How to Use the “XML Search and Replace” Tool in OBIEE

Author: Margaret Motsi, Performance Architects

Every now and then, changes are made to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) catalog objects.  For example, the column or table names may change as needed. Usually, this requires a quick fix, except when it is a change that affects multiple reports within the OBIEE Presentation Catalog.

I faced this situation when some subject area and column/table names were changed. A few hundred reports were affected, and it would have been tedious to have to tackle these manually. Fortunately, there is an “XML Search and Replace” tool in the OBIEE Catalog Manager that can accomplish this using multiple text strings. The whole process takes just a few seconds.

 Steps to take:

1. Compile list of changes that need to be made to the reports (e.g., changes in subject area name, table names, column names, etc.)

2. Create an XML file with commands for searching and replacing multiple text strings; guidelines:

• command– Specifies what action is to be taken
• textReplace– Replaces text other than the name of a table, column, formula
• renameTable– Renames the Table part of a formula alone
• renameColumn– Replaces the name of a column
• renameFormula– Renames the entire formula
• renameSubjectArea– Replaces the name of a subject area
• subjectArea– Apply this optional attribute to renameTable, renameColumn
• old Value– Specifies the text string to search for

For example:

<actions> 

<action command=”renameSubjectArea” oldValue=”Sample_Sales” newValue=”Sales” ignoreCase=”false”/> 

<action command=”renameTable” subjectArea=”Sample_Sales_WH” oldValue=”Dim- Product” newValue=”Dim – Prod” ignoreCase=”true”/> 

<action command=”renameColumn” oldValue=”Dim – Product”.”Product Desc” newValue=”Dim – Product”.”Product Desc” ignoreCase=”false”/> 

<action command=”textReplace” oldValue=”&amp;quot;Dim – Brand&amp;quot;.&amp;quot;Product Desc&amp;quot;” newValue=”&amp;quot;&amp;quot;Dim – Product&amp;quot;Product Desc&amp;quot;” ignoreCase=”false”/> 

</actions>

Please note: any special “normal” characters have to be escaped using “&quot;”. This works well when using most of the commands. However when using the TextReplace command (as highlighted above), although you are using “&quot;” to escape the double quotes within the command, the “&” that is used in the “&quot;” has to be escaped as well by using “&amp;quot;”

3. Create a backup of the folder to be converted. Open Catalog Manager in offline mode and browse to the Catalog folder.
   

4. Navigate to the folder to be converted.
   

5. From the Tools menu, select “XML Search and Replace.”
   

6. In the “Import from File” field, enter the path or click “Browse” to specify the XML file that you created in Step 2.
   

7. Click OK to start the search and replace process.
   

Once applied, the changes to the web catalog objects will be available immediately. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email info@performancearchitects.com and we will be in touch!