About me

Santosh kumar jeerlapally

Business objects SME
Santosh4bo.ffrq.com
 Business Objects

1) Detail object used for?

Sol: Detail objects are attached to dimensions; one cannot drill on details or link on details when

linking multiple data providers.

Eg:While Customer ID would be a dimension, customer name, address, phone and soon should

be details.

2) What is BOMain.Key?

Sol: Bo Main. Key file contains the information about the repository site i.e. it contains the address

of the repository security domain.

3) What is Business objects Repository?

Sol: it is nothing but the metadata .

4) What is domain? How many are there in a basic setup? What are they?

Sol: Domain is nothing but logical grouping of system tables, There are three domains usually in a

basic setup, They are Secure, Universe, Document . Business objects are sometimes called

domain objects (where the word domain means the business), and a domain model represents

the set of domain objects and the relationships between them.

5) When is the Repository created?

Sol: In 5i/6i versions after installing the software, whereas in Xi version a repository is created at

the time of installation.

6) Can we have multiple domains?

Sol: Yes. (Security domain can not be multiple).

7)* How do you restrict access to rows of a database?

Sol: In XI version it can be done by using row-level security in designer module whereas in 5i/6i it is

done by supervisor.

8) What is a category?

Sol: It is nothing but grouping of certain entities.

9) What is a Universe?

Sol: It is a semantic layer between Database and the designer used to create objects and classes.

(It maps to data in Database).

10) What is an Object?

Sol: It is an instance of class, its nothing but an entity.

11) What do you mean by Object qualification?

Sol: Object qualification represents what kind of object is that, usually we have three types of

object qualifiers they are measure, dimension, detailed.

12) What is the size of data base?

Sol: In general it will be anything between 4-8 Terabytes.

13) What is a loop? How can we overcome?

Sol: Loop is nothing but a closed circular flow; it can be overcome by making use of Alias and

Context.

14) What is a join? Explain different types of joins?

Sol: Join is used to link to tables depending upon the data requested by the user, Usually we have

Inner Join, Outer Join, Left Join, Right Join, Full Outer join.
15) What are Linked Universes?

Sol: If the data provided is from two different data providers then we can link those two universes,

such type of universe is called Linked Universe.

16) What are Alerter, Filters, Breaks and Conditions?

Sol: Alters are nothing but they are used to draw attention to a block of data by highlighting.

Breaks are nothing but grouping the data without any change in the format.

Condition is used to retrieve data which meets certain criteria.

Filters are used to get necessary data.

17) What is the difference between master-detail and Breaks?

Sol: In break common fields are deleted (here in this case the table format is not changed)

whereas in master-detail , we declare certain entity as a master to get the detailed information or

report in this case the table format is changed.

18) What is metrics?

Sol: Metrics are a system of parameters or ways of quantitative and periodic assessment of a

process that is to be measured; these are used to track trends, productivity.

19) What is a Set?

Sol: Its nothing but grouping of users.

20) What is the use of AFD? Where it can be stored?

Sol: used to create dashboards. It can be stored in repository, corporate or personal.

21)* what is the source for metrics?

Sol: measure objects.

22) Why do we need metrics and sets?

Sol: Metrics are used for analysis and Sets are used for grouping.

23) Is there any bug in 6.x?

Sol: In earlier version of 6.0 they had, but 6.5 is the best version with out any bugs.
24) What are the general issues in migration process?

Sol: Alignment, performance.

25) What is the use of BO SDK?

Sol: Bo SDK main use is to suppress “no data to fetch” using Macros.

26)* How can we improve performance?

Sol: By making use of Aggregate tables.

27) Analysis in BO?

Sol: Slice-Dice and Drill analysis.

Drill-down means keeping the same columns but for a lower level within the hierarchy.

28) How can you check the integrity?

Sol: By making use of Check integrity button.

29) What are Universe parameters?

Sol: Name of the universe, description and RDBMS connection, size and rights.

30) Types of Universes?

Sol: Simple and Complex.

31) What is the use of BCA?

Sol: BCA is used to refresh and schedule and export and save as .html, .rtf, .xls , .pdf.

Q) What is the best way to link to .rep files?

Q) What are pre-defined conditions? Compare with report conditions? Justify?

Q) What are the differences between a formula, variable and user objects?

Q) Did you face any problems while creating reports? Name? Solutions?

Q) What is personal/corporate report?

Q) Sharing reports with other bo users/non bo users.

Q) How to create a business objects report?

Q) What do you mean by predefined condition?

Q) How can you crate Cascading prompts in Bo?

Q) Name some Data provider functions?

Solutions

we cannot link two .rep files...yet you can do it through indexing...

Pre-defined conditions are the conditions which are defined at the universe level,....where as

conditions are the simple conditions we apply at the report level.....

Formula consists of only measure objects, variables are predefined we cannot edit them and user

objects are user defined we can edit/delete them

Example: Formulas:sum, average etc

Variables: customer country

User objects: fullname= concate(firstname,lastname).

We can get many problems while creating the reports...go through the error messages explained

and try in explaining some of them.

To share reports among the BO users,go to supervisor define user groups and user rights....

BO report can be created using DEski(XI), reporter or BO(5x,6x), webi

prompts within ptompts...in XI we have a previlage to create cascading prompts....we can create

cascading prompts in 6x also but long process.

Conenction, data provider, data providersql,dataprovider type, last execution date etc.
Interview questions of business objects

1) What is Business Objects? What is the use of business Objects? Business Object is reporting

tool, It is use to create reports and analyze data

2) What are the modules in the Business Objects?

Designer

Reporter (Deski/Enterprise/webi)

Info view

Supervisor

3) Where is a universe created? Where is a report created?

Universe is created in designer and reports are created in query panal.

4) What is the Use of pivot?

Pivot is use to hide the object.

5) What is the difference between general table and a Cross table?

General table gives the detail information of the data

Cross tab: consist of rows and column .corresponding data appears at the intersection of column
and rows

6) What is a legend?

Legend is key to graph,

7) What is a UDO? How to create a UDO?

UDO: User defined object: to create a variable depending on conditions

Creating UDO

Right click on new variable◊variable---

Define variable (dimension, measure or details)

Define formula using in editor using functions and operators

In how many formats a Business objects report can be stored? What are they?

.rep .xls

.txt .html

.qry .pdf

.xlm .rea

.bqy

9) My report should show the refresh time and date it is created?(explain the steps)
Date and time◊Special field◊Insert

Right click on variable in REPORT MANGAER

New variable

Data provider function

Last execution time

10) What is the use of Section Delimiters? Where can you see that?

Section delimiters are use to show the sections in the report

It is use to section the reports after master-details

11) What is the use of Outline?

Outline is use to fold the sections and give the detail information at top so that the user see of his

interest.

12) Explain the procedure to apply an Alerter? What is there use?

Select the column to which alerter is applied and apply the button alerter (on report menu), click to

add button to add the alerter and apply conditions on operation.

13) What is the name of the button which is used to take you to the Panel?

Edit data provider

14) How the database and the universe are connected?

ODBC/DSN

15) You are exporting a report to repository which contains objects, where objects go.

Objects go to FRS

Metal data is going to CMC

16) What is the best way to increase the performance of report?

At universe level

1) By using loop resolving techniques(alias, context)

2) By using aggregates tables

3) By putting index in the tables

4) By changing array fetch parameter

5) By using short join.

At report level

1) By avoiding filter
2) By avoiding sub alerter

3) By drill through

4) Use only appreciated functionality

5) By using less variables and formulas

17) What is max no of rows using ODBC on a 2 DB?

65500.

1 Don’t want to see empty cell (cell)

In report. If we have empty cell in our report, right click and than filter the empty cell in filter option,

19) How do you restrict access to the rows of a database?

1) In the User pane, click the user or group.

2) In the Resource pane, click the Universe tab.

3) Right-click the universe.

4) From the pop-up menu, click Properties.

5) In the Universe Properties dialog box, click the Rows tab.

6) Set the options as necessary.

7) Click OK.

20) Explain the difference between union and group?

Union displays all the data (what ever may be the object property)

In group only similar data is grouped (i.e. dimension or measure or detail)

Union can be applied on tables where as group is applied on columns

21) How many tabs can be added in a report i.e. how many times can we drill a report,

We can add any number of tabs depending upon the hierarchy and scope of analysis

22) What all will be exported to the repository, when we export a universe?

All classes and objects and the relation between them.

23) Can you create Alerts in WEB Intelligence?

Yes in XI R2 but No in earlier versions

24) How do you Find the average of an object with out using the Average Function and by using

only sum,count,max,min?

Sum () / count (all)

25) Can a universe be connected to different databases?

No, we cannot connect to different databases, but we can link two different universes and can use
26) Fill("GST ",3)

Returns GST GST GST.

27) A report can we hide an particular object ?How can u do that?(flow chart)

Double click on the table… Go to format> pivot>select the object you want to hide>Hide

2 In a report if we have two tables, can we hide one of the table?

What is the procedure?

Yes…Right click on the table>format table>general tab> uncheck show header and footer, check

fold….

29) What are pre-defined conditions? Compare with report conditions? Justify?

Pre-defined conditions are the conditions which are created at the universe level.

We cannot edit/delete pre-defined conditions, where as we can modify the report conditions.

30) I have some multi data providers (excel, text, universe). I want only retrieve the data from excel

only. How to write the query in query panel?

In select ways to access data> choose other> select excel file

31) I want to display the last refresh report date and time in the below of the report, how will you do

that?
Insert > Special fields>last refresh date>drag and drop in the report footer

Again insert>special fields> last refresh date>drag and drop in the report footer>right click>format

cell>number>date/time>change t

32) I have one problem? My Client to tell resolves the problem with in 2 hours, but it’s taken by full

day (8 hours). How will u convince the client?

Problem is resolved in 2 hrs but to test for more related problems and making sure that the

problem will not occur again and checking for similar related problems and fixing them took time…

33) What is metadata and physical data, what happens when I create or export a webi report?

Explain it diagrammatically? What is FRS? What is CMS?

Physical data is the actual data

And metadata contains the data of the data (repository)

When a webi report is exported all the physical data goes into FRS I.e. file repository server and

the metadata goes into Central management Server.

Q) Tell me about yourself, your employment history. Q) How many years of experience do you

have in BusObj? Versions? Q) What was your role in the current project? Q) How many users were

there?

Q) On a scale of 1 - 10, rate yourself on BUSOBJ? Q) Supervisor

Q) Designer
Q) BusObj

Q) Webi

Q) Broadcast Agent

Q) Business Query

Q) Were any experts called from BUSOBJ while you were on the project? Q) What is BOmain.key?

A) A file that contains the address of the repository's security domain. This file must be distributed

to all users who will access the BusinessObjects repository to share universes and documents. By

default, the bomain.key is placed in the BusinessObjects\LocData folder on your system.

Supervisor Questions

Q) What is the Business Objects repository? A) The Business Objects repository is a set of

relational data structures stored on a database. It enables Business Objects users to share

resources in a controlled and secured environment. Q) What is a domain? How many are there is a

basic set up? What are they? A) The repository is made up of three domains: the security domain,

the universe domain, and the document domain. Q) When is the repository created?

A) The repository is created by the general supervisor with the Setup wizard during the first-time

use of the product. You can create and use more than one repository, typically to manage multiple

sites. Q) Can we have multiple domains? If yes. Purpose of having them? A) Yes, Having multiple

document domains can help with organization. If you stick with the 'canned' document domain, all

documents (BCA, user to user, corporate, universe lov's) all wind up sharing the same

domain/default table space. You can create separate domains with separate table spaces for the

different types of documents and reduce the risk of space related Repro problems and corruption.

Also, you can reduce the risk that problems corrupt your entire Repro.
Q) How do you restrict the users from using a particular universe, a class or object(s) of a universe,

a particular document etc? Q) How do you restrict access to the rows of a database? A) 1) In the

User pane, click the user or group.

2) In the Resource pane, click the Universe tab. 3) Right-click the universe.

4) From the pop-up menu, click Properties. 5) In the Universe Properties dialog box, click the Rows

tab. 6) Set the options as necessary.

7) Click OK.

Q) How do you Create a user?

A) 1) In the User pane, click the group in which you want to create a new user.

2) Click on the toolbar.

3) Type a user name, and press the Enter key. Q) What are the types of user profiles and products

can they use? A) Supervisor offers standard profiles representing the various types of Business

Objects users. The names of the profiles, as well as their symbols, roles, and products are

explained below.

Profile) General Supervisor

Role) The Business Objects system administrator. This is the person who launches Supervisor for

the first time. The general supervisor creates the repository, defines users and groups, and

manages resources. A general supervisor is the sole user with a global view of the hierarchical

organization.

Product) All Business Objects Products

Profile) Supervisor

Role) Defines users and group, manages resources, and ensures security. A supervisor also

assigns properties and resources to these users and groups. In addition, a supervisor can restrict

access to certain resources. A general supervisor can create several supervisors. Product)
Supervisor, BusinessObjects

Profile) Supervisor-designer

Role) Creates users, groups and universes. This user has all the rights of the supervisor and

designer combined.

Product) Supervisor, Designer, BusinessObjects Profile) Designer

Role) Creates universes and distributes them to end-users by sending them through the file

system, or by exporting them to the repository. Product) Designer, BusinessObjects

Profile) User

Role) The main BusinessObjects user whose tasks are to query, report, and analyze data. Users

can produce documents containing data from one or more data sources. There can be an unlimited

number of users. Product) BusinessObjects

Profile) Versatile

Role) This user is authorized to use any combination of products defined by a supervisor.

Q) How do you create a user group?

A) 1) In the User pane, click the group in which you want to create a new group.

2) Click on the toolbar.

3) Type a group name, and press the Enter key. Q) How do you know if a user is Disabled? A) A

sad face means the user has disabled him/herself by failing the password check X number of

times. A user disabled intentionally via the Supervisor module will have a red circle X over him/her.

Q) How do you enable a User?

A) Right click on the disabled user and select enable. Q) How many strikes does it take before a

user disables themselves?

A) 3 is the default but a General Supervisor can change this setting in tools/options.

Q) What is a Category?
A) A keyword or phrase created by Supervisor and stored in the repository, which end-users can

assign to documents when they send them to users, groups, or Broadcast Agent. Users can then

filter document searches in the repository by assigned category.

Designer Questions

Q) What is a Universe?

A) A universe is a business-oriented mapping of the data structure found in databases: tables,

columns, joins, etc. It can represent any specific application, system, or group of users. For

example, a universe can relate to a department in a company such as marketing or accounting. In

the BusinessObjects User module, universes enable end users to build queries from which they

can generate and perform analysis. Universes isolate end users from the complexities of the

database structure as well as the intricacies of SQL syntax.

Q) How many Universes did you create?

Q) Tell me how many classes where there, and objects in each class? Q) What is an Object?

A) An object is the most refined component in a universe. It maps to data or a derivation of data in

the database. Using objects, end users can build queries to generate reports.

Q) What is Object qualification?

A) For the purposes of multidimensional analysis, objects are qualified as one of three types:

dimension, detail, or measure.

Q) Tell me about a complicated object you have created?

Q) What was the size of the database? Which server?

Q) What was the Database? Was it a data warehouse?

Q) What problems you have faced while creating a universe?

Q) Tell me an incident and how you went about solving it?

Q) How many Tables was the universe built?

Q) What is a loop, how do you resolve them?

A) A situation that occurs when more than one path exists from one table to another in the

universe.

Q) What do prefer an Alias or a context? Why?

A) Alias - A logical pointer to an alternate table name. The purpose of an alias is to resolve loops in

the paths of joins. A) Context - A context is a rule by which Designer can decide which of two paths

to choose when more than one path is possible from one table to another. Contexts can be used to

resolve loops in the universe. You can create contexts manually, or cause them to be detected by

Designer. When contexts are useful, Designer suggests a list of contexts that you can create.

Q) What is join? Explain different types of joins?

A) A relational operation that causes two tables with a common column to be combined into a

single table. Designer supports equi-joins, theta joins, outer joins, and shortcut joins.

Q) What are linked universes? Have you worked with them, problems faced and solutions?

A) Linked universes are universes that share common components such as parameters, classes,

objects, or joins. Among linked universes, one universe is said to be the kernel or master while the

others are the derived universes.

BusObj Questions

Q) How many reports have you created? Explain a few? Q) What are alerter's, filters, breaks,

conditions?

A) The Alerters dialog box allows you to create and apply alerters. Alerters use special formatting

to make data that fits specified conditions stand out from the rest of the data. This helps draw

attention to trends and exceptions in report data.

A) A filter enables you to hide the data you do not want to view and display only the data you want

to focus on. In the Apply a Filter on Variable Name dialog box, you choose which values of the

selected variable you want to display in the selected block.

A) Select the variables you want to use to insert a break. When you close the dialog box, the

variable you select is displayed in the Breaks dialog box. Break Level, sets the level that the block

of data will have in the report. You can have more than one break level to organize blocks of data.

A) Conditions - feature that forces a query to retrieve only the data that meets specified criteria.

Q) What's the difference between master-detail and Breaks?

Q) What's the difference between filters and conditions? Q) What are pre-defined conditions?

Compare with report conditions? Justify?

Q) What are the differences between a formula, variable and user objects? Q) Did you face any

problems while creating reports? Name? Solutions? Q) How do you schedule the reports?

Q) What is a microcube? How many can a document have?

A) Local structure in which the data retrieved by a data provider is stored; contains the data users

can display in reports inside a document.

Q) Have you worked with multiple data sources? If yes. How do you link them? Q) What are

templates? Explain what you have created? Q) How do you resolve #multivalue and #computation

errors? Q) Difference between Foreach and Forall? A) Foreach - Adds a dimension to the

calculation environment.

A) Forall - Specifies the dimensions you want to include in the calculation

Santosh Kumar Jeerlapally.

Santosh4bo.ffrq.com