In January I committed myself over on our Facebook page to completing the long-promised updates to the Business Objects Query Guide. Last night, technically just one day later than promised, I delivered on that promise.
Many Improvements to Our Most Popular Guide
1) First of all, the hyperlinks within the document are fixed. There are more of them and now they ALL work linking different parts of the document and providing links to the web as well.
2) I include details about Business Objects Business Intelligence platform 4.0, a.k.a. BI 4.0, a.k.a. XI 4.0.
3) Added MetaData.DataConnection to Appendix A’s si_kind cross-reference table.
4) Corrected error regarding “Supplemental” fields (link) such as those in Processing Info.
5) Cleaned-up sample queries and added a couple new queries.
6) The biggest improvement, aside from the fixed hyperlinking is that I added NEW section focussing on the IsAllowed function. This function is great, it allows you to filter query results based on the security rights of a specified user or user group! There is very little written about this function anywhere, and certainly not more than in the Query Builder guide.
Get the Latest Version of the Query Builder Guide
Therefore, if you have not yet purchased your Business Objects Query Guide, now is the time to get it. If you are already reaping the many benefits of owning the Business Objects Query Builder guide, then now is the time to pick up your free upgrade (please see your original purchase email receipt for details, contact me if you can’t find them).
Julian, this is great news! I’ll have to see if I still have my original receipt stored somewhere, since I’ve changed jobs since then. I’m looking forward to what tips you have on IsAllowed.
Wow Marshall! Actually, you are one of the guide’s early adopters and back then, when you bought it (almost 3 years ago), we were not as organized as we are now. I have emailed you the upgrade info that current buyers get. I hope you like this latest version. Thanks again for your purchase and support of BusinessObjectsTips.com.
Hi Everybody! Please upgrade your guides. There are hundreds of Business Objects Query Builder guide owners out there, maybe even thousands! However, I just checked and there have only been about 10 guide owners that have obtained their FREE upgrade to this latest version. So few things in life are free, this Query Builder guide version upgrade is one of those few. Please take advantage of it.
Of course, please send me a message if you have any trouble getting your free upgrade.
SO how do I get my free upgrades?
Sven
Hi Alec/Sven, Excellent question! Everyone who has purchased this guide since 2008 should have an email telling them how to obtain a free upgrade. It includes a special URL that will guide you through a $0.00 purchase of the latest version of the guide. I was able to find a copy of your email. I have replied to it pointing out the upgrade link. Please email me back if you have any questions.
Hi Julian, Thank you for maintaining this glorious site, I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a gold mine 🙂
I’m going to buy your book… Just wondering if there are any promotions at present? or something to put in the “discount code” field! Thanks man.
-MOhan
Good things come to those who ask. Try this discount code (available for a limited time): FriendOfBOTSpecial
Hi Julian,
I want to buy your book too. We are trying to extract data from query builder into an RDBMS database so a universe can be built on top of it. We want to get daily, weekly and Monthly usability of BOBJ system. We want to track peak time usage of users (per event like login, refresh, create, modify). Also show on a monthly basis total number of universes created, total webi reports created etc.,. Is this possible and how? Is the promotion code still available to purchase your book?
Thanks
Ana
Hi Ana, thanks for your inquiry. For most usage data you will need to have auditing configured and enabled (such as measuring events like login or refresh). Nevertheless, the kind of usage you are measuring (such as “number of universes created”) would actually be best obtained from the CMS InfoStore/Repository which is only accessible through the Query Builder of the BusinessObjects SDK.
Query Builder is really just simple a way to submit an SQL query to the BO SDK without having to develop and SDK application. The output from Query Builder is not optimal for loading into a database and Query Builder querying cannot be automated easily; however, you may still find that it meets your monthly reporting needs.
By the way, the promotional code is still valid as of today. I’d like to keep it valid throughout the holiday season.
Great. Thanks. I am going to buy your book now. Thanks for your response. We do have auditing turned on. So we are able to get the usage information but if we want to do a dashboard on usage that shows increase in usage of universes and reports over a period of time then it has to come from CMS (meaning using query builder). Correct?
Hi Ana, you are correct, but let me explain more. ..
Your auditing data, with all events audited, will capture events as they happen, writing many database records for each occurrence of an audited event. Therefore trying to query something like “How many reports were created in the past month?”, becomes a complex query against auditing data. Nevertheless, the same question can be answered quickly with just a simple query to the CMS repository via Query Builder. This is what I mean.
However, if you want to answer questions like “How many report exist in my BO environment?”, then these can only be answered with a query to the CMS repository. Conversely, if you want to know “How many reports were refreshed last week?”, this can only be answered with auditing data.