Crystal Reports for Enterprise and BEx: Error generating the universe

[Former Member]

Hi All:

Got a strange one for you. I am working with our BEx query developer to optimize a BEx query for use with Crystal Reports for Enterprise (BW 7.3, BI 4.1SP2). We are getting the following error after she makes a change to a BEx query and I attempt to use the BEx query in a brand new report:

Error Generating the universe.

Design-time query not available

Has anyone seen this error and know the cause?

When we first encountered the error, by trial and error we isolated it to the adding of the OFFSET function in a restricted key figure of the query (removing the offset function caused the error to disappear), so we initially thought the OFFSET function was simply not supported. But recently we discovered merely adding a FISCAL YEAR filter to a key figure reproduces the same error, even though the same FISCAL YEAR filter is working just fine in other BEx queries. Hmm . . .

Our final test was as follows:

Scenario 1

1. Remove FISCAL YEAR global filter from BEX query and add it to key figure. (ERROR)

Scenario 2

1. Keep FISCAL YEAR global filter in place and add FISCAL YEAR filter to key figure. (NO ERROR)
2. Remove FISCAL_YEAR global filter from Bex query after FISCAL YEAR filter has been successfully added to key figure. (NO ERROR!)

As you can see, the end state of Scenario 2 is identical to Scenario 1. Basically, breaking up the changes with a save seems to prevent the error. Problem however is there is no pattern and no guarantee the next time we encounter this it will be obvious how to fix (she just made another change that reproduced it). I suspect this may  have something to do with connectivity and possible latency between the BW and BI platforms but your insights would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

[IngoH · Accepted solution]

Hello Don,

so the only issue that is causing this is the BEx variable ?

what is the variable type ?

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, Visual BI

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Ingo for reaching out, and apologies for not responding immediately. I do not say this often, but this issue mysteriously just went away. It defied being isolated to a specific feature in the BEx designer. I began to suspect that it might be related to the middleware layer between BW and Crystal (BI Platform caching? BW to BI connectivity?) but as I mentioned, the issues seemed to vanish.

Sorry Balaji I cannot be of more assistance!

Don Collins

[IngoH · Accepted solution]

thanks for the update

ingo

[Former Member]

Hello Don,

I am also facing same issue while connecting CR report to Bex Query .

by luck do you got any solutions for this error .?

Thanks,

Balaji

[TammyPowlas]

Hi Don,

Scenario 1 - adding fiscal year to the key figures doesn't sound right to me - fiscal year is a time characteristic and not a measure.  That doesn't make any sense to me.  Is there a business reason to do this?  Perhaps you can share a screen shot (using the camera icon to upload an image).

Tammy

[Former Member]

Thanks Tammy for your response.

The Fiscal year filter applies a restriction to the key figure based on a variable which manifests in Crystal interface as a prompt. The reason it is not applied to the overall query is because the query also retrieves previous fiscal year info (also in the form of a restricted key figure), which an overall selected-year Fiscal Year filter would exclude.

I have not given the BEx query close scrutiny (it was a pre-existing query), but if you think our technical issue might be related to bad design, let me know. I am not in the office but can send over a screenshot if needed tomorrow.

Thanks!

Don

[TammyPowlas]

Don - on the surface, restricted key figures should be OK

But there are other things like the OFFSET  - so a screen shot would help.