• Prerequisites
• Creating the connection
• Managing BusinessObjects report prompts
• List of all BusinessObjects Webi and DesktopIntelligence reports

Prerequisites

• You must have followed the instructions for deploying the ddbobridge add-on on the BusinessObjects server in the tutorial Setting up access to Business Objects XI.
• A BusinessObjects (BO) server with connection identifiers
• Knowledge of the ID or CUID of the BO report to be retrieved (optional)

Creating the connection

To connect to a Business Objects report :

1. In the Create a new data model box, click on the BO XLS or BO CSV button in the Reports section.
   
   ➡ The BusinessObjects XI Portal XLS (CSV) Report dialog box appears.
   

2. Select the desired connection mode:

• Manual connection mode
  The connection will only be visible in the data source.

  • In the BO Server URL field, enter the address of the BO application server (Tomcat) followed by the port number in the form
    http://{BO application server IP address}:{Tomcat port number}.
    For example:http://boAppServer:8080
  • In the CMS Name field, enter the BO Engine server address in the form
    {BO Engine server IP address}:{MCS port number}.
    For example, boEngServer:6400
  • In the Authentication Type field, enter the type of your server (for example: Enterprise, LDAP).
  • In the User and Password fields, enter the user name and password used for authentication.
  • Click on Connection to obtain the status of the connection (successful connection or failed connection). If the connection fails, change the connection parameters.
     
• Named Connection mode
  The connection will be visible in the connection manager and can be used by all data sources.
  • Click Select: the Database Connection Manager is displayed.
  • You can :
    • Select an existing connection from the list. Click OK.
    • Create a new connection as described on the Add a named connection.
  • Click on Connection.

3. Then select the BusinessObjects report:

   • In the Report ID field, enter the identifier of the report you wish to load as a data source in the form S_CUID (or S_ID if you have not deployed the new ddbobridge add-on) and then, in the Type drop-down list, select the type on CMS specified.
     - or -
     Click the  button to open the  box BusinessObjects Reports and select the required report. Click OK.

   • The Instances drop-down list is available to let you choose a particular instance of the BO report. The drop-down list will only show the possible instance choices. For example, if the report has only one instance, the "penultimate" option will not appear.

     • Report: original BO report (without scheduling)
     • Last successful: last successful instance of the report after the last schedule
     • Last: last successful or unsuccessful instance, following the last schedule
     • Penultimate: penultimate instance of the BO report.

4. The Advanced... button allows you to define a maximum time for the query if you wish.
5. Click the Reload button to load the data.
   ➡ A preview of the result is displayed in the Preview section and Data Selection options are available. See the Preview and the paragraph Data selection for more details.
6. You can also add data transformations. See the Transform data page for more details.
7. Once you are happy with the result, click Next to configure the data model.

Managing BusinessObjects report prompts

Some BO reports contain prompts imposed by the Universe or prompts created by the user. Using Digdash, you can fill in the values of these prompts in a dedicated interface to filter your BO query via the Prompt Values button.

Enter a name for each prompt and associate a value with it. You can add as many prompt name-value associations as you need.
Reload the report to take account of the filters to be applied.

List of all BusinessObjects Webi and DesktopIntelligence reports

The The search button  displays an overview of all the reports on the BO server.

The BO BusinessObjects Reports box is displayed as follows.

The following details are displayed for each report:

• its universal ID (CUID)
• its name
• its number of instances
• its type
• its path on the CMS
• its numeric ID

The interface also includes a search bar to help you find a report more quickly. Filtering during entry is based on the report ID, name, number of instances, type and path on the BO server.

By default, the list displays the first 10,000 reports on the BO server. You can increase or reduce the number of reports to be listed using the Choose the number of reports to display in the list option.

When the box is unchecked, the number of reports to be listed reverts to the default number (10,000).

Selecting a report once will automatically update the fields relating to the selected BO report.