WebIntelligence report on top of bex Query in BI4.0 (SP2)

Question

Dear experts,
I'm working on webi report on top of bex Query in BI4.0 (SP2). I would like to know your opinions about some points I have noticed.
A - I need to drill throught a hierarchy which contains several millions of members.
Is there a possibility in my report drilling down to one member without selecting all members of the hierarchy in the query panel ?
B - I cannot put a dimension with hierarchy both in the result pane and in the filter pane, although it is possible for any other dimension without hierarchy.
Is there any special trick to achieve this or is a bug??
C - I cannot sort variables defined in my bex query, but they don't appear in the window to sort prompts.
Do you know how to solve this issue ?
D - I noticed all keys and description of dimensions appear with the same label "key" and "text". SO it is very confusing for the user to understand what key or text means (if a key if the customer key or the company code key).
Any idea to have a more explicit label for BW characteristics?
Regards.
CL.

Answer 1

Hi,
I do not have access to a BW system to test this, but i have something on three of your questions...
A) drilling without getting all the lower members. I would look to query drill, this means a drill action in the report will go to the database to fetch the level (and only for the selected member, a drill down).
The only thing I'm not sure about is if the BEx hierarchy is seen as drill hierarchy by that option too.
If you'd ask me it really should.
C) this is an old problem, but I know it is bugging more people, because the same is true for universe based prompts. They also cannot be 'arranged'. Since the Bex query is the 'universe', ordering that has been set in the 'universe' is the only chance you have.
Like with the universe you could use prefixes to separate them from the query defined prompts (based on an alphabetic sort of the prompt message). I'd say this is a good one for the idea place...
D) also an old (very old actually) problem. Some will want to keep the text short and simple. The prefixing will tell which key it is. Some will prefer unique names, so no prefix is needed. The same was true for universe designers. Now since there is no universe, if you do not agree with the 'designer' you're out of luck  no way to change it.
Hope this helps,
Marianne