Special Characters in OBI folders and files

As of FlexDeploy 9.0.0.3, all special characters should be handled when sourcing from BI and deploying to BI using Linux endpoints and with FlexDeploy running on Linux.

Starting with FlexDeploy version 9.0.0.3, a new escape sequence has been introduced. As a result, if your files contain certain characters, you'll need to rediscover them with the "Inactivate Missing Files" checkbox selected. Once this is done, a new file will appear with a similar name, but percent-encoded. Previously, files containing backslashes (\) were incompatible with FlexDeploy. Files with colons in their names will not retain any previous history, and packages containing such files must be updated to reflect their new locations, and builds will need to be executed again.

In addition, Oracle requires escaping \ ? * and / that are used inside of folder names when making SOAP calls.

For instance if you create a folder named

?|//?|<\\>:"{})((\*&^%$#@!++=/\.TF1.TF1_

in the folder

/shared/Custom/Financials/Test Workflow Notifications/Test_V1

You must escape it as

/shared/Custom/Financials/Test Workflow Notifications/Test_V1/\?|\/\/\?|<\\\\>:"{})((\*&^%$#@!++=\/\\.TF1.TF1_

to use it in a SOAP call, so enter it that way in FlexDeploy.

When you discover that folder, in FlexDeploy it will show up encoded after being escaped so that it can be stored on the filesystem and in zip files.

Known Limitations

Folders that end with a backslash are difficult to process. They do not work in the Override Catalog Path, and probably not in other places either.

On Windows, folders and files cannot start or end with spaces. If it is done, Windows endpoints cannot be used, and FlexDeploy on Windows will have similar issues.

If you are exporting to SCM, most special characters should still work on Linux, but more failures on Windows are likely. Windows has protected names for files and folders like COM2 and CON. If you use a protected name as a folder name, this will also fail on Windows. Git SCM is tested the most with special characters. It is likely that other SCMs will have issues handling special characters.

You can open a support ticket if you find an issue with special characters or have any other issues.