Webi - Make up your own data groups

Ever wanted to created some data in a Webi Report?  The rigid boundary between you and the source database makes that quite difficult.  There are some new techniques that help in this regard. One such technique is a feature in BusinessObjects Webi called Grouping that makes it possible to group the values of dimensions into new values.  This can be very useful if you want to combine data into higher level groupings.

For example, say you had some product lines, and you wanted to group them into higher level categories for seasons.  You can now do this all by yourself without touching your source database.

Here is a video that shows how to do it.

Caveat:  Your system must be updated to at least 4.1 SP2.  Bring donughts to your system administrator if the system isn't already up-to-date.  Disclaimer:  I'm the system administrator for my system and I happen to love donughts!  Who doesn't?  :)

Another such more advanced technique is uploading an Excel document into the BI LaunchPad, but that is a topic for another day . . .

Web Intelligence - Sorting a section by a measure in that section

Today I was trying to figure out how to sort a section in a Web Intelligence report by a measure in that section.  Highlighting the section and clicking the sort button was getting me nowhere.  The problem lies in what I believe is a bug.  In the Java Editor, if you right-click in the section, and choose Sort, Advanced, it brings up Manage Sorts.  When you click Add . . . there is no option to select the measure.

So the issue lies in the fact that a section gets a default sort created for whatever dimension the section is based on when it is first created.  And the trick to changing it is to select the dimension and remove the sort (from the Analysis, Display tab).  Now you can select the measure and apply a sort on it.  And checking the Manage Sorts window again, it shows the correct sort on the measure!