HIDE COLUMN ONLY FROM ADHOC REPORTING/ ANSWERS

Hi,

Recently, we got a requirement from a client that they want to have certain columns which should be present in the Dashboard Reports but the same should not be available for Adhoc Reporting in Answers. This seems to be a little twisted task as any column which is hidden from Answers is automatically excluded from the Report.

Let me first explain you the wrong approach (for your better understanding J ) and then come up with the ingenious (no rocket science) workaround.

We have a Report ‘BiCoach_HideTest’. Here we have 4 columns: Year, Quarter Name, Month Name and Date. As you can see, all these 4 columns are present in left section for Adhoc Reporting.

Now as per the requirement, let’s try to hide ‘Quarter Name’ from Adhoc Reporting. However, the same should still appear in our report ‘BiCoach_HideTest’.

Making simple change in RPD to hide the column by putting condition 1=1

Post this change, when we see our saved Report:

So, this was the wrong solution. Now, lets see the correct workaround.

1. Create Presentation Folder ‘ParentHide’

2. Create Another Presentation Folder ‘Child’

3. Move the Column ‘Quarter Name’ from ‘Time’ folder to ‘Child’

4. Make the newly created ‘Child’ folder as a Child for ‘ParentHide’ folder:

Right Click on ParentHideèSelect Child Presentation Tables è Then select ‘Child’ Folder

5. Reload the metadata.
6. Go to the saved Report ‘BiCoach_HideTest’ and update the column formula for Quarter Name.

BiCoachTip: It is important that we first include the newly created column in the analysis first and then Hide the Presentation folder (as mentioned in next step). If we hide the column first, OBIEE will throw error.

7. Finally, hide the ‘ParentHide’ folder itself.

8. Again, Reload the Metadata.
9. Finally, lets test the Output.

Quarter Name is now not present in Answers but it is present in Report. Our newly created columns ‘Parent Hide’ and ‘Child’ are also not present.

Till Next time. Happy Exploring!