OBIEE Varaibles Overview

OBIEE Interview Questions And Answers

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What is Chronological Key?

Chronological key uniquely identifies the data at particular level. Chronological key is mostly used in time dimensions where time series functions are used.

What is Logical Key?

Logical key is the key which is used to define the unique elements in each logical level. A logical level may have more than one level key. When that is the case, specify the key which is primary key of that level. It is used to specify the column which is used for drill down and which is used as primary keys.

What is level Based measure?

Level-based metrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the dimension.

Briefing Book

·         A briefing book is a collection of static or updatable snapshots of dashboard pages, individual analyses, and BI Publisher reports.

·         Add the content of dashboard pages (including pages that contain BI Publisher reports) or individual analyses to new or existing briefing books.

·         Download briefing books in PDF or MHTML format for printing and viewing. The PDF version of a briefing book contains an automatically generated table of contents.

·         Update, schedule, and deliver briefing books using agents, if your organization licensed Oracle Business Intelligence Delivers.

Content Type

·         Updatable — Refreshes the data whenever the briefing book is downloaded, or when it is specified as the delivery content for an agent.

·         Snapshot — Adds the content in its current state. Snapshot content preserves the original data and is not updated when the briefing book is rerun. Snapshot content is not updated when using agents.

Note: 

If you have ever used the Briefing Books feature in OBIEE 10g you might remember the necessity to install the OBI Briefing Book Reader software in order to open the .sbb (Siebel Briefing Book) files.

In OBIEE 11g, there is no briefing book reader and no .sbb output anymore.

Instead we can now download briefing books as PDF (as in 10g) or MHTML.

Edit Execution Precedence

This Option we can find in Initialization block setup.

a.       When a repository has multiple initialization blocks, you can set the order (establish the precedence) in which the blocks will be initialized.

b.       First, you open the block that you want to be executed last and then add the initialization blocks that you want to be executed before the block you have open. For example, suppose a repository has two initialization blocks, A and B. You open initialization block B, and then specify that block A will execute before block B. This causes block A to execute according to block B's schedule, in addition to its own.

Implicit Fact Column in OBIEE

In case we have multiple Fact tables under one Subject Area, then it is a best practice to set an implicit fact column. Setting an implicit fact has two benefits.

ü  An implicit fact column help BI Server choose the join path when multiple join paths are available between facts and dimensions.

ü  When a report is generated only from dimension tables, it will result in an error as an Analyses should always consist of at least one fact or measure. To overcome this error we define an implicit fact column. This ensures that a fact is always included in the SQL generated by BI Server.

To set an implicit fact column:

•      In presentation layer, double click the presentation catalog/ go to properties of presentation catalog.
•               In the general tab, find the Implicit Fact Column section.
•               Click on Set… button, this will open the browse window to select a fact column from the fact tables available in the presentation catalog.
•             Select the column.
•             Click OK.

Purging Options in OBIEE

Invoking ODBC Extension Functions

The following ODBC functions affect cache entries associated with the repository specified by the ODBC connection. You can call these functions using the nqcmd.exe command-line executable.

The syntax of the call will be as follows:

nqcmd -d "Analytics Web" –u administrator –p sadmin –s purge.txt.

Where purge.txt contains the call (for example, call SAPurgeAllCache())

ü  SAPurgeCacheByQuery()

Purges a cache entry that exactly matches a specified query.The following call programmatically purges the cache entry associated with this query:

Call SAPurgeCacheByQuery(‘select lastname, firstname from employee where salary >
100000’ );

ü  SAPurgeCacheByTable()

Call SAPurgeCacheByTable(‘DBName’, ‘CatName’, ‘SchName’, ‘TabName’);

Additionally,DBName and TabName cannot be null. If either one is null, you will receive an error message.

ü  SAPurgecacheByDatabase()

Purges all cache entries associated with a specific physical database name.

Call SAPurgeCacheByDatabase( ‘DBName’ );

ü  SAPurgeAllCache()

Purges all cache entries. The following is an example of this call:

Call SAPurgeAllCache();