14 General New Features in Release 10.1.3.4.2

Oracle BI EE Release 10.1.3.4.2 introduces new features. This chapter describes those features in the following sections:

Section 14.1, "Support for SAP/BW Variables"
Section 14.2, "Enhancements for Catalog Manager"

14.1 Support for SAP/BW Variables

You can use SAP/BW variables when using SAP/BW as a data source. There are five types of SAP/BW variables — Characteristic value, Hierarchy, Hierarchy node, Text, and Formula variables. Oracle BI EE supports two of the types, Characteristic value and Hierarchy node. Cube variable objects are imported into the physical layer when metadata is imported from BEx Queries in SAP/BW data sources. Typically, you do not edit these objects, except to keep them synchronized with the BEx queries in the data source, and except to specify overrides for key characteristic values.

When setting up a variable in the Variable Editor of the BEx Query Designer, you must define the processing type for the variable and describe a setting for what the variable represents. For both Characteristic value and Hierarchy node variables, the following processing types are supported — Manual Input/Default Values, Customer Exit, Authorizations, and SAP Exit. For Characteristic value variables, the following options for the "Variable Represents" setting are supported — Single Value, Multiple Single Values, Interval, and Selection Option. For Hierarchy node variables, the following options for the "Variable Represents" setting are supported: — Single Value, and Multiple Single Values.

When the BI Server generates a physical request against a BEx query with variables, applicable filters in the logical request are translated to the appropriate MDX syntax with the SAP Variable clause. Filters can still be created within Oracle BI EE and passed down to the underlying BEx Query even if no variables have been defined. This functionality is not changed.

The following list provides additional suggestions for working with SAP/BW variables within Oracle BI EE:

The behavior for variables is the same for both the Level and the Key.
The value for 'MAX_MEMBER_PER_LEVEL' might need to be increased (based on the configuration) in the NQSConfig.INI file.
The restriction behavior of the variable (inclusion or exclusion) is sometimes defined in the BEX Query itself. Hence, even if the operator "is equal to / is in: is used in Oracle BI EE, then the value might be excluded from the result if in the BEx query the variable is used as exclusion filter.
The settings used in the Default Values tab of the Variable Editor in the BEx Query Designer are not imported to Oracle BI EE.

For additional information about setting up SAP/BW variables, see your SAP/BW documentation.

14.2 Enhancements for Catalog Manager

This section describes the following enhancements for Catalog Manager:

Section 14.2.1, "General Enhancements"
Section 14.2.2, "Creating Reports"
Section 14.2.3, "Obtaining Audit Trail Information for Objects"

14.2.1 General Enhancements

The following list outlines enhancements to Catalog Manager:

Search and replace functionality is case-sensitive.
You can search and replace table column names in addition to subject areas and tables.
When you display a report of objects, you can edit the columns that are shown.

14.2.2 Creating Reports

This section replaces the section on "Creating Reports to Display Presentation Catalog Data Using Catalog Manager" from Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Administration Guide.

You can create reports to display catalog data for all catalog object types. You can either display the report on the screen or save it to a file.

For example, to find out which dashboards are using an analysis, you can run a Dashboard report including analyses, and search that report for the analysis. Or, to find analyses that are affected by a changed column in an RPD table, you can run an Analysis report that includes all columns and formulas, and then search the report for the items that must then be replaced in Catalog Manager.

When you create a report, a blank or empty field is exported as a tab character. If you are creating a report with the default of a tab as the field separator, then two tab characters in the report file indicate a blank field.

To create a report that displays catalog data:

In Catalog Manager, open the catalog. To create a report that shows the SQL statement that is sent to the Oracle BI Server for the object, open the catalog in online mode.
Select the top folder for the catalog.
From the Tools menu, select Create Report.
Select the catalog object type to create a report on.
To eliminate any rows that are the same from the report, select the Distinct box.
Specify the columns to appear in the report in the Columns in Report list. Use the left and right-arrow buttons (< and >) to move the columns between the Available Columns list and the Columns in Report list, and the plus and minus buttons (+ and -) to set the order in which columns are displayed in the report.
Click OK.
Repeat Steps 4 through 7 until the report contains the appropriate columns.
To save the report to a file, in the Save report to field, specify the path name of the file. Click the Browse button to display the Save As dialog for selecting the path name (if the file does not exist, then it is created).
Click OK to overwrite an existing file or click Cancel and enter a new name to save to a new file.
Select Excel Format to specify to create a file that can be imported into Microsoft Excel 2003 or later.
Click OK.

14.2.3 Obtaining Audit Trail Information for Objects

If you have many different users working with objects in the catalog, then you might want to see audit trails for those objects to determine what changes were made and by whom. To obtain an audit trail, you use the facility that is described in Chapter 9 "Using Oracle BI Presentation Services Logging" of Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Administration Guide.

To create an audit trail file, you use the FilterRecord element with various attributes. Keep in mind that when you turn on the creation of audit trails, the performance of the system is likely to decrease, as resources are required to write data to disk for the creation of the audit trail files.

The following list describes various types of information that you can capture in audit trail files by including the FilterRecord element in the Filters section of the logconfig.xml file:

Changes to ACLs

Use an element such as the following one to track changes to ACLS for objects. This setting tracks anyone who makes any changes to ownership or permissions of any object. For example, suppose that the report /shared/sales/MyFavReport was owned by Fred, and Steve had Read access. If an administrator changes the owner to Bill or also gives Write access to Sue, then this audit trail logs those changes.
```
<FilterRecord writerClassGroup="File" path="saw.catalog.acl.auditChanges" information="51" warning="100" error="100" security="41" />
```
Changes to Object Contents

Use an element such as the following one to track modifications to object contents. For example, if Fred changes the contents of the MyFavReport object, then this audit trail logs those changes.
```
<FilterRecord writerClassGroup="File" path="saw.catalog.local.writeObject" information="51" warning="100" error="100" security="41" />
```
Logging In and Out

Use an element such as the following one to obtain messages that relate to users logging in and out:
```
<FilterRecord writerClassGroup="File" path="saw" information="30" warning="30" error="100" security="56"/>
```
Note that the setting of the security attribute to 56 is important for obtaining the appropriate information.