BI 4.2: The data source is invalid: 'Universe generation failed for resource id'

BI 4.2: The data source is invalid: 'Universe generation failed for resource id'

 “The data source is invalid: ‘Universe generation failed for resource id’”.

Is this error familiar to you? Several reasons can produce this error. This blog focuses on two specific conditions that trigger the error. The conditions I dealt with were:

  1. Migration from 4.0 BO Crystal Reports or Web Intelligence to BO 4.2 SP3
  2. You are using Bex Queries as a source

So, if this is your case, don’t panic, I will share with you my experience on how I dealt and solved the issue.

The problem starts when you promote your reports and then proceed to refresh the Crystal Reports or Web Intelligence. At this point the error message appears before Business Objects prompts you for the variables.

The first approach to solve the problem was to reconnect the data to your source (BW 7.3/7,4 Bex query using BICS connection) from Crystal Report for Enterprise. This approach did not work.

I found out that we received this message only for these reports that had mandatory variables. I could run the reports after removing the mandatory property from the variables in Bex Query. SAP is aware of this situation and is working on it. In the meantime, here are the workarounds to fix the problem until the next service pack becomes available. For more information, refer to OSS note 2354601.

Workaround #1

This workaround may be applied during the migration, testing and validation processes and requires an installation of version 4.1 of Crystal Reports for Enterprise Designer.

  1. Launch Crystal Reports for Enterprise designer version 4.1
  2. Open the affected report
  3. Go to Data Explorer ->Data->Edit Data Source
  4. Click “Set variables” button
  5. Select default values for each variable
  6. Close the window by clicking by “OK” button
  7. Go to “Page” view to make sure the BW data shows up properly in the report
  8. Save this report, without saved data.
  9. Re-migrate the modified report

WorkAround #2
Set the Default values for the Variables on the BEX Query level.

We found Workaround #1 a bit cumbersome, version 4.1 was required, so we worked on workaround #2. Adding a default value using a user exit in BW on our mandatory variable worked fine.

I hope this helps you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Good luck!

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