(See blog subject in case it’s not clear what I’m talking about…)

One of my goals for this blog was to make sure I kept to my schedule of at least two blog posts per month. Normally May would be an exciting month as I would be attending the ASUG Annual Conference which is co-located with the SAPPHIRE event down in Orlando. In fact I think this is the first year out of the past three (or four?) that I have missed it. Conferences always seem to provide a lot of inspiration for posting. However, for a variety of reasons I am not attending the event this year. That means plenty of time left for other stuff, yes?

As it turns out, the last few months (actually some of the development started well over a year ago) I have been busy working on the next iteration of BOB. We’re coming up on our tenth anniversary as a community, and I wanted to spiff things up a bit. Some of the changes will be visible, some are primarily for tuning or optimization, and some are intended to make things more efficient for our fine moderator team. But the point is, there is still a bit of work to be done, and I really wanted to have the release done before the end of May. That means that unless I really can ask the universe for more time, I will be taking a vacation from this blog in order to concentrate on getting the BOB updates finished and tested. That means things may be a bit quiet here for the month.

ASUG Call for Presentations, 2012 Fall Business Objects (SBOUC) conference

I think I’m going to try this in my next presentation.

Recently I discovered the same “feature” is present in the measure projection function assignment logic as well. I wrote about how important it is to properly coordinate the SQL aggregate and the projection function some time back. I have also talked about how the database delegated projection function works. This week I had the need to create a whole set of database delegated measures, which went fine. Then later I had to update the SQL statement for these measures to correct for a divide by zero issue. After publishing I went back and checked, and every single one of these measures (about 90 of them) were reset back to a Sum projection function.

It seems that the projection function works the same way that the tables button does. Every time I touch this object, I will have to remember to reset the projection function. To avoid that, I used the @Select() function for all of the time sliced objects and had them reference the base measure object, which was itself using the @Select() function to reference a measure “bit” object. I wasn’t sure I could nest one @Select() inside of another, and I was actually fairly certain I had tried that before. But apparently in 3.1 it works now.

My time-sliced objects generally have this formula:
Base Object: Sum(@Select(Measure Bit))
Time Slice Object: Sum(@Select(Measure Bit)) * @Select(Time Slice Bit)

Now I’ve done this:
Base Object: Sum(Select(Measure Bit))
Time Slice Object: Select(Base Object) * @Select(Time Slice Bit)

Notice that in the second case there is no Sum() function on the time slice object? That’s because there already is one in the base object, and I cannot nest aggregate functions. But nesting @Select() seems to work okay.

The bottom line is that there are certain automatic features of the universe designer software that I wish I could turn off. Most of the time they’re fine, but when they keep resetting important items on object definitions, and do so without notifying me that they’re doing it, that’s irritating.

I have a hierarchy set up. When I drill to the bottom of the hierarchy, I want extra detail objects to show up.

This seems like it should be the default behavior, right? If I take the time as a universe designer to properly classify objects as dimensions or details, and also take the time to set up hierarchies, then it would seem that reports would recognize and utilize that information.

Unfortunately they don’t. That means I have to use some report functions and set up some variables and do some creative formatting to make it work the way I think it should. I first showed how to do this with Desktop Intelligence way back in 2000 at the Business Objects conference in Washington D.C. Today I will update the technique and show how it can be done in Web Intelligence.

The Problem Defined

In the eFashion universe I have a dimensional hierarchy from State to City and then to Store Name. Once I get to the store name I see two additional details for Zip Code and Address. In this particular scenario I am going to set up a report that starts at the state level and allows me to drill down through the city and then to the store name. When I get to the store name, the address is magically going to appear. As with most magic, the solution requires some misdirection.

Building The Query

Building the query is very straight forward. I will include the dimensions I need, the Address, and a measure (Sales revenue) just to make the report more interesting. I am not going to invoke drill mode from the query panel as I will do that later on the report. When I run the initial query I see a standard report block.

To prepare of the next step I am going to remove all of the objects except for State and Sales revenue.

Address Variable

The misdirection that makes the magic work for this trick is a special variable for the store address. It turns out that the address will be on the block the entire time, but it will only be visible after a user has drilled down to the store level. Here’s the formula that makes that work:

=If DrillFilters([City])<>"" Then [Address]

Remember that the hierarchy is from State to City and then to Store Name. Until I have selected a City value, the DrillFilters() function as coded above will show the empty string. Once the user has drilled down to the City, this formula will return a non-empty result and the Address will be displayed. Until then the return value from this formula is null.

I am going to first show what the results look like, and then explain the formatting choices I made to help complete the illusion.

Top level block after invoking drill mode:

After clicking on Texas:

After clicking on Houston:

See how the address magically appears? As I said earlier, the address was there all the time. Here is how that trick is managed behind the scenes.

Hide In Plain Sight

The address variable (called “Show Address”) uses the formula posted earlier to show or hide the value of the address based on where the user is in the hierarchy. The variable exists on the report all the time, and is positioned as the second column in the report. There are two ways to approach the next step. I could create an alerter that is driven by the same logic that dynamically updates the cell format, or I can apply the format changes permanently on the report. I am going to show the second solution. The first adjustment is to set the address column so that it autofits the width.

When the cell is empty it will shrink down to about 4 pixels, which seems to be the minimum setting allowed. But the cell still has a border so I need to address that as well. There are two parts to this step. First I remove the left border on the address column (both the data and the header). Next I remove the right border from the first column in the report block. That ensures that there is no border at all between the first two columns. Again this is done on the header cell as well as the report body.

In my sample report I don’t have a header on the address. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to create a variable that will show or hide the column header based on the same logic.

Content Is King

I talked previously about setting up a posting schedule and sticking to it. This becomes the “pulse” of your blog and I think it’s one of the most important attributes of your new online presence (call it brand or whatever else you like). I tend to post mostly technical articles that are designed to solve a specific problem. That’s what I do in real life (solve problems, or at least attempt to do so). That makes it easy for me to carry that over into my blog life. (Hopefully solving more than I cause. ) That being said, what if I don’t have any blog posts ready to go for a particular month? Do I make up some fluff in order to maintain my self-imposed posting schedule, or do I just skip a month? Maybe I should just post a movie review or talk about my latest technical toy that I have purchased to fill in the gaps?

Or perhaps not…

Jon Reed recorded a great podcast at the last TechEd conference. (See below for link.) In it he talks about how bringing a certain amount of personal “flavor” into a blog doesn’t hurt. Jon says:

I do share content about my personal life. I don’t talk about why Beyonce’s latest album sucked, even though it did. But last Friday I posted a few favorite YouTube videos because it does add some flavor to who I am and what I care about. Social media is about inviting people into your living room, not into your bedroom, so we are making concious choices about what to share and what not to. Bringing people into your living room does create intimacy and authenticity to a point, but making clear choices about what you share does matter.

The emphasis was Jon’s so I repeated it here. I tend to agree with him on this point. I tend to write like I talk, and I talk a lot, so my blog posts can get long. I also am a fairly informal person so I am fairly informal here on my blog. I’m one of the few bloggers I know that actively uses emoticons. That being said, I don’t talk about the latest soccer games my boys have played in, or what they wore for Halloween. That’s saved for my family blog. I don’t talk about the fact that I’m very much looking forward to the Final Four championship games coming up this weekend. I save that for what I call my “manly” blog. I don’t talk about my new camera lens or the next photography trip I am going to take, that’s saved for – you guessed it – my photography blog. On this blog I talk about BI software, tips and tricks, BI conferences, or technologies that are related to BI in some fashion.

Content is what will initially bring people to your blog. Continuing to post relevant, topical, and useful content is what will keep blog readers coming back. Some blog readers may be familiar with the concept of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. I’m going to save that for a later blog post as it deserves to be covered in more detail than I want to do here. For now, I will assume that you have built it, and people have come. Now what?

Don’t Blog In A Vacuum

This is where I (the pot) get to call the kettle black. Here’s another quote from Jon Reed’s podcast I mentioned above:

It’s embarrassing to see blogs that are not aware of the conversations going on. You’re joining a conversation and trying to advance it. If you don’t understand the context of other experts in your topic, how can you advance the conversation?

As before, the emphasis is replicated from his blog post. What does Jon mean?

I’m going to make up some terms to describe how blogs can work. Blogs can be one-way or two-way. Two-way blogs can be local or global. Let me try to define what I mean when I make those distinctions.

A “one-way” blog is one where the blogger creates content but does not allow any discussion. It would be like going to a college course where the professor does not allow any questions during class. Yes, he or she might have visiting hours so you can ask questions in private; that would be like a blogger posting an email address or contact form for private questions. In my opinion this is the worst type of blog for both sides. Blog readers are not able to interact with the blog owner except in private, and that means that the same question could be asked over and over. Eventually the professor (blogger) is going to realize that there was a flaw in their lecture and potentially address it (by editing the blog post). But none of the other students got to hear the conversation.

A “two-way” blog allows comments. I allow comments here in order to allow “students” to ask the “professor” questions about the lecture. By having that conversation in public, all of the other “students” (blog readers) can benefit, especially if they had the same question. But what if the professor is aware of another conversation taking place in another similar classroom? Is it the professor’s duty to let the students know about that as well?

That’s where Jon’s comment comes in. A two-way blog is great, but if you never reference activity going on around the rest of the Internet then your content can feel a bit isolated and incomplete. Even if you aren’t making the effort to see what else is out there, many of your more knowledgeable blog readers are most certainly aware of that additional content. A blog that does a great job of referencing other blogs or content would be what I call a “global” blog. If I write a blog post (like this one) that is inspired by or partially in response to another post, then I do try to link back (or “hat tip” as it is sometimes called). Sometimes I do that in the body of the post, and sometimes I do it in the “related links” section at the end of a post.

I freely admit that I don’t do a great job of this. Frankly, it can be a lot of work. That means my blog is more “local” because I don’t reference external content nearly as much as I could, or perhaps should.

Make It Easy For Readers To Promote Your Blog

One of the best ways to increase traffic to your blog is to convert readers into your unpaid marketing team. The best way to do that is to make it really easy for those folks to promote your blog posts. If it’s hard, they won’t do it. If it’s easy, then they might at least think about it. I was recently sent a link to a list of ten “must haves” for any Wordpress blogger. It’s probably significant that over half of them were related to social media in some fashion. I have tried different variations of several social media plugins over the years but have not yet settled on one. I plan to get something along those lines selected and installed this year.

What About Promoting Others Via a Blog Roll?

There is at least one simple thing that you can do as as blogger to show that you’re aware of the bigger group of conversations going on. Wordpress offers a feature called a “blog roll” which allows you to create a list of other blogs that you read, reference, or endorse in some way. I don’t have a blog roll here and my reason is simple, if a bit childish. I don’t want to show favoritism, and rather than list everyone that I know who writes a blog, I just don’t list anybody. In other words, I’m not going to pick my favorite child. I do reference other BI blogs within specific posts; Jon Reed would be the most obvious example since I’ve included several quotes from him in this very post. But he is not the only person I have referenced on this blog. Dallas Marks has an excellent example of a blog roll

What About Videos? Podcasts?

As I mentioned near the beginning of this post, content is king. But you have some decisions as to what format that content takes. I do primarily text posts with a supporting cast of images. I try to make sure that every image has the proper HTML tags for “alt” and “title” to make the images more relevant to the text-scanning process used by most web spiders. Why? Because when someone searches for content that appears on my blog, I want them to find it. Videos and podcasts are not (at this time) indexed nearly as well. I am sure the brilliant minds behind the search indexing bots are hard at work. Several years ago Cisco suggested that by 2013 videos will be by far the largest form of content consumed via the Internet. Are we there yet? I don’t know. But I do know that without excellent keyword support it’s very hard to find relevant video content. Google’s own support site for webmasters still says today that Google’s web indexing process cannot process video content.

What About Corporate Policy?

More and more companies are setting corporate policies for blogging and tweeting. Your employer may allow you to create a personal blog as long as you use appropriate disclaimer text, or they might not. When I was a consultant I had full reign within Integra to create whatever content I wanted, and I retained ownership of that content. If that’s important to you, then make sure your company policies related to blogging are consistent with your goals.

Summary

I did not write this post to scare you away from blogging. I just wanted to show that while content is important, being a responsible blogger is not just about writing. You should make sure you have permission to blog and that you follow any corporate guidelines established by your employer. You need to be aware of how different forms of content can be scanned (or not scanned) by the various search engines, what impact that has. You have to decide how much effort to put into making your blog a part of the broader global Internet versus ignoring the rest of the world and perhaps looking smaller as a result. You have to decide if you’re going to have a one-way or two-way relationship with your blog readers.

Once you’ve set up a blog and decided to allow comments, you then need to be aware that you’re not just going to get positive reinforcement. You’ll get input from those that disagree with you, sometimes in a virulent fashion. You’ll get input from spammers who see your blog simply as a vehicle for them to promote their own products or services. I’m going to talk in more specific detail about tools for moderating comments and handling spam in the next post in this series.

Related Links

• Informal TechEd Podcast: Social Media and SAP – BS or Value? by Jon Reed of JonERP.com
• Videos from TechEd 2011 featuring social discussions lead by Jon Reed

Leveraging Report Variables for More Robust SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Reporting
This session explores the role of report variables in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence 4.0 and offers undocumented tips and tricks to exploit them for more creative and efficient ad hoc reporting and data analysis. Walk through system demos to understand what’s required to merge data providers in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, including tips to leverage the ForgeMerge() function to fix unbalanced data providers in a full client document. Obtain best practices for using SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence report functions and other context operations to enable calculations at different levels of granularity. Explore workarounds for displaying UserResponse() values on separate rows in a table, and see how this improves the user experience. Get techniques to optimize prompt handling, including insight into whether and how to create a prompt syntax that substitutes “today’s date” for a prompt default value.

The Web Intelligence session was actually delivered with the 3.1 rich client, not 4.0 as mentioned. The conference page lists a number of blog posts related to the content included in that session.

Universe Design Techniques Proven to Boost Front-End Performance
This session dives deep into universe development and examines when, why, and how to tweak your existing Business Objects universes for optimal report performance — and when you may need to build new ones. Explore proven techniques for extending a universe to ensure more efficient queries, an optimized end-user experience, and more timely and efficient BI operations. Acquire tips to perform index awareness, such as choosing a value from the list of values (LOV) directly within the query panel, rather than using prompts. Learn how to use aggregate awareness to set up complex logic and step through a demo to see how this results in significantly improved performance on the front end. Gain insight into whether and when to leverage shortcut joins to boost query speed. Explore universe design techniques that provide the best performance when pointing to a data source outside your Business Objects system. View detailed demonstrations of various advanced universe design techniques and leave with proven strategies for incorporating them into your own environment.

The Designer session included information that I have posted about on my blog before. However, in going through my older posts to build some links to those posts I realized that I’ve never really covered the aggregate awareness feature here. I hope to address that in the next few weeks.

Cartoon from MiniMumble.com.

Wednesday morning I went to Alan Mayer’s session on how to perform a self-service system health check. I had not seen him in quite a while and it’s always good to catch up. If you weren’t aware of this, I used to work with Alan back in the Integra days, and Alan has launched a new venture called Solid Ground Technologies. Alan has been a regular at BI events for even longer than I have, and he always delivers great sessions. This year was no different.

I then spent Wednesday afternoon with Michael Welter preparing for our joint training session; we delivered a 3 hour hands-on session on the semantic layer to end the day. If you can imagine in three hours we covered setting up a connection, inserting tables, creating joins, building classes and objects, differences between dimensions and details, derived tables, measures, solving loops with aliases, solving loops with contexts, and even fan and chasm traps. Yes, in three hours. Just like running a marathon. We repeated the session on Thursday morning to start what was my busiest day so far.

Thursday after the repeat of the designer session I got to spend the next hour talking about one of my favorite topics: BOB. They scheduled a room for me and allowed me to talk about the origin of BOB, some best-practices or tips for using BOB (how to search, among other things) but as the conversation went along we also talked about some of the challenges of running a large and active online community. I also talked about some of the new features that I hope we will be able to release within a few months. The crowd was small, but it was still a lot of fun for me to be able to talk about our progress over the last ten years. I would have been willing to do the same talk to an audience of one.

After that I had a quick lunch (food here is decent, by the way, and no problems at all finding water throughout the day unlike at another event I attended earlier this year). I went back up to my room to test and then reset all of the demonstration queries for my afternoon session on tuning universes. I covered index awareness (which I have blogged about before), shortcut joins (also a prior topic from this blog), and finished off with aggregate awareness. I will be posting the presentation slides after I get home, and will be adding a blog post (or two) related to aggregate awareness to eliminate that gap. That session was a lot of fun, as it included a lively discussion with audience members as they peppered me with questions throughout the hour.

One interesting difference between this event and other events where I have presented is the timing: the sessions here are designed to be an hour of lecture followed by a 15 minute question and answer period. As I was preparing my presentations for this event it really helped me to know that I could include extra content; so many times I have had to cut out important or useful information just to fit inside a one hour (or even fifty minute) time window. As a presenter I found that to be a nice change, and in the few sessions that I was able to attend I didn’t mind that they ran a little bit longer.

Overall I enjoyed the event. I was told that there are about 1,800 folks that are attending (although some of those are cross-over registrations, meaning they registered for a different event other than BI2012 but their conference pass allows them to attend all of the sessions.) The hotel was nice, although it was a long walk to the event location, and the walk included a pass through the smoke-filled casino area. That wasn’t always pleasant, but it’s a part of doing business in Las Vegas.

Finally, an amusing (at least to me) story to end the week: while I am here I am also still trying to keep up with work back home. At one point I was getting extremely frustrated with the hotel Internet access. I had established my connection and started up VPN. I was trying to import a universe, make a few small changes, and then export it again. The problem was the import process kept timing out. I finally was able to get the universe imported and make the changes but was a little hesitant to try to export after the time-out failures from earlier. I didn’t want to risk having the export process interrupted (this is a fairly large universe).

Finally I decided to risk it, and I exported the universe.

The export completed successfully.

Which proves that what happens in Vegas does not, apparently, have to stay in Vegas.