BI Connector's Preload Metadata feature (available from v3.1 to v3.3) helps minimizing the waiting time for loading OBIEE SubjectArea / Reports in both Tableau and Power BI.
Now in BI Connector v3.3, this Preload Metadata feature can be enabled seamlessly with less user intervention making it more user friendly.
Whenever you add a new report or rename an existing report in your OBIEE server, you have to manually preload the metadata to work with that new report. But with this automatic preload feature, you can a set a time interval during which the subject area tables as well as reports will be preloaded at the background without user intervention. You can configure this time interval based on the frequency of adding / renaming a report in your OBIEE environment.
Steps to enable Automatic Preload Metadata feature
Below are the step by step procedure to enable Automatic Preload Metadata feature.
Step 1: Open “ODBC Administrator” and click on configure button of created DSN.
Note : If DSN is not created already, create a new DSN (Refer articles Configuring DSN for Subject Areas and Configuring DSN for Reports for creating new DSNs).
Step 2: Press Alt+V to open the Advanced settings Dialog as shown as below.
Step 3: Select Enable auto preload metadata checkbox.
Step 4: Set the time interval in Hours / Minutes / Days at which the Subject Area Tables / Reports needs to be loaded from your OBIEE Server to your machine. Based on this time interval, This will Automatically preload the metadata information.
Step 5: Click OK and close the Advanced settings dialog box.
This will allow BI Connector to automatically preload the metadata at the background based on specified time interval.