Issues with scheduling a webi report with default date prompt i.e.'yesterday'

[Former Member]

Hi All,

I am having this really weird problem with one of the webi reports after upgrading from BOXI R3.1 to SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.1 Support Pack 4 Patch 2. I have this date prompt in the report which has a default value 'yesterday'. When the report is run on-demand, it runs successfully but when I schedule it with exactly the same prompt values, the scheduling fails with the error message Unparseable date: "Yesterday".

If any of you have come across this before, please help me out.

Thanks,

Shivam

[Former Member]

Hi Shivam,

Plz check whether you have specified connection server path in command line parameters at services. plz do so for DSL and APS.

Vizit

[Former Member]

Hi Vizit,

I checked the service and both of them have connection server path updated in the command line parameters.

Thanks,

Shivam

[Former Member]

When you schedule it, do you create a new prompt and type Yesterday in as the value?

My guess is that someone has created a nice case expression in a predefined filter and is taking yesterday as an option and turning it into sysdate-1 (or your DBMS's equivalent).

If you just have Transaction Date equal to Yesterday then it will fail if you type in Yesterday because it is expecting a date. The way around this is to create some relative date objects in the universe. These can be built for any RDBMS, be it Oracle, SQL Server, Netezza, etc. Here's a topic on BOB with the full details:

http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/viewtopic.php?t=152613

Alternatively, there's new functionality in 4.1 SP6 to go some way to achieving what you want

Regards,

Mark

[Former Member]

Hi Mark,

Your guess is correct. This is a predefined prompt with default value set as 'yesterday'.

Sadly, upgrading to SP6 is not a solution for me for now. Thanks for the information though.

Thanks,

Shivam

[Former Member]

OK, so have an object called Yesterday created in the universe (based on the link in my earlier post). Then you can use this in the condition panel in your data provider and schedule it.

[Former Member]

Apologies for not making it clear the first time. The report should have the flexibility to be run for any date, not just yesterday. If it were just for yesterday, the solution suggested by you would have worked.

Thanks,

Shivam

[Former Member]

OK, so is it an optional prompt?

http://www.dagira.com/2008/07/15/how-can-i-make-today-my-default-prompt-value/

As per Dave's blog post, this isn't possible.

I'd create a second copy of the report to run as a scheduled report.

[Former Member]

It is not an optional prompt and it is possible. We had been using it for years in BO 3.1.

This seems like a issue with the new version. I am also thinking of creating new copies of reports for yesterday but that would be a bad idea given the number of reports impacted.

[Former Member]

So to recap, you've managed to get Yesterday as default value for a prompt but it only works when it's run manually and not when scheduled?

[Former Member]

Yes Mark. That is exactly what the issue is.

[Former Member]

OK and are you using the same predefined condition when trying to schedule the report?

[Former Member]

Yes. The pre-defined prompt is what I am using for scheduling.Following is how it is defined:

( DIM_CALENDAR.DATE=DATE((CASE WHEN (@Prompt('Day:','D','Calendar\Natural Date',mono,constrained,not_persistent,{'Yesterday'},User:90)='Yesterday')

THEN (SELECT  DIM_CALENDAR.DATE FROM DIM_CALENDAR WHERE DIM_CALENDAR.DATE= (current date-1 day )) ELSE (@Prompt('Day:','D','Calendar\Natural Date',mono,constrained,not_persistent,{'Yesterday'},User:90)) END))

The database is DB2.

[Former Member]

Do you have a customised list of values?

[Former Member]

No. There is no customized LOV in this case.

[Former Member]

Well I can't see how Yesterday would work unless it gets translated because your prompt is asking for a date. 'Yesterday' obviously isn't recognised as a date format.

I've not touched DB2 since 2004 so will be of no help on DBMS specific syntax. Some of the replies to this blog post may point you in the right direction though:

http://www.dagira.com/2008/07/15/how-can-i-make-today-my-default-prompt-value/

[tanveer1]

Can you share some screenshots of your problem to understand better ?

[Former Member]

Hi Tanveer,

I have attached the relevant screenshots. Hope that will make things clearer.

Thanks,

Shivam