Using Visual difference – Lets make the difference

[former_member182521]

Dear All,

After a long time here in SCN, I am writing this blog about one of the quite interesting feature in BI 4.x i.e. Visual difference.

Visual difference provides an opportunity to compare two versions of BI content in order to identify the changes incorporated in each version. This will allow you to track the changes made in every version of the BI content and the content could be a Report, Universe or even a LCMBIAR file.

Visual difference background

Visual difference is one among the hosted service in APS and consumed by both Promotion management and Version management. It is not necessary to have a dedicated APS for hosting Visual difference service unless otherwise majority of your users are using it exclusively apart from Promotion/Version managements.

What & How to compare

You can compare the BI contents present in any one of the below locations

• CMS – from a BusinessObjects repository
• VMS – from a Version Management system repository
• Local File System  – from a local file system

In CMS, you can select both reports and Universes.

Post selection you can compare them across repositories (CMS/VMS/LFS)

You can even schedules the difference generation similar to reports

Visual difference use case for each user category

Developer

• Difference log - What are the changes made in my current report/Universe with reference to my previous version so that I can proceed with my development from the required version
• Change history - What are the consolidates Changes made since from my initial Universe version (Version 0)

Test Analyst

• Changed section - What are the only modified objects in the Universe so that I can use my test cases only for the required objects for faster testing approach?

Administrator

• Difference log - What are the changes made in user’s current report/Universe comparing earlier version?  Based on this as per user requirement I will restore my universe/report.
• Consolidation for easier maintenance - What are differences between Sales universe and marketing universe? Can I merge both of them and create a single universe to fulfill the reporting requirements for both the departments?

Hope the blog is interesting. Let’s start using visual difference and make our work even simpler & smarter. Thanks for reading!