Impressions of Information Design Tool

It’s been well over two years since I got my first look at the SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool (IDT). However, that was pre-Beta, and the tool has undergone some changes since then. The version that went GA last September, 2011, wasn’t the same version that I originally saw in early 2010. Since the GA release, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with IDT, and would like to record my current impressions.

It’s important to keep in mind that Universe Design Tool (Formerly known as Designer), is a very mature product, and quite stable. IDT, on the other hand, is a relatively young tool, and, as such, has some quirks and bugs. I’ll address some of those here.

Let’s Start With The Good News

If you’ve read my earlier post on What’s New in Universe Design, you would know that the universe has a new structure, consisting of three different layers:

• Connection Layer (.cnx)
• Data Foundation Layer (.dfx)
• Business Layer (.blx)

A Data Foundation can consume one or more connections. So you can bring tables from multiple databases into a single Data Foundation. The Data Foundations contains the tables, joins, and contexts. Optionally, you can build multiple Business Layers on a Data Foundation. The following diagram summarizes the new universe structure.

This structure adds some significant benefits over the old method of building universes. The ability to build a universe with tables from multiple databases has been a long time coming. And, the ability to build the Data Foundation once, and reuse it for multiple universes, means less work in the long run.

These layers are built in a local, or shared, project. One of the benefits of using shared projects is that multiple people can work on the same project at the same time. For example, one person can be working on the Data Foundation, while another is working on a Business Layer.

One of the new features that I really like is the ability to add calculated columns to tables. You can add a column to a table in the Data Foundation, based on a calculation using columns from that table, or constant values. Once created, the column appears as just another column in the table.

You can also create time hierarchy columns automatically. This is so much better than the old Automatic Time Hierarchy feature.

I also like the new Families feature. A Family is a collection of related tables. Families can be identified by colored backgrounds and fonts. You can create as many families as you want, and add as many tables as you want to each family. A table can belong to one, and only one Family. You can then search for tables by Family, Name, Columns or Contexts. You can search by wildcards as well.

Another feature that has good potential is that Lists of Values, as well as Prompts, can be built as standalone objects in the Data Foundation. This means that they can be reused in multiple objects in a universe. But they can also be reused in multiple universes. However, the process of creating them is cumbersome and quirky. The various options aren’t well organized, and require too much experimentation to get them right. But once built, they work quite nicely.

In the Universe Design Tool (UDT), we’ve always had an issue with testing as we build. We could test in Desktop Intelligence, or, more recently, in Web Intelligence Rich Client. There is a Query Panel in UDT, but it’s mostly useless. However, in IDT, we can fully test as we go, without relying on another tool. We can build, and execute, queries, within the Business Layer. These queries can be saved in the universe so they can be used again. Once we run these queries, we can analyze the results with sorts, filters, and changing the order of the columns.

A feature that completely eliminates the need for Linked Universes is Business Layer Views. When you create a Business Layer, that becomes the Master layer. You can then create Views of that Business Layer, choosing which folders and objects to expose in that view. You can then grant rights to those views for various user groups.

Not All News is Good News

As I mentioned, IDT is a fairly young tool, and, as such, has some bugs and missing features. In fact, some of these missing features can cause huge problems.

I always recommend applying formatting to every numeric object in a universe. After all, we don’t want to force the users to apply formatting every time they use these objects. In UDT, we could select multiple numeric objects at once, and format them all at the same time. However, in IDT, we have to format objects one at a time. And the process of creating a format is very weird. For example, here is what the format for typical currency might look like:

That’s right. You can’t simply type in the format. You have to use the objects on the left, and add the items to your format. And, to make matters worse, once you create a custom format, you can’t save it. If you want to format another object the same way, you have to create the same custom format again. It’s very time consuming, and will likely discourage many people from formatting objects in the universe.

In the UDT, when we are using the @Select or @Where functions, we can check a box to “Show object SQL” to see the full SQL of the object. It’s very helpful for troubleshooting. Unfortunately, this option is missing from IDT. There is no way to see the full SQL when using these functions.

Another missing feature that is, in my opinion, a serious issue, is the ability to change a dimension to an attribute (Formerly known as detail), or vice versa. For example, if you create an object as an attribute, and later decide that it needs to be converted to a dimension, so it can be included in a Navigation Path (formerly known as Hierarchy), you can’t do it. You have to recreate it as a dimension. This, of course, would cause existing reports, that use that object, to fail. In my opinion, this is a huge problem.

The process of converting UNV universes to the new UNX format is very buggy. I have seen parameters get changed, and universe settings also get changed. As my friend, Dallas Marks, discovered, even the eFashion universe cannot be converted.

Now, to be fair, SAP seems to be doing a good job of listening to our concerns with the new tool. I have submitted quite a few ideas on the SAP Idea Place, and several of them have already been accepted. That impresses me. Now we’ll see how quickly these issues are addressed. In the meantime, I suggest keeping your current UNV universes in their current format, and creating new universes in IDT.

If you’ve worked with IDT, what is your experience so far?