Customizing › CA Business Intelligence Reports Customization › Framework

Framework

After the tools are available in your development environment, the next step is to create a framework that will allow schema changes to be preserved through product upgrades.

Important Do not modify the default development CA SDM universe installed with CA BI. Otherwise, your schema changes may be overwritten during patch and upgrade processes. Modifying the CA SDM universe will eventually result in lost schema changes within the CA BI infrastructure.

The BusinessObjects universe is the metalayer that describes the schema within the CA BI infrastructure. Instead of changing the CA supplied universe, you can create a customer-specific universe linked to the CA SDM universe. Using this approach, you can maintain local schema changes with minimal effort during the upgrade process, and CA SDM will be able to provide upgrades to the base universe.

CA SDM customers familiar with BusinessObjects universe documentation will be aware of other documented procedures available from BusinessObjects that allow tying universes together. The process discussed here, however, is the only process that is supported by CA for maintaining customer modifications.

The default universe is named "CA SDM" and it is stored in the "CA Universes" folder within the Central Management Console (CMC). This default universe is the "kernel" universe in a structure where universes are linked.

The CA SDM universe can be named anything you choose. The name will be displayed to report writers when they are building reports, so make sure the name is meaningful. The customer universe is the "derived" universe in a structure where universes are linked.

Within this framework, any number of derived universes can be maintained, but only one is required for maintaining schema changes. Multiple derived universes may be used for ease of maintenance or security requirements, but such decisions are solely at the discretion of your production support needs.

In any multiple derived universe environment, ensure that you do the following:

• Maintain the z_ naming convention for the universe file name on all universes.
• Use the CA SDM connection, then store the universe in the CA Customer Universe folder.
• Do not delete the link to the kernel universe.