BI Connector - Desktop Edition allows you to connect Tableau Desktop to OBIEE (both Subject Areas & Reports) and create intuitive visualizations in minutes.  


The following is a general tutorial for installing and configuring BI Connector Desktop Edition for OBIEE Subject Areas and Reports in a Windows PC.   


Note: OBIEE Reports connector is an add-on module to BI Connector.  It requires a separate license.   

Pre-requisites


BI Connector Desktop Edition has the following pre-requisites:


  • OS: Windows Operating System - 64 bit.
  • Tableau: Tableau Desktop Edition - 64 bit.
  • Administrator Privilege: Windows Administrator privilege for your PC to install BI Connector.  If you do not have the privilege to install software on your PC, then please contact your IT to help install BI Connector in your desktop.  
  • Internet Access: Internet access for online license activation.  
          Note:  If you do not have internet access or if you have proxy/firewall blocking access, then please refer to How do I do an offline activation of BI Connector License.


Step 1 : Download



Download the latest version of BI Connector Desktop Edition from here.

Step 2 : Uninstall BI Connector


If you have already installed any older versions of BI Connector on your PC, uninstall it by following the below steps.


  1. Close Tableau Desktop.
  2. Uninstall the existing BI Connector
              In your PC —> Go to Control Panel , Programs / Software , Uninstall BI Connector.

Step 3 : Extract

 

Once the download is completed, Open BIConnector-Desktop-Edition-x64.exe file which is a compressed file.  You can extract the file by double clicking on it or by using 7-zip (a zip file extractor).  The following 3 files will be extracted from the zip file. 

  1. BIConnector-setup-x64(x.x.x.xxxx)
  2. BIConnector-Readmore.txt 
  3. BIConnector-TrialLicenseKey.txt

Step 4 : Installation


Double click on BIConnector-setup-x64(x.x.x.xxxx).exe. You will see the BI Connector Installer screen as shown below. 





Click on Next in the screen below. 



BI Connector Installer screen 1


In the following screen, review and (1) accept the license agreement.  Click (2) Next.



BI Connector Installer Screen


In the next screen, note that BI Connector is installed in C:\Program Files\BI Connector folder by default. Click Install.



BI Connector Installer


BI Connector is now installed in your PC. Verify that Launch ODBC Administrator is checked.  Click Finish.  



BI Connector Installer - Finish


The ODBC Data Sources Adminisrator UI will open.


You are now ready to configure BI Connector.  

Step 5 : Configuration

If ODBC Data Sources Adminisrator screen does not open automatically from the previous step, you can search in Windows Search box for "ODBC" and select ODBC Data Sources (64-bit) to launch this screen.  


  1. In the User DSN tab, if you already have a DSN for BI Connector, it will be displayed. This DSN can be used for connecting to OBIEE Subject Areas. Else create a new DSN for Subject Areas using the steps defined in Configuring DSN for Subject Areas.
  2. Create another new DSN  for OBIEE Reports using the steps defined in Configuring DSN for Reports.

Configuring DSN for Subject Areas 


In the User DSN tab, click Add. 



ODBC Data Source Administrator (64-bit) UI


In the Create New Data Source UI, select (1) BI Connector Driver and (2) Click Finish.



Create New Data Source


BI Connector Activate License UI will be displayed.   

  1. Enter your information such as Name, Organization Name, Email Address, Phone Number. 
  2. The default 30 day trial license key will be displayed.   
  3. Click Activate.  BI Connector will connect to Licensing Server and try to activate your trial license. 



On successful activation, you will see the "Activation Successful" message. Click on Close.





Next,  you are going to configure the OBIEE as a data source.  


In the Create a New Data Source UI for BI Connector,  input the following information.


  1. Give a name to your Data Source, e.g., My First OBIEE Connect.
  2. Give a description of the Data Source, e.,g My first OBIEE test connection.
  3. Enter the Server Name for your OBIEE instance.   The server name would come from the URL that you use to access the OBIEE Answers in your organization.  If your OBIEE URL is "https://obieedev.mycompany.com/analysis/saw.dll",   you should enter "https://obieedev.mycompany.com"   in the Server Name field.
  4. Enter the OBIEE URL port in the Port field.  This is typically:
    1. If your OBIEE URL starts with http:// and does not have a port number, then port number is typically 80.  
    2. If your OBIEE URL starts with http:// and has a port number (e.g., 9704), then use that port number (e.g., 9704).   
    3. If your OBIEE URL starts with https:// and does not have a port number, then port number is typically 443.  
    4. If your OBIEE URL starts with https:// and has a port number (e.g., 9804), then use that port number (e.g., 9804). 
  5. If you are using Single Sign-on(SSO) in your organization, please check this article to configure it.  
  6. Enter your OBIEE username in User Id field.  This is the userid that you would normally use to log in to OBIEE Answers.  Do not use the Admin username.  
  7. Enter your OBIEE password in Password field.  
  8. Click on Test connection to verify the connection to OBIEE.  
  9. Select "Subject Areas'' or "Reports" radio button to which you want to connect and work with.
  10. In the Filter text box, enter the part or full name of the Subject Area/Report with which you want to connect. This filter text is used to filter the list in schema drop down when you wok in Tableau. Please check this article for more information.  
  11. Click  on Preload metadata button. This will load the OBIEE Subject Area / Reports list in cache for faster access while working in Tableau. Please check this article for more information.  


NOTE: Filter text doesn't applies for preloading metadata. Despite of filter text, all the data source details will be loaded in cache. Filter text affects only when working in Tableau's schema drop down option.



If the connection is successful, you will see the following window.  Click OK in the Test Connection UI. 


Successful connection to OBIEE


Click OK in the Create a New Data Source UI to close BI Connector UI.  


Configuring DSN for Reports


Now, you already have a DSN configured for connecting to OBIEE Subject Areas.



Create a new User DSN for OBIEE Reports. In the User DSN tab, click Add. 



In the Create New Data Source UI, select (1) BI Connector Driver and (2) Click Finish.


Create New Data Source


Note:  If you are upgrading to the latest version of BI Connector Desktop Edition from an earlier version, follow this step else skip it. You will see the BI Connector - Create a New Data Source UI. Click on License Info button.  


BI Connector Activate License UI will be displayed.   

  1. Enter your information such as Name, Organization Name, Email Address, Phone Number. 
  2. Enter the new license key that you received. 
  3. Click Activate. BI Connector will connect to Licensing Server and try to activate your trial license. 


On successful activation, you will see the (1) "Activation Successful" message. Click on (2) Close.  



Next,  you are going to configure the OBIEE as a data source.  


In the Create a New Data Source UI for BI Connector,  input the following information.

  1. Give a name to your Data Source, e.g., My First OBIEE Connect.
  2. Give a description of the Data Source, e.,g My first OBIEE test connection.
  3. Enter the Server Name for your OBIEE instance.   The server name would come from the URL that you use to access the OBIEE Answers in your organization.  If your OBIEE URL is "https://obieedev.mycompany.com/analysis/saw.dll",   you should enter "https://obieedev.mycompany.com"   in the Server Name field.
  4. Enter the OBIEE URL port in the Port field.  This is typically:
    1. If your OBIEE URL starts with http:// and does not have a port number, then port number is typically 80.  
    2. If your OBIEE URL starts with http:// and has a port number (e.g., 9704), then use that port number (e.g., 9704).   
    3. If your OBIEE URL starts with https:// and does not have a port number, then port number is typically 443.  
    4. If your OBIEE URL starts with https:// and has a port number (e.g., 9804), then use that port number (e.g., 9804). 
  5. If you are using Single Sign-on(SSO) in your organization, please check this article to configure it.  
  6. Enter your OBIEE username in User Id field.  This is the userid that you would normally use to log in to OBIEE Answers.  Do not use the Admin username.  
  7. Enter your OBIEE password in Password field.  
  8. Click on Test connection to verify the connection to OBIEE.  
  9. Select "Subject Areas'' or "Reports" radio button to which you want to connect and work with.
  10. In the Filter text box, enter the part or full name of the Subject Area/Report with which you want to connect. This filter text is used to filter the list in schema drop down when you wok in Tableau. Please check this article for more information.  
  11. Click  on Preload metadata button. This will load the OBIEE Subject Area / Reports list in cache for faster access while working in Tableau. Please check this article for more information.  


NOTE: Filter text doesn't applies for preloading metadata. Despite of filter text, all the data source details will be loaded in cache. Filter text affects only when working in Tableau's schema drop down option.



If the connection is successful, you will see the following window.  Click OK in the Test Connection UI.


Successful connection to OBIEE


Click OK in the Create a New Data Source UI to close BI Connector UI.  

Note :

1. If the connection is not successful, you will see the following window.   Please click OK.  



Verify the URL, port, user id and password and Test connection again.  Even if the URL/port/userid/password are correct and you are still not able to successfully connect to OBIEE,  the error could be due to network/SSO configurations such as WebAuth that might block all web service connections to OBIEE. Please contact us at support@biconnector.com.  


2. If your license key is not valid for Reports functionality (example, if you are using your old license key that is valid only for Subject Areas), you will see the following error message.


Click OK and use the new license key to get Reports functionality by following above mentioned steps. 

New trial license key is available in BIConnector-TrialLicenseKey.txt. file that was extracted from the zip file in Step 2. If your trial license key has expired and you would like to purchase license key, click the "upgrade" link in the message box, you will be redirected to BI Connector's Contact Us page to where you can contact support team for buying new permanent license.

In the ODBC Data Sources Administrator UI, 

  1. Notice that there are 2 different DSNs created for OBIEE Subject Area (OBIEE Connect) and OBIEE Reports (OBIEE Connect - Reports) have been added.
  2. Click OK to close the UI.


Congratulations! You are now ready to connect from Tableau Desktop to OBIEE.   


Now proceed to Step-by-Step User Guide for Connecting from Tableau to OBIEE Subject Areas or Step-by-Step User Guide for Connecting from Tableau to OBIEE Reports.