Understanding Business Objects Universes

• Lesson introduction
• Defining BusinessObjects universe concepts
• The semantic Layer
• What is a Universe
• What type of database schema is used
• Classes and objects
• Advantages of a universe
• BusinessObjects Universe Designer components
• Starting Universe Designer
• Using the Quick Design Wizard
• Importing a universe
• Using Universe Designer module commands
• Saving and exporting a universe
• Universe file names as identifiers
• Saving a universe definition as PDF
• Giving all users access to a universe
• Activity: Viewing a universe in Universe Designer
• Using the universe development cycle
• The universe development cycle process
• Preparation phase
• Analysis phase
• Planning phase
• Implementation phase
• Table of Contents—Learner’s Guide iii
• Implementation phase 1: schema design
• Implementation phase 2: building the universe
• Testing phase
• Deployment Phase
• Updating/maintenance
• Updating/maintenance
• Activity: Planning a universe

Creating the Course Universe

• Lesson introduction
• Describing the course database and universe
• The course database
• Creating the universe
• Setting the database connection
• Data access drivers
• ODBC connection drivers
• OLE DB connectivity
• Viewing, modifying, and deleting available connections
• Creating a new universe
• Defining universe parameters
• Identifying the universe
• Universe parameters
• Definition tab
• Summary tab
• Strategies tab
• Controls tab
• SQL tab
• Links tab
• Parameters tab
• Activity: Creating a new universe and defining its connection

Building the Universe Structure

• Lesson introduction
• Populating the universe structure
• Designing a schema
• Schema design and the universe creation process
• Adding tables
• Manipulating tables in the universe structure
• iv Universe Design—Learner’s Guide
• Activity: Populating the universe structure
• Defining joins in a universe
• About joins and SQL WHERE clauses
• Creating joins
• About join properties
• Editing the join expression
• Using the Join SQL editor
• Detecting joins
• Setting join cardinalities
• About cardinality
• Setting cardinality manually or with the automatic detection tool
• Displaying cardinalities
• Detecting cardinality automatically
• How is cardinality detected
• Detect cardinality for all joins
• Best practices for setting join cardinality
• Join types
• Equi-joins
• Outer joins
• Theta joins
• Shortcut joins
• Self-restricting joins List Mode
• Checking integrity
• Activity: Defining joins in a universe

Creating Dimension Objects

• Lesson introduction
• Describing classes and objects
• Classes Objects
• Creating classes and objects
• Creating classes
• Automatically creating classes and objects from a table
• Defining a new object as a detail object
• Working with classes and subclasses
• Editing the object properties
• Edit Properties: Properties
• Edit Properties: Advanced
• Edit Properties: Keys
• Edit Properties: Source Information
• Copying and pasting objects
• Table of Contents—Learner’s Guide v
• Find and replace
• Checking object integrity
• Viewing parent tables
• Testing objects
• Activity: Creating and testing classes and objects
• Quiz: Creating dimension Objects

Creating Measure Objects

• Lesson introduction
• Defining measure object concepts
• Measure objects concepts.
• How a measure object infers SQL
• The query process Aggregation at SELECT level
• Aggregation at projection level
• Setting selection and projection aggregates
• Creating measure objects
• Measure objects
• Testing measure objects
• Activity: Creating and testing measure objects
• Creating delegated measure objects
• What is a delegated measure
• How does the delegated measure work?.
• Using a delegated measure as a weighted average
• Best practices for using delegated measures
• When are delegated measures inappropriate
• Activity: Creating and using a delegated measure
• Quiz: Creating measure Object

Resolving Loops in a Universe

• Lesson introduction
• Understanding loops
• Recognizing loops
• Problems caused by loops Loops in a universe schema and not in the database
• What is the loop doing
• Resolving loops
• Resolving loops using aliases
• About aliases Detecting loops and inserting aliases
• vi Universe Design—Learner’s Guide
• Redefining objects
• Listing and renaming aliases
• Choosing which alias method to use
• Resolving self-referencing join loops using aliases
• Activity: Using aliases to resolve loops
• Resolving loops using contexts
• About contexts
• Detecting and creating contexts
• Creating objects for each context
• Editing a context
• Testing contexts
• Updating contexts
• Loops and shortcut joins
• Activity: Using contexts to resolve loops
• Quiz: Resolving loops in a universe

Resolving SQL Traps

• Lesson introduction
• Understanding SQL traps and universes
• About SQL traps
• Detecting and resolving chasm traps
• Chasm traps
• Detecting chasm traps
• The chasm trap scenario
• Resolving chasm traps
• Using multiple SQL statements for each measure to resolve chasmtraps
• Drawbacks to the multiple SQL statements for each measure Method
• Using contexts to resolve chasm traps
• Activity: Resolving chasm traps
• Detecting and resolving fan traps
• Fan traps
• The fan trap scenario
• Resolving fan traps
• Using aliases and contexts to resolve fan traps
• Scenario of a fan trap with two tables in a one-to-many relationship
• Avoiding fan traps altogether
• Activity: Resolving fan traps
• Quiz: Resolving SQL traps