal doesn't is that you must have a universe to build a report.

 

[bessebo]

I assume you are using a non-production database to do your Webi reporting off of? If that is the case, can you tell me the steps you take in moving your data off of production and into your reporting environment and how current your reporting environment data is?

Thanks

 

[hilfy]

We, too, were a Crystal shop. In May we released our first set of universes (we have a very complex data environment) to a set of "Power Users" who have been through the WebI report design class. It has been a great success.

The universe doesn't "contain" data. It is the meta data that WebI uses to create the SQL to run the reports off of the data source. It contains table links, formulas, etc.

So, you can connect it to your production database, but that is not recommended because if a user creates a report that has bad SQL in it, it can bring down your database (a VERY rare occurance if your universe is designed well!) We connect our universes to our data mart which is a copy of our production databases that is updated very early every morning.

-Dell

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

 

[bessebo]

OK Dell, now we are getting somewhere. Can you elaborate how you copy your databases? First of all, are you using SQLServer or Oracle? Do you simply restore your full backup every morning to what you call your "data mart"? Is your "data mart" just a restored production database backup? I think we exchanged emails a while back on the WEBI topic. I am particularly interested in your procedures for refreshing your "data marts"? I would appreciate any more information you can impart...

Regards,
Bessebo

 

[Archimedez]

(Using WebI 6.5.1) WebI is a reasonably good "general users" platform; but it LACKS certain report development features available in the "fat-client" version. Specifically, the Slice-n-dice features are not available to WebI report developers; nor is the Ranking ("top") feature. Sorts and filters are available now in the "enhanced" format; as is an "export to Excel" feature.
I will say that WebI 6 has far fewer limitations than WebI 2 had.

 

[hilfy]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you on this - I've been really busy at work and then I was at the conference this week.

We're using Oracle and the DBA's and our Unix team handle all of the datamart stuff. I believe what is happening is that the DataMart is set up as a "stand-by" database for fast turn-over if the production DB goes down. It started out as an exact copy of production and then the changes logs from production are applied to it every morning. While it's in stand-by mode, it is read only. If the production DB goes down, the DBAs will break a "link" with it and read only will be turned off. I think this is the right terminology, but I'm not a DBA, so I'm not absolutely certain.

-Dell

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