december 5, 2008 1 dashboard reporting: design tips and tricks melinda rojo kathy kimball

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December 5, 2008 1 Dashboard Reporting: Design Tips and Tricks Melinda Rojo Kathy Kimball

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December 5, 2008 1

Dashboard Reporting: Design Tips and Tricks

Melinda RojoKathy Kimball

December 5, 2008 2

Session Overview

OBIEE offers a rich array of “widgets” for use in designing and developing

dashboards, from dashboard prompts to view selectors to column selectors. This

session will share the tips and tricks we’ve discovered on how best to use the powerful

capabilities.

December 5, 2008 3

Session Topics

■ Overall Design Tips & Tricks■ Dashboard Tips & Tricks■ Answers Tips & Tricks■ Dashboard Terminology■ Usage Tracking■ Resources

December 5, 2008 4

Overall Design Tips & Tricks

■ Develop and implement standards for both dashboards and requests

■ Summarize and then drill to detail■ Make prototypes■ Make use of visual indicators where appropriate and

useful■ Reuse! Reuse! Reuse!

– Prompts– Requests– Filters

■ Document requests and filters to facilitate reuse and maintenance

December 5, 2008 5

Dashboard Tips & Tricks

■ Prompts ■ Section Properties■ Request Properties■ Saved Selections■ Branding■ Download Options■ Printing

December 5, 2008 6

Dashboard Prompts

■ Use prompts to filter results on either an entire Dashboard or the current Dashboard page

December 5, 2008 7

Dashboard Prompts

■ Tips & Tricks– Select from many operators available– Use SQL Results to set choices shown– Use Server Variables to set defaults– Set Presentation Variables– Use constrain– Use multiple prompts

■ Example– Only show departments and funds that a user is

interested in. But still allow them to search on any.

December 5, 2008 8

Dashboard Prompts

December 5, 2008 9

Dashboard Section Properties

■ Guided Navigation– Can guide users to a related set of results either by

static or conditional links

■ Drill in Place– Shows the new results directly in the dashboard

rather than replacing the entiredashboard page

■ Arrange Horizontally– Displays all requests in this section

horizontally

December 5, 2008 10

Dashboard Report Properties

■ Show View– Option shows available views

of a report– Default is Compound Layout

■ Report Links– Option controls links displayed

under reports

December 5, 2008 11

Dashboard Saved Selections

■ Use saved selections to allow users to view dashboard pages with the their most frequently used choices

■ Applies to many aspects of a dashboard page– Filters– Prompts– View selections

■ Stored on BI Server Web Catalog in /root/users/username/_selections

December 5, 2008 12

Dashboard Saved Selections

■ Tips & Tricks– Add a button to all dashboard pages

allowing users to clear their selections

December 5, 2008 13

Dashboard Branding

■ OBIEE can be customized to your institution using styles, skins, and custom images

■ Tips & Tricks– Name your dashboard (bg_banner.jpg)

http://obiee101.blogspot.com/2008/09/obiee-portal-customization-part-1.html

– Change “Powered by Oracle” on page footer (siebelbug.gif)http://obiee101.blogspot.com/2008/10/obiee-replacing-siebelbuggif-powered-by.html

December 5, 2008 14

Dashboard Download Options

■ Download to Excel and Download to Excel 2000 behave a little differently depending on the platform and browser used

■ We recommend Mac users use the Firefox browser and the Excel 2000 link

■ Excel and Excel 2000 file format is really *.mht; *mhtml though the extension is .xls

■ You’ll want to save the file as a Microsoft Excel Workbook before editing the file

December 5, 2008 15

Download to Excel or Excel 2000■ Formulas are not downloaded.  The value in a cell is downloaded as that value, not as a

formula.  ■ Monetary columns download as numbers.  Values with commas are formatted as numbers

and retain formatting that was displayed on the Dashboard, i.e., if two decimal places are shown then those appear in Excel.

■ Monetary columns without a comma are formatted as general, which is a number but with no specific number format.  The value does not change but decimal places are suppressed if zeros appear to the right of the decimal place.

■ Columns that are numeric and contain values with leading zeros lose the leading zeros when downloaded to Excel.

December 5, 2008 16

Conditional Formatting Indicators

■ We’ve had inconsistent results using conditional formatting indicators such as a flag or bubble and the image may move when the rows are sorted

■ Conditional formatting indicators appear as a broken images when Download to Excel 2000 is used in both Firefox and IE 7 on Windows/PC

■ No testing has been done on Macs yet

December 5, 2008 17

Download to Data

■ Download to Data creates a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file, which includes all of the columns included in the Answers request (not just the view displayed on the screen) 

■ Formatting from the screen will not be carried over to the file

■ Additional download results have been documented on our website: http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/faqs.html

December 5, 2008 18

Dashboard Printing

■ PDF or HTML of displayed view

■ Headers or Footers appear in PDF if added to the Compound Layout

December 5, 2008 19

Headers and Footers

■ Cal Poly footer includes: – Saved Name (name of the

request)– Print Date– Page Number– Author Name (person

running the dashboard request)

December 5, 2008 20

Answers Tips & Tricks

■ Column Selector View■ View Selector View■ Narrative View■ Compound Layout■ Saved Filters■ Saved Data Formats■ Value Interaction (Navigation)

December 5, 2008 21

Column Selector View

■ Use column selectors view to allow users to dynamically change which columns appear in a request

December 5, 2008 22

Column Selector View

■ Tips & Tricks– Standardize on label text such as “Show Column:”– Color code column selector to make visible to end users– Standardize on “common” columns and sort in same order on

all requests» Used Advanced Tab to edit XML and copy/paste

– Include all members of hierarchies in column selectors so they can “jump” to level

– Add column selector to a hidden field on a Pivot to sort results (otherwise only available on table view)

– Uncheck “automatically refresh when a new column is selected” so users have GO button

December 5, 2008 23

View Selectors View

■ Use view selector view to select a specific view of the results from among the saved views

December 5, 2008 24

View Selectors

■ Tips & Tricks– Standardize on label text such as “Select a

View:”– Create view to display filters– Create view with instructions before

displaying data– Create view to easily download data

December 5, 2008 25

Narrative View

■ Use narrative view to combine text with the results of a request

■ Useful for referencing variables

December 5, 2008 26

Compound Layout View

■ Use compound layout view to assemble different views for display on a dashboard

■ Tips & Tricks– Remove the Title view– Know your boundaries (upper, lower, left, right)

» View Boundaries» Report Boundaries

– Use multiple compound layouts for requests with multiple layouts but the same criteria

December 5, 2008 27

Compound Layout

December 5, 2008 28

Saved Filters

■ Use saved filters so they may be shared with multiple requests

■ Document shared filters in a flow chart to show dependencies on specific saved filters

December 5, 2008 29

Saved Filters

My Revenue andExpense Transactions Page

My POTransactions Page

My Trial BalanceTransactions Page

My BudgetTransactions Page

Revenue and Expense Summary

Source: Fact Summary, Filters: 4, 5

Revenue and Expense Summary by Period – Actuals

Source: Fact Summary, Filters: 5, 6

Revenue and Expense Summary by Period - Budget

Source: Fact Summary, Filters: 5, 6

Revenue and Expense Summary by Period - Encumbrance

Source: Fact Summary, Filters: 5, 6

Transactions – ActualsSource: Fact Actual, Filters: 7

Transactions – BudgetSource: Fact Budget, Filters: 7

Transactions – EncumbranceSource: Fact Encumbrance, Filters: 7

Open PO SummarySource: Fact Encumbrance, Filters: 1, 3

Open PO DetailSource: Fact Encumbrance, Filters: 1, 2, 3

Trial BalanceSource: Fact Summary, Filters: 8, 9

Trial Balance Summaryby Period

Source: Fact Summary, Filters: 8, 9, 10

My TrialBalance Page

My OpenPOs Page

My Revenue andExpense Page

Filters Legend:1: Encumbrances Criteria2: Encumbrances Drill3: Encumbrances Prompt4: Revenue and Expense Criteria5: Revenue and Expense Prompt5a: Revenue and Expense Prompt without FY6: Revenue and Expense Summary by Period7: Transactions Prompt8: Trial Balance Criteria9: Trial Balance Prompt10: Trial Balance Summary by Period11. Five Years Back Prompt12. Projects Criteria13. Projects Prompt

VisioDocument Rev. 12/3/2008

PolyData Dashboards: Finance

Activity Summary by YearSource: Fact Summary, Filters: 4, 5a, 11

Transactions – Trial Balance

Source: Fact Actual, Filters: 7, 8

Project SummarySource: Fact Summary, Filters: 12, 13

My Projects Page

December 5, 2008 30

Saved Filters

■ Tips & Tricks– Create to match all columns in a dashboard

page prompt– Create to match all columns in the criteria– Create to match all columns in standard

column selectors– Create to use for “development” while

building new requests– Order of filters matters!

December 5, 2008 31

Saved Data Formats

■ Use saved data formats to apply, save, and re-use column properties on Value Format tab, Column Format tab, and Conditional Format tabs

■ Scope of save can vary– For a specific column– As a system-wide default for this column– As a system-wide default for this data type

■ Stored in an XML file in the Web Catalog in the /root/system/metadata folder

December 5, 2008 32

Saved Data Formats

■ Tips & Tricks– Save the email

address field to display system-wide using mail-to format

– Will display on all requests using that column

December 5, 2008 33

Value Interaction

■ Use value interaction to specify what should happen when a user clicks on a column heading or column value

■ Allows users to navigate to multiple requests or dashboards– If multiple navigation paths, pop-up

window displays caption

■ Provides drill-to-detail capability

December 5, 2008 34

Value Interaction

■ Source Request– Set Interaction

Type to Navigate– Add Navigation

Target to an Answers request

– Add caption (if multiple targets)

December 5, 2008 35

Value Interaction

■ Target Request– Use filter with operator of

‘Is Prompted’– Include all possible

columns» Columns in Pivot Axis» Columns in Prompts» Column Selectors

■ Column names must match source request EXACTLY

December 5, 2008 36

Dashboard Elements

December 5, 2008 37

Dashboard Terminology

■ Dashboard – content separated by Functional Areas■ Dashboard Pages – one or more related requests■ Dashboard Page Prompt – controls requests on dashboard page■ Narrative text – allows static and variable text■ Request – query■ Hyperlinks - hierarchical drills, drill to detail options, and links to

related information■ Filter – selection criteria for request■ Column Selector – view different columns of data■ View Selector – select different reports within the same request■ Conditional formatting using green, yellow, red symbols■ Presentation Catalog Folder – list of content related requests

December 5, 2008 38

Usage Tracking

■ OBIEE provides a usage tracking system with the standard installation

■ Usage Tracking includes– SQL statements to create tracking user and

tables/views– RPD containing Usage Tracking models– Web Catalog for Usage Tracking

dashboard

December 5, 2008 39

Usage Tracking

■ Installing the Usage Tracking components includes:– Creating a database user to host the Usage

Tracking objects– Creating the Usage Tracking database objects– Merging master RPD with Usage Tracking RPD– Altering NQSConfig.ini to enable– Importing Usage Tracking web catalog

components■ Reference Blog for step-by-step instructions

http://obiee101.blogspot.com/2008/08/obiee-setting-up-usage-tracking.html

December 5, 2008 40

Usage Tracking

December 5, 2008 41

Usage Tracking

December 5, 2008 42

Resources

■ Oracle Metalink 3.0http://metalink3.oracle.com

■ Oracle Business Intelligence obiee-101http://obiee101.blogspot.com

■ Business Intelligence – Oraclehttp://oraclebizint.wordpress.com

■ FAQs for PolyData Dashboardshttp://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/faqs.html

December 5, 2008 43

Questions?

December 5, 2008 44

Contact

■ OBIEE Technical Conference:http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/index.html

■ Email: [email protected]