BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool

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BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool

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Patents Business Objects owns the following U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and sold by Business Objects: 5,555,403, 6,247,008 B1, 6,578,027 B2, 6,490,593 and 6,289,352.

Trademarks Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Xcelsius, Crystal Decisions, Intelligent Question, Desktop Intelligence, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, WebIntelligence, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

contributors

Business Objects products in this release may contain redistributions of software licensed from third-party contributors. Some of these individual components may also be available under alternative licenses. A partial listing of third-party contributors that have requested or permitted acknowledgments, as well as required notices, can be found at:

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BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Software Inventory Tool 3

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is a Java-based maintenance tool available to administrators of BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 2 with Service Pack 2. It creates and maintains an inventory of all changes made to Business Objects software via Business Objects installers and allows users to view these changes.

Installation

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is installed as a feature of Business Objects XI Release 2 products with Service Pack 2. It is available for all Windows platforms supported by BusinessObjects XI Release 2. See the platforms.txt document on your installation CD or check the Business Objects Customer Assurance online support site (http://

technicalsupport.businessobjects.com) for the latest version.

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is packaged with the following Business Objects products:

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BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 2 Service Pack 2

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BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 2 with Service Pack 2

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Crystal Reports XI Release 2 Service Pack 2

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Crystal Reports XI Release 2 with Service Pack 2

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OLAP Intelligence XI Release 2 with Service Pack 2

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Sharepoint Services XI Release 2 with Service Pack 2

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BusinessObjects XI Release 2 Productivity Pack

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BusinessObjects Live Office XI Release 2 Productivity Pack

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BusinessObjects Query as a Web Service XI Release 2 Productivity Pack

Since the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is a Java program, it requires the same Java SDK as BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 2. It is supported on Windows operating system desktop environments.

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is installed by default into

C:\Program Files\Business Objects\common\3.5\java\lib.

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool installation consists of several Java JAR files, DLL files, and a SoftwareInventory.bat file. Once the program is launched, the inventory.xml and log.txt files are created in the same folder.

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What does the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool do?

6 BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool

What does the BusinessObjects Software

Inventory Tool do?

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool collects the information from all Business Objects installations into an XML file, which it parses and displays in a Graphical User Interface (GUI). You can then access your Business Objects software inventory in an intuitive, organized manner.

More specifically, the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool does the following:

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Monitors changes made to a system's Business Objects software via Business Objects’ installers for original installs and updates, including Critical Hot Fixes (CHF) and Service Packs (SP).

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Provides the visualization of these changes in chronological order using various formats and views.

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Allows the inventory list to be queried for specific files, features, patch names, ADAPT numbers, and updates.

How does the BusinessObjects Software

Inventory Tool work?

Each time a Business Objects installer is run, the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is invoked and information about what is being installed is added to the tool's inventory.xml file.

At a high level, the inventory contains the following types of information:

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Records of Business Objects installations on the system including original product, Service Packs and Critical Hot Fixes.

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Records of the issue fixes that were installed on the system (e.g. ADAPT00123456).

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Records of the files that are associated with each Business Objects installation on the system (e.g. WAR files, DLL files).

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Launching the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool

Launching the BusinessObjects Software

Inventory Tool

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is installed by default into the

C:\Program Files\Business Objects\common\3.5\java\lib folder. To launch the tool, either:

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Double-click the SoftwareInventory.bat file which is located by default in the C:\Program Files\Business

Objects\common\3.5\java\lib folder.

This launches a Windows Command window and starts the Java program.

or

1. From the Start\Run command line - type cmd and click OK. This launches a Windows Command window.

2. Navigate to the folder in which the tool is installed (the default is

C:\Program Files\Business Objects\common\3.5\java\lib).

3. At the prompt type:

"C:\Program Files\Business Objects\j2sdk1.4.2_08\bin\java"

-Djava.library.path=.\external -Xmx256M -jar "C:\Program Files\Business

Objects\common\3.5\java\lib\softwareInventory.jar" gui

This command uses the Java implementation installed with BusinessObjects and provides Java configuration information.

Note: Closing the Windows Command window will terminate the Java program.

Using the BusinessObjects Software

Inventory Tool

Once the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool is launched, the Graphical User Interface (GUI) displays a screen view with three areas:

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The Viewing Format Area

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The History View Area

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Using the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool

The Viewing Format Area

The Viewing Format Area provides three radio buttons that set the parameters for what is displayed in the History View area.

Install/Patch name

Selecting this button sets the History View History Tree to show all of the information available in the inventory in chronological order.

ADAPT number

Selecting this button sets the History View History Tree to show only the ADAPT records that have been installed and recorded in the inventory.

Note: ADAPT records will only be displayed if Critical Hot Fixes are installed.

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BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool 9 File

Selecting this button sets the History View History Tree to show only the files that have been installed and recorded in the inventory.

The History View Area

There are two components to the History View Area: the History Tree and the Node Details.

History Tree

The History Tree is the main window used to navigate the inventory. The history of installations and changes is listed in chronological order, and each entry can be expanded to expose more detail in the Node Details window.

When the tool is launched the History Tree defaults to the Install/Patch name view, providing the complete, top level of information. To view more specific information you can use the Search function. See “The Search Area” on page 11 for more information.

The selection of a specific node in this view, triggers more information about this node to be displayed in the Node Details pane.

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10 BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool Node Details

The information displayed in the Node Details will vary depending on the type of object highlighted in the History Tree. There is some common information which may include:

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Name of the product

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Version or Build number

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Date and Time of install

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Path locations

The following table summarizes the detail displayed in the History View area depending on which Viewing Format is selected:

Viewing Format History View Detail

Install/Patch Name Name of the product Build number

Installation or Removal timestamp List of all features installed List of all files installed Installed or Removed

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The Search Area

The Search area of the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool allows you to refine the information that is displayed in the History View area. There are three components to the Search area:

Enter search string

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When a search string is entered, a new tree is generated based on the search result and the current view being used.

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The search utility supports the wildcards "*" and "?".

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The default search setting is “all” which displays the complete, top level of information in the History Tree view.

Search History

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The parameters of the search are stored in the Search History list and can be accessed at any point after the search.

Clear search history

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The Search History list can be cleared using the Clear search history button. This will leave only the all-inclusive view of the inventory. ADAPT Number ADAPT number /ID

Problem Summary Fix description List of updated files File Name of the file

Full path location of the file Version (if available) Build

History of changes to the file

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Additional Technical Information

Additional Technical Information

The Log file

The BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool creates a log file which is a cumulative record for each time the tool is launched. New records are appended to the last saved record.

The log file (log.txt) is saved into the default installation folder, as is the

inventory.xml file.

Note: If the inventory listing is large, the BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool may take longer to launch, because it processes the inventory.xml file before displaying the interface.

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Index

A

ADAPT 6, 8

C

Clear search history 11

Critical Hot Fixes 6, 8

D

default 9, 11, 12

E

Enter search string 11

F

File 9

G

Graphical User Interface 6, 7

H

History Tree 8, 9, 10, 11 History View 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

I

Install/Patch name 8, 9 Installation 5 Introduction 5 inventory.xml 5, 6, 12

J

Java SDK 5

L

launch 7 Log file 12 log.txt 5, 12

N

Node Details 9, 10

P

platforms.txt 5

S

Search 7, 9, 11 Search History 11 Service Packs 6 SoftwareInventory.bat 5

V

Viewing Format 7, 8, 10

W

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Index

BusinessObjects Software Inventory Tool