Oracle Developer

A number of times I’ve worked on projects where the client is using Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition One (OBISE1) but have not had the time or resources to install development and production versions of the application. Thus, other than developing on the production OBISE1 installation I’ve had to develop on my own application, which happens to be OBIEE.

Oracle basically sellls the two versions as one being the entry level version (OBISE1) and the second being the ‘all dancing’ enterprise version (OBIEE). Theoretically they are the same except that OBISE1 hasn’t all the functionality as OBIEE. A user can very happily start with OBISE1 and when the time comes that they need more functionality or need to upgrade their license for more users then they can seemlessly switch to the enterprise edition, OBIEE.

Logically it would make sense that the two versions are the same, except that OBISE1 has some of the functionality disabled. Logic doesn’t always work in business and it turns out that they are not the same. In fact, they are different versions of thee same tool, OBISE1 being an older version than OBIEE. And it is this fact that makes developing in OBIEE and moving the rpd repositiory to OBISE1 interesting.

Why? Because when we move the repository from OBIEE to OBISE1 we are actually downgrading the rpd file. You don’t do this with software. You always upgrade from an older version to a newer version, never downgrade. It is quite seemless to develop an rpd in OBISE1 and upgrade it to OBIEE. Oracle supply the tools to do this. However, Oracle do not recognise – or support -moving an rpd file from OBIEE to OBISE1. If you check Oracle Metalink they say it is not possible.

However, it is possible, and actually quite easy to do. Siebel supplied tools with Siebel Analytics which enabled this and these same tools can be used with OBISE1 and OBIEE. There is one proviso though. If you are going to move an OBIEE repository to OBISE1 then you must ensure that you are not using any of the functionality that is only available in OBIEE. If you are then this will not work and when you open the repository in OBISE1 all you will get are errors.

The following steps guide you though downgrading a repository from OBIEE to OBISE1. For this example I am using the repository sh.rpd.

Step 1

Go to the directory where the rpd file is e.g.

C:\OracleBI\server\Repository

Step 2

Make a backup of the existing sh.rpd file to sh_backup.rpd

Step 3

Open up the command prompt and go to the repository directory.

C:\>cd C:\OracleBI\server\Repository

C:\OracleBI\server\Repository>

Step 4

Run the following command:

C:\OracleBI\server\bin\nQUDMLGen -U Admin -P Admin -R sh.rpd -O sh.txt

where:

-U is the repository user
-P is the repository password
-R is the name of the repository rpd file
-O is the name of the text output file that is being created

It will take a few seconds but if all is successful you will get a new command line prompt and no errors.

Step 5

The following file, sh.txt, should have been created in the repository directory.

Step 6

Open the sh.txt file in a text editor and search for the line containing the repository version. e.g.
VERSION 1.1.184;

Change this line to the OBISE1 version number, e.g.
VERSION 1.1.171;

Save the sh.txt file.

If you are not sure what the OBISE1 version number should be there are a number of ways of doing this. You can either run nQUDMLGen.exe program against an OBISE1 rpd file and check the version number in it.
Alternatively, you can go to the OBISE1 Oracle BI Adminstration Tool. Go to the menu ‘File New’ and create a new repository (*.rpd) file. Then go to ‘Help’ –> ‘About Administration Tool …’ which will open up a popup similar to this.

You can see that the Repository Version number is displayed. In the above screenshot it is the OBIEE repository version number of ‘184′. For OBISE1 it will probably be ‘171′. Whatever number is displayed; use this number prefixed by ‘1.1.’ So if the Repository Version number is ‘171′ then the number you will use in the sh.txt file will be ‘1.1.171′.

Step 7

Rename the file sh.txt to sh_obise1.txt.

Step 7

Copy the file sh_obise1.txt from the OBIEE repository directory to the repository directory of the target machine. i.e. the directory where the OBISE1 repository files are stored. e.g.

C:\OracleBISE1\server\Repository>

Step 8

If you haven’t done so already, open up the command prompt and go to the OBISE1 repository directory

C:\OracleBISE1\server\Repository>

Step 9

Run the following command:

C:\OracleBISE1\server\bin\nQUDMLExec -U Admin -P Admin -I sh_obise1.txt -O sh_obise1.rpd

where:

-U is the repository user
-P is the repository password
-I is the name of the repository text input file
-O is the name of the rpd output file that is being created

It will take a few seconds but if all is successful you should see the following.

C:\OracleBISE1\server\Repository>C:\OracleBI\server\bin\nQUDMLExec -U Admin -P Admin -I sh_obise1.txt -O sh_obise1.rpd

---------------sh_obise1.txt---------------

Complete success!!!

C:\OracleBISE1\server\Repository>

Step 10

A new repositry file, sh_obise1.rpd,  should have been created.

Step 11

Stop OBISE1 OC4J.

Step 12

Stop the OBISE1 Oracle BI Services.

Step 13

In the OBISE1 repository directory make a backup of your current sh.rpd file if there is one.

Step 14

Rename the sh_obise1.rpd to sh.rpd.

Step 15

Start OBISE1 OC4J

Step 16

Start the OBISE1 Oracle BI Services

Step 17

Go to the OBISE1 presentation services and check if the new sh.rpd repository is being used.