Are changes to WebI’s formula mechanism causing you upgrade woes? Check out the new Automatic Formula Rewrite Mechanism!

Starting in BI 4.1 SP03, Developers have introduced an Automatic Formula Rewrite Mechanism to automatically correct formulas in Web Intelligence documents that are affected by known calculation engine changes.

There are 3 formulas the Automatic Formula Rewrite Mechanism can correct when enabled:

1. Running Calculations
2. Where operator on measure
3. Aggregation functions on individual objects inside a merged object

I’ve encountered quite a few questions around this new feature, so I’ve started documenting in the SCN WIKI full details on how to use it and what you’ll see (feedback most welcome!):

http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/x/QoY8Fg

The main WIKI links to 3 child pages where I provide specific examples of the rules in action including:

• How to identify which formulas may be affected by calc engine changes
• How to manually correct the formulas without the mechanism (especially useful if you’re upgrading to BI 4.1 but not yet to SP03)
• How to enable/disable the rewrite rules
• How to tell a rewrite has occurred via the WebI logs

The mechanism is also mentioned in the Release Notes for BI 4.1 Support Pack 03 and further detail can be found here in Developer’s SCN Document on WebI Formula Calculation Changes (highly recommended for those upgrading to BI 4.1 from any version!):

Thanks!

Carly