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SAP Business Objects 4.1 - American Date Format Issue

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This issue is something that keeps arising, if your viewing a crystal report, or building a new Webi report in 4.1 and viewing it, the date format seems to come out as M/D/YYYY HH:MM:SS, this never happened in 4.0.

I will give an example, today I updated a 4.0 to 4.1 using the update path in a development server, and updated to 4.1 SP03 which is the latest. When I decided to write a Web Intelligence Report or create a Crystal report and publish this, all the date formats came out in American date format, and not the standard English one DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS anymore. However if I go to the Live server which I haven't yet updated and is still on 4.0 SP04 Patch 11 and perform exactly the same its in English format as it always was.

Can someone please enlighten me to what has changed from 4.0 to 4.1 in terms of configuration regarding the date formats changing.

My server regional settings are English, and using the default GMT date time, so is my machine. 4.0 works 4.1 doesn't work the same.

I have tried changing the .prm files in the connectionserver\dataaccess folder as well, this doesn't seem to make a difference and also used LOV's in universe objects and when using these in prompts you get ameican format. I have also changed the preferences in the BI Launch Pad to view English locale and the GMT date time for Greenwich Mean Time. 

Please can someone advise or suggest where I am going wrong here and how to solve this.

Many Thanks

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Former Member
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Hi Rebecca,

have you updated the .prm files in the ...\dataaccess\connectionserver\oledb\extensions\legacy\ directory?

I have found in a few installations recently that these files are missing completely and have held the key to updating the date display and prompt behaviour. I copied them from another install, restarted the connection servers and the problem was fixed.

As well as this the locale settings in the Launchapd preferences need to be English UK to get the dd/mm/yyyy format in reports.

thanks

Keith

Former Member
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obvs the directory patch changes depending on whether you're using oledb, odbc, jdbc etc

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Would you copy these PRM files from a 4.0 installation, as every 4.1 installation I've performed they are missing from here:  \dataaccess\connectionserver\oledb\extensions\legacy\ , they are missing for all the oledb, odbc, jdbc etc....

Therefore what if you didn't have a 4.0 installation to copy from. It seems SAP have removed these from the installation, which is most frustrating as you need to go and find for each database driver the folder path and make sure these legacy prm files are there.

Changing the BI Launch Pad preferences to English UK, I do get in the Web Intelligence report the correct format, although the prompt itself when selecting a date in the query is M/D/YYYY which doesn't make sense. Should all dates in the application and on reports be consistent??

I find it odd why the behaviour has changed from 4.0 to 4.1.

Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated.

Former Member
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I can't remember if I copied them from a 4.0 or a 4.1 system originally - but it could well have been a 4.0 system that I had upgraded to 4.1 via a service pack. Copying them from a 4.0 install should be fine.

I have cured the issue a few times by doing this now. Not sure why SAP have reomved them from the install as it's clearly causing issues.

Other things to check are the language settings on the database (eg the SQL instance language) and the database user/login language (in SQL this should be British English)

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It seems that copying the prm files to the right location for the correct driver, and doing some fiddling around with settings in the BI Launch Pad seems to have sorted it. But as a consultant I am going to have to carry around with me all the necessary prm files needed from a 4.0 system legacy folder, when installing a 4.1 system, so that I can ensure that the customer has the correct files needed for their database connection and the date format comes out correctly.

Its something that I need to add to the list of things to do when installing and testing a 4.1 system.

Thank you for your help.

Former Member
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This message was moderated.

Former Member
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I think the prm files only affect the sql generated by the query so if the LOVs are displaying differently I'd check the language settings of the designer tool used to export the universe, the display format of the date object itself, and the locale preferences in Launchpad for the user you're logged in with.

thanks

Keith

Former Member
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Thanks for your quick response. I have done the check on the universe design tool. I have tried the options - Migration forced and set English (UK). I purged the LOVs and refreshed. No luck as yet. Checked the locale and seems to be fine. When i change the BI launchpad - Web Intelligence preferences to HTML, then the LOV displays correctly - dd/mm/yyyy. The behaviour only occurs when displaying LOV in Applet mode. Maybe will have to look at some Java settings. Thanks

Added Update- I created a variable =GetPreferredViewingLocale() and tested in WEBI Report with a date object. When I use the BI launchpad Web intelligence Preference to HTML - it display EN_GB. When  I use the BI launchpad Web intelligence Preference to Applet - it display EN_US. It seems to be taking preferred viewing locale as US in applet mode is there a way to fix this please.

Added Update - It was a bug on Infoview and has been resolved on SP4 . The ADAPT Ref is ADAPT01718291. Just finished testing on UAT, going Live next week with SP4. 

Answers (2)

Answers (2)

Former Member
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Keith or Rebecca, could you kindly supply the contents of this .prm file you recommend?  We have gone from 6.5 to 4.1, so we have nothing from 4.0.

Former Member
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Hi Michelle,

I've found that actually there are copies of this file in a 4.1 installation, but they are held in the ...\dataaccess\connectionserver\oledb\extensions\qt directory.

You should be able to copy the prm files you need from that directory and paste it into the legacy folder and make your format changes.

The SIA then needs to be restarted for the update to take effect.

Hope that helps

Keith

Former Member
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That is a great help Keith.  Thank You!

Former Member
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Not sure if this is the best solution but I worked with some of the Web Intelligence functions to convert the date to the format I wanted.   It's documented in my blog

Web Intelligence Calendar Year/Month Issue | Vyne Solutions

Hopefully this helps,

Terry