BI Connector is made a little more awesome with the release of v5.3! 

Yes, from BI Connector v5.3, the below capabilities are available:

1. Smooth Data volume Handling
2. Actionable error messages
3. Email alerts for errors (if any) in the server instances

Let’s see each of them in detail.

Smooth Data Volume Handling

From BI Connector v5.3, the users can experience a smoother data volume handling. There’s no need to worry about adjusting the parameters under the Query Limits section of the BI Connector Advanced Settings.

From the above screenshot, you can notice the Maximum Number of rows per fetch parameter alone remains under the Query Limit section. The users are required to adjust this parameter only when BI Connector’s repeated attempts (of auto-adjusting the value and retrying the fetch) fail.

In such cases, the users must be aware that the value in this parameter must be less than the ResultRowLimit setting in your OBIEE’s instance config file.

You can get the value of the ResultRowLimit setting by having a chat with your OBIEE administrator.

The other 2 parameters, namely the Maximum Number of rows per report and Maximum number of columns per query from the Query limits section are deprecated. Hence, the errors arising due to these 2 parameters are also eliminated from v5.3.

Actionable error messages

From BI Connector v5.3, the error messages from the OBIEE/Power BI/Tableau end will be more actionable and understandable for the end users. 

Yes, moving forward, whenever BI Connector encounters an error in the OBIEE or Tableau/Power BI end, the error messages will not be shown on an as-is basis. Instead, BI Connector will show the error message along with the ways to fix it, in a simple, non-technical language, understandable by end-users.

The actionable error messages will help the users take the appropriate action and rectify the error. In some cases, the intervention of your OBIEE administrator or your technical team may still be required.

Email alerts for errors (if any) in the server instances

The IT teams no longer have to wait for user tickets for finding and fixing Report failures in the server instances of BI Connector.

You can enable this feature just by providing an email address (for sending the alert) in the Send Notifications on Report Failures (For Server) field. Below is the screenshot highlighting that field in the BI Connector Advanced Settings window:

This feature will help the IT teams find and fix report failures before the users detect them, and enables IT teams to improve user satisfaction. 

Note: Your server must have internet access to send out the email notifications. For more info, please refer to this support article.

What’s next? Download BI Connector v5.3 and make the most of these updates! 

We, the BI Connector Team are wrapping up 2020 with the v5.3 release. Happy holidays! Stay safe, and we’ll come up with even more user-friendly updates in 2021.