'starting page' getting removed - error on opening - how to avoid?

Karol Kanicki

Hi guys,

If the dashboard that is set in 'My Account' as 'Starting Page' is removed, OBIEE returns error on connection. Is there any way within standard OBIEE to overcome this?

(if not, I'll just keep modified dashboard page and redirect somewhere else using JS on that page, but I was wondering if this could be worked-around without additional JS? )

Gianni Ceresa

Well, you aren't supposed to point to a missing page. It's just the equivalent of a HTTP-404.

You could consider adapting your development process to not remove dashboards but just change their content instead.

As you said, you can add a piece of JS to the dashboard page to point somewhere else. And you can also consider running a scheduled job checking if a configured home page doesn't exist anymore.

Karol Kanicki

Thanks @Gianni Ceresa for answering this.

Well, you aren't supposed to point to a missing page. It's just the equivalent of a HTTP-404.

of course, but we have hundreds of users and I have no idea which one of them have this particular dashboard set as homePage

And you can also consider running a scheduled job checking if a configured home page doesn't exist anymore.

how this can be done? any hints / useful links on this?

if I could check if anybody set this as homePage - and assuming noOne did - then I wouldn't have to do anything 😎

[Deleted User]

"of course, but we have hundreds of users and I have no idea which one of them have this particular dashboard set as homePage"

Catalog Manager can search for the fully qualified path to that dashboard in the XML of all objects within the catalog.

Karol Kanicki

@Christian Berg I don't understand - is there any object in catalog that contains user's startingPage? I'm familiar with catalogManager's search option, but still don't know how can I find user's starting page? I'd appreciate if you could explain this.

btw I forgot to comment at one sentence of @Gianni Ceresa first post in this thread:

You could consider adapting your development process to not remove dashboards but just change their content instead.

c'mon Gianni, you are better than that :P

[Deleted User]

Your problem isn't about a user's starting page in the screenshot above, but about an object in /shared having been utilized somewhere and then removed. While that can be in a user's starting page or "My Dashboard" it can also be anyhwhere else.

By searching across the whole catalog you will find all references to that (removed) object.

Karol Kanicki

@Christian Berg - actually, my problem is just starting page, not an object having been utilized somewhere and then removed.

At this dashboard page that we are about to decommission, we put a 'banner' about its removal couple months ago. So if someone still wants to access that page - you've been warned, sorry. Also, we don't really worry about the components of this page (whether any of analyses or any other), since we have very low precentage of users who even have permissions & skills to create own dashboards.

Now, when it comes to startingPage - that's a different story. Because if someone has this to be removed page set as startingPage, they literally cannot access OBIEE at all! - because they'll get an error on connection, well, unless they have direct link with full path of another dashboard page stored somewhere in bookmarks / history + are able to figure out to use it to access OBIEE - almost nobody would be able to do it.

So, all in all - yes, it's startingPage that's bothering me, not the other uses of decommissioned objects

Gianni Ceresa

c'mon Gianni, you are better than that :P

Of course I am, but I'm supposed to write that thing from time to time 😅

For the catalog search, I would say you have to do it in offline mode. Because the info of the "homepage" is stored into user's folders and in online mode you have the security preventing you access there other than your own user folder.

The info of the starting page is supposed to be stored into <user>/_internals/userprefsxmlstore, but stick to the catalog manager instead of file system. While it looks like a readable thing on disk, it's safer (and supported and correct) to use the Catalog Manager to not add any issue.

Karol Kanicki

Ok, with @Gianni Ceresa 's last comment I was able to identify users with this page set as startingPage (did offline / fileSystem search, had some problems running catalogManager at linuxServer ) and take necessary actions.

Thanks guys for helping, much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

"fully qualified path to that dashboard in the XML of all objects within the catalog"