Hi,

While I have seen a recent question 'Convert Tableau to WebFOCUS' and I understand the first reply to it, can I still please ask here whether or not anyone has done or is aware of the methods and challenges while moving from OBI EE to WebFOCUS? Is there any migration tool developed by Information Builders?

The current OBI EE BI application is based on a simple and basic star schema. As far as the reports/dashboards are concerned they too are basic, straigh forward and simple.

Based on my first question here, it looks like there is something similar to the RPD and there is some similar tool (AppStudio?) to build the RPD.

As far as the reporting aspect is concerned do we have to create the reports and the dashboards from scratch manually using WebFOCUS? It looks like yes as I have noticed that on OBI EE forum people have asked questions like 'How do I migrate my BusinessOBjects reports to OBI EE' and the OBI EE gurus have indicated that the two technologies are different and there's no migration tool available.

Awaiting for your replies. We are still on OBI EE but we shall be using WebFOCUS in future.

Kind regards,

Manoj.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FP Mod Chuck,

Manoj

I admit I know nothing about OBI EE but if the underlying code is SQL then you can just capture that and use WebFOCUS SQL Passthru to generate the same report.

Or use the SQL for your masterfile, so you can also use it with Infoassist etc.

Could you post an example of a RPD file?

I haven't done a conversion of OBIEE either, but I've done conversion projects for other applications and here are my suggestions:

1. This is your opportunity to re-architect an old system to a new platform. Presumably, they're replacing OBIEE because it wasn't meeting a need. Why replicate it in WebFOCUS.
2. Find what's important and purge what's redundant, dated and useless.
3. Use existing code as examples/specifications and talk to Biz users to find out how they'd like you to improve on them.
4. If there's a piece of content that's essential to the business and cannot be changed or removed, use Chuck and Fans' advice by reusing the SQL generated by OBIEE to create metadata and deploy the WebFOCUS content to provide that functionality, and additionally, look for ways to improve on it by using WebFOCUS features like Active et cetera.

Thought it's better to be late than never.

Thank you all. Nice insights.

@Frans, I can post an example of an RPD file, but to open it, we need relevant tool. However, the following URL refers to sevaral images of an RPD file.

Example Images of an RPD file

The rightmost layer lets OBIEE server know about the actual physical sources of data, the middle layer defines business logic (formula, when to use aggregated tables, snowflake or OTLP schema mapped as a star schema, join types, etc.). The leftmost column is a presentation of the midlle layer in terms of folders and column which IT or poweful end users can use to build reports.

In summary, the RPD (among other things such as defining data security) lets the business interact with the underlying sources of the data without using technical terms.