

General Information
Known
Issues
Limitations
Zero Admin BusinessObjects

Deactivated enhancement
- In BusinessObjects 5.1.8, a new enhancement
was implemented which caused some performance issues when refreshing a
BusinessObjects document that had over 10000 rows. It had been setup to
avoid using 100% of CPU usage. This fix has now been deactivated in
BusinessObjects 5.1.9.
If you want to reactivate this enhancement,
you must modify your Windows registry. To do so:
1. Click Start and click Run.
2. Type regedit and click OK.
3. Move to the following key: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Business
Objects\BusinessObjects\5.0\BusObj Configuration\BusinessReporter\
4. Click the New Þ DWORD Value command of the Edit menu and enter
YieldInMilliseconds.
5. Double-click your newly created DWORD value and enter a value in the
Value data box. The possible values are from 0 to 30 with 0 equal 100% CPU
usage.
6. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer.
Issue related to the fix
implemented for bug #1061399
- Bug
1061399 was partially fixed on Service Pack 9. Tables do no overlap;
however, the format is not applied from the second page onwards. Instead of
overlapping, tables are joined. This issue has been fixed on the 6.x
versions of BusinessObjects.
Issue related to the fix
implemented for bug #1069891
- Bug
1069891 was partially fixed on Service Pack 9.
If you have a BusinessObjects report with a section and you activate
the Hide Section Header option for the section and Hide Block option for the
table, the section name is not hidden when the formula to hide the section
and table are identical.
This feature works fine with BusinessObjects 6.x.
Issue related to the fix
implemented for bug #1080953
- Bug
1080953 was partially fixed on Service Pack 9. If you create a
BusinessObjects report that contains a text cell with over 35 lines and it
just happens that the table exceeds the current page, the table header will
appear on one page while the body on the following page.

Printing
- When the installed printer drivers do not
differentiate colors, Reporter shades the color differences to lessen the
impact and improve the quality of the print job.
Using Breaks in BusinessObjects
with an InfoView license
- When running
BusinessObjects with only an InfoView license, you cannot apply the
"Breaks" setting to cells.
BusinessObjects Reporter with MDAC 2.5
Service Pack 1
- An "Out of Memory
Error" occurs if you use BusinessObjects Report with MDAC 2.5 SP1.
Workaround: Install Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 or do not install
MDAC 2.5 Service Pack 1 (2.51.5303.5) if you are on Windows NT4.
Installing
Business Objects
- When
installing Business Objects on Windows 2000, if you have user rights only,
the Business Objects shortcut is not created
(Start\Programs\BusinessObjects 5.1).
You must launch Business Objects through Windows
Explorer.
Downloading 3-tier
BusinessObjects with Windows NT and Netscape 7.0
- The 3-tier BusinessObjects download does not
work when performed on Windows NT using Netscape 7.0. An error message is
returned from the plugin finder page indicating that the plugin is not
found.
3-tier
BusinessObjects in offline mode
- An InfoView user to whom the
supervisor has not granted the right to log in to full-client applications
in offline mode will not be able to launch BusinessObjects from the portal (3-tier
BusinessObjects) to edit
BusinessObjects documents. 3-tier
BusinessObjects should be
launched from the Start bar to edit documents in offline mode.
Contextual
help button
- In
5.1 BusinessObjects modules, if you click on the
contextual help button and then on a common toolbar icon (such as Query
Panel or Data Provider) a generic help window appears instead of the
description of the selected feature.
Data Providers
Queries and Universes
-
Due to updates in
BusinessObjects version 5.1.x, the group by clause in the SQL is not
generated in the same way as in previous versions. BusinessObjects now
refers to the select statement of an object instead of the qualification
(dimension, attribute, measure) of an object.
-
If you use a measure with
'none' as an aggregate function (in the object's definition in the Designer)
in a block containing data from different data providers, you may encounter
problems displaying all the values of the measure.
If the object is an ID
you should qualify it as a dimension instead of a measure in Designer.
Otherwise you can do the
following: Set an alternative Aggregate Function for this measure in
Designer (Sum, Count, Average, Minimum, or Maximum) or use a UserFormula in
BusinessObjects (UserFormula = <Measure>; by default a UserFormula has
an aggregate function Sum). Then use the feature Avoid duplicate rows
aggregation in the BusinessObjects report. If some values are still not
displayed, use the function Multicube to display them (=Multicube(<Revenue>)
instead of =<Revenue>)."
-
When using ranking in a
block that has multiple data providers, if you include a sum, the value
returned may be incorrect. To avoid this problem, you should use the
Multicube() function instead of the Sum() function.
-
A Multicube with a
mono data provider is not supported in free-hand SQL.
- When you open or create a query on a derived
universe, the procedure depends on whether or not you have been granted
rights for Real-time refresh by the BusinessObjects Supervisor.
If you are a Real-time refresh granted user, each time you create or edit a
query on a derived universe that has been exported, the base universe is
refreshed if necessary. This will require a connection to the universe
domain each time the query is edited.
If you are not a Real-time refresh granted user, the first time in a session
that you create or edit a query on the derived universe, the base universe
will be imported if necessary. But if this base universe is re-exported
later during the same session of BusinessObjects, it will not be
re-imported. You must force import; for example, by selecting the
Tools/Universes/Refresh command.
- When you create or edit and then run a query,
or when you refresh it from the Data Manager (including automatic refresh)
and press the Escape key to interrupt the process, the "Discard the
results" option which used to appear in the "Interrupted
Execution" dialog box is now dimmed. If you interrupted the query and
still want to discard the results, we advise you to select the "Stop
the execution and keep the partial results" option and click OK. Then,
open the Data Manager, select the relevant query and click on the Purge
button. However, note that if you click the View button from the Query Panel
to open the Data Manager and then stop the query, the Purge button is also
dimmed. The "Discard the results" option is not dimmed when
refreshing a query from the Data/Refresh command.
- You can still import a universe with
BusinessObjects when the secured connection linked to this universe has been
deleted in the repository. No error message appears to warn you that no
connection is associated to the universe and that the universe is still
imported but is not usable (the .unv file is 0KB).
- If you use a "Null" result in a
decode SQL definition, you cannot apply a format in the report. The format
can be correctly applied by using "Null+0".
- The "Values..." button is grayed if
you create two queries, each containing a prompt and then change the prompt
in the second query and run the first.
- We recommend you do not select blank values in
prompts with InList and NotInList operators.
Personal Data Files
- 4.1 documents containing a data provider based
on a dBASE file (.dbf) must be edited so that they can be used properly in
version 5.1. For this type of document, the file format is no longer set to
dBase but is set to Excel 97. To get the correct format back, select the
Data/Edit Data Provider command and in the Personal Data Access dialog box,
select the "dBASE Files (*.dbf)" format.
Freehand SQL
- If you run a Free Hand SQL statement to create
or drop a table on an Oracle 7.3 or 8.x database, you receive the connection
or SQL sentence errors:
ORA-0955 name is already used by an existing object or
ORA-00942 table or view does not exist
even though the SQL statement has been
correctly executed.
Reports
Display
- When viewing reports with Netscape, the report fonts,
cell size, and space between cells are not correctly displayed.
Sorts
- For Business Objects products version 5.1/2.7.1, the
Sort feature has been updated to comply with ISO standards. This means that
some characters for example, spaces, punctuation and symbols, are treated
differently.
Computing Data and Display
- Inserting a variance calculation on a local
variable or a formula containing running aggregate functions, for example
RunningSum, returns a computation error message.
Calculations
- Business Objects has discovered a few issues
that cause BusinessObjects 5.1 to return incorrect results in certain
limited circumstances. These circumstances can occur when reports contain
multiple data providers or cubes, or when they use the NoFilter() function.
For additional details or assistance, contact Online Customer Support or WW
Customer Advocacy.
- When you define a formula containing the
InList operator as a variable and check the "Evaluate the formula in
its context" option, a bracket is sometimes missing from the context
definition. This means that when you insert the variable in a block, it
returns a #SYNTAX error. To fix this, you need
to redefine the context in the Variables dialog box.
- Variables containing other variables which use
constants in their formula may return an incorrect result if you change the
type of the inner variables.
- When you use the function 'NoFilter', you can
get a wrong result if you don't create first the formula in a new variable
then apply the 'NoFilter' function to this variable.
Filters
- In a block containing data from several data
providers, if you filter on a formula based on dimensions from several data
providers, the filter will be correctly applied to the body of the block,
but may not be applied to the footer of the block.
- It is recommended that you no longer use
filters on measure objects, as they sometimes return incorrect results.
Report Formatting
- When you specify a format for a negative value
in the Negative text box on the Number tab of the Cell Format dialog box,
you must include the minus symbol (-) before the format. For example, to
specify a negative format with three decimal places, you should enter
-0.000.
- BusinessObjects will allow you to create a
crosstab using incompatible dimensions. However, if you do this, your
crosstab may have an empty axis. If you drill through on crosstabs
containing incompatible dimensions, the results obtained will be incorrect.
- BusinessObjects will allow you to create
sections which have blocks containing incompatible dimensions. This will
give incorrect results.
- With linked
tables, if you select the repeat block on every
page option on the Table Format dialog box, you should apply this option
to all the tables, otherwise the blocks may overlap.
- In reports, a block set to repeat on every
page sticks to the header of another block at the top of each subsequent
page.
Workaround: Insert an empty cell between two tables sometimes repeats
the first block on every page without having the second block attached to
it.
- When the display of a block or a cell exceeds
70% of the page layout, the "Repeat on every page" option is not
applied; otherwise the blocks will overlap from the second page onwards.
Workaround: Do not use the "Repeat on Every Page" option.
- Saving a document as HTML with different types
of borders is displayed with one and the same type of border in HTML.
- The Center Value Across Break option has no
effect on a long cell, even if this option is activated in the Breaks dialog
box.
Queries
- If you create a combined query that contains
three or more queries using the MINUS operator, the results displayed may be
incorrect. For example, the combined query query1
MINUS query2 MINUS query3 is processed as query1
MINUS (query2 MINUS query3).
Ease of Use
- In some cases, hourglass management is still
incorrect.
Saving Documents
- When saving as a .html file, a report
containing a block with spaces before/after data text, the spaces are not
correctly converted into HTML and do not appear when you display your report
in an HTML browser.
- When saving a report as a .pdf
file the fonts Symbol and Zapfdingbats are not converted if the font style
is bold and/or italic.
OLE Server
- When you resize a report inserted as an OLE
object in a client application, the display may not be correct (i.e. the
data of the last column may spill outside the table).
Exchanging Documents
- When importing a document containing the Euro
character in its name on a machine, on which the Euro patch has not been
installed, you get the message "Import failed" with no further
details given. We advise you to avoid using the Euro character in the file
name of your documents.
- If you are building reports containing the
Euro character, make sure that the fonts used to display the Euro character
are installed on all client machines used to view the reports. These fonts
should be the same ones installed on the machine used to build the reports.
Drill Mode
- If you interrupt a query retrieving a new
dimension selected in the Drill Through dialog box and then choose to
keep the previous results, the selected dimension is no longer available to
drill through on. If you want to make this dimension available again to
drill through on, open the Query Panel, click on the Scope of Analysis
button and deselect the dimension.
- The arrow icon for the drop-down list on the
Drill toolbar is not displayed when a dimension name contains more than 255
characters.
Send to Users and Categories
- You may encounter problems using categories
with WebIntelligence documents when performing a search in BusinessObjects.
You may only see the BusinessObjects documents and not the WebIntelligence
documents.
Miscellaneous
- Objects separated by commas
are not supported because commas cause a concatenation.
Workaround: redefine the SQL.


Data Providers
OLE DB support
Free-hand SQL
- When you run a script that selects a numeric
column, the results are automatically aggregated. To avoid this, open the
Data Manager, qualify the column as a dimension, then run the script again.
Miscellaneous
- In the Data Manager dialog box, if you click
on the Refresh button or if you use the Universe option to run a query on a
different universe, you can no longer cancel actions prior to the refresh or
the change of universe.
- When opening a Business
Objects report, version 4 or version 5, in Business Objects version 5.X you
may encounter problems when you use Multicubes with mono Data Providers.
Personal Data File
- If you cannot create a new data provider using
a *.csv file, open the Windows Control Panel, double-click on Regional
Settings and set the regional settings to English (United States).
- Exporting data to a text file (i.e. .txt, .csv)
may return unexpected results with certain Windows Regional Settings
(year format set to 2 digits, i.e. 'yy' ). To avoid this, set the year
format to 4 digits, i.e. 'YYYY' in the Windows Regional Settings before
exporting your data. BusinessObjects must be relaunched after this change
has been made.
Reports
Report Formatting
- Universe designers can apply formats to
objects when creating universes. When you add such an object to an existing
query, the predefined format is not taken into account when a new column
containing the corresponding data is automatically created in the block. The
format applied to the data displayed in the previous column is used instead.
To get the predefined format back, open the Slice and Dice Panel and click
on the Reset Block(s) command.
- In version 4.1, the break footer separating
cells - with shading set to "None" - were always white whatever
the block shading. In version 5.1, these cells - with shading set to
"None" - are of the same color as the block shading color. This
change may affect the look of your reports (.rep and .htm).
- If you predefine objects in a universe, we
advise you to set a number format (use "Standard", for example)
for the measures contained in this universe. Otherwise, if you build a query
containing Country, Month and Revenue, for example, and Month is formatted,
Revenue will have the same number format as Month.
Report Functions
Drag and Drop Behavior
- You cannot insert a variable using drag and
drop to the left, right, bottom or top of a free-standing cell containing an
OLE object.
Queries
- You cannot run a query if the
SQL sentence exceeds the allowed limit of 65536 characters.
Printing
- You cannot use advanced
printer driver options with BusinessObjects. You can use only the printer
options on the Page Setup dialog box.
- Some PLC printer drivers do
not support scaling of documents so changing the scaling factors in the Page
Setup dialogue box is ignored.
- The hyperlinks are not
activated if you have selected the option "Print as Business Objects
4.1".
Euro Character
- If you want to print several reports
containing the Euro character at the same time, you must use the same
printer (and the same printer driver). If you use different printers, the
Euro character will not be printed in the second (and subsequent) reports.
- To print a report which
contains a Euro symbol on an HP Printer with a PostScript driver, you may
have to do the following:
- Open the Page Setup dialog
box and click Printer \ Properties \ Advanced.
- Select "True Type
Font" in "Graphic" and check the option "Download as
Softfont".
- Validate your choice.
OLE Server
- If you want to work with a BusinessObjects
report as an OLE object, we suggest that you open a BusinessObjects session
just before working with container documents in order to improve the
performance of the OLE server.
- The use of BusinessObjects toolbars when you
are in another application using OLE2 is not supported.
- We advise you not to work with large
BusinessObjects reports inserted as OLE objects in a Word for Windows
document. You might not be able to edit the reports in Word for Windows.
- If your report contains a lot of pages, it may
not be entirely inserted as an OLE object in another application.
Automation Object Model
- For more information
regarding Automation Object Model, please see the BusinessObjects SDK
section in the Developer Suite readme.


Known issues
- When you upgrade your Business Objects servers
with Service Pack 7 and onwards, you must also upgrade all BusinessObjects
5.1.x clients that connect to those servers. Because the communication
between the client and the server was optimized in BusinessObjects 5.1.7,
client versions prior to Service Pack 7 cannot communicate with Business
Objects servers later than Service Pack 7. Refer to the Deploying 3-tier
BusinessObjects guide for more information.
- The following message may be
displayed if the Query Panel has been open for several minutes: "A
connection required to refresh this document is unavailable". If this
happens, click OK and re-run your query.
Installing Zero Admin BusinessObjects via an
Internet Browser
If the installation of Zero Admin BusinessObjects
via an Internet browser fails, there are no error messages to explain to you
what happened. If installation is unsuccessful, please check whether one of the
following is at cause:
- The maximum number of WIQT processes on the
WebIntelligence server has been exceeded.
- There is not enough space on the local hard
disk to decompress the Zero Admin BusinessObjects installation package
- There was a problem with the connection to the
server during installation.
- The server was overloaded because too many
users were trying to download at the same time.
- The user who is trying to install Zero Admin
BusinessObjects has not been given the correct rights by the Supervisor to
use Zero Admin BusinessObjects. Users need rights to BusinessObjects and to
WebIntelligence.
- The Zero Admin BusinessObjects installer was
unable to install all the required dll files.
Password and error messages
with Zero Admin BusinessObjects
- If you enter the wrong password when you try
to log on to Zero Admin
BusinessObjects, you get the error
message: "Your login has been rejected by the server. Your login may be
invalid or disabled.". You could get also the error message:
"Unknown error returned by Server".
If you enter the wrong password three times, you will no longer be able to
use your login until your Supervisor has reactivated it. If you get these
error messages repeatedly while trying to log in, please check with your
Supervisor that you have the correct password and that your login has not
been disabled.
Installation constraint
- To install Zero Admin BusinessObjects through the portal, you must be
logged in to your Windows NT4 or Windows 2000 machine as a local
administrator.
- For Zero Admin BusinessObjects to function correctly, you must copy the
psapi.dl_ file from the installation CD, in VOL1\CoreMS. Copy the psapi.dl_
to WINNT\System32, then expand the file by running "expand psapi.DL_
psapi.DLL" at the MSDOS prompt.
Logging on to Zero Admin BusinessObjects
on an Apache Web Server
- To logon to Zero Admin BusinessObjects on a
WebIntelligence 2.7.1 server using an Apache web server configured in DSO
(Native) mode, you must ensure that your default login page is apache.html.
To verify that this is the default login page, check that the value for the
http server DirectoryIndex is apache.html in the Webi26.conf file. For
example:
<Directory
/share/webi26/Server/WebIntelligence2.5/http-server>
DirectoryIndex apache.html
Options -Indexes
</Directory>
Universes
- Asynchronous connections are not supported. Since
asynchronous connections do not function within Zero Admin
BusinessObjects 5.1.x, universe connections in
asynchronous mode run in synchronous mode. Please note Customer Support does
not give any technical support to the asynchronous mode with Zero Admin
BusinessObjects 5.1.x at this time.
Accessing data from personal data files
- The Microsoft DAO components required to
access data from personal data files using Zero Admin BusinessObjects are
not part of the Zero Admin BusinessObjects install package. However, if
these components have already been installed on the client computer (with
other Microsoft products), you will be able to access data from personal
files. If these components are not already on the client computer then you
will not be able to access data from personal files. BusinessObjects
specifically uses DAO version 3.5.
Help files
- Help files have been lightened to facilitate
downloading Zero Admin BusinessObjects.
Authentication
- It is not possible to log in to Zero Admin
BusinessObjects, standalone mode on a W9x
client machine, using NTLM authentication mode.
