OBIEE - saving a static text view for reuse

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votes

I am very new to OBIEE and working on a significant number of reports where we need the same static text at the top of each report.

We've just had to change this text (due to a url error) so now I have to go through in excess of 100 reports changing this.

Is there a way I can save the static text view and reuse it so that if something changes in future updating this text needs to only be done in one place.

I know this can be done with filters so I'm hopeful!

I have googled and searched through doco and found nothing but because I am new to this I may also be asking the wrong question ...

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oraclebusiness-intelligenceobiee
Well it depends. Does it have to be something that's in-line with existing analyses? I.e. an analysis visualization of type "Static Text"? Or a static text element on a dashboard? - Chris
You could also script this change. All reports are saved on the server and are just XML. We are on unix and I have created many scrpts that will go out, look for something in reports, and do something else. - Mark P.
@ChristianBerg - it's an analysis visualisation of type 'static text'. Sorry for being imprecise with the terminology - only just getting to grips with it! - azp74
@MarkP. - a script will solve our initial problem (ie update the url) and will solve the future problem of deleting the content. But we're still dropping the content in analyses and just manually doing the copy & paste each time seems a bit clunky ... I'll suggest the scripting option for now! Thanks. - azp74
No worries that's why I was asking. Unfortunately if you do use such an in-line item then it becomes part of the XML of the object and you don't really have a centralized way of managing it except for the Catalog Manager's "Search & Replace XML" or an actual file manipulation on file system level. You can default the creation of certain bits though - for example stuff like this: obieelearner.blogspot.ch/2012/07/… Again...part of the XML. Depending on your utilization you may take the approach of adding single default object to - Chris

1 Answers

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How we worked around this was:

  1. to update existing content, search & replace was done using the Catalog Manager
  2. to manage future potential changes, we switched to using a narrative view in the analysis and we are using a BI server variable (so we're referencing it in the narrative view using an annotation). To me this feels a bit we've stuck presentation layer detail in the middle (or even data) tier but at least it means there is just one place to update. And when we come to delete the caveat we'll either be able to do a search & replace on the entire chunk of xml, or, if we're in a real hurry, set the variable to an empty string.

Thanks to Mark & Christian for their insight!