OBIEE Blog

Symptoms
After migration from 10.1.3.2.1 to 10.1.3.4 Prompt selection window not rendering correctly when a Multi Select Prompt is created for OBI EE Dashboard Prompts.

In Answers, On clicking to go to the selector screen for the Multi-Select Prompt, in it we see on the right:
match: begins with…. the right side is empty. Also the left side (‘Selected’) is empty.
So, No values display in the list.

Details:
- Customer has tried entering a value in the textbox and clicking go, nothing happens.
- The issue does not happen on customers 10.1.3.2.1 instance. It only happens on their 10.1.3.4 instance which they have migrated from 10.1.3.2.1.
- Web Server is Apache\Tomcat 5.5
- Java version is JDK 1.5.18

Steps to reproduce:

- Log into Answers
- At top of left Answers window select ‘New Dashboard Prompt icon, & select a subject area
- from the list on the left select a dimension (eg Calendar Month Desc)
- change Control to ‘Multi-select’
- select ‘Constrain’
- change Defaults To to ‘Specific Value’
- from that list select a value
- top right of screen select the Preview icon
- next to default value, select the icon to bring up the Multi-select window.
- the issue is seen here, no values in the list.
Cause

Client migrated from 10.1.3.2 to 10.1.3.4. During the migration they replaced the ‘res’ folder with the copy from their 10.1.3.2 version and then regenerated the war file. The same war file was deployed in Tomcat.

This is the root of the problem. The ‘res’ folder should not be copied from the older version instance.
Solution

Obtain a fresh 10.1.3.4 ‘res’ folder and replace the copied 10.1.3.2.1 version with that.

It always amazes me how some people don’t bother doing simple research before asking question on OTN. I’m sure that sometimes they just don’t have time to explore the issue by themselves or maybe they don’t know where they should look for information. Questions in one sentence like “My BI Server isn’t starting” or “I have ODBC error” without detailed description pop-up all the time on OTN. I’m a huge fan of metalink (i’m using metalink 3) – I’ve been able to locate some answers always instantly especially before OTN has become such a useful place as it’s now. Filing a service request is a sure way to at least get to the cause of the problem. Of course many times you would hit a BUG or a ENHANCEMENT REQUEST but at least you would know that it’s not your fault.  Through trial and error I’ve compiled a list of best practices that will help you to maximize your Oracle Support experience. Enjoy my SR tutorial:

Most important pre-SR exercise – run a simple search in Metalink / OTN to make sure that this issue haven’t been identified yet – there’s nothing worse than going through days of support e-mail back and forth and then receiving an e-mail that it’s a well-known bug / feature.

1. Make sure to give as detailed description of the problem as possible. Try to describe circumstances when it happens. If you have a question about functionality, be specific about your needs and what you are trying to achieve. If your description is very long – I suggest you type it in word and attach along with the rest of your SR.

2. Take screen shots of the error screens. Circle the problematic area or error message to help support analyst to pinpoint the problem.

3. Put your RPD, web catalog, screen shots into 1 archive. Attach lines from relevant log files (not the whole thing, but extracts). And attach it to the SR. Don’t forget to give your RPD’s admin password.I realized that most of the time, support would request those anyway, so you can be proactive about it. Why shouldn’t you do it now, rather than wait for them to ask you to submit those.

4. Be patient. You SR is important, but sometimes analysts get busy with high-priority tickets. Don’t escalate if nobody is replying within 1 day.  My experience shows that people want to help – it’s just maybe they’re taking their time to counsel with someone else and that’s the reason of the hold-up.

5. Be courteous. If there’s an update or request for more information – do your diligence and reply right away. If you receive an Oracle survey afterward, take a few minutes and fill it out. I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess that can have an impact on someone’s job. If they helped you, why shouldn’t you help out.

Do you have your favourite SR tips? Please share them in the comments.

1. Just like everyone else, I got excited about Content Accelerator Framework. Christian Berg posted about it here “OTN: CAF” and Venkat posted about it on his blog as well content accelerator framework. Unfortunately, it’s only going to work with version 10.1.3.4.1 which hasn’t been released yet. It’s a good step forward though, as the developer community has waited for such a tool for quite some time now. I’ve seen numerous service requests on Metalink asking Oracle about such functionality.

The most interesting thing about this sitation is that I was going to post about various issues of maintaining several OBIEE environments on the same day. And on the same day, I got the same assignment – to figure out a better and newer way to parallely run development, issue maintenance fixes (such as adding new users), and keep environments in sync.

2. OBIEE OTN forum has become a very competetive place – frequently questions are answered within minutes. mma1709 (please let me know if that’s ok to state your name), Christian Berg and Naresh Meda have gained Pro Status. Congratulations! Please keep up the good work!

3. OBIEE Job market. Judging from Dice -  it’s down. I’ve been tracking Dice’s posts using OBIEE keyword for a few months now. It’s been declining steadly for past few months (not a big surprise really, since the total job postings fell from 90+k to 48k).  For OBIEE the number went from 300 in fall 2008 to 186 today. Some of the postings are clearly for the same positions (through different vendors). Again, I’m sure that there’s always a project for someone with relevant OBIEE experience and skills, however, I’m sure that it hurts less experienced folks as companies are trying to reduce staff. Also, the situation is decreasing rates as desperation forces some people and companies to work for less. Stability is more important than a higher paycheck these days, so some companies use it as an excuse to lower salary / rate. Moreover, hurting financial sector makes it difficult to start new capital IT projects.  I’m unwilling to predict the future at this time, however, I’d like to say that – if you have the right skills and personality – do not be afraid – this time might be an opportunity.

Part 1

Initially, I was going to write about whether or not the ETL skills are important for a BI developer, however, I’ve significantly broadened the focus of the post since.

There were few articles that have kept my attention for a while – discussion of the skill-sets that business intelligence developers should have. The articles are “Functional Expertise in a Technical BI Consultant” by Jeff McQuigg and “What Skills Does an Oracle BI Developer Need in 2009?” by Mark Rittman (I think I’ve mentioned that one before). I have a big respect and admiration of both experts and have found inspiration in their blogs and forum posts (both OTN and Toolbox). They both list multiple skills that intersect (such as ETL, database, and dimensional modelling). I think the difference between the articles is that Mark is putting the emphasis on application tools (Hyperion Applications, BI Applications, OWB, and others) while Jeff is emphasizing the importance of the general knowledge of BI and DWH concepts such as dimensional modelling and ETL backed up by OBIEE tools proficiency.

“Domain experience in BI, Data Warehousing, BI Tools, Dimensional Modeling, ETL, BI Apps, etc. is what you should be focusing on…”

I should add that Mark also mentions the importance of possessing various applicable skills, however, I felt that he was more elaborate about software applications.

“In addition to these product skills, you also needed to have a fair bit of database knowledge, partly because all of these tools worked directly with database data, so you had to know your indexing, materialized views, explain plans and so on…”

My only two additions to both lists would be web development and html/css skills for front-end OBIEE customization. It might not be very complex, but I’ve had a few instances where clients have asked me to work on such things as changing Answers text / links, modifying some style sheets, and revamping the Dashboard look.  The other skill is LDAP security and various SSO implementations.

One thing is clear – there’re many technologies, tools, and concepts that a good BI consultant should be comfortable with. Not only that, he/she should be proficient in critical thinking, information search, and just-in-time learning flexibility – being able to learn new tools/concepts on the fly.  I don’t even mention such items as communication skills, attention to detail, dressing appropriately – since those are given for those who’re working in an enterprise scene.

Christian Berg (an OBIEE and Hyperion expert)  has recently started a blog of his own and called it hekatonkheires, which apparently means “three giants who possessed a hundred and fifty hands”. I think it’s a very good description of someone working with OBIEE (Siebel Analytics).

(to be continued…)

Comments are appreciated as usual.

I’m going to send e-mail now and maybe try to set up a meeting!

There was a comment by Mary in the Training post that made me thinking. There must be some OBIEE people in DC / Maryland / Virginia region who would want to meet each other informally. If you’d be interested in something like this, please leave a comment. If there’re enough people – we could start meeting on a regular basis. I think this would be great for networking as well as for transferring knowledge.