Removing Unused Physical Objects

Large repositories use more memory on the server and are harder to maintain. Additionally, development activities take longer on a large repository. This utility enables you to remove objects that you no longer need in your repository. You can remove databases, initialization blocks, physical catalogs, and variables.

To remove unused physical objects:

1. In the Administration Tool, select Tools, then select Utilities.
   
2. Select Remove Unused Physical Objects and click Execute.
   
3. In the Remove Unused Physical Objects dialog, from the Type list, select the type of object.
   
4. In the list of objects, verify that only the objects that you want to remove are selected.
   Below the list of objects, the number of selected objects and the total number of objects appears.
   
5. To remove the selected objects, click Yes.

-Asifkhan P.

Generating Documentation of Repository Mappings

The Repository Documentation utility documents the mapping from the presentation columns to the corresponding logical and physical columns. The documentation also includes conditional expressions associated with the columns. The documentation can be saved in comma separated (CSV), XML, or tab delimited (TXT) format.

You can use the Repository Documentation utility to extract Oracle Business Intelligence metadata to a flat file so that it can be loaded into Excel and RDBMS. You can query the resulting file to answer questions such as "If I delete physical column X, what logical columns will be affected?" or "How many places in the business model refer to the physical table XYZ?" Then, you can establish dependency relationships among elements in the repository.

The Repository Documentation utility creates a comma-separated values file or a tab-separated values file that shows the connections between the Presentation and Physical layers in the current repository. This file can be imported into a repository as a Physical layer. Note that the file does not include information about repository variables and marketing objects.

To run the Repository Documentation utility:

1. In the Administration Tool, select Tools, then select Utilities.
   
2. Select Repository Documentation and click Execute.
   
3. In the Save As dialog, choose the directory where you want to save the file.
   
4. Type a name for the file.
   
5. Choose a type of file and an Encoding value, and then click Save. Current encoding options are ANSI, Unicode, and UTF-8.

-Asifkhan P.

Update Physical Layer Wizard utility

You can use the Update Physical Layer Wizard to update database objects in the Physical layer of a repository, based on their current definitions in the back-end database. This wizard is not available for repositories that are open in read-only mode, because they are not available for updating.

When the wizard processes the update, the Oracle BI Server connects to each back-end database. The objects in the Physical layer are compared with those in the back-end database. Explanatory text alerts you to differences between objects as defined in the database in the Physical layer and as defined the back-end database, such as data type-length mismatches and objects that are no longer found in the back-end database. For example, if an object exists in the database in the Physical layer of the repository but not in the back-end database, the following text is displayed:

Object does not exist in the database and will be deleted

The wizard does not add columns or tables to the repository that exist in the back-end database, but not in the repository. Additionally, the wizard does not update column key assignments. It checks that there is a column in the repository that matches the column in the database, and then, if the values do not match, the wizard updates the type and length of the column in the repository.


The connection pool settings for each database need to match the connection pool settings used when the objects were last imported into the Physical layer from the back-end database.

To update objects in the Physical layer:

1. In the Administration Tool, select Tools, then select Utilities.
   
2. Select Update Physical Layer and click Execute.
   The databases in the Physical layer of the repository are listed in the left pane of the wizard.
   
3. In the Select Database screen, select the databases that you want to update in the left pane, and then click Add. To remove a database from the update list in the right pane, select it and click Remove.
   
4. Click Next.
   
5. In the Select Connection Pool screen, select the connection pool for each database that you want to update and then click Next. You might need to set or confirm values for variables before continuing.
   
6. In the Update screen, review the information about each update and select the updates you want to perform. You can sort the rows (toggle between ascending and descending order) by clicking the Name column heading.
   
7. If you decide that you do not want the wizard to update a particular object in the Physical layer, click the Back button and remove the object.
   
8. When the repository is open in online mode, the Checkout screen appears. In online mode, objects need to be checked out before you can make changes to them. Click Next to check out the necessary objects.
   
9. Click Finish.
   The wizard updates the objects in the Physical layer, and then closes automatically. Objects that do not exist in the database are deleted.
   
10. From the File menu, select Save to save the updated objects in the Physical layer.

-Asifkhan P.

Rename Wizard utility

You can use the Rename Wizard to rename tables and columns in the Presentation layer and Business Model and Mapping layer. It provides a convenient way to transform physical names to user-friendly names. This is very useful utility.

To use the Rename Wizard:

1. In the Administration Tool, select Tools, then select Utilities. Then, select Rename Wizard and click Execute.
2. In the Select Objects screen, select the objects you want to rename. First, select the layer that contains the objects (Presentation or Business Model and Mapping), then select an object and click Add. Click Add Hierarchy to add all objects associated with the selected object.
   
   Click Next after you have selected the objects you want to rename
3. In the Select Types screen, select the object types you want to rename, such as Subject Area, Logical Table, or Logical Column. Then, click Next.
4. In the Select Rules screen, select the renaming rules you want to apply and click Add. Select Change specified text to rename particular words or phrases. Click Next after you have selected renaming rules.
5. When the repository is open in online mode, the Checkout screen appears. In online mode, objects need to be checked out before you can make changes to them. Click Next to check out the necessary objects.
6. The Finish screen displays a summary of the objects that will be renamed. If you want to make changes to the list of renamed objects, click Back, or select a particular step from the navigation panel. Click Finish to rename the objects.

-Asifkhan P.

Oracle BI Event Tables Utility

This utility lets you identify a table as an Oracle BI event polling table. An event polling table is a way to notify the Oracle BI Server that one or more physical tables have been updated. Each row that is added to an event table describes a single update event. The cache system reads rows from, or polls, the event table, extracts the physical table information from the rows, and purges cache entries that reference those physical tables.

To start the Oracle BI Event Tables utility:

1. In the Administration Tool, select Tools, then select Utilities.
   
2. Select Oracle BI Event Tables and click Execute.

-Asifkhan P.

Administration Tool Utilities

Administration Tool provides several utilities and wizards that perform functions like renaming objects, persisting aggregates, and externalizing strings.

Utilities :

• Replace Column or Table Wizard
  
• Oracle BI Event Tables Utility
  
• Externalize Strings Utility
  
• Rename Wizard
  
• Update Physical Layer Wizard
  
• Repository Documentation 
  
• Generating a Metadata Dictionary
  
• Removing Unused Physical Objects
  
• Aggregates Persistence 
  
• Oracle BI Summary Advisor Wizard

-Asifkhan P.