History of OBIEE

Out of curiosity, I surfed around the web to understand the history of OBIEE. While consulting at SIEBEL I was pretty much aware of their product called SIEBEL ANALYTICS and as per the general talk around Oracle after acquisition of SIEBEL has been selling SIEBEL ANALYTICS packaged as OBIEE. Well, part of the talk may be true but there is more to history…. I came to know about the same by surfing the web and reading the articles posted by various authors on their blogs. Some of the links are published below, please access and read the same.

http://gerardnico.com/wiki/dat/obiee/history

http://www.rittmanmead.com/2007/09/a-potted-history-of-oracle-bi-suite-enterprise-edition/

Please enjoy the reading.

Shot at OBIEE11g installation

After almost 5 yrs the consulting bug has hit me again. This time round the consulting would revolve around projects on Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and Oracle Business Intelligence Apps. Hence, to get used to new world of OBIEE I decided to start with installing the same on my laptop. 

Laptop Configuration:   8GB, Windows 7 – 64bit.

Please note there are many sites available on the web where the authors have taken the pain & efforts to write in detail the steps of the installation. I am going to guide you to the sites/links that I used during my 'installation' journey. The installation process is pretty straightforward, hence my objective here is to highlight some of the minute issues or hurdles you may come across.

Enclosed are the links I referred to during my installation process

http://gerardnico.com/wiki/dat/obiee/installation_11.1

http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2011/12/29/oracle-11gr2-on-windows-7/

** All the necessary Oracle Software can be downloaded from https://edelivery.oracle.com

Pre-Requisites: Need to have Oracle 11gR2 database installed and running.

Documentation:

Oracle Business Intelligence Documentation

During the installation process, some of the listed issues were encountered and the solution for them is also very simple.

1)    Please make sure your Windows User Account you use is ‘administrator’ account.

Problem: The oracle database installer would keep crashing.

Solution: Created a new user a/c and a/c type as administrator. The installer went thru like a well-oiled process.

2)    Also would need to make sure that the text in your PATH environment variable is not more than 1026 as oracle installer throws up the error indicating it cannot be extended.

3)    While installing the database or OBIEE11g, please make sure the folder you plan to install does not have any ‘white space’ in the name as it may throw errors during installation.

4)      Also install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter or else you may encounter the following error during the OBIEE11g BI

INST-5058: A lookup of the address for this machine

Below are some of the links I referred to and found them really helpful for the above issue.

http://www.tensixconsulting.com/2012/03/oracle-bi-publisher-installation-error-inst-05058-a-lookup-of-the-address-for-this-machine/

Even after installing the Microsoft Loopback Adapter you continue to have issues then, please go thru the steps mentioned on link below:

http://kalpesh-obiee-eklavya.blogspot.com/2011/06/setting-loopback-adapter-for-obiee-11g.html

Well, the installation is complete on my laptop and now it is time to play with the software.  As I progress will put together some more stuff for everyone’s benefit.

Before Signing-off, would like to extend my thank you and appreciation to all the authors/bloggers whose links have been referred during the installation process.

Coffee Terminology - Lattes, Americano

Go to the Starbucks, Barista, Cafe Coffee Day and ever wonder what is a cafe latte, americano..etc..

Check out this : Addicted to coffee

Auto Save in MS Project

Working on the MS Project 2007 and noticed that the 'auto-save' of the project is not switched on by default. You need to do the following to make it work....

a) Navigate to Tools - Options
b) Once in 'Options' click on the tab 'Save'
c) In the bottom half you should notice "AUTO SAVE" option as shown in the picture on left

BlackBerry - Calendar Reminder Snooze not friendly

Have been using the Blackberry Curve for sometime now and disappointed with the options to 'snooze' a reminder on the calendar appointment. The only two options provided by Blackberry (BB) are 'snooze 5 mins' or 'dismiss'. Before the BB I was using 'blackjack' from Samsung and with its MS OS it gave me the option to 'snooze' a reminder '5 mins before start'. With this option it is pain to 'snooze' the reminder every 5 mins.

With help from reading & researching....discoverered that we could extend the 'snooze' to more than default '5 minutes'. I increased the limit to 10 minutes and set the default alarm for '15 minutes' before a appointment....it is close but not the true impact.

How to change 'snooze 5 mins'
a) Click on the 'applications' (bear's claw) button beside the 'green' button on ur phone when in the 'calendar'.
b) This will open up the with various choices...look for 'option' choice
c) After choosing the 'option' choice, it will open another list of choices. Select the 'General Options'
d) In the "actions" section, change the value for 'snooze' to '10 mins'
e) Save your changes and your all set.

Again not a right solution....something is better than nothing..

Oracle Application Express - Baby Steps

It has been sometime since I have been toying with the idea of working and using Oracle Application Express. It was at the BIWA Summit last year in Dec that I came across its use and salient features when BIWA Team demonstrated that their site was build using Oracle Application Express (APEX).

Since then have been surfing various sites on APEX and some of the following sites were really helpfull in getting me started and excited

http://www.inside-oracle-apex.com/ by Patrick Wolf

** Also would give Patrick the credit of getting me to buy the book Beginning - Oracle Application Express . A good start for a beginner like me.

http://www.apex-evangelists.com/pls/apex/f?p=208:HOME:0:

http://dgielis.blogspot.com/ by Dimitri Gielis

The above are just few of the list but there are many other good blogs or reference material available in the web world.

Going forward, I will try to blog and write about my experience with APEX. I will not promise but definetely make a good effort.

Before I sign-off on this note....just a brief touch on What is APEX?

Oracle Application Express is a rapid application development (RAD) tool built on Oracle Technology. It is available free of cost with all the oracle databases. Moreover, it is browser based and does not need to be applied onto client machines. In other words, it is close to using MS-Access.

Tiny Laptop from APPLE

Wow...Steve Jobs does not stop from throwing surprises...

Last year it was the IPHONE from APPLE and this year we have slim laptop unveiled at the Macworld.

The new laptop, which has a 13.3-inch screen and full-sized laptop keyboard, will cost $1,799 when it goes on sale in two weeks, though Apple is taking orders now. The company's Web site is already touting the machine. The price is competitive with other laptops in its market segment

Read the article for more details