OBIEE MetaData Dictionary

The metadata dictionary is a very powerful support package within OBIEE. Sadly it is not commonly used at this moment. This is mainly caused by the fact that the functionality is very poorly documented by Oracle.

This article describes the configuration and implementation of the OBIEE metadata dictionary both on an OC4J and an IIS web services. (Other web services can be easily configured based on of these systems)

Prerequisites

The account used for implementing this functionality must have full access to:

• 
  
  The source repositories
  
  
  
• 
  
  The Presentation server.
  
  
  
• 
  
  The Web server.
  
  
  

Generating the metadata dictionary

Open the repository in Offline mode:

Go to tools utilities:

Select Generate Metadata Dictionary:

Select a destination directory:

On successful finish you will get:

If you are replacing you might get this:

Navigate to your {OBIEE MetaData Dictionary}\ {repository_name}

Open NameIndex in a browser to check the readability.

Open TreeIndex in a browser to check the readability.

OC4J Prerequisites

First we have to tell the presentation server where to find the dictionary. This is configured in the INSTANCECONFIG.XML file. Usually this file is found in {OracleBIDate}\web\config.

Open the file and add:

<SubjectAreaMetadata>

<DictionaryURLPrefix>/analytics/dictionary/</DictionaryURLPrefix>

</SubjectAreaMetadata>

between the <WebConfig> tags.

WOW: Some OBIEE config tags and the contents are CaSe SeNsItIvE!

OC4J web server

Create the “dictionary” directory in the analytics application folder:

Usually {OracleBI}\oc4j_bi\j2ee\home\application\analytics\analytic. (it’s the folder where your SAW.DLL is located).

Copy the content of your dictionary export folder to this folder:

Restart the presentation server

Log in as administrator in answer, select the subject area:

Click on the dictionary symbol:

ISS Prerequisites

Create a new virtual directory in your IIS manager

Add the virtual directory to your INSTANCECONFIG.XML. Usually this file is found in {OracleBIDate}\web\config.

<SubjectAreaMetadata>

<DictionaryURLPrefix>/analyticsDictionary/</DictionaryURLPrefix>

</SubjectAreaMetadata>

WOW: Some OBIEE config tags and the contents are CaSe SeNsItIvE!

Restart the presentation server

Log in as administrator in answer, select the subject area:

Click on the dictionary symbol:

Granting access to the metadata dictionary

Log in as administrator

Go Settings > Administration

Select manage privileges:

Select access to Metadata Dictionary

By default this is set to everyone.

Till Next Time

This article was orignally written for the Ciber knowledge blog: http://knowledge.ciber.nl/weblog/

EDIT: This Feature is availible from 10.3.4

OBIEE Presentation server on IIS

Instead of using OC4J or the Oracle Application Server the OBIEE presentation server can also run on Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS). If your not running IIS and the OBIEE Presentation server on the same box, or didn't install IIS before the you installed OBIEE, here is a way to configure it:

Open the IIS Manager

Create a Web Site configuration on the IIS:

Click next

Enter a name for your web site configuration. Click next.

Leave to default values. Click next.

Enter the web site home directory, usually ..\Inetpub\wwwroot. Click next.

Leave to default. Click Next.

Click Finish.

Add the virtual directory's:

analytics => ..\OracleBI\web\app

Leave to default. Click next.

Click Finish

analytics => ..\OracleBIData\web\res

Leave to default. Click next.

Click Finish

Setting permissions "analytics"

Set execute permissions to "Scripts and Executables".

Check the Web Service Extension permissions for the saw.dll

Till Next Time

Edit: Jeff gives some info on using this on a 64 bit pltafrom:

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/achieving-great-bi/obiee-on-vista-64bit-with-iis-70-29882