41 Oracle Business Intelligence

This chapter describes issues associated specifically with Oracle Business Intelligence, including issues related to installation, upgrade, analyses and dashboards, Oracle BI Mobile, Oracle BI Publisher, metadata repository development, system administration, integration and API, and localization.

See:

Added as per bug 14572081

Before you install Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Release 1 (11.1.1), review the following sections under "System Requirements for UNIX Operating Systems" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications guide:

  • For Oracle Solaris, refer to the "Supported Solaris Operating System Versions, Packages, and Patches", "Open File Limit", and "Applying Solaris Patches in Non-Global Zones" sections.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Depending on your Oracle Fusion Middleware implementation, some information in other chapters of this document might also be relevant, including:

Sometimes, there can be a delay before revised Release Notes are published on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). To get access to Oracle Business Intelligence Release Note items as soon as they are available, go to the Oracle BI Documentation wiki at https://wikis.oracle.com/display/oraclebidocumentation/Home

41.1 Patch Requirements

This section describes patch requirements for Oracle Business Intelligence. It includes the following topic:

41.1.1 Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support

Periodically, Oracle Business Intelligence patches are released. Some patches are mandatory, other patches are optional.

To see the patches that are available, go to My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) using the following URL:

http://support.oracle.com

To obtain a patch:

  1. Log in to My Oracle Support.

  2. Click the Patches & Updates tab.

  3. Use the Patch Search area to locate patches.

  4. On the Patch Search Results page, select a patch and click Download to download the patch.

  5. Install the patch by following the instructions in the README file that is included with the patch.

41.2 Oracle Business Intelligence Issues and Workarounds Identified or Changed Since the Last Revision

The issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence that have been identified or changed since the last revision of the Release Notes include:

41.3 Which Releases Are Covered by These Release Notes?

These release notes identify known issues in:

  • The following major releases of Oracle BI EE 11g:

    • 11.1.1.5

    • 11.1.1.6

  • The following patchsets:

    • 11.1.1.6.2

    • 11.1.1.6.2 (BP1)

These release notes do not identify known issues in other patchset releases (for example, 11.1.1.6.4) or individual patches. For information regarding known issues identified in other patchsets and individual patches, refer to the readme file accompanying each patchset or patch.

41.3.1 Oracle Business Intelligence Issues and Workarounds that Apply Only to Release 11.1.1.3

A number of issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence Release 11.1.1.3 were identified prior to the January 2011 revision of the Release Notes. To find out more about those issues and workarounds, see the Oracle Business Intelligence chapter in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Release Notes for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) at:

https://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/relnotes.htm

Other issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence that apply only to Release 11.1.1.3. are described in this chapter as well as issues and workarounds that apply to subsequent Oracle Business Intelligence releases and are also known to apply to Release 11.1.1.3.

41.4 Oracle Business Intelligence General Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence. It includes the following topics:

41.4.1 Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics Not Included in Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, Releases 11.1.1.5 and Later

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10g included the Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics component. The Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics component is not shipped in (and cannot be used with) Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g, Releases 11.1.1.5 and later.

If you currently use Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics 10g and want to continue to do so, then do not install or upgrade to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g, Release 11.1.1.6.

41.4.2 Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Not Supported in Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, Releases 11.1.1.5 and Later

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Previous versions of Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office, which provides analytic capabilities within a Microsoft Office environment, supported a set of capabilities based on Oracle BI EE. This feature allowed end users to query directly against an Oracle BI Server, create ad-hoc interactions, and use Microsoft Office based reporting. As of Oracle BI EE 11g Release 11.1.1.5, this feature is no longer available.

41.4.3 Oracle BI Server Fails to Start Due to Missing Connect String in tnsnames.ora File

41.4.4 Issue with JAR File Size When Moving from a Test to a Production Environment

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

This issue is applicable when moving from a test environment to a production environment. The Oracle Business Intelligence installation creates a JAR file of approximately 5 GB. JDK version 6 (or earlier) has a file size limit of 4 GB. Therefore, when you un-jar the file using the AS command pasteBinary, a crash occurs.

The workaround is to force either the pasteBinary command to use JRockit, which does not have a file size limit, or use JDK version 7. For instructions, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.

41.4.5 Adobe Flash Player Version 10.1 or Later Required to View Graphs and Scorecards

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser-based application runtime environment and is required for rendering graphs and scorecard objects in a browser.

Users must have Adobe Flash Player version 10.1 or later installed on their browsers to correctly view all graphs and scorecards that are generated by Oracle BI EE. Users can obtain information about the version of the Adobe Flash Player that is running on their browser by going to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.

41.4.6 Recommended Page Size Setting on Oracle Solaris

For better Oracle Business Intelligence scalability, the page size must be set to 256M on Oracle Solaris.

41.4.7 Siteminder Not Supported with Full-Text Catalog Search

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The full-text catalog search feature of Oracle BI EE is not supported with Single Sign-On in Siteminder.

41.4.8 Full-Text Search Not Finding BI Publisher Reports by Report Column

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

You can use the full-text catalog search feature to locate objects in the catalog. If you search for BI Publisher reports by report column names, then you might obtain no results. This issue can arise when you use Secure Enterprise Search Version 11.1.2.2.0.

To work around this issue, add the following line to the ORACLE_HOME/search/data/config/crawler.dat file:

MIMEINCLUDE application/octet-stream

41.4.9 Problems Installing in Thai and Turkish Locales

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Turkish and Thai users are recommended to install and run Oracle Business Intelligence using the English locale. Due to instability that might be encountered, the Turkish and Thai locales are not supported on the server side. Oracle Business Intelligence does support Turkish and Thai locales as clients.

41.4.10 Graph Subtypes Are Not Refreshed in BI Composer

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

When you select a non-default graph subtype in the BI Composer Wizard: Create Analysis: Edit Graph panel and later change the view to a different graph type in the BI Composer Wizard: Create Analysis: Select Views panel, the graph subtype does not get refreshed.

The workaround is to select the first option in the Subtype box in the BI Composer Wizard: Create Analysis: Edit Graph panel. (The first option is the default subtype for the new graph type.)

41.4.11 Dashboards and Scorecards Whose Paths Contain Multibyte Characters Do Not Display on ADF Pages

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Dashboards and scorecards whose paths contain multibyte characters do not display on ADF pages.

This issue has no workaround.

41.4.12 Characters Supported in Folder Names by BI Presentation Services Not Supported by BI Publisher

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

Oracle BI Presentation Services supports a set of characters for catalog folder names that BI Publisher does not support. Characters not supported by BI Publisher are:

~, !, #, $, %, ^, &, *, +, `, |, :, ", \\, <, >, ?, ,, /

Folders named with these characters may exhibit unexpected behavior if you log in directly to BI Publisher; for example, the folder may not be visible, the folder may not expand properly, or the name may appear garbled.

To work around this issue, do not use these characters in folder names.

41.4.13 Configuring SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Data Sources with Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.3

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

Note:

This issue first appeared in the Oracle Business Intelligence chapter of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Release Notes for 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) at:

https://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/relnotes.htm

The text in the originally published release note is incorrect. The correct text appears in this section.

If you want to use Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management as a data source for the Oracle BI Server, and you want to authenticate using a shared token rather than configuring shared credentials in the connection pool, you must first enable compatibility for shared tokens using the steps provided in this section. If you enable compatibility for shared tokens, do not select Shared logon in the connection pool. Note that the Oracle Business Intelligence user and the Enterprise Performance Management user must use the same identity store.

If you do not enable compatibility for shared tokens, and you also do not provide shared credentials in the connection pool, the Oracle BI Server will attempt to authenticate using the pass-through user credentials (in other words, the user name and password used to log on to Oracle Business Intelligence).

Before you begin, ensure that you have the database connection information available for the Oracle Business Intelligence database where you populated the BI Platform schemas using RCU. For example, ensure that you have the host name, port, SID, user name, and password for the database.

To enable CSS token generation for single sign-on from the Oracle BI Server to Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data sources:

  1. In the Oracle Business Intelligence environment, open setDomainEnv.sh (or setDomainEnv.bat on Windows) for editing. You can find this file at:

    DOMAIN_HOME/bin

    For example:

    MW_HOME/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/bin

  2. Add the following entry:

    ExtraJavaProperties=-DEPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE= ORACLE_INSTANCE

    For example:

    ExtraJavaProperties=-DEPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE= C:\My_MW_Home\instances\instance1

  3. Save and close the file.

  4. Download the patch for bug 10263740 from My Oracle Support to obtain the utility. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information.

  5. Extract the contents of the archive to:

    ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/foundation/11.1.2.0

    Create this directory if it does not already exist.

  6. Edit epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows) to provide required values for ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_INSTANCE, and JAVA_HOME as appropriate for your environment.

  7. On Linux systems, make epm_components_creation.sh executable using the following command:

    chmod +x epm_components_creation.sh

  8. Run the executable epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows), and provide the database host name, port, SID, user name, and password as command-line arguments. For example:

    epm_components_creation.sh db_hostname db_port sid db_user db_pwd

    The following output is displayed:

    Writing credentials to reg.properties file.
Credentials written to reg.properties file.
Creating Component Types.
Component Types Created.
Creating Basic Components
Basic Components Created
All tasks successfully completed.

  9. To validate that the data was successfully populated in the EPM Registry, execute epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows) and provide "validate" as a command-line argument. For example:

    epm_components_creation.sh validate

    The following output is displayed:

    Following required properties are available for SHARED_SERVICES_PRODUCT in EPM Registry:-
mode=FUSIONAPPS
COMPATIBILITY=11120-

  10. Restart the BI domain, including the Administration Server and Managed Servers.

41.4.14 Configuring SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Data Sources With Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6, and 11.1.1.6.2

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6, 11.1.1.6.2

If you want to use Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management as a data source for the Oracle BI Server, and you want to authenticate using a shared token rather than configuring shared credentials in the connection pool, then you must first enable compatibility for shared tokens using the steps provided in this section. Note that the Oracle Business Intelligence user and the Enterprise Performance Management user must use the same identity store.

The steps to configure SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management data sources are different, depending on which release of Enterprise Performance Management you are using. This section contains the following topics:

41.4.14.1 Configuring SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Release 11.1.2.1 or Later

To configure the Oracle BI Server for shared token generation for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Release 11.1.2.1 or later (installed with the EPM System Installer), you first run the runRegSyncUtil utility, and then you run an epmsys_registry command. When these steps are complete, you can select SSO using CSS Token in the data source connection pool in the Oracle BI Repository to designate an SSO connection.

To configure SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Release 11.1.2.1 or later:

  1. Locate the regSyncUtil_OBIEE-TO-EPM.zip file under BI_ORACLE_HOME/common/CSS/11.1.2.0 and extract it to the same location.

    Note:

    For Oracle Business Intelligence Release 11.1.1.5 only, you must first obtain regSyncUtil_OBIEE-TO-EPM.zip by downloading patch 14606665. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

  2. Copy the reg.properties file from:

    EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/foundation/11.1.2.0

    to:

    BI_ORACLE_HOME/common/CSS/11.1.2.0/regSyncUtil/src

  3. On Linux systems, make runRegSyncUtil.sh executable using the following command:

     chmod +x runRegSyncUtil.sh

  4. Open runRegSyncEditUtil.sh (or runRegSyncEditUtil.bat on Windows systems) for editing. You can find the runRegSyncEditUtil file in BI_ORACLE_HOME/common/CSS/11.1.2.0/regSyncUtil.

  5. In the file, update the ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_INSTANCE environment variables as appropriate for the given Oracle Business Intelligence environment. Note that ORACLE_HOME should be equivalent to MW_HOME/Oracle_BI1 and ORACLE_INSTANCE should be equivalent to MW_HOME/instances/instancen.

  6. Save and close the file.

  7. Run the utility. The following example shows how to run the utility on Linux:

    BI_ORACLE_HOME/common/CSS/11.1.2.0/regSyncUtil/runRegSyncUtil.sh

  8. Run following epmsys_registry.sh command:

    BI_ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/foundation/11.1.2.0/epmsys_registry.sh removeproperty 
SHARED_SERVICES_PRODUCT/@applicationId

  9. Restart the BI Domain, including the Administration and Managed Servers.

  10. Restart all OPMN processes.

After these steps are complete, you can select SSO using CSS Token in the General tab of the connection pool object that corresponds to the Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data source in the Oracle BI repository. You should also select the Virtual Private Database option in the corresponding database object to protect cache entries.

41.4.14.2 Configuring SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Release 11.1.2.0 or Earlier

To configure the Oracle BI Server for shared token generation for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Release 11.1.2.0 or earlier (installed with the EPM System Installer), you first run an epmsys_registry command, and then you select SSO using CSS Token in the data source connection pool in the Oracle BI Repository.

To configure SSO for Essbase and Hyperion Financial Management Release 11.1.2.1 or later, run the following command from the Oracle Business Intelligence environment:

BI_ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/foundation/11.1.2.0/epmsys_registry.sh/cmd 
updateproperty SHARED_SERVICES_PRODUCT/@COMPATIBILITY 11120-

After this step is complete, you can select SSO using CSS Token in the General tab of the connection pool object that corresponds to the Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data source in the Oracle BI repository. You should also select the Virtual Private Database option in the corresponding database object to protect cache entries.

41.4.15 Patch Available to Hide Selected Consistency Check Warnings

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

You can download and apply patch 11810367 to hide selected warnings from the Consistency Check Manager. After applying the patch, the following warnings are hidden by default: 39009, 39054, 39055, 39057, and 39059. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

To make these warnings visible again in the Consistency Check Manager, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Options button in the Consistency Check Manager to open the Consistency Check Warnings dialog.

  2. Deselect the warnings that you want the Consistency Check Manager to display.

  3. Click OK.

You can also add additional warnings to the exclusion list in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog. To do this:

  1. Go to the following directory:

    ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obisn

  2. In that directory, create a text file called warn_off.ini. This file must be in ASCII format.

  3. Populate the file with contents similar to the following, listing the warning numbers that you want to add to the exclusion list in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog:

    [CCOptions]
CC_WARNINGS_LIST = 39024,39077

    Note the following:

    • All excluded warnings must be on one line and can be separated by a comma, a semicolon, or a space.

    • You cannot exclude errors. You can only exclude warnings from the Consistency Check Manager.

    • If you add warning numbers from the default exclusion list (39009, 39054, 39055, 39057, and 39059), they are ignored.

  4. Save and close the file.

  5. Close and then re-open the Consistency Check Manager. The new warnings appear in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog and are selected by default, meaning that those warnings will be excluded from consistency checks.

41.4.16 Issues with WebLogic LDAP User Passwords

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

If you experience issues with WebLogic LDAP user passwords that contain non-ascii characters, please contact Oracle Support and reference bug 9929485 for details of a patch.

41.4.17 Configuring the GUID Attribute in the Identity Store

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

If you configure an alternative authentication provider such as Oracle Application Server or Active Directory, and you change the GUID attribute from its default value, then you must ensure that the value that you use in the Identity Store matches the changed value that you are using in the alternative authentication provider.

For example, if you are using Oracle Internet Directory and have changed the default value of the GUID attribute from orclguid to newvalue, you must set the value to newvalue in both the Identity Store and the authentication provider.

To configure the GUID attribute in the Identity Store:

  1. In Fusion Middleware Control, navigate to \Weblogic domain\bifoundation_domain in the navigation pane.

  2. Right-click bifoundation_domain and select Security, then Security Provider Configuration to display the Security Provider Configuration page.

  3. In the Identity Store Provider area, click Configure to display the Identity Store Configuration page.

  4. In the Custom Properties area, use the Add option to create a Custom Property called PROPERTY_ATTRIBUTE_MAPPING with a new value for the GUID attribute (for example, GUID=newvalue).

    Table 41-1 Custom Properties

    Property Name Value

    PROPERTY_ATTRIBUTE_MAPPING

    Specify the GUID attribute value that is set in the authentication provider. For example, if the GUID attribute is set to newvalue in the authentication provider, then set this value to GUID=newvalue.

  5. Click OK to save the changes.

  6. Restart the Administration Server, Managed Server(s), and BI components.

41.4.18 Rendering Issues Might Occur in Presentation Services When Using Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.x

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are using IE9.x, you might see the following issues when running Presentation Services:

  • Truncate option does not truncate the title

  • Deleting the Conditional property enlarges the screen

  • Bars drop down when using the magnifying glass to zoom

  • Graph title does not show in a graph view

  • Graph views have a black background

  • The Event Channels area in the Map Properties dialog is not empty as it should be by default

  • Some arrow down keys do not line up correctly in the dialogs that are used for Business Intelligence formatting

  • Some dialogs that are used for Business Intelligence formatting are oversized

  • When hovering the mouse pointer in the right corner of the Filters section, the toolbar is invisible

  • The New Filter dialog does not display in the browser

41.4.19 Links Fail to Open in PDF Format of the Briefing Book

The links to Oracle Business Intelligence content fail to open in the PDF format of the briefing book.

Workaround

Use the links in the Bookmarks section of the PDF document.

41.4.20 Poor Performance Starting Up WebLogic Server

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are running BI Publisher using a shared catalog with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition, you may experience a prolonged delay when restarting the WebLogic server using either the "Activate Changes" button in the WebLogic console, or using the WebLogic.sh script.

To improve startup performance, you can move or delete the following sets of folders from the <DOMAIN_HOME>/config/bi publisher/repository. Removing these folders will have an impact during runtime, therefore ensure that you understand the impact before moving or removing the folders.

  • Tools - this folder contains the BI Publisher Desktop Tools executable binary files that are available from the user Home page Tools download links. These links no longer function when the Tools directory is removed. No other BI Publisher functionality is affected. The BI Publisher Desktop Tools are also available from the install media and from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

  • Reports/Samples - the Samples folder contain the sample reports and data models delivered with BI Publisher.

If English is the only language required for your system, you can also remove the following:

  • Admin/Translation - these folders contain the translation files for languages other than English.

41.5 Oracle Business Intelligence Installation Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to installing Oracle Business Intelligence. It includes the following topics:

Depending on your Oracle Fusion Middleware implementation, some information in Chapter 2, "Installation, Patching, and Configuration" might also be relevant.

41.5.1 Error When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Against a SQL Server Database

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are using an MS SQL Server database when installing Oracle Business Intelligence, then the mds-owsm and bip_datasource JDBC data sources has an invalid test table. This stops the WebLogic Server automatic connection testing from functioning. For example, if the database stops, WebLogic Server does not recognize a hanging or invalid connection.

The workaround is to edit the Test Table Name parameter to allow a SQL string to be executed to test the connection. To do so, set the parameter in the WebLogic Server Administration Console to SQL select 1.

41.5.2 Scale-Out Scenarios Are Not Supported on OS with Different Patch Levels

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Scale-out scenarios of the BI domain are not supported on computers that have the same operating system but different patch levels. All computers must have the same operating system patch level.

41.5.3 Need to Correctly Create the Oracle Central Inventory in a UNIX Environment

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a computer running a supported UNIX operating system with no other Oracle software, ensure that you create the Oracle central inventory correctly. This action ensures correct patching functionality.

41.5.4 Oracle Business Intelligence Installer Stops at Administrator User Details Screen

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you attempt to install on a Windows system that is using DHCP, does not have a primary DNS suffix, and does not have a loopback adapter configured, then the Oracle Business Intelligence installer stops at the screen that prompts for the Administrator user details. This is displayed as a red cross in the tree on the left-hand side of the installer. This issue is caused by the installer not being able to resolve the IP address to a host name.

The workaround is to configure a loopback adapter or primary DNS suffix.

41.5.5 Installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a Shared Drive Might Fail

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Attempting to install Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive might fail, resulting in the following error message:

Installation Failed. Prepare Session failed You may not have enough space on your drive for a successful install. Do you still want to continue?

To avoid this issue when installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive, start the Oracle Business Intelligence installer from the command line using the ignoreDiskWarning option. For example, on Linux, use the following command:

./runInstaller -ignoreDiskWarning

41.5.6 Configuring DB2 to Support Multibyte Data

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When installed with an IBM DB2 database, the Oracle Business Intelligence installer configures the system with an ODBC 2.0 driver. In such systems, issues will occur if multibyte data is used. To avoid this issue, use Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure the Oracle Business Intelligence system to use the native DB2 CLI driver instead.

To configure Oracle Business Intelligence to use DB2 CLI driver with IBM DB2:

  1. Install the DB2 client software on the machines where Oracle Business Intelligence resides, and create data source to your scheduler db.

  2. After you install Oracle Business Intelligence, log into the system through Oracle Enterprise Manager.

  3. Navigate to the Scheduler tab for the Oracle Business Intelligence server.

  4. Click Lock and Edit Configuration.

  5. Click the Call Interface drop-down list and select DB2 CLI - Unicode.

  6. In the Data Source field, enter your data source name.

  7. Click Apply, and then Activate Changes.

41.5.7 Using Multibyte Data Causes Issues with Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Driver in Oracle BI Scheduler

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When installed with a Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 database, the Oracle Business Intelligence installer configures Oracle BI Scheduler with a SQL Server 2005/2008 driver. If multibyte data is used, scheduled jobs might fail. To avoid this issue, use Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure the Oracle Business Intelligence system to use a SQL Server 7.0/2000 driver instead.

To configure Oracle BI Scheduler to use the SQL Server 7.0/2000 driver with Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008:

  1. After you install Oracle Business Intelligence, log into the system through Oracle Enterprise Manager.

  2. Navigate to the Scheduler tab for the Oracle Business Intelligence server.

  3. Click Lock and Edit Configuration.

  4. Click the Database drop-down list and select SQL Server 7.0/2000.

  5. Click Apply.

41.5.8 Missing Locale Causes Oracle Business Intelligence Installation to Fail on UNIX

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

The Oracle Business Intelligence installation fails on UNIX if the locale en_US.UTF-8 does not exist on the installation computer. To avoid this issue, make sure that the locale en_US.UTF-8 exists on the installation computer before you install Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.5.9 Oracle Business Intelligence Processes Fails to Start

After installing Oracle Business Intelligence, release 11.1.1.5.0, starting Oracle Business Intelligence processes from Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN) or from Oracle Enterprise Manager may time out and fail. The following error is displayed

failed to start a managed process after the maximum retry limit

To workaround this issue, add the following entry in the /etc/hosts file located in the local installation system:

IP_Address stafas12

where IP_Address is the IP address of the local installed machine.

Retry starting Oracle Business Intelligence processes.

41.5.10 Ignore FAT File System Error Message When Performing an Enterprise Installation

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When performing an Enterprise Installation, under certain circumstances, you might see the error message "Middleware Home Location is in FAT file system". This message can occur when you install on an NTFS file system. You can click Yes to safely proceed with the installation.

41.6 Oracle Business Intelligence Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topics:

Depending on your Oracle Fusion Middleware implementation, some information in Chapter 3, "Upgrade" might also be relevant.

41.6.1 General Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topic:

41.6.1.1 Conditional Formatting Might Not Work After Upgrading from Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g to Release 11g

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

If an attribute column's Value Suppression setting (in the Column Format tab of the Column Properties dialog) is not set to Repeat, then the measure is aggregated to the grain as defined by the position of the column with the format defined. This might cause a change in the conditional formatting after upgrading from Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g to Release 11g. If the Value Suppression setting is set to Repeat, then the measure column that the conditional format is based on always uses the detail grain of the table view, in which case the conditional formatting works as expected.

41.6.2 Security-related Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to security when upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topics:

41.6.2.1 Warnings Might Be Reported When Upgrading an RPD with Non-English User or Group Names

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When upgrading a repository with non-English user or group names, warnings might be reported in the log file, such as "Group name ??? isn't valid in WLS/LDAP : not migrating this group" or "User name ??? isn't valid in WLS/LDAP : not migrating this user" (where ??? is garbled text).

The workaround is to manually create the users or groups. To do so, see the following instructions in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition:

41.6.2.2 Users or Groups With Names Containing Invalid Characters Are Not Upgraded

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When upgrading a repository, users or groups with names that contain the following invalid characters are not upgraded:

  • ,

  • +

  • =

  • "

  • \

  • <

  • >

  • ;

The workaround is to manually create the users or groups after upgrade is complete, with new names that do not contain the invalid characters. Note that the new names must not contain invalid characters under any circumstances. Failure to follow this instruction requires you to re-install Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.6.2.3 RPD Upgrade Process Fails If the 10g Administrator UserID or Password Contains any Non-Native Characters

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.5

The repository upgrade process from Oracle Business Intelligence 10g to Oracle Business Intelligence 11g fails if the 10g Administrator user ID or password contains any non-native characters, and the operating system is Windows or Non-UTF8 Linux. For example, "Administrator/bi10g-éíô" fails to upgrade. The upgrade utility might run to completion, but with error messages, and users cannot log on if you try to run the system using the upgraded repository. You must change the Administrator user ID, password, or both the user ID and password to one that uses only native characters before running the repository upgrade command line utility or Upgrade Assistant wizard.

41.7 Oracle Business Intelligence Installation Guidelines for 64-Bit Platforms

41.7.1 Prerequisites for Software Only Installation on 64-Bit Platforms

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

Prior to Oracle Business Intelligence software only installation, you must install the latest Oracle WebLogic Server wls1033_generic.jar in MW_Home with 64-bit JDK. Then install Oracle Business Intelligence in the same MW_Home.

41.7.2 Supported Installation Types for Oracle Business Intelligence on 64-Bit Platforms

Different types of installation options available for Oracle Business Intelligence are as follows:

  • Simple Install

    Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

    This installs 32-bit JVM and 32-bit Oracle WebLogic Server. Oracle Business Intelligence Server is a 64-bit system on 64-bit platforms. Simple Install is supported on the following 64-bit Platforms only:

    • Linux x86-64

    • Windows x86-64

    However, for production the recommended installation type is software only install with 64-bit Oracle WebLogic Server and 64-bit JDK.

  • Software Only Install

    This installs software binary files in an Oracle home for later configuration as part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware deployment process. This installation type is required if you want to install Oracle Business Intelligence with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system.

    Recommended installation steps for 64-bit platforms are as follows:

    • Install 64-bit Oracle WebLogic Server with 64-bit JDK.

    • Choose Oracle Business Intelligence Software Only Install option.

    • Once software only install process is complete, select Configure.

  • Enterprise Install

    Since 11.1.1.6.0 release, Enterprise Install for Oracle Business Intelligence is supported on 64-bit systems. For details, refer to Section 4.5.2, "Enterprise Install for New Installations" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.7.3 Considerations and Limitations of Enterprise Install Type for Scaling Out Existing Installations

To scale out an existing installation with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system, do not select the Enterprise Install type option. Select the Software Only Install type instead.

For details, refer to Section 4.4.4, "Software Only Install" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.8 Oracle Business Intelligence Analyses and Dashboards Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence analyses and dashboards. It includes the following topics:

41.8.1 General Analyses and Dashboards Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence analyses and dashboards. It includes the following topics:

41.8.1.1 Existing Dashboard Prompts Based on Columns Renamed in the Business Model Do Not Work

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If a column is renamed in the Business Model, then existing dashboard prompts based on that column do not work with newly created analyses.

The workaround is to use Catalog Manager to rename the column in the catalog.

41.8.1.2 Gauge Views May Be Cut Off and Not Visible Under Certain Conditions

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

Under certain conditions, if the size of the canvas assigned to a gauge view is very small, and the legend is set to display on the left, then some of the gauges in the gauge view may be cut off and not visible.

The workaround is to edit the gauge view and change the Legend position to Right, Top, or Bottom. Alternatively, you can increase the size of the gauge view canvas so that all gauges display.

41.8.1.3 Numerical Units on a Dashboard Prompt Slider Might Not Be Translated Correctly

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The numerical units (such as million or billion) that are displayed on a dashboard prompt slider might not be translated correctly.

The workaround is to modify the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file as follows:

  1. Open the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file for editing. You can find the file here:

    ORACLE_INSTANCE\bifoundation\web\msgdb\l_XX\messages\uicmsgs

  2. Ensure that each entry for a numerical unit (such as tag name kmsgSliderBillion, kmsgSliderMillion, or kmsgSliderDecillion) is translated correctly.

  3. Restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components. For information on how to restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

41.8.1.4 After Printing a Dashboard Page Using the Safari Browser on Windows, the Page No Longer Responds to Certain Left Clicks

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

After you print a dashboard page in PDF or HTML format using the Safari browser on Windows, the dashboard page no longer responds to certain left clicks, for example, a left click to print again or to change tabs.

The workaround is to exit and reopen the dashboard page. Alternatively, press and hold down the Ctrl key and then left-click.

41.8.1.5 Scorecard Diagrams on Dashboard Pages May Print as Tables

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When you print a dashboard page that contains multiple scorecard diagrams (for example a strategy tree, strategy map, custom view, and cause & effect map) in PDF or HTML format, some of the diagrams might print as tables rather than diagrams.

The workaround is to scroll down the page and wait until all the diagrams have fully rendered before printing.

41.8.1.6 Using Maps with Column Selectors

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you want to use a column selector view with map views, then ensure that you add all map views to the analysis before you add the column selector view.

41.8.1.7 Issue with Wrap-Around Feature for Maps

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

Release 11.1.1.6.2, Bundle Patch 1 includes the wrap-around feature in map views. This feature allows you to pan the map to a point where lines on the map are unbroken, such as when showing an airline flight path from San Francisco to Tokyo. If you use this feature, then you might notice that the portion of the map that has been wrapped might not render correctly when printing or exporting the view. This issue has no workaround.

41.8.1.8 Inability to Delete Map Tiles in MapViewer

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

You might see an error message when trying to delete a tile layer from the Manage Map Tiles page of Oracle MapViewer. To work around this issue, either directly delete the tile layer from the database, or delete it using the Map Builder tool.

This bug affects all versions of Oracle BI EE that use MapViewer version "Ver11_1_1_7_B120531". You can see the version of MapViewer that the Oracle BI EE installation is using by opening the MapViewer page in a browser and clicking the Home tab. Find the version number at the bottom-left corner of the page.

41.8.1.9 Support for Rendering Small Form-Factor Graphs

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This release includes support for rendering small form-factor graphs, for example, graphs that are 75 pixels X 25 pixels or 68 pixels X 18 pixels. Small form-factor graphs are also referred to as micrographs.

To render a small form-factor graph:

  1. Edit the analysis.

  2. Edit the graph.

  3. Click the Edit graph properties toolbar button to display the Graph Properties dialog.

  4. In the General tab, make the following settings:

    • In the Legend Location box, select None.

    • Deselect the Animate graph on Display box.

  5. Click the Style tab and make the following settings:

    • In the Style box in the Graph Data area, select Default.

    • In the Plot area, select the Specify option for Gridlines.

    • For Major Grid, deselect the Horizontal Lines and Vertical Lines boxes.

    • For Minor Grid, deselect the Horizontal Lines box.

    • In the Legend area, deselect the Transparent box.

    • In the Canvas Colors and Borders area, deselect the Gradient box.

  6. Click the Titles and Labels tab and make the following settings:

    • In the Graph Title area, deselect the Use measure name as graph title box.

    • In the Axis titles area, deselect the following boxes:

      • Use measure name as axis title for Vertical Axis 1 Title

      • Use measure name as axis title for Vertical Axis 2 Title

      • Use column name as axis title for Horizontal Axis Title

  7. Click OK to close the Graph Properties dialog.

  8. Click Done to close the Graph editor.

  9. Click the Analysis editor: Advanced tab.

  10. Save a copy of the existing XML in the XML Code box as a backup.

  11. In the XML Code box in the Analysis XML area, add the following attribute to the display element for the graph that you want to render as a small form-factor graph:

    useAutoLayout="false"

    For example:

    <saw:display type="line" subtype="default" renderFormat="flash" mode="online" xAxisLiveScrolling="false" yAxisLiveScrolling="false" clientEventEnabled="false"  animateOnDisplay="false" useAutoLayout="false">

    Important:

    Do not use this setting for a graph that is a reasonable size, such as, a graph that is 400 pixels X 300 pixels. Doing so may result in undesirable graph behavior or loss of information.

  12. Click Apply XML.

  13. Click Save Analysis.

41.8.1.10 Analyses Whose Paths Contain Latin Supplement Characters Fail to Open on Dashboard Pages

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6

Analyses whose paths contain Latin Supplement characters fail to open on dashboard pages when the locale is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, or Arabic and you are using Internet Explorer 7 as the Web browser.

The workaround is to append &charset=utf-8 to the URL.

41.8.1.11 In Selection Steps Search for Members in Hierarchical Columns That Are Non-Text Yields No Results

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When working with selection steps, if you search for members in hierarchical columns that are non-text (for example, date or time), then the search will yield no results.

This issue has no workaround.

41.8.1.12 Interactions on Right-Click Menus Are Not Translated

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The interactions on right-click menus for table views and pivot table views are not translated.

41.8.1.13 Issues with the Alignment of Trellis Views

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6.2

If you notice any issues with the alignment of trellis views, then you can manually edit a configuration file to adjust the alignment.

Locate the xdo.cfg file in the following directory:

config/OracleBIJavahostComponent/coreapplication_objh1

and increase the value of the fo-chunk-size setting.

41.8.2 Actions Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to actions. It includes the following topic:

41.8.2.1 EJBs in Action Framework Must Be Deployed to the WebLogic Managed Server

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

A limitation currently exists in the Action Framework functionality when creating actions to invoke Java methods in EJBs. Only EJBs deployed within the same J2EE container as the Action Framework services (by default the WebLogic Managed Server) are available to the Action Framework.

The workaround is to invoke a target EJB. To do so, implement one of the following methods:

  • Deploy the target EJB to the WebLogic Managed Server in the BI domain (adhering to any license restrictions for WebLogic Server).

  • Deploy a gateway EJB/Web service on the WebLogic Managed Server specifically to invoke the remote EJB.

  • Expose the remote EJB as a Web service.

  • Deploy a gateway Web service on the remote location to invoke the EJB.

41.8.3 Scorecards and KPI Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to scorecards and KPIs. It includes the following topics:

41.8.3.1 No Results Returned When Searching in the Related Documents of Scorecards or Scorecard Components

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

You can use the full-text catalog search functionality to search in most catalog objects and related documents. Currently, the full-text catalog search functionality searches in scorecards themselves and in the names of related documents, but it does not search in the content of related documents for scorecards.

41.8.3.2 Accessing a Smart Watchlist from the Oracle Secure Enterprise Search Results Page Causes an Error

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

If Oracle BI Enterprise Edition is configured with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search, and from the search results page you attempt to open a smart watchlist, an error occurs and the following error message displays:

doPost.searchServletDisabled :To test the feed servlet using a browser, run servlet with '-Doracle.ecsf.crawl.mode.debug=true'

There is no workaround for this issue.

41.8.3.3 Item Stale Error When Editing a Shared Scorecard in Parallel

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When using a shared Oracle BI Presentation Catalog and a scaled-out configuration of Oracle BI Presentation Services, users might see "Item Stale : <scorecard path>" errors, when they edit a shared scorecard in parallel.

The workaround to prevent this error is to turn off the Oracle BI Presentation Services Catalog Attribute Cache. To do so, set the following in the instanceconfig.xml file:

<ps:Cache xmlns:ps="oracle.bi.presentation.services/config/v1.1">
  <ps:CatalogAttributes>
    <ps:Enabled>false</ps:Enabled>
  </ps:CatalogAttributes>
</ps:Cache>

For more information on the cache, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

41.8.4 Agents Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to agents. It includes the following topics:

41.8.4.1 Agent Deliveries Fail with Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Virtual Directory

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are using Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Virtual Directory, then agent deliveries fail.

The workaround is to apply the Oracle Virtual Directory Patch Number 9904956 - GUID Returned for AD User Cannot Be Used in Search Filter.

41.8.4.2 Agent Incorrectly Delivers Content to Active Delivery Profile When Only the Home Page and Dashboard Option Is Selected

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When you specify that an agent is to deliver content only to the Home page and dashboard pages by selecting the Home Page and Dashboard option and deselecting the Devices option in the Destination tab of the Agent editor, there is a known issue where the agent delivers content to the active delivery profile even though the Devices option is deselected.

The workaround is to set the priority of the agent so that it does not match an existing delivery profile.

41.8.5 Microsoft Office Integration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the integration between Oracle Business Intelligence and Microsoft Office. It includes the following topics:

41.8.5.1 Using Microsoft Office 2007 with Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you use Microsoft Office 2007 with Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office, then ensure that Office 2007 SP1 at minimum is installed. If you do not, you might encounter file interchangeability issues between Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 2003.

For more detailed information on versions, see the certification document available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html

41.8.5.2 Server Connections Are Not Automatically Shared by Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint on the same computer share Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office connections. If you create a connection in Excel, then that connection is also available in PowerPoint. However, if you create an Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office connection in Excel while PowerPoint is open, then the connection is not displayed in PowerPoint, and vice versa.

The workaround to create a connection to be shared between Excel and PowerPoint is to ensure that the other Microsoft Office application is closed. Alternatively, you can close both Excel and PowerPoint, and reopen them as needed in order to see connections available in both Excel and PowerPoint.

41.8.5.3 Previous Installation of Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office Must Be Manually Uninstalled

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office 11g installer does not uninstall previous versions of Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office. Therefore, you must manually uninstall any previous Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office installations before installing Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office.

For more information on installing Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office, see Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

41.8.5.4 Errors in the Online Help for Oracle BI Add-In for Microsoft Office

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The following errors are in the online help for Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office:

  • In the "Creating a Connection to the Oracle BI Office Server" topic, in Step 1, "From the ribbon, select New" is incorrect. The correct instruction for Step 1 is "From the Ribbon, select Preferences. From Preferences, select the New tab." (This applies to Excel and PowerPoint.)

  • In the "Changing the Default Style Template" topic, in Step 1, the location given for the default template is valid only for Windows 32-bit installations. In Windows 64-bit installations, the default location is <BI Office installation directory>\ BIOfficeExcel|Template. (This applies to Excel.)

  • The "Setting Log Levels" topic should state that users must have proper access permission to the log file location. (This applies to Excel and PowerPoint.)

41.8.5.5 Refreshing Table or Pivot Table Views with Double Columns in Page Edge Might Result in Error

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

In Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Excel, you cannot refresh table views or pivot table views with double columns in the page edge. To work around this issue, ensure that double columns are not in the page edge (also called table prompt in table views and the pivot prompt in pivot table views).

41.8.5.6 Double Column Cascading Results in Incorrect Display Values

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If double columns are used in cascaded prompts for both columns, then you might see code being displayed instead of the correct display values.

41.8.5.7 Intermittent Timeout Errors

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If the BI Office Server is configured to connect to Presentation Services through Oracle HTTP Server (OHS), then you might see intermittent error messages that are caused by the timeout of a request. To work around this issue, increase the Keepalive timeout value for OHS to 15 seconds or more.

41.8.5.8 Lack of Support for Vary Color By Target Area

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

If you use the Vary Color By target area for graph views when creating analyses in Oracle BI EE, then you might find that the results are displayed incorrectly in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.

41.8.5.9 Measure Column Labels May Display Incorrectly When Inserted into Microsoft Excel

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Measure column labels in the section edge or the page edge (also called table prompt in table views and the pivot prompt in pivot table views) of table and pivot table views may display incorrectly when inserted into Microsoft Excel.

The workaround is to not use measure columns in the section edge or page edge.

41.8.5.10 Stacked Graphs Do Not Display Negative Values

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Stacked graphs do not display negative values when they are inserted into Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint. This happens because the default Microsoft graph engine, which governs these graphs, does not display negative values.

41.8.5.11 Scatter Graphs with Lines Display as Default Scatter Graphs in Excel and PowerPoint

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When you select the scatter graph with lines graph style to insert into Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint, the default scatter graph (without lines) is displayed instead. This happens because Microsoft does not support scatter graphs with lines.

41.8.5.12 Graphs With Section Edges Are Not Supported in Release 11.1.1.6.x

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Release 11.1.1.6.x of Oracle BI Add-In for Microsoft Office Release does not support graphs with section edges. Therefore, if a graph with section edges was inserted using Release 11.1.1.5.0 of Oracle BI Add-In for Microsoft Office Release, an error will be returned when it is refreshed in Release 11.1.1.6.0.

41.8.5.13 Refreshing Table Views in Arabic or German Versions of Excel Result in Incorrect Data Values

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

In German or Arabic Versions of Microsoft Excel 2007 or 2010, number formatting might be lost after table views that have been secured are refreshed.

41.8.5.14 Inserting a View With a Grand Total Column or Row into Microsoft Office May Cause Issues

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Views that use the "before" location to show row-level grand totals overwrite values in the first column of the analysis when they are inserted into Microsoft Excel.

Views that use the "before" location to show column-level grand totals return errors when they are inserted into Microsoft PowerPoint.

The workaround is to use the "after" location instead.

41.8.5.15 Time Displayed in Table or Pivot View Title May Be Incorrect after Insertion

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If "Display time to be shown in the title" is selected for a table or pivot view, the time shown in the title after the table or pivot is inserted into Microsoft Office might be incorrect.

41.8.5.16 Graphs Might Be Displayed Differently After Insertion into Microsoft Office

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Graphs that are inserted into Microsoft Office might be plotted differently in Microsoft Office than they are in Oracle BI EE. In horizontal bar graphs, the horizontal-axis series might be displayed in reverse order. In stacked graphs, the stack order might be reversed. This is caused by the Microsoft graph engine.

41.8.5.17 Legends in Bubble and Scatter Graphs Might Display Differently After Insertion into Microsoft Office

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Legends in bubble and scatter graphs displayed in Microsoft Office do not include coordinate values on the horizontal axis. This means that the number of legends as well as the colors displayed for each data series might not match those displayed in Oracle BI EE.

This issue has no workaround.

41.8.5.18 Help System Does Not Work When Running Oracle BI Office for PowerPoint in Norwegian or Polish

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When running Oracle BI Office for PowerPoint in Norwegian or Polish, clicking Oracle BI Help has no effect. The expected behavior is to display the help system in English.

The workaround is as follows:

  1. Navigate to the <Oracle BI Office installation folder>\BIOfficePowerPoint\Help directory. For example, C:\Program Files\Oracle\BIOfficePowerPoint\Help.

  2. Copy powerpointaddin_help.chm, paste it twice, and rename one powerpointaddin_helpno.chm and the other powerpointaddin_helppl.chm.

41.9 Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile. It includes the following topics:

41.9.1 No Scrolling to View Offscreen Content If User Language is Arabic or Hebrew

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

This visibility issue applies only to BI content that would be hidden offscreen until scrolling over to see it. If the user language has been set to Arabic or Hebrew, then you cannot drag or scroll to view further BI content in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application on your iPhone or iPad.

41.9.2 Bi-directional Text Layout Not Supported by BI Mobile Client Shell UI

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When using the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile client with a bi-directional language like Hebrew or Arabic, the client shell does not show the layout correctly.

41.9.3 Mobile Device Accessibility Features May Not Work With Oracle BI Mobile Application

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

Apple iPhone and iPad accessibility features such as VoiceOver and Mono Audio might not work or might work only partially in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application.

This issue has no workaround.

41.9.4 Briefing Books Content Visible in User's Catalog Is Not Viewable in the Mobile Application

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

Briefing books content is not supported in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application in Release 11.1.1.5.0.

Users are unable to open a briefing book or view any content from a briefing book on the Oracle BI Mobile application. However, briefing books' titles might appear in the mobile application in a user's catalog or in a list of favorites.

41.9.5 Multitasking Gestures on iPad iOS 4 and iOS 5 Are Not Supported

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile does not support the iOS 4 and iOS 5 fast application-switching multitasking feature. Therefore, if you switch from the Oracle BI Mobile application to another application and then return to the Oracle BI Mobile application, the Oracle BI Mobile application restarts. The Oracle BI Mobile application's state, resources, and user interface are not saved.

41.9.6 BI Publisher Prompts Viewed in BI Mobile Display Differently Than in the Desktop Application

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0

This issue applies only to BI Publisher reports. When you use a Release 11.1.1.5.0 or 11.1.1.6.0 BI Mobile client against a Release 11.1.1.6.0 server, some BI Publisher prompts behave differently than they do in the desktop application. For example:

  • Text prompt. The prompt shows a list with default values; the prompt does not show the filter icon for changing the value.

  • Date prompt. The prompt shows a list with default values; the prompt does not show the filter icon for changing the value.

  • Radio buttons prompt. The prompt shows a list with default values; the prompt does not show the filter icon for changing the value.

  • Checkboxes prompt. The prompt shows a menu allowing selection of a single value, rather than the multiple-value selection allowed in the desktop application.

41.10 Oracle BI Publisher Reporting and Publishing Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher. It includes the following topics:

41.10.1 General Oracle BI Publisher Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher. It includes the following topics:

41.10.1.1 JDBC Driver Throws Unsupported Function for setBigDecimal

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Data models that include a link between a data set of SQL query type against an Oracle database and a data set of SQL query type against the BI Server based on a numeric database column (used to create a parent-child hierarchical XML data structure with the SQL query against the Oracle database as the parent data set) fail to execute and return the following error: "Java.sql.SQLException: unsupported function at oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcPreparedStatement.setBigDecimal."

41.10.1.2 Searching the Catalog from the Oracle BI Publisher User Interface Does Not Work When BI Publisher Is Integrated with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

When Oracle BI Publisher is installed in integrated mode with Oracle BI EE, searching the catalog from the BI Publisher user interface (that is, the URL is of the form "http://<host>:<port>/xmlpserver/...") does not work and the following message is returned:

Result Not found
Your search - <search criteria> - did not match any documents.

The workaround is to search the catalog from the Oracle BI EE user interface (that is, the URL is of the form "http://<host>:<port>/analytics/...").

41.10.1.3 Data Source List in BI Publisher Administration Page Includes Data Sources That Are Not Supported

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

When configuring a JDBC data source connection or an OLAP connection, the list provided in the BI Publisher Add Data Source page may include data sources that are not supported in this release. For the most current list of supported data sources, refer to the "System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 11gR1." The system requirements document is available from this link:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html

It is listed with the documents grouped under the Product Area "Additional Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.x) Certifications."

41.10.1.4 Menu Items Do Not Display When Using Internet Explorer 7 or 8 with a Bidirectional Language Preference

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are using Internet Explorer 7 as the Web browser and you have selected a bidirectional language for your user interface preference (such as Arabic or Hebrew), then the menu options from the global header do not display.

To work around this problem using Internet Explorer 8: On the Tools menu select Compatibility View Settings; clear the "Display intranet sites in Compatibility View" check box. Or, use another supported Web browser.

41.10.1.5 Data Source Definition for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Does Not Get Saved

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

When you create an OLAP data source connection to a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services data source in the BI Publisher Administration interface, the data source is not saved after you click the Apply button, even though the connection test succeeds.

To work around this issue, select "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services" as the OLAP Type from the list. Enter the same connection information and click Apply.

41.10.1.6 Issues with Viewing Some Report Formats on Apple iPad

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The Apple iPad does not provide a default viewer for the following output formats:

  • MHTML (impacts Excel and PowerPoint)

  • RTF

The viewer provided for PowerPoint 2007 might distort the layout of characters.

The default PDF viewer has the following issues:

  • Form fields are ignored

    The iPad PDF reader cannot support editable PDF form fields, however, you can still generate the report with static text in the fields. To generate the report with static text, set the report property "Remove PDF fields from output" to True. For information on setting report properties see "Configuring Report Properties" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

  • Secured PDF files do not display at all

  • Signature fields are ignored

  • Bookmarks are ignored

  • Attachments are ignored

  • Flush does not work

  • "Read Out Loud" accessibility feature does not work

Note that these issues are limitations of the provided iPad file readers and cannot be resolved by Oracle.

41.10.1.7 BI Publisher Objects Exhibit Unexpected Behavior When Located Inside a Folder Named with a Single Quote Character

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

In the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, if a folder name contains the single quote character (') BI Publisher reports that reside in that folder do not run and data models might throw unexpected errors. The behavior varies depending on the Web browser.

To work around this issue, do not include single quotes in the names of folders that contain BI Publisher objects.

41.10.1.8 Components Folder Missing from SampleApp Lite Web Catalog

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

Version 11.1.1.5 of the SampleApp Lite Web catalog is missing the Components folder. As a result, shared boilerplates are unavailable when user creates a new BI Publisher type layout for a BI Publisher report. To work around this issue:

  1. Log in with administrator credentials and navigate to the BI Publisher Administration > Server Configuration page.

  2. Under the Catalog region, ensure that the BI Publisher Repository field points to the default path:

    <Install_Home>/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/config/bipublisher/repository

    Then click the Upload to BI Presentation Catalog button.

  3. Navigate to the Catalog page and verify that the Components folder is present under Shared Folders.

Note that this also installs additional BI Publisher sample reports included in the Samples folder. Many of these reports require that the Demo JDBC connection to the OE sample schema, included in Oracle Database, is configured.

41.10.1.9 Boilerplate Templates in the Components Folder Do Not Display Table Borders Properly in Chrome Browsers

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6

Several of the Boilerplate templates in the Components folder included in version 11.1.1.6 of the SampleApp Lite OBIEE Web catalog, when used as the starting point to create an XPT layout, do not display table borders properly in Chrome Browsers. To correct this behavior, replace the Components folder in SampleApp Lite OBIEE Web catalog with the one included with the BI Publisher standalone repository. To do so:

  1. Log in with administrator credentials and navigate to the BI Publisher Administration > Server Configuration page.

  2. Under the Catalog region, ensure that the BI Publisher Repository field points to the default path:

    <Install_Home>/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/config/bipublisher/repository

    Then click the Upload to BI Presentation Catalog button.

  3. Navigate to the Catalog page and verify that the Components folder is present under Shared Folders.

Note that this also installs additional BI Publisher sample reports included in the Samples folder. Many of these reports require that the Demo JDBC connection to the OE sample schema, included in Oracle Database, is configured.

41.10.1.10 Local Policy Attachments (LPAs) Removed from Web Services in Release 11.1.1.5

Impacted Releases: Upgrades from 11.1.1.3 to 11.1.1.6

In Release 11.1.1.5, the local policy attachments were removed from the BI Publisher Web services. If you were using the BI Publisher Web services in Release 11.1.1.3 and you upgrade to 11.1.1.5, then you must perform the following to add a Global Policy Attachment (GPA):

  1. Log in to Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control.

  2. In the left pane, click WegLogic Domain, and then click bifoundation_domain.

  3. In the right pane, click the WebLogic Domain menu and select Web Services and then Policy Sets.

  4. Click Create to create a new policy set.

  5. Enter the following general information:

    • Name - enter any name you choose

    • Enabled - select this box

    • Type of Resources - Web Service Endpoint

    • Description: This GPA will be applied for all JRF-based Web services

      Click Next.

  6. Enter "*" for the Domain Name value. Click Next.

  7. Select the following policy, then click Attach:

    oracle/wss11_saml_or_username_token_with_message_protection_service_policy

  8. Click Next, then click Save. Wait for WebLogic Server to pick up the changes.

  9. In a browser, enter the following URL to verify that the policy you entered is available in the WSDL:

    http://server:port/xmlpserver/services/PublicReportWSSService?wsdl

41.10.1.11 Oracle BI Publisher Requires Oracle WebLogic Server to Run in en_US Locale

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.3

The XDK used by Oracle BI Publisher requires the JVM of the Oracle WebLogic Server to run in en-US locale. Otherwise, functions (such as sum) generate values that cannot be formatted with its number format functions.

To work around this problem, in the script startWebLogic.cmd add the following line to set the required options:

set JAVA_OPTIONS=-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Duser.language=en -Duser.region=US %JAVA_OPTIONS%

For information on setting Java options in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console, see the topic "Set Java options for servers started by Node Manager" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

41.10.1.12 Search May Return Incorrect Number of Results

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Searching for catalog items may yield more results than there actually are. For example, a search on all types of catalog items using "Salary" may show well over 100 results on the first page of the search results, even though there are far fewer actual results.

To find the correct set of results, click the Next button at the bottom of the Result page, then page through the results to find the item that you want.

41.10.1.13 Schedule Report Option Does Not Appear Correctly for Non-Administrator Users

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Users with a role other than Administrator (for example: BI Author and BI Consumer) will not see the Schedule action link under report entries in the catalog; nor will they see the Schedule option under the Action menu when viewing a report.

To work around this issue, users can schedule report jobs by using the "New" menu from the global header or by selecting "Report Job" under the Create section on the Home page.

Alternatively, if an application role is granted the oracle.bi.publisher.scheduleReport permission you can also work around this issue as follows:

  1. Log in to Oracle Business Intelligence as an Administrator.

  2. Navigate to the catalog and select "Shared Folders."

  3. In the Tasks region, select Permissions.

  4. In the Permissions dialog, select the role and explicitly add the permission "Schedule Publisher Report." Select both cascading options.

41.10.1.14 Additional Setup for BI Publisher Desktop Tools in 11.1.1.6.2

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6.2

The BI Publisher Desktop Tools executable delivered under the bi_foundation_domain location is not the latest version.

To work around this issue, copy the BIPublisherDesktop.exe from the clients/bipublisher/repository/Tools location to the bifoundation_domain/config/bipublisher/repository/Tools location

This step is also documented in the 11.1.1.6.2 Read Me file.

41.10.2 Oracle BI Publisher Security Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher security. It includes the following topic:

41.10.2.1 Limitations for Administrator Username in LDAP Security Model

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are using LDAP security model for standalone BI Publisher, the LDAP Administrator Username that you enter on the BI Publisher Security Configuration page must be one of the following.

  • Admin User defined under "Distinguished Name for Users"

  • Admin User with only cn (like cn=Directory Manager) without dc=...

If the Administrator Username entered is not one of the supported options, scheduled jobs will fail with an impersonation error.

41.10.3 Oracle BI Publisher Delivery Manager Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher Delivery Manager.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.10.4 Oracle BI Publisher Scheduler Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher Scheduler. It includes the following topics:

41.10.4.1 Scheduler Does Not Support Multibyte Characters When Schema Installed on Microsoft SQL Server

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are using Microsoft SQL Server as the BI Publisher scheduler database, using multibyte characters in the Schedule Report Job page might result in a garbled character display. To work around this issue, do not use multibyte characters in the Schedule Report Job submission page.

41.10.4.2 URL in E-mail Notification of Recurring or Future-Dated Jobs May Fail to Display Job History for the Job

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6

During upgrade, the data in 10g scheduler schema will be migrated to 11g scheduler schema. If a report was scheduled in 10g as a recurring job or as a future-dated job and the e-mail notification was set for this job for successful completion/completion with warning/failure, then, after upgrade, the e-mail notification View History URL still points to the 10g server. Clicking the URL in the notification will fail to display job history for the job.

To work around this issue:

  1. After invoking the browser to display the View History page, manually edit the server name and port in the browser address bar to point to the 11g environment and then press Enter.

  2. Log in to the 11g server when prompted to view the report history.

41.10.4.3 After Editing an Existing Job, Immediately Creating a New Job Using "Submit as New" Overwrites the Original Job

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

This issue applies to the following scenario: You wish to edit an existing job and also create a new job based on the original job. To edit the existing schedule job you locate the job in the Manage Report Jobs page and click Edit. Then in the Schedule Report Job page you make the changes and click Submit. If you then immediately make additional edits and click Submit as New (to create the new job) the job you just edited no longer appears in the Manage Report Jobs page.

To work around this issue: After editing the existing job and clicking Submit, then click Return. Choose the job again for editing, make your edits, and then click Submit as New to create the new job.

41.10.5 Oracle BI Publisher RTF Template Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher RTF templates. It includes the following topic:

41.10.5.1 RTF Templates in 11g Require Number Conversion on String Expressions

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The XPath expression in 10g RTF templates that uses XDK 10g allows automatic type conversion for number to string conversion and for string to number conversion. The XPath expression in 11g RTF templates that uses XDK 11g has disabled the automatic type conversion as per the W3C specifications of XSL 2.0. Therefore, expressions that worked in 10g may not work in 11g.

Example 1:

In 10g the following expression returns the expected results:

concat(((ceiling(substring(Order_Date,6,2) div 3) * 3) - 2), '/',   substring(Order_Date,1,4))

In 11g, this expression will fail for the following reasons:

  • The XPath "substring(Order_Date,6,2) div 3" is invalid in XSL 2.0 because the value from substring(...) is a string type, and the DIV operator cannot operate on a string value.

  • The result of XPath "((ceiling(substring(Order_Date,6,2) div 3) * 3) - 2)" is a number type. The concat(...) function expects a list of string type parameters

To achieve the desired results in 11g, enter the following instead:

concat(string((ceiling(number(substring(Order_Date,6,2)) div 3) * 3) - 2),   '/', substring(Order_Date,1,4))

Example 2:

The following functions return a string data type and any calculation in 10g will work on these functions:

xdoxslt:minimum(...) 
xdoxslt:maximum(...)

In 11g, to perform a calculation on these functions, you must convert them into a number data type as follows:

number(xdoxslt:minimum(...)) 
number(xdoxslt:maximum(...))

41.10.6 Oracle BI Publisher Excel Template Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher Excel templates. It includes the following topic:

41.10.6.1 Limitations for Excel Template Output on Apple iPad

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Due to limitations with the native Excel reader on the Apple iPad, Excel template output documents will have the following limitations when viewed on the iPad:

  • Formulas intended to dynamically calculate in the output will not work

  • Macros will not execute

  • Pivot tables cannot be refreshed

  • Hyperlinks will not work

  • Workbook headers and footers will not display

  • If using the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application on an iPad, the parameters will not show. However, if accessing the report via the Safari browser, the parameters will display.

41.10.7 Oracle BI Publisher Desktop Tools Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher desktop tools. It includes the following topics:

41.10.7.1 Oracle BI Publisher's Template Builder for Microsoft Word Is Not Compatible with Microsoft Office Live Add-in

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Oracle BI Publisher´s Template Builder for Microsoft Word is not compatible with Microsoft Office Live Add-in. The presence of Microsoft Office Live Add-in might cause errors when attempting to install the Template Builder or other unexpected behavior.

To work around this issue, uninstall Microsoft Office Live Add-in.

41.10.8 Oracle BI Publisher Layout Editor Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher layout editor. It includes the following topic:

41.10.8.1 Editing an XPT Layout and Clicking Return in Layout Editor Results in Exception

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

When viewing a report using a layout that is not set as the Default Layout, and you select Edit Layout from the Report Viewer's action drop-down menu to open the layout in the layout editor, and then you click Return, you might encounter the following issue: The Report Viewer tries to open the report using the default output format (PDF, HTML, and so on) specified for the default layout. This might cause the report to fail with the following error if the default output format for the default layout is not one of the output formats allowed for the selected layout:

The report cannot be rendered because of an error, please contact the administrator. Error Detail oracle.xdo.servlet.data.DataException: Invalid format requested: html

41.10.8.2 Interactive Viewer May Return Unexpected Results from Formula Columns

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The Oracle JDBC driver does not contain a valid data type code for FORMULA columns in SQL. As a result, the data model shows these columns as INTEGER, even when the column is of another type.

The new interactive viewer engine introduced in 11.1.1.6 tries to convert the data to INTEGER. In most cases this results in "null" values for the formula data field (unless the INTEGER data type is appropriate). The new engine does not display any data for these values.

To work around this issue: In most cases switching to the backwards compatibility mode will enable the interactive viewer to render the data.

To switch to backwards compatibility mode: Choose Edit Report and then click Properties. On the Properties dialog, click the Formatting tab and scroll down to the All Outputs group. Set Use 11.1.1.5 compatibility mode to True.

41.10.8.3 Interactive Viewer Returns Incorrect Results for Data Aggregation Functions When the Data Set Is Not a Single, Flat Data Set

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

In the interactive viewer, data aggregation functions return an incorrect value when the base data set is not a single, flat data set. Note that other output types (HTML, PDF, and so on) are not affected.

To work around this issue: Switch to the backwards compatibility to render the correct results.

To switch to backwards compatibility mode: Choose Edit Report and then click Properties. On the Properties dialog, click the Formatting tab and scroll down to the All Outputs group. Set Use 11.1.1.5 compatibility mode to True.

41.10.8.4 Division Results Rounded Inconsistently When Used with the #,##0 Custom Format Mask

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5.0, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Division results for calculated columns created in Layout Editor are rounded inconsistently when the custom format mask #,##0 is applied to the column results. For example, 7/3 = 3.5 is rounded to 4. But 9/5 = 4.5 is rounded to 4.

41.10.9 Oracle BI Publisher Data Model Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher data models. It includes the following topics:

41.10.9.1 Data Model Is Not Editable When Created by Upgrade Assistant

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

A report that is upgraded from Release 10g to 11g will have a report and a data model created by the Upgrade Assistant. The upgraded data model when seen in the data model editor will not show diagram, data structure and the equivalent code for the data structure. Moreover, the developer or administrator will not be able to edit the data structure. This means that the data model will not allow the developer or administrator to use the Release 11g features editable XML View and Business View.

The workaround is as follows:

  1. Open the data model for editing.

  2. Copy the SQL query statement from the data set.

  3. Create a new data set in the same data model. The following warning is displayed:

    "Adding this type of Data Set may break layouts that refer to this data model."

  4. Click OK.

  5. Paste the SQL query into the new data set dialog.

  6. Enter a name for the dataset.

  7. Click OK.

  8. Delete the original data set. The following warning is displayed:

    "This item is set as main dataset. Do you want to delete this item?"

  9. Click OK.

  10. Change the data structure in XML View to reflect ROWSET/ROW structure of XML.

  11. Save the data model.

41.10.9.2 After Editing a View Object Data Set, the Elements Are Duplicated

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

In the data model editor if you edit a data set of the type View Object, after you click OK, all the elements in the data set will be duplicated.

To work around this issue, you must delete the data set and recreate it.

41.10.10 Oracle BI Publisher Report Building Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to building reports with Oracle BI Publisher. It includes the following topic:

41.10.10.1 No Direct Conversion Between Oracle Reports and Oracle BI Publisher 11g

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6

There is no direct conversion between Oracle Reports and Oracle BI Publisher 11g. To convert a report created in Oracle Reports to an Oracle BI Publisher report, follow the two step process:

  1. Convert the Oracle Reports report to an Oracle BI Publisher 10g report following the instructions in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Report Designer's Guide(10g):

    https://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12844_01/doc/bip.1013/e12187/T518230T518393.htm

  2. Upgrade Oracle BI Publisher 10g to Oracle BI Publisher 11g following the instructions in Oracle Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Release 1 (11.1.1).

41.10.10.2 "Enable Bursting" Report Property Displays Enabled State When Disabled

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6, 11.1.1.6.2

When a report references a data model that includes a bursting definition, you can choose to enable a specific bursting definition for a report in the Report Properties dialog. If you choose to disable bursting by clearing the Enable Bursting check box, the check box will still display as enabled the next time you open the Report Properties dialog. However, the actual state of the check box is disabled. You can verify the state by creating a schedule job for the report. If the Output tab of the Schedule Report Job page includes the option "Use Bursting Definition to Determine Output & Delivery Destination" then the report property is enabled. If this option is not visible, then the property is disabled.

If the Enable Bursting check box displays as enabled, but the actual state is disabled and you wish to re-enable bursting, clear the check box, then select it again, and click OK.

41.10.11 Oracle BI Publisher Documentation Errata

This section describes Oracle BI Publisher documentation errata. It includes the following topics:

41.10.11.1 Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher. It includes the following topics:

41.10.11.1.1 Syntax Error in "Column Formatting" Section of the "Creating an RTF Template" Chapter

In the "Creating an RTF Template" chapter, under the topic "Conditional Formatting," and subtopic "Column Formatting," the example contains a syntax error.

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

In the table that begins on page 74-68 of the PDF version of the book, the second "IF" statement entry (that precedes the entry "20") incorrectly shows the Form Field Entry as <?if@column:/items/@type="PRIVATE"?>

The correct entry is:

<?if@cell:/items/@type="PRIVATE"?>

41.10.11.1.2 Required Location of ICC Profile Data File for PDF/X and PDF/A Output Incorrectly Documented

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6, 11.1.1.6.2

BI Publisher includes a set of run-time properties to configure the new output types PDF/A and PDF/X. The PDF/X output type requires the setting of the property "PDF/X ICC Profile Data". For PDF/A, the setting of "PDF/A ICC Profile Data" is optional. The description of these properties in the "Setting Report Processing and Output Document Properties" chapter incorrectly states that the value of each property must be the path to the profile data file. Instead, the profile data file must be placed under <bi publisher repository>/Admin/Configuration and the value of the property must be the file name. Table 41-2 provides a detailed revision of the two required PDF/X properties: PDF/X ICC Profile Data and PDF/X output condition identifier.

Table 41-2 PDF/X Output Properties

Property Name Description

PDF/X ICC Profile Data

Default: None

Description: (Required) The name of the ICC profile data file, for example: CoatedFOGRA27.icc.

The ICC (International Color Consortium) profile is a binary file describing the color characteristics of the intended output device. (For more information, see the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile). For production environments, the color profile may be provided by your print vendor or by the printing company that prints the generated PDF/X file. The file must be placed under <bi publisher repository>/Admin/Configuration.

Profile data is also available from Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/support) or colormanagement.org (http://www.colormanagement.org/).

Internal Name: pdfx-dest-output-profile-data

PDF/X output condition identifier

Default: None

Description: (Required) The name of one of the standard printing conditions registered with ICC (International Color Consortium). The list of standard CMYK printing conditions to use with PDF/X-1a is provided on the following ICC website: http://www.color.org/chardata/drsection1.xalter. The value that you enter for this property is a valid "Reference name," for example: FOGRA43.

Choose the appropriate value for the intended printing environment. This name is often used to guide automatic processing of the file by the consumer of the PDF/X document, or to inform the default settings in interactive applications.

Internal Name: pdfx-output-condition-identifier

For PDF/A output, if you choose to set the "PDF/A ICC Profile Data" property, the ICC profile data file must also be placed under <bi publisher repository>/Admin/Configuration and the value of the property must be the file name.

41.10.11.1.3 Support for Dynamic Links in Layout Editor Not Documented

In the "Creating BI Publisher Layout Templates" chapter, the procedure for adding a dynamic hyperlink to a field in a table column is not documented.

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6, 11.1.1.6.2

To add a dynamic hyperlink a table column:

  1. Select the table column.

  2. Click Properties. The column properties include an option to enter a URL.

  3. In the URL field, enter the static portion of the URL and embed the absolute path to the element that provides the dynamic portion of the URL within curly braces {}. For example:

    http://example.com/show_page?id={/DATA/GROUP1/ELEMENT_NAME}

    where http://example.com/show_page?id= is the static portion of the URL and {/DATA/GROUP1/ELEMENT_NAME} is the absolute path to the element in the data that supplies the dynamic portion.

41.10.11.1.4 Link to "Advanced Barcode Font Formatting" Points to Wrong Guide

In the "Creating RTF Templates" chapter, the section "Implementing Custom Barcode Formats" incorrectly states that the topic "Advanced Barcode Font Formatting" is found in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher. The topic is instead found in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6, 11.1.1.6.2

41.10.11.2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's and Developer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.11 Oracle Business Intelligence Metadata Repository Development Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to developing Oracle Business Intelligence metadata repositories. It includes the following topics:

41.11.1 General Metadata Repository Development Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to developing Oracle Business Intelligence metadata repositories. It includes the following topics:

41.11.1.1 Use of NQClient (BI ODBC Client) Utility Is Deprecated

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

The NQClient (BI ODBC Client) utility was fully deprecated in Release 11g (11.1.1.3) and should not be used. Instead, use the nqcmd utility or one of the many widely available third-party ODBC/JDBC tools to satisfy previous NQClient functionality.

41.11.1.2 Update Logical Table Source Modeling when Using paint.rpd for Testing

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

In paint.rpd, aggregated data at different levels is stored in the same fact table, which means that the same physical fact table is mapped to the logical table at different levels. To ensure that only rows from one level are returned, WHERE clause filters such as LEVELX = 'MONTH' or LEVELX = 'YEAR' exist in the logical table sources.

In releases prior to Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3), if two logical table sources for the same logical table were mapped to the same physical table, and both logical table sources were used in a query, and both logical table sources had a WHERE clause filter, then the filter from only one of the logical table sources was applied. The other WHERE clause filter was ignored.

Starting with Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3), in this situation, the WHERE clause filters from both logical table sources are applied to the query. Because of this, when paint.rpd queries select attributes from multiple levels, then the query hits multiple logical table sources, and the WHERE clause filters added to the query contradict one another. For example, the following condition is always false because LEVELX cannot be both MONTH and YEAR at the same time:

T863.LEVELX = 'MONTH' and T863.LEVELX = 'YEAR'

If you use paint.rpd for testing, then use one of the following methods to correct the modeling:

  • Use physical table aliases to ensure that the same physical table is not mapped to the logical table at different levels.

  • Disable the higher-level logical table source so that the query hits only the detailed logical table source.

Note that paint.rpd is not optimized for this release of Oracle BI EE and should not be used as a basis for any repositories in production environments. Consider using SampleApp.rpd instead. You can find the full version of SampleApp.rpd at:

http://oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

41.11.1.3 FIRST and LAST Aggregation Rules Cause Inconsistent Sorting for Time Dimensions

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

The FIRST and LAST aggregation rules always use the primary level key to determine the sort order of the dimension members. This might cause inconsistent sort order for time dimensions, because the primary level key is used for the sort rather than the chronological key.

To work around this issue, specify the same column used for the chronological key as the primary level key.

41.11.1.4 Oracle OLAP Jars on JavaHost Computer Must Be Updated When Using Oracle OLAP 11.2.x

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Currently, Oracle BI EE includes the 11.1.x version of the OLAP API jar file (olap_api.jar). If you are using Oracle OLAP version 11.2.x as a data source for Oracle BI EE, you must update the OLAP API jar file on all computers running the JavaHost process to version 11.2.x.

To update the olap_api.jar file used by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to version 11.2.x:

  1. Back up the current olap_api.jar file used by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition at:

    ORACLE_BI_EE_HOME/bifoundation/javahost/lib/obisintegration/aw/11g

  2. Copy the olap_api.jar file from your Oracle Database home at:

    ORACLE_DB_HOME/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/olap/api/lib

  3. Paste the copied jar to the Oracle BI EE location:

    ORACLE_BI_EE_HOME/bifoundation/javahost/lib/obisintegration/aw/11g

As an alternative to performing the steps in this section, you can configure the Oracle BI Server to use a servlet for Oracle OLAP communication instead of the JavaHost. See Section 41.11.1.7, "Configuring a Servlet for Oracle BI Server Communication with Oracle OLAP" for more information.

41.11.1.5 Must Use JDBC Connection String When Importing from Oracle OLAP

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Because the Administration Tool uses the JavaHost process to connect to Oracle OLAP data sources for metadata import, which uses JDBC to connect rather than OCI, you must provide a fully-qualified JDBC connection string (host:port:sid) for Data Source Name in the Import Wizard in the Administration Tool when importing from Oracle OLAP sources. Ensure that the JavaHost process can connect to the Oracle OLAP data source using this connection string.

After import is complete, you must update the connection pool object in the Physical layer for the Oracle OLAP source to change the Data Source Name to a valid OCI value, either a net service name or a full OCI connect string.

As an alternative to performing the steps in this section, you can configure the Oracle BI Server to use a servlet for Oracle OLAP communication instead of the JavaHost. See Section 41.11.1.7, "Configuring a Servlet for Oracle BI Server Communication with Oracle OLAP" for more information.

41.11.1.6 Using the BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar Utility to Change Connection Pool Passwords

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When moving your Oracle BI repository from test to production (T2P), you often need to change connection pool information for data sources, because the connection information in test environments is typically different from the connection information in production environments.

Connection pool passwords are encrypted and stored inside the encrypted repository file. Because of this, plain-text passwords must first be encrypted before they can be applied to an Oracle BI repository.

You can use the BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar utility to programmatically change and encrypt connection pool passwords in a repository. Note that the utility only works with repositories in RPD format; you cannot use the utility with MDS XML-format repositories. In addition, the utility requires JDK 1.6.

To use the BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar utility to change connection pool passwords:

  1. Download patch 13093027 to obtain BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

  2. Copy BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar into the ORACLE_HOME/bifoundation/server/bin directory on the computer where the Oracle BI Server is running.

  3. Run bi-init to launch a command prompt or shell window that is initialized to your Oracle instance. You can find bi-init in:

    ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIApplication/coreapplication/setup

    See "Running bi-init to Launch a Shell Window Initialized to Your Oracle Instance" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information.

  4. Run BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar using the -generate option to generate a template file where you can input the new passwords, as follows:

    java -jar ORACLE_HOME/bifoundation/server/bin/BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar -generate repository_name -output password_file

    Where:

    repository_name is the name and path of the Oracle BI repository that contains the connection pools for which you want to change passwords.

    password_file is the name and path of the output password text file. This file will contain the connection pool names from the specified repository.

    Then, enter the repository password when prompted.

    For example:

    java -jar BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar -generate original.rpd –output
inputpasswords.txt
Enter the repository password: My_Password

  5. Edit the password file to replace <Change Password> with the updated password for each connection pool. A sample password file might appear as follows:

    "SQLDB_UsageTracking"."UTCP" = <Change Password>
"SQLDB_Data"."Db Authentication Pool" = <Change Password>

    Tip: Make sure to only edit the text to the right of the equals sign. If you change the text to the left of the equals sign, then the syntax for the connection pool names will be incorrect.

    Save and close the password file when your edits are complete.

  6. Run BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar again with the -passwords option, as follows:

    java -jar BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar -passwords password_file
-input input_repository -output output_repository

    Where:

    password_file is the name and path of the text file that specifies the connection pools and their corresponding changed passwords.

    input_repository is the name and path of the Oracle BI repository where you want to apply the changed passwords.

    output_repository is the name and path of the output repository that contains the updated passwords.

    Then, enter the repository password when prompted.

    For example:

    java -jar BIServerT2PProvisioner.jar -passwords inputpasswords.txt -input
original.rpd -output updated.rpd
Enter the repository password: My_Password

  7. Oracle does not recommend leaving clear-text passwords available on the system. Instead, either delete the input password file completely, or encrypt it so that it cannot be viewed.

41.11.1.7 Configuring a Servlet for Oracle BI Server Communication with Oracle OLAP

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

You can optionally use a servlet for communication between the Oracle BI Server and Oracle OLAP data sources rather than relying on the JavaHost service. This approach avoids the issues described in the following sections:

To deploy the biadminservlet for BI Server/Oracle OLAP communication:

  1. Log on to the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console at:

    http://weblogic_server_host:port/console

  2. In the Change Center, click Lock & Edit.

  3. Click Deployments in the Domain Structure window.

  4. Click Install.

  5. Select the biadminservlet.war file at:

     ORACLE_HOME/bifoundation/javahost/lib/obisintegration

  6. Accept all the defaults on the subsequent screens and then click Finish.

  7. In the Change Center, click Activate Changes.

    Upon successful deployment, biadminservlet appears in the Deployments table.

  8. Download patch 13085711 to obtain the Enable Servlet.reg file. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

  9. Save the Enable Servlet.reg file to your desktop, then double-click it. Confirm that you want to make changes to your registry.

    This file enables the servlet in the Administration Tool. If the Administration Tool is open, you must restart it after performing this step.

  10. In the Administration Tool, provide the URL of the servlet when importing from Oracle OLAP sources in the Select Data Source page of the Import Metadata Wizard. The name of the servlet is services. For example, enter a string similar to the following in the URL field:

    http://localhost:9704/biadminservlet/services

    Note that the servlet must be up and running in order to use it. If you receive an import error, then check the status of the servlet in the Administration Console. You can also refer to the Administration Server diagnostic log and the Domain log.

41.11.1.8 Enhancing Performance of Aggregates with TimesTen Release 11.2.2.3 or Later

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

The Oracle BI Server includes performance enhancements for creating aggregates in TimesTen Release 11.2.2.3. If the repository uses TimesTen Release 11.2.2.3 or later as the target database for creating aggregates, then you can use the following features to improve its performance:

  • Disable Redo Logging

  • Create Indexes in Parallel

  • Perform database checkpoints in the background

To enable these features:

  1. Open opmn.xml for editing. You can find opmn.xml at:

    ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OPMN/opmn/opmn.xml

  2. Locate the ias-component tag for the Oracle BI Server process. For example:

    <ias-component id="coreapplication_obis1" inherit-environment="true>

  3. Under the <environment> subtag, update the following TimesTen variables:

    <variable id="ORACLE_BI_TT_DISABLE_REDO_LOGGING" value="1"/>
     <!-- This disables redo-logging, enabling faster creation of aggregates.
     '0' if you wish to disable this feature. -->
<variable id="ORACLE_BI_TT_PARALLEL_INDEX_CREATION" value="1"/>
     <!-- This enables AggrPersist to create indexes in parallel, making 
     creation of aggregates faster. '0' if you wish to create TimesTen indexes
     sequentially. -->
<variable id="ORACLE_BI_TT_BACKGROUND_CHECKPOINT_INTERVAL" value="10"/>
     <!-- This changes how often TimesTen will flush its data to disk. If this
     element is missing, the default is every 10 seconds. If explicitly set, it
     will flush to disk every N seconds, 10 in this example. '0' will disable
     background flushing. Enabling background flushing speeds up creation of
     aggregates, by avoiding a large blocking flush at the end of the aggregate
     creation process. -->

  4. Save and close the file.

  5. Restart OPMN.

  6. Repeat these steps on each computer that runs the BI Server process. If you are running multiple BI Server instances on the same computer, then be sure to update the ias-component tag appropriately for each instance in opmn.xml (for example, ias-component id="coreapplication_obis1", ias-component id="coreapplication_obis2", and so on).

41.11.1.9 Performing Merges on Repositories That Contain System-Generated Tables Can Cause Loss of Metadata

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Repository merge operations performed on repositories that contain system-generated physical tables, such as the physical tables created by the aggregate persistence engine, can cause loss of metadata on those objects. This loss of metadata can cause errors during subsequent aggregate persistence operations against the repository.

To avoid this issue, remove your aggregate tables from both the metadata and back-end databases using the Delete aggregates specification before performing repository merges. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information about using the delete aggregates specification.

41.11.1.10 Create Aggregates Operations Can Time Out for TimesTen Targets

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

In Release 11.1.1.6.2, Bundle Patch 1, creating aggregates in TimesTen using a 'create aggregates' script can sometimes cause the process to run for a long time and produces an error. If this occurs, open nqquery.log and search for the key words 'Timed Out'. You might find an error message similar to the following:

[nQSError: 16001] ODBC error state: 08S01 code: 0 message: [TimesTen][TimesTen
11.2.2.3.0 CLIENT]Communication link failure. System call select() failed with OS
error 10060. This operation has Timed Out. Try increasing your ODBC timeout
attribute or check to make sure the target TimesTen Server is running.]]

This error usually occurs in one of the following two situations:

  • You used SQL Developer to connect to the TimesTen database instance before starting the 'create aggregates' process.

  • You ran many queries against TimesTen (using Oracle BI Presentation Services or nqcmd) before starting the 'create aggregates' process.

To work around this issue, perform the steps as described for each use case.

To resolve time-outs related to using SQL Developer:

  1. In SQL Developer, in the Tools menu, select Preferences, then select Database, then select Advanced.

  2. Select the AutoCommit option.

  3. Shut down SQL Developer.

  4. Delete the aggregates you have created. See "Troubleshooting Aggregate Persistence" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information on deleting aggregates.

  5. Re-run your "create aggregates" script.

To resolve time-outs related to running many queries against TimesTen using Presentation Services or nqcmd:

  1. Open the RPD in the Administration Tool in online mode.

  2. Expand every TimesTen database in the Physical layer of the Oracle BI repository.

  3. For each associated connection pool object, perform the following steps:

    1. Right-click the connection pool and select Properties.

    2. When asked to check out objects, select Yes.

    3. On the General tab, deselect Enable connection pooling.

    4. Select the Connection Scripts tab.

    5. In the Execute on connect box, delete the following entries (and duplicates, if they exist):

      call ttoptsetflag('rowlock',0)
call ttoptsetflag('tbllock',1)
call ttoptsetflag('mergejoin',0)
call ttoptsetflag('nestedloop',1)

    6. In the Execute before query box, add the following four entries:

      call ttoptsetflag('rowlock',0)
call ttoptsetflag('tbllock',1)
call ttoptsetflag('mergejoin',0)
call ttoptsetflag('nestedloop',1)

    7. In the Execute after query box, add the following single entry:

      commit;

    Be sure to repeat steps a through g for every TimesTen connection pool in the RPD.

  4. Select File, then select Check In Changes. When asked to check Global Consistency, select No.

  5. Select File, then select Save.

  6. Still in the Administration Tool, for every connection pool object associated with a TimesTen database, perform the following steps:

    1. Right-click the connection pool and select Properties.

    2. When asked to check out objects, select Yes.

    3. On the General tab, select Enable connection pooling.

    Be sure to repeat steps a through c for every TimesTen connection pool in the RPD.

  7. Select File, then select Check In Changes. When asked to check Global Consistency, select No.

  8. Select File, then select Save.

  9. Open opmn.xml for editing. You can find this file at:

    ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OPMN/opmn/opmn.xml

  10. Locate the ias-component tag for the Oracle BI Server process. For example:

    <ias-component id=" coreapplication_obis1">

  11. Under the environment tag, insert the following element:

    <variable id="TIMESTEN_DISABLE_CONNECITONPOOL_HINT" value="1"/>

    Note: The misspelling in the id argument is intentional.

  12. Save and close the file.

  13. Delete the aggregates you have created. See "Troubleshooting Aggregate Persistence" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information on deleting aggregates.

  14. Re-run your "create aggregates" script.

41.11.2 Oracle BI Administration Tool Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the Oracle BI Administration Tool. It includes the following topics:

41.11.2.1 Administration Tool Incorrectly Displays Option for Generate Deployment File

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The Administration Tool provides an option in the Tools > Utilities window for Generate Deployment File. This option appears in error and should not be used.

41.11.2.2 Issue with Online Import Object Checkout

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When using the Administration Tool to import objects in online mode, related objects are not properly checked out. This can lead to repository corruption.

The workaround is to check out all objects before performing the import in online mode. To check out all objects, from the menu bar, select Tools, then select Check Out All.

41.11.2.3 Ignore RPD Consistency Warnings Related to Required Database Feature Changes for Oracle OLAP

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When using Oracle OLAP as a data source, the database type is set to Oracle 11g. However, Oracle OLAP data sources might require changes to the default set of database features for Oracle 11g, such as setting ISDESCENDANT_SUPPORTED to YES to enable parent-child hierarchies.

When the set of database features is changed from the default set, RPD consistency warnings occur when running the Consistency Checker. These warnings should be ignored.

41.11.2.4 Select Nullable Option for Root Member of Parent-Child Hierarchies from OLAP Sources

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

For parent-child hierarchies in the Physical layer from OLAP data sources, you must manually select the Nullable option in the Physical Cube Column dialog for the root member. This option must be selected for the root member for parent-child hierarchies (also called value-based hierarchies) to work correctly.

Alternatively, you can download and apply patch 12897870 as an alternative to manually setting the Nullable option. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

41.11.2.5 Administration Tool Fails to Launch from the Start Menu

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The Administration Tool fails to launch from Start menu in a non-English Windows 7 64-bit client installation. This is caused by the SERVER EVENT MSG MISSED.

The workaround is to launch the Administration Tool from ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\server\bin directly as follows:

  1. In Windows Explorer, go to the following location:

    ORACLE_HOME/bifoundation/server/bin

  2. Double-click bi-init.cmd to display a command prompt that is initialized to your Oracle instance.

  3. At the command prompt, type admintool and press Enter.

41.11.2.6 Problems with Icons in Some Administration Tool Installations

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

If your Administration Tool installation does not display toolbar icons correctly (for example, if the icons are displayed as empty squares), download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update appropriate for your platform. For example, download vcredist_x64.exe for 64-bit systems, or vcredist_x86.exe for 32-bit systems. After performing this task, the icons are displayed properly.

You can find the appropriate redistributable package for your system at the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?&id=14431

Alternatively, you can search based on the package title. For security reasons, you should only download redistributable packages from the Microsoft Web site.

41.11.2.7 Oracle BI Repository Can Become Corrupt When Objects Are Deleted in MUD Environments

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0

If you use the multiuser development (MUD) environment, be aware that an issue has been identified that causes the Oracle BI repository to become corrupt when MUD objects are deleted. The corruption manifests itself as crashes during consistency checks and when certain utilities are run, such as extractprojects.

To resolve this issue, download and apply patch 13560202. See Section 41.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

41.11.2.8 Model Checker Not Enabled in Release 11.1.1.6.2

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

This issue is fixed in Release 11.1.1.6.2, Bundle Patch 1.

Although the Model Checker Manager dialog is visible in the Oracle BI Administration Tool and described in the documentation, Model Check Manager is not enabled in 11.1.1.6.2.

41.12 Oracle Business Intelligence System Administration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence system administration. It includes the following topics:

Depending on your Oracle Fusion Middleware implementation, some information in Chapter 4, "Oracle Fusion Middleware Administration" and Chapter 5, "Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control" might also be relevant.

41.12.1 General System Administration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence system administration.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.12.2 Configuration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to configuring Oracle Business Intelligence components (including Answers, Dashboards, Agents, and the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog). It includes the following topic:

41.12.2.1 Removal of DefaultImageType and HardenXSS Elements

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

In Release 11.1.1.5, the following elements are no longer supported and should be removed from the instanceconfig.xml file:

  • DefaultImageType element

  • HardenXSS element

If the instanceconfig.xml file includes the HardenXSS element when a user starts Oracle BI EE, then an error message is displayed. The error log file will state that startup was affected by the inclusion of the HardenXSS element.

The workaround is to remove the HardenXSS element from the instanceconfig.xml file.

41.12.3 Deployment, Availability, and Capacity Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to enterprise deployments of Oracle Business Intelligence where high availability, capacity, and performance are typically a priority.

These issues are described in Chapter 6, "Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability and Enterprise Deployment" of this document.

41.12.4 Sign-in and Security Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to security and signing in to Oracle Business Intelligence.

Note:

If you are experiencing security-related issues after upgrading from an earlier release, then also refer to Section 41.6.2, "Security-related Upgrade Issues and Workarounds".

This section includes the following topic:

41.12.4.1 Permission Required to Open Catalog Manager in Online Mode

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

Only users with the OPSS permission oracle.bi.presentation.catman.manageCatalog can open the Catalog Manager in online mode.

41.12.5 Oracle BI Scheduler Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Scheduler.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.13 Oracle Business Intelligence Integration and API Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products, including the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs. It includes the following topics:

41.13.1 General Integration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.13.2 Oracle Business Intelligence API Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.14 Oracle Business Intelligence Localization Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products, including the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs. It includes the following topics:

41.14.1 Product Localization Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the localization of Oracle Business Intelligence products. It includes the following topics:

41.14.1.1 Unable to Save Strings with Multibyte Characters to an External File Using ANSI Encoding

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

When trying to export externalized strings that contain multibyte characters, the option to save the file using ANSI encoding does not work properly.

To work around this problem, save the file using UTF-8 or Unicode encoding.

41.14.1.2 BI Publisher User Interface Components Do Not Support Supplementary Characters

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

BI Publisher does not support supplementary characters in object names in the user interface, for example, report name, data model name, layout name, and so on. The data model editor does not support supplementary characters in SQL queries. The scheduler does not support supplementary characters in input fields such as e-mail subject and message fields.

To work around this issue, do not use supplementary characters in the BI Publisher user interface. If your database table and column names already include supplementary characters, you cannot use the data model editor to retrieve the data from these.

41.14.1.3 Non-English Log Files Displayed Incorrectly in Fusion Middleware Control

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

You might have log files for Presentation Services, Oracle BI Scheduler, and Cluster Controller that have been translated to languages other than English. You might find that the content of these log files is not displayed correctly in the Diagnostic Log table and in tooltips in Fusion Middleware Control.

To work around this issue, enter the following property for logreader in the component-logs.xml file in the ORACLE_INSTANCE/config directory:

<property name="encoding" value="UTF-8"/>

Add the property in the component-logs.xml file in the following subdirectories: OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent, OracleBISchedulerComponent, and OracleBIClusterControllerComponent.

41.14.1.4 Error Messages in BI Publisher Data Model Editor Honor Server Locale Setting

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Error messages invoked while working in the BI Publisher data model editor may display according to the server locale setting rather than the user interface locale setting.

This issue has no workaround.

41.14.1.5 Incorrect Layout in Tables and Pivot Tables in PDF Files and PowerPoint Presentations When Locale for BI Server Is Arabic or Hebrew

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If the locale for the Oracle BI Server is Arabic or Hebrew, then no matter what the client locale for Presentation Services is, you will notice the following issues with tables and pivot tables in PDF files and PowerPoint presentations:

  • The printed layout for tables and pivot tables is always Right to Left.

  • Digit glyphs (such as number/date values) are always displayed as Arabic characters for Arabic only.

To work around this issue, perform the following steps:

  1. Update the opmn.xml file in the following directory:

    MWHOME/instances/instance1/config/OPMN/opmn/opmn.xml

  2. Locate the XML node called <ias-component id="coreapplication_obijh1">.

    The node should contain an XML node called

    <process-type id="OracleBIJavaHostComponent" module-id="CUSTOM">

  3. Under this process-type node, modify the value attribute of the node:

    <data id="start-args" value="-server...

    Add the following to the value attribute:

    -Duser.language=en -Duser.region=US

  4. Save your changes to the file and restart the JavaHost component.

41.14.1.6 Excel2007 Output in BI Publisher Does Not Honor Locale Settings for Number and Date Format

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

The Excel2007 output format does not honor locale settings for some number and date fields coded to be locale-sensitive in the layout template.

41.14.1.7 Excel2007 Output in BI Publisher Supports Gregorian Calendar Only

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The following calendars are not supported for Excel 2007 output format. The report output will revert to use the GREGORIAN calendar.

  • ARABIC_HIJRAH

  • ENGLISH_HIJRAH

  • JAPANESE_IMPERIAL

  • THAI_BUDDHA

  • ROC_OFFICIAL (Taiwan)

41.14.1.8 Template Builder for Microsoft Word Chart Wizard Does Not Format Dates

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When you drag and drop a date type value (for example: "1900-12-31T14:15:16.178-04:00") to the label of a chart, the value is not formatted according to the locale setting; instead, the value displays as given (that is, 1900-12-31T14:15:16.178-04:00").

To work around this issue, format the date in the data model; or, if you are familiar with XSL-T, manually change the date field using the function, for example: xdoxslt:xdo_format_date($_XDOXSLTCTX, (.//date)[1], 'MEDIUM')

41.14.1.9 Number and Date Format Issues with Charts in BI Publisher Layout Templates

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When editing a BI Publisher layout template, if you add a number type column to the y-axis of a chart (for example, a vertical bar chart), the number format does not reflect the UI language. At runtime, the proper locale will be displayed in the Report Viewer.

When you add a date column to the x-axis, the raw data is displayed in the chart (that is, no format is applied at all). At run time, the date does respect the report locale for output types other than interactive and PowerPoint.

41.14.1.10 BI Publisher Report Creation Wizard "Select Columns" Step Does Not Render Properly When UI Language Is Francais

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

When the UI language setting is Francais, the Report Creation Wizard dialog for the step "Select Columns" does not render the navigation buttons properly. To workaround this issue, at Step 2 of the Report Creation Wizard, choose Use Report Editor to bypass the Select Columns step.

41.14.1.11 Albany Fonts Delivered with BI Publisher for PDF Output Do Not Support Bold and Italic for Multibyte Characters

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Bold and italic for multibyte characters (for example, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean) do not display well in PDF output. This is because the Albany fonts delivered with BI Publisher do not support bold and italic for multibyte characters.

To work around this issue, install a font that does support the required emphasis (for example, the bold Japanese font Meiryo Bold (meiryob.ttc)). Then use BI Publisher font mapping to map the font so BI Publisher can find it at run time. For more information about font mapping, see "Defining Font Mappings" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

41.14.2 Help System Localization Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the localization of Oracle Business Intelligence help systems. It includes the following topic:

41.14.2.1 Oracle Business Intelligence Help Systems Are Not Translated

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

In Release 11.1.1.3 and Release 11.1.1.5, none of the Oracle Business Intelligence help systems are translated.

In Release 11.1.1.6.0 and 11.1.1.6.2, the following Oracle Business Intelligence help systems are translated:

  • Oracle BI Presentation Services Online Help

  • Oracle Marketing Segmentation Online Help

  • Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office Online Help

For details of the languages into which the help systems have been translated, refer to the Oracle Business Intelligence certification document at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html

41.15 Oracle Business Intelligence Documentation Errata

This section describes errata in Oracle Business Intelligence documentation and help systems. It includes the following topics:

41.15.1 General Oracle Business Intelligence Documentation Errata

This section describes general errata in the Oracle Business Intelligence documentation.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.15.2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Quick Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Quick Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.15.3 Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence. It includes the following topics:

41.15.3.1 Installation Guide Contains Misinformation About Installing the Client Tools

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence (E10539-03).

Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence contains the following misinformation in regard to installing the Oracle Business Intelligence clients:

  • Section 5.1.1, "About Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools," states:

    "32-bit versions of the Oracle Business Intelligence client tools are installed automatically when you install Oracle Business Intelligence on a computer running a 32- or 64-bit Windows operating system."

    The previous statement incorrectly implies that the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer always installs 32-bit versions of the client tools. Rather, 32-bit versions of the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer install 32-bit versions of the client tools, while 64-bit versions of the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer install 64-bit versions of the client tools.

  • Section 5.1.2, "Considerations for Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools" states:

    "The Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer installs 32-bit versions of the client tools."

    The previous statement incorrectly implies that the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer always installs all of the available client tools. Rather, it installs just two client tools—the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool and Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager. It does not install the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager. Only the Windows version of the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer installs all three client tools.

    Therefore, if you want or require the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager, you must install the client tools using the Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Installer, and not the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer.

41.15.3.2 Installation Guide Contains Misinformation About pasteBinary Script

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Chapter 4 includes two sections "Considerations and Limitations of Enterprise Install Type for New Installations" and "Software Only Install" that include mention of the pasteBinary script not being supported with Oracle Business Intelligence installations that were installed on 64-bit operating systems using the Enterprise Installation type. This lack of support has been lifted and the script can be used in this case. Therefore, these mentions must be removed from the guide.

41.15.4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence. In includes the following topics:

41.15.4.1 Incorrect Information on Aggregation

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence (E10541-06).

Appendix B includes a table that describes possible changes with Oracle BI EE content after an upgrade from 10g to 11g. One row in the table describes a change to the aggregate rule for running aggregates after upgrade. The row states the following:

RSUM(), RCOUNT() = Aggregation Rule: Sum

which is incorrect. The line should read as follows:

RSUM(), RCOUNT() = Aggregation Rule: Max

41.15.5 Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It includes the following topics:

41.15.5.1 Oracle BI Mobile: Embedding a Dashboard or Answers Report Link in an E-mail

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile (E25318-02).

The Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application allows you to e-mail a link to the BI content you are viewing. When viewing an Answers report or a dashboard page, tap the Email icon to launch an e-mail window; a link to the Answers report or Dashboard is then embedded in the body of the e-mail.

On the iPad, the Email icon appears at the bottom of the Oracle BI Mobile application. On the iPhone, tap the Actions icon to access the Email icon.

This feature works only if you have set up an e-mail account on your iPhone or iPad device.

41.15.5.2 Oracle BI Mobile: Easy Access to Dashboards

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile (E25318-02).

When you tap the Catalog icon in the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application on the iPad or iPhone, you see two tabs at the top of the screen: a Catalog tab and a Dashboards tab. Tap the Dashboards tab to display a list of top-level dashboards you have access to. This list is identical to the list of dashboards you see when logged into Oracle BI EE with the desktop application.

41.15.5.3 Information about Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Must Be Ignored

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-04).

Various sections of Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition include mention of Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office. All mentions of Smart View must be ignored, as described in Section 41.4.2, "Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Not Supported in Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, Releases 11.1.1.5 and Later."

41.15.5.4 Columns from Multiple Subject Areas Included in a Single Query Must Be Compatible

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

The following additional information is available for the topic "What Are Subject Areas and Columns?" in Chapter 2, "Creating Analyses:"

Typically, when you query a single subject area, all the columns exposed in that subject area are compatible with all the dimensions exposed in the same subject area. However, when you combine columns and dimensions from multiple subject areas, you must ensure that you do not include combinations of columns and dimensions that are incompatible with one another.

For example, a column in one subject area might not be dimensioned by Project. If columns from the Project dimension from another subject area are added to the request along with the columns that are not dimensioned by Project, then the query might fail to return results, or cause the Oracle BI Server error "No fact table exists at the requested level of detail: XXXX."

41.15.5.5 Error in the "How Will Prompts Created in Previous Versions Be Upgraded?" Topic in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

The "How Will Prompts Created in Previous Versions Be Upgraded?" topic in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses" contains an incorrect reference to the Text Field Width field. This topic should instead reference the Choice List Value field. The revised paragraph should read as follows:

The Choice List Value field located in the "New Prompt dialog" is set by default to 120 pixels. Note that this value is different if your Administrator modified the default pixel value in the Oracle BI EE configuration file.

41.15.5.6 Content Missing from Appendix E, "User Interface Reference," "Edit Page Settings dialog" Topic, Prompt Buttons Field

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

Information that describes the Prompt Buttons field is missing from the "Edit Page Settings dialog" topic. The following paragraph includes information about the field:

Prompt Buttons

Use this field to specify if you want the Apply and Reset buttons to display beside the prompt field or above the prompt field.

41.15.5.7 Incorrect Default Pixel Value Specified in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses" and Appendix E, "User Interface Reference"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

In the "How Will Prompts Created in Previous Versions Be Upgraded?" topic in Chapter 6, "Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses," the default pixel value specified for the Choice List Width field and for the Set width of all prompts to field is incorrect. The default pixel value is 120, not 250.

In Appendix E, "User Interface Reference," the default pixel value specified for the Choice List Width field in the "New Prompt dialog" topic and for the Set width of all prompts to field in the "Edit Page Settings" dialog is incorrect. The default pixel value is 120, not 250.

41.15.5.8 Error in the "Actions that Invoke Operations, Functions or Processes in External Systems" Topic in Chapter 10, "Working with Actions"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

The "Actions that Invoke Operations, Functions, or Processes in External Systems" topic in Chapter 10, "Working with Actions" includes a Note referencing the USERSCRIPT.ADFAction function. This Note, which is included in the bullet that describes the Invoke a Browser Script action, is in error. The USERSCRIPT.ADFAction function is not supported in this release.

41.15.5.9 Error in the "Show More Columns dialog" Topic in Appendix E, "User Interface Reference"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

The definitions of Variance and % Variance in Table E-7, Commonly Used KPI Data Columns in the "Show More Columns dialog" topic in Appendix E, "User Interface Reference" contain an error and need to be corrected (the example variance should be -50,000, not 50,000 and the example % variance should be -7.7%, not 7.7%).

The definitions should read as follows:

  • Variance: Displays the value by which the KPI's actual value differs from its target value. For example if the actual value for a Net Profit KPI is 600,000 and its target is 650,000, then the variance is -50,000.

  • % Variance: Displays the percent by which the KPI's actual value differs from its target value. For example if the actual value for a Net Profit KPI is 600,000 and its target is 650,000, then the variance as a percent is -7.7%

41.15.5.10 Error in the "New Filter dialog" Topic in Appendix E, "User Interface Reference"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

The "New Filter dialog" topic requires the following corrections: The topic states that if your repository is configured for double columns, then you can specify to display code values if you use the "is between" operator. This statement is incorrect. You cannot display or select code values nor can you filter by code values with the "is between" operator. You can display, select, and filter by only display values with that operator.

The topic includes mention of the Select by Code Column and Filter by Code Column fields. These fields are not available with the "is between" operator.

41.15.5.11 Information on View Latest Version Feature in Error

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

The "BI Publisher Report Properties dialog" topic in Appendix E, "User Interface Reference" and the "Selecting a BI Publisher Report for a Dashboard Page" topic in Chapter 4, "Building and Using Dashboards" provide information on the View Latest Version feature in error. This feature is not currently available.

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-04).

41.15.5.12 Changes to the Instructions for Installing and Configuring BI Composer

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-03).

In the topic "Installing and Configuring BI Composer for Oracle BI EE" in Appendix C, "Accessibility Features," note the following changes need to be made to the instructions:

  • Update Step 4.c.to read as follows:

    In System MBean Browser, expand oracle.adf.share.connections, expand Application:bicomposer, expand ADFConnections, expand ADFConnections, expand BISoapConnection, and then click bi-default.

  • Add in step 4.d. that the correct value for Port is 9704.

  • Add a step 6 that reads as follows:

    Restart the Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Business Intelligence. For more information on restarting the Oracle WebLogic Server, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide. For more information on restarting Oracle Business Intelligence, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

Also note that in release 11.1.1.5 of Oracle BI EE, BI Composer is available only in accessibility mode.

41.15.5.13 Mentions of the KPI Editor: Data Input Security Page Must Be Ignored

Impacted Release: 11.1.1.6.2

This issue is present in the 11.1.1.6.2 Bundle Patch 1 version of the Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10544-04).

All mentions of using the KPI Editor: Data Input Security page to assign slice-level security to KPIs with target settings must be ignored. The sections "What Are Target Settings?" and "Creating KPIs" in Chapter 11 "Using KPIs and KPI Watchlists" and the topics "KPI editor," "KPI editor: General Properties page," and "KPI editor: Data Input Security page" in Appendix E "User Interface Reference" include mentions of the KPI Editor: Data Input Security page.

41.15.6 Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.15.7 Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It includes the following topics:

41.15.7.1 Manual opmn.xml Edits Needed to Use Teradata as a Data Source

41.15.7.2 Updates to Text for Consistency Check Warnings 39009 and 39059

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-03).

In the section "New Features for Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3)" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, a list of new consistency check warnings is provided. Note the following changes for warnings 39009 and 39059 in Release 11.1.1.5:

  • The information about the consistency check warning 39009 is valid for Release 11.1.1.3, but does not apply to Release 11.1.1.5. This warning no longer occurs due to underlying changes in the code.

  • In Release 11.1.1.5, the description for the consistency check warning 39059 should read as follows:

    "Even though this fact logical table source has an aggregate grain set in this dimension, no join was found that connects to any logical table source in this dimension (or a potentially invalid join was found).

    This means that either no join exists at all, or it does exist but is potentially invalid because it connects a higher-level fact source to a lower-level dimensional source. Such joins are potentially invalid because if followed, they might lead to double counting in query answers.

    For example, consider Select year, yearlySales. Even if a join exists between monthTable and yearlySales table on yearId, it should not be used because such a join would overstate the results by a factor of 12 (the number of months in each year).

    If you get a 39059 warning after upgrade, verify that the join is as intended and does not result in incorrect double counting. If the join is as intended, then ignore the 39059 warning."

41.15.7.3 Other Changes to List of New Consistency Check Warnings

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-03).

In the section "New Features for Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3)," a list of new consistency check warnings is provided. Note the following changes to this list. These changes apply to Release 11.1.1.3 and Release 11.1.1.5:

  • The consistency check warning 39055 should appear in its own row in the table, with the following description:

    "This warning indicates that there is a physical join between the given fact and dimension sources, but there is not a corresponding logical join between the fact table and the dimension table."

  • The description for consistency check errors 38012 and 38001 should read as follows:

    "Logical columns that are not mapped to any logical table source are reported as consistency errors, because the logical table source mappings are invalid and would cause queries to fail.

    Both of the given validation rules are related to the same issue."

  • The description for consistency check warning 39003 should read as follows:

    "This warning indicates that the given column is only mapped to logical table sources that are disabled. The warning brings this issue to the repository developer's attention in case the default behavior is not desired."

41.15.7.4 Select the Virtual Private Database Option when Authenticating Against Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management Using a Shared Token

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-03).

This additional information applies when you authenticate against Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data sources using a shared token. After selecting SSO using CSS Token in the data source connection pool in the Oracle BI repository, you should also select the Virtual Private Database option in the corresponding database object to protect cache entries.

41.15.7.5 Manually Updating the Master MUD Repository

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-03).

During the course of Oracle BI repository development in a Multiuser Development (MUD) environment, it might be necessary to make manual changes to the master repository. Because of the highly controlled nature of the MUD process, you must be careful when performing any manual steps because there is accounting information stored in the MUD history log (.mhl) file. To manually work on the master repository, you must work on the repository in a separate directory from your MUD directory. Then, you must replace both the master RPD and the latest versioned repository in the MUD directory.

For example, follow these steps to manually update a repository named master.rpd:

  1. Copy the master repository (master.rpd) out of the MUD directory into a local directory.

  2. Use the Oracle BI Administration Tool to make the changes necessary to the local copy of the master repository (master.rpd).

  3. When manual edits are complete, copy master.rpd to the MUD directory as master.rpd. For example:

    copy c:\local\master.rpd c:\mud\master.rpd

  4. In the MUD directory, identify the latest repository with a version number. For example, master.7011.

  5. Copy master.rpd to the MUD directory and overwrite the latest versioned repository. For example:

    copy c:\local\master.rpd c:\mud\master.7011

41.15.7.6 Database Client Installation Required for Client Installations of the Administration Tool when Importing from Oracle Database and Oracle OLAP Sources

41.15.7.7 Initialization Block Failure at Server Start-Up Causes Connection Pool to be Blacklisted

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-03).

During Oracle BI Server start-up, if an initialization block fails for a particular connection pool, no more initialization blocks using that connection pool are processed. Instead, the connection pool is blacklisted and subsequent initialization blocks for that connection pool are skipped. This behavior ensures that the Oracle BI Server starts in a timely manner, even when a connection pool has a large number of associated initialization blocks or variables.

If this occurs, a message similar to the following appears in the server log:

[OracleBIServerComponent] [ERROR:1] [43143] Blacklisted connection pool conn_pool_name

If you see this error, check the initialization blocks for the given connection pool to ensure that they are correct.

41.15.7.8 Information Now Available for All Import Metadata Wizard Screens

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-03).

The description for the Map to Logical Model and Publish to Warehouse screens of the Import Metadata Wizard in the Administration Tool states that these screens are reserved for a future release. This is no longer correct. Instead, refer to Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (Oracle Fusion Applications Edition) in the Oracle Fusion Applications Technology Library for information about these screens.

41.15.7.9 Remove Smart View Mention in Appendix C

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-04).

The opening paragraphs of Appendix C, "Logical SQL Reference" mention Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office as a client for the Oracle BI Server. All mentions of Smart View must be ignored, as described in Section 41.4.2, "Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Not Supported in Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, Releases 11.1.1.5 and Later."

41.15.7.10 Explicitly Check Out Projects to Add Objects in a Multiuser Development Environment

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-04).

The following additional information is available for Chapter 3, "Setting Up and Using the Multiuser Development Environment:"

In previous releases, objects that were part of the master repository, but that did not belong to a currently checked-out project, could be added between the merge and publish steps, because the entire repository was locked until publishing was complete. Now that the merge and publish steps are combined in a single Publish to Network step, you must explicitly check out a project that contains the desired object to add it to your currently open project.

For example, suppose that you want to add fact table "A" that is part of project "Other Project" to your own project, "My Project." To do this, you must check out both "Other Project" and "My Project." Then, add Fact Table "A" to "My Project" and publish the changes to the network. The next time you check out "My Project", the fact table will be part of the repository subset.

41.15.7.11 Changes to DataDirect Drivers and Directories

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10540-04).

The "Using DataDirect Connect ODBC Drivers on Linux and UNIX" section provides information on DataDirect Connect ODBC drivers and their directories. The driver and directory names are incorrect and must be updated as follows:

SEase23.so to ARase23.so (for Sybase)

SEifcl23.so to ARifcl23.so (for Informix)

SEmsss23.so to ARmsss23.so (for MS SQL Server)

Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/odbc/lib

to

Oracle_BI1/common/ODBC/Merant/5.3/lib/

41.15.7.12 Additional Information Available on SCM Configuration Template Files

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

The following additional information is available for Step 4 in the section "Creating an SCM Configuration File:"

The SCM configuration template files are called scm-conf-ade.template.xml and scm-conf-svn.template.xml. In addition to being available in the ORACLE_INSTANCE location indicated, they are also available on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/downloads/obieescmconfigfiles-1568980.zip

41.15.7.13 Statement on Aggregate Creation Failure is Incorrect

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

In the section "About Aggregate Persistence Errors," the following incorrect statement appears:

"If there is an error in the creation of any aggregate, then the entire aggregate request is terminated and subsequent aggregates are not created. Aggregates that are already created and checked in remain checked in."

Instead, the section should read as follows:

"When a series of aggregates are being created, and the creation of one aggregate fails, the aggregate persistence engine skips creation of the failed aggregate and its dependencies and proceeds to the next aggregate in the list. Check the log files to identify failed aggregates.

If there are errors, you must remove them at the time of the error or at the next ETL run in one of the following ways:

  • Manually remove the aggregates from the metadata and the database. To identify the aggregate metadata, you can query the repository using the IsSystemGenerated filter for physical tables and logical table sources. See "Querying the Repository" for more information.

  • Automatically remove the failed aggregates using the Delete Aggregates specification. In particular, use this technique to remove any orphan aggregate dimensions (those not joined to any other fact table)."

41.15.7.14 Prefer Optimizer Estimates Option Available for Summary Advisor in Release 11.1.1.6.2, Bundle Patch 1

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.2

The following additional information is available for Step 11 in the section "Using the Oracle BI Summary Advisor Wizard:"

For its algorithm to work correctly, Oracle BI Summary Advisor needs to obtain row counts (cardinality) for certain queries on the data sources. Summary Advisor issues count queries to the back-end data sources to obtain these row counts, which can sometimes take a long time to execute.

In Release 11.1.1.6.2, Bundle Patch 1, you can optionally select Prefer Optimizer Estimates in the Miscellaneous screen of the Summary Advisor Wizard to improve performance during the Summary Advisor process. Selecting this option enables Summary Advisor to use cardinality estimates that originate out of the database query optimizer (also known as the Explain query plan) whenever possible, rather than issuing actual count queries.

This feature is only available for Oracle Database data sources. In addition, for Summary Advisor to use database query optimizer estimates, the statistics on the concerned database objects must be available and up-to-date.

41.15.8 Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It includes the following topics:

41.15.8.1 Event Polling Tables Must Be Created Using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU)

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-03).

Section 7.8.1, "Setting Up Event Polling Tables on the Physical Databases," explains that you can manually create event polling tables using CREATE TABLE statements. This statement is incorrect.

Instead, to create an event polling table, run the Repository Creation Utility (RCU) to create the Business Intelligence Platform (BIPLATFORM) schemas in your physical database. RCU creates an event polling table called S_NQ_EPT. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence for information about running the Repository Creation Utility.

41.15.8.2 Use of ps: Prefix in Elements Is Unnecessary

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-04).

The guide includes four sections that contain code examples to show how to edit the instanceconfig.xml file for the Catalog element. In these examples, the ps: prefix is included before element names, which is unnecessary. The guide must be updated to not include the string "ps:" in tags, and the Catalog element should begin with the <Catalog> tag.

41.15.8.3 Lowercase for Boolean Values for Configuration Elements

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

Various chapters of the guide provide examples and descriptions of values for configuration elements in the instanceconfig.xml file. When you specify values, you must ensure that you specify the appropriate case for the letters. All Boolean values must be lowercase. In the guide, Boolean values are sometimes shown with an initial capital letter. The guide must be updated to ensure that all Boolean values are presented in all lowercase.

41.15.8.4 Removal of Section 11.5, "Configuring to Download Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-04).

Section 11.5, "Configuring to Download Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office," must be ignored, as described in Section 41.4.2, "Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Not Supported in Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, Releases 11.1.1.5 and Later."

41.15.8.5 Incomplete Information in "Validating the Catalog" Section

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-03).

Section 17.2.4 "Validating the Catalog," includes incomplete information for performing the validation. Complete and correct information is provided in Section 17.2.5 of the Release 11.1.1.6 documentation and is still applicable to Release 11.1.1.5. The updated section is available at the following location:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/bi.1111/e10541/prescatadmin.htm#BAJBJEFA

41.15.8.6 Error for Configuring the Data Source for the Full-Text Catalog Search

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-03).

Section 17.11.4.4 describes how to configure the data source for the full-text catalog search. Step 5 of that procedure describes how to specify the Display URL Prefix. The step includes an incorrect line for Secure Enterprise Search 11.2.1 or later. The line should read as follows:

http://host:port/bisearch/urlbuilder/ (for Secure Enterprise Search 11.2.1, 11.1.2.2, or later)

41.15.8.7 Removal of Section 19.7.2.6, "Including Links with Analyses on Dashboards"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Chapter 19, "Configuring and Managing Analyses and Dashboards" of the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 includes Section 19.7.2.6, "Including Links with Analyses on Dashboards." This section is not applicable and must be removed from the guide.

41.15.8.8 MaxColumns Element Not Supported

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-03).

Chapter 20, "Configuring Advanced Options for Mapping and Spatial Information," includes descriptions of the MaxColumns element. This element is not supported. If this element is included in the instanceconfig.xml file, then you might see an error message when trying to start Presentation Services.

41.15.8.9 Error in Section 22.3.2, "Specifying Defaults for Styles and Skins"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Section 22.3.2, "Specifying Defaults for Styles and Skins" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 contains sample code from the instanceconfig.xml file for working with the DefaultStyle and DefaultSkin elements. The parent element for these elements should be UI, so the sample code should read as follows:

<ServerInstance> 
   <UI>
      <DefaultStyle>myStyle</DefaultStyle>
      <DefaultSkin>mySkin</DefaultSkin>
   </UI>
</ServerInstance>

41.15.8.10 Clarification of CaseInsensitiveMode Element

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Appendix E in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 provides an example of the section of the instanceconfig.xml file in which you can include the CaseInsensitiveMode element. The correct parent element of QueryManager is missing for CaseInsensitiveMode. The proper syntax is as follows:

<ServerInstance>
   <QueryManager>
      <CaseInsensitiveMode>false</CaseInsensitiveMode>
   </QueryManager>
</ServerInstance>

41.15.8.11 Updates of Information About the Catalog

The following sections provide information for inclusion in Chapter 18, "Configuring and Managing the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3:

41.15.8.11.1 Guidelines for Object Names

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Each object in the catalog is stored in its own file. For example, an analysis called Analysis 1 is stored in a file named Analysis1. The object name that is visible to users, such as Analysis 1, is referred to as the logical object name.

The following list provides guidelines for object names:

  • No restrictions exist on which characters are allowed in the logical name of an object in the catalog, as long as the characters are valid Unicode characters. The following are valid logical names:

    Hello World
Profit / Loss
% Sales * $ Cost ~~ $ "Expense"?

  • The length of the logical object name must not exceed 256 Unicode characters.

    For more information on Unicode, see Section 41.15.8.11.4, "Handling Catalog Files on Various Platforms."

  • The length of the logical path name for an object must not exceed 16000 Unicode characters.

  • The number of directory segments in a logical path name for an object must be not exceed 255 segments.

    For example, a directory with a name such as /n1/n2/n3/n4/…./n253/n254/n255 is acceptable, while a name such as /n1/n2/n3/n4/…./n254/n255/n256 is unacceptable.

  • When you pass the path name of an object using SOAP, you must escape the following characters:

    Forward slash (/)
Backward slash (\)
Tilde (~)
Asterisk (*)
Question mark (?)

    The following logical path names are all valid:

    /shared/test/Hello World
/shared/test/Profit \/ Loss
/shared/test/% Sales \* $ Cost \~\~ $ "Expense"\?

    Use care when building a catalog path. It is very common to see code that assumes the forward slash (/) is always a path separator. Always verify your path code with an object name such as "Profit / Loss".

  • When you pass a catalog search filter using SOAP, you must escape the following characters:

    Forward slash (/)
Backward slash (\)
Tilde (~)
Asterisk (*)
Question mark (?)
Caret (^)
Dollar sign (?)

    The following search filters are all valid:

    Hello World
Profit \/ Loss
% Sales \* \$ Cost \~\~ \$ "Expense"\?
41.15.8.11.2 Handling Users of the Catalog

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

The catalog is designed to scale to thousands of concurrent users. To achieve this, the catalog adheres to the following guidelines:

  • The average user typically only reads from the catalog and rarely, if ever, writes to it. In Release 11g, each user is constantly and automatically updating his or her Most Recently Used file, but each user's "read" operations still far outweigh the user's "writes" operations. Therefore, the read-to-write ratio is typically at least 100 to 1.

  • While a locking mechanism guarantees that only one user can write to an object at a time, it is rare for multiple users to attempt to write simultaneously to the same object. A feature called "lazy locking" allows users to continue reading an object even when another user is updating that object.

  • Modern file systems cache "small" files directly inside the directory record, such that reading any information on a directory simultaneously loads all small files directly into the operating system's memory cache. Therefore, it is good practice to keep files in the catalog "small," especially the frequently "read" .atr metadata files. When these metadata files remain small, then all the .atr files in a directory are loaded into memory with one physical hard disk read. Every file that exceeds the "small" threshold adds another physical hard disk read, which can cause a 100% degradation for each large file. In other words, use care when considering storing arbitrary "Properties" in .atr files.

  • Reading an object's .atr metadata file using NFS is far slower than reading it directly from a local disk. For this reason, Presentation Services additionally caches all .atr files internally. This cache can become briefly "stale" when another node in the cluster writes data to the file that is newer than the data that is cached by the current node. Therefore, all nodes are refreshed as per the MaxAgeMinutes element in the instanceconfig.xml file, whose default for a cluster is 5 minutes. This default setting commonly achieves the best trade-off between the possibility of stale data and the known performance impact. (The default for an environment without clusters is 60 minutes.)

41.15.8.11.3 Handling Heterogeneous Nodes

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

To allow heterogeneous nodes in a cluster, the catalog adheres to the following guidelines:

  • The maximum length for the name of an object on disk is 256 bytes, which is 64 Unicode characters. The logical name is restricted to 256 Unicode characters. To adhere to this restriction, logical names greater than 32 characters are hashed.

  • The maximum length for the name of a path on disk is 32KB, which is 8000 Unicode characters. The logical path is restricted to 16000 Unicode characters.

  • All path names on disk are all lowercase. The logical path name allows mixed case, but is still case-insensitive.

  • Certain characters are not allowed for path names on disk, while the logical path name allows all characters. For example, Windows systems disallow certain characters such as the colon (:), so those characters are mapped using standard HTML escape sequences. For example, the period character (.) becomes "%2e".

  • Certain file names are not allowed on disk, while the logical object name has no restrictions. For example, Windows systems disallow certain file names such as COM, so those names are mapped using standard HTML escape sequences. For example, "com" becomes "co%6d".

41.15.8.11.4 Handling Catalog Files on Various Platforms

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Keep the following points in mind when handling catalog files on various platforms:

  • For UNIX Platforms: UNIX kernels must commonly be configured to allow more than 4000 subdirectories per directory. See Chapter 18 for information on the HashUserHomeDirectories element.

  • For Windows Platforms:

    When users want to navigate catalog files using a tool such as Microsoft Windows Explorer, then they want the catalog structure based on a short path name such as c:/obi/demo, rather than the long default path name. Note that such navigation is not recommended.

    • FAT is not supported, and NTFS is required.

    • Performance on Windows platforms degrades noticeably when more than 8000 files exist in a single directory. Because each catalog object has two files (the data file and the .atr metadata file), it is strongly recommended that you not store more than 4000 catalog objects in a single directory. See Chapter 18 for information on the HashUserHomeDirectories element.

    • Windows Explorer does not handle long path names properly, and it is recommended to not Windows Explorer to navigate the internal structure of the catalog. While the file system can handle path names as long as 32KB and Presentation Services is not negatively affected, you cannot use Windows Explorer with any path name that is longer than approximately 2KB.

      Because a single Unicode character can require as many as 4 bytes, you might be unable to use Windows Explorer with path names of only 500 Unicode characters. This limitation does not affect Presentation Services. Because of this limitation, place the catalog in a top-level directory, such as c:\mycatalog\sales.

41.15.8.11.5 Known Issues with Catalog Files

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

The following issues are known when working with catalog files:

  • Locking across NFS systems is difficult, but Presentation Services provides an effective locking mechanism in recent patches. Obtain key patches to update older versions of Oracle BI EE as necessary.

    For more information, see Section 41.15.8.11.6, "Validating the Catalog."

  • Various third-party FTP programs have issues handling '%' escape sequences, which often results in a renamed file that is doubly escaped. For example, a file that is named sa%2epaint (whose logical name is SA.Paint) is incorrectly renamed to sa%252epaint (whose logical name is SA%2ePaint).

    Avoid using an FTP program directly against a catalog. Instead, download and use the 7-Zip utility to compress the catalog files, then use an FTP program to transfer the resulting compressed file.

41.15.8.11.6 Validating the Catalog

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Over time, inconsistencies can develop in the catalog as links are broken, users are deleted, or NFS file system issues are encountered. These inconsistencies can eventually lead to incorrect behavior, such as the inability to edit an agent's recipient list. You can periodically take the production system offline and validate the catalog, to be informed of and to take corrective action on inconsistencies.

41.15.8.11.7 Performing a Basic Validation of the Catalog

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Use the following procedure to perform a basic validation of the catalog.

To validate the catalog:

  1. Stop Presentation Services.

    For information, see Chapter 4 of the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3.

  2. Refresh the user GUIDs for the catalog. See Chapter 3 of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 for information

    Caution:

    Ensure that you regenerate the user GUIDs before validating the catalog. Failure to do so can result in the removal of all accounts, permissions, and privileges from the catalog.

  3. Back up the catalog by using the 7-Zip utility to create a compressed file for it.

  4. Create a backup copy of the instanceconfig.xml file.

  5. Edit the instanceconfig.xml file so that it contains the appropriate elements for performing the validation.

    For information on these elements, see Section 41.15.8.11.8, "Specifying the Elements for Validating the Catalog."

  6. Start Presentation Services to run the validation according to the values that you specified in the instanceconfig.xml file.

  7. Stop Presentation Services.

  8. Create a backup copy of the instanceconfig.xml file in which you added the validation elements, renaming the file similar to instanceconfig_validate.xml. In this way, you have a version of the file to use as a starting point for subsequent validations.

  9. Restore the backup version of the instanceconfig.xml that you created earlier to use as the current version.

  10. Start Presentation Services.

41.15.8.11.8 Specifying the Elements for Validating the Catalog

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

As part of the process of validating the catalog, you include elements in the instanceconfig.xml file that run the validation when you restart Presentation Services. The following procedure describes how to edit the instanceconfig.xml file to include these elements.

To specify the element for validating the catalog:

  1. Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing.

  2. Locate the Catalog section in which you must add the elements that are described in Table 41-3.

  3. Include the elements and their ancestor element as appropriate, as shown in the following example. In this example, the validation runs when Presentation Services starts. Inconsistent accounts (for example, deleted users), links, and objects are removed. Inconsistent users' home directory names are logged but directories are not removed.

    <ServerInstance>
<ps:Catalog xmlns:ps="oracle.bi.presentation.services/config/v1.1">
    <ps:Validate>OnStartupAndExit</ps:Validate>
    <ps:ValidateAccounts>Clean</ps:ValidateAccounts>
    <ps:ValidateHomes>Report</ps:ValidateHomes>
    <ps:ValidateItems>Clean</ps:ValidateItems>
    <ps:ValidateLinks>Clean</ps:ValidateLinks>
</ps:Catalog>
</ServerInstance>

    Caution:

    Include only one Catalog element in the instanceconfig.xml file or unexpected results might occur. Unless expressly noted, include most nodes in an XML document only once.

  4. Save your changes and close the file.

Table 41-3 Elements for Validating the Catalog

Element Description Default Value

Validate

Performs the validation of the catalog according to the values of the other Validate-related elements in this section. Values are described in the following list:

  • None — Performs no validation.

  • OnStartup — Performs the validation when Presentation Services starts.

  • OnStartupAndExit — Performs the validation when Presentation Services both starts and stops. This value allows re-running of the validation, performing as many cycles of Report and Clean until the catalog is as clean as appropriate.

If this value is not None, then all privileges and each object's ACLs in the entire catalog are cleaned of dead accounts, regardless of the settings of the other Validate-related elements.

None

ValidateAccounts

Verifies that all information about users, roles, and groups in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateHomes

Verifies that all information about home directories in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateItems

Verifies that all information about objects in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateLinks

Verifies that all information about links in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

The elements have the values that are described in the following list:

  • None — Specifies that no validation is performed.

  • Report — Specifies that details about each inconsistent object are written to the sawlog.log file.

  • Clean — Specifies that details about each inconsistent object are written to the sawlog.log file and that each object is removed from the catalog.

41.15.8.11.9 Updates for XML Files and Text Strings

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-02).

Section 18.8.2.1 "XML File Format for Searching for and Replacing Text Strings" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Release 11.1.1.3 must be replaced with the following text.

In the search and replace XML file, you use an action element to identify each text string to search for and replace. The action elements are contained in a commands element.

The action element has the following attributes:

  • command — Specifies the text to replace. The valid value is:

    • textReplace — Replaces all the text that matches in an XML file, such as a column name.

  • oldValue — Specifies the text string to search for.

    When you specify this attribute for the textReplace command for the search and replace XML file, you must use the full Java regex syntax, which is not like a normal string.

    To replace a string, you must do the following:

    1. Escape any special Java regex characters (such as brackets, parentheses, dollar signs, and carets).

    2. Escape any special "normal" string characters (such as backslashes and quotes).

    3. Because you are working in an XML file, escape any special HTML characters (such as quotes and ampersands).

    The full Java regex syntax is described in the following document: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html.

    Table 41-4 provides sample strings for use with the regex syntax in search criteria.

    Table 41-4 Using regex Syntax in Search Criteria

    Search String Entered Result

    a

    Adds wildcards before and after your search string (for example, *a*), enabling the search to return results that contain the letter "a".

    ^a

    Adds a wildcard after your search string (for example, a*), enabling the search to return results that begin with the letter "a".

    a$

    Adds a wildcard before your search string (for example, *a), enabling the search to return results that end with the character "a".

    a\*

    Searches explicitly for strings containing a character followed by an asterisk (*) for example, "a*".

    ?

    Use a question mark (?) with a character and an asterisk (*) to return zero (0) or more occurrences of a character. For example ?a* returns zero or more occurrences of the character "a".

  • newValue — Specifies the replacement text.

  • ignoreCase — Ignores case when set to true, but becomes case-sensitive when set to false. The default value is false.

The following is a partial example of an XML file for searching for and replacing a text string:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<actions>
<action command="textReplace" oldValue="boots" newValue="HoleyShoes" ignoreCase="true"/>
</actions>

41.15.8.12 Section on Manually Configuring for Interactions In Views Does Not Apply

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0; 11.1.1.6.2

Section 18.3.4 "Manually Configuring for Interactions In Views" does not apply to Release 11.1.1.6.0 and Release 11.1.1.6.2, but does apply to Release 11.1.1.6.2, Bundle Patch 1 onwards.

41.15.8.13 Omission of Enabled Element in Custom Links Section

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-04).

Section 18.5.2.2 "Adding the CustomLinks Element" describes how to edit the instanceconfig.xml file to display custom links on the Oracle BI Home page. The procedure incorrectly omits the Enabled element. You must include the Enabled element set to true within the CustomLinks element to display custom links.

41.15.8.14 Omission of Section on Updating Java Development Kit (JDK)

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6, 11.1.1.6.2

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-06).

After you install and configure Oracle Business Intelligence, you might need to update the JDK for the instance; for example, if an update is required per the policy of your organization. Before deciding to update the JDK, ensure that you use an appropriate version. For detailed information on versions, see the certification document available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html

To update the JDK for the instance of Oracle Business Intelligence:

  1. Stop all services for Oracle Business Intelligence.

  2. Download the appropriate JDK version from the Oracle Java web site and copy it to the ORACLE_HOME directory.

  3. Rename the existing jdk directory to jdk.OLD.

  4. Run the JDK Installer, which unzips the distribution into the jdkversion-num directory.

  5. Rename the directory from jdkversion-num to jdk, to ensure that all existing configuration references remain valid.

  6. Restart the services for Oracle Business Intelligence.

41.15.8.15 Remove Mention of pasteBinary Script

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10541-05).

Chapter 24, "Moving Between Environments," includes mention of the pasteBinary script not being supported with Oracle Business Intelligence installations that were installed on 64-bit operating systems using the Enterprise Installation type. This lack of support has been lifted and the script can be used in this case. Therefore, this mention must be removed from the guide.

41.15.9 Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It includes the following topics:

41.15.9.1 SASchInvoke Always Prompts for the Password in 11.1.1.5

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10543-05).

Section 5.5.1 "Using SASchInvoke When BI Scheduler is SSL-Enabled" in revision E10543-03 describes using the SASchInvoke command to invoke the BI Scheduler when SSL is enabled. A caution paragraph suggested that a password prompt appears when you run the command under SSL, but a password prompt appears regardless of SSL-enablement. The caution was confusing and has been removed for the E10543-04 revision.

41.15.9.2 Setup Multiple Authentication Providers

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10543-05).

Chapter 3 did not explain how to configure multiple authentication providers, so a new section 3.2.3.3 "Configuring BI with Multiple Authentication Providers" was created for revision E10543-03. Chapter 5 did not explain how to set up SSL when multiple authenticators are configured, so a new section 5.6.6, "Configuring SSL When Using Multiple Authenticators" was created for revision E10543-04.

41.15.9.3 Error in Code Example for Refreshing User GUIDs

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10543-06).

Section 3.8 "Refreshing User GUIDs" includes Step 3b on updating the Catalog element. The sample code for updating the element must be modified as follows:

<Catalog>
<UpgradeAndExit>false</UpgradeAndExit>
<UpdateAccountGUIDs>UpdateAndExit</UpdateAccountGUIDs>
</Catalog>

41.15.9.4 Error in Notes About Permission Inheritance Example

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10543-07).

Section D.3.2 "Example of Inherited Privileges for Application Roles" has two bullet points that incorrectly describe Figure D-1 "Example of Inheritance of Permissions Using Roles", as follows:

The first incorrect bullet point is:

  • If one application role is a member of a second application role, then any permissions assigned to the first application role override any permissions assigned to the first role. Therefore, the inherited permissions and privileges from Role2 include Modify access to DashboardD from Role5.

    The correct text for this bullet point is:

  • If one application role is a member of a second application role, then any permissions assigned to the first application role override any permissions assigned to the second role. Therefore, the inherited permission of Modify from Role 5 for DashboardD is overridden by the Open permission from Role2, so the result is that the user has read only access to DashboardD.

The second incorrect bullet point is:

  • Modify access to DashboardD.

    The correct text for this bullet point is:

  • Open access to DashboardD.

41.15.9.5 Adding UserName Attribute Properties user.login.attr and username.attr to Identity Store is Not Applicable

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.6

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10543-07).

The issue concerns information about adding the properties user.login.attr and username.attr to the identity store, which is not applicable.

In section 3.5.1 "Configuring the User Name Attribute in the Identity Store", disregard the following content:

  • the note that begins with the text:

    "For the UserName Attribute only; ..."

  • the task entitled:

    "To configure the User Name attribute in the identity store:"

  • the note that begins with the text:

    "Ensure that the users and groups from your authentication provider..."

41.15.10 Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Deployment Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Deployment Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

These issues are described in Section 6.4.4, "Documentation Errata for the Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Deployment Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence" of this document.

41.15.11 Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Enterprise Developer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It includes the following topic:

41.15.11.1 Error in the "Passing Business Intelligence Content with the Oracle BI EE Contextual Event Action" Topic in Chapter 1, "Embedding Business Intelligence Objects in ADF Applications"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E10545-03).

The following sentence in the "Passing Business Intelligence Content with the Oracle BI EE Contextual Event Action" topic is incorrect: "At design time, the analysis designer determines which column should contain the Oracle BI EE contextual event action, adds an Invoke a Browser Script action type to the column, and browses for and selects USERSCRIPT.ADFAction."

Instead, this sentence should read: "At design time, the analysis designer determines which column should contain the Oracle BI EE contextual event action and from the New Action Link menu, selects ADF Contextual Event."

The "Passing Business Intelligence Content with the Oracle BI EE Contextual Event Action" topic should also state that the Administer must modify Oracle BI EE's instanceconfig.xml file so that the ADF Contextual Event option displays in the New Action Link menu within Presentation Services. To enable the action type to display in the New Action Link menu, the Administrator must add the ActionLinks setting to the <ServerInstance> tag as follows:

<ActionLinks>
   <Enable EnableADFContextualEvent>true</EnableADFContextualEvent> 
</ActionLinks>

41.15.12 Oracle Fusion Middleware Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It includes the following topic:

41.15.12.1 Addendum to the "Overview of Integrating with Oracle Business Intelligence" Topic in Chapter 10, "Integrating Other Clients with Oracle Business Intelligence"

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0

This issue is fixed in Oracle Fusion Middleware Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (E16364-04).

After the first paragraph in the "Overview of Integrating with Oracle Business Intelligence" topic, the following note should be included:

"Oracle generally does not confirm or test third-party client tool compatibility with the Oracle BI Server ODBC interface. Check the Oracle BI EE certification document for any specific certification information on third-party tools and the Oracle BI Server ODBC interface. For more information about the certification document, see "System Requirements and Certification"."

41.15.13 Oracle Fusion Middleware XML Schema Reference for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

This section describes documentation errata in Oracle Fusion Middleware XML Schema Reference for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

There are no known issues at this time.

41.15.14 Oracle Business Intelligence Help System Errata

This section describes errata in the Oracle Business Intelligence help systems. It includes the following topics:

41.15.14.1 Addendum to the Oracle BI Server DSN Configuration Wizard Help

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6

In the Oracle BI Server DSN configuration Wizard online help, in the "ODBC Concepts" topic, the following statement should be included:

"Note that Oracle generally does not confirm or test third-party client tool compatibility with the Oracle BI Server ODBC interface. Check the Oracle BI EE certification document for any specific certification information on third-party tools and the Oracle BI Server ODBC interface."