oracle bi suite ee 10g r3 create reports and dashboards ed 1 (activity guide) - d53151gc10_ag(1)

Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Create Reports and Dashboards

Activity Guide

D53151GC10

Edition 1.0

November 2007

D53347

®

Marco Cruz ([email protected]) has a non-transferable

license to use this Student Guide.

Unauthorized reproduction or distribution prohibited. Copyright© 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

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AuthorDan Hilldale

Technical Contributors and ReviewersMike DonohueDave GranholmGerry Langton Sharonda PettiettJim SarokinPhillip ScottKasturi Shekhar

EditorsRichard WallisAju KumarNita Pavitran

Graphic DesignerRajiv Chandrabhanu

PublishersSrividya RameshkumarNita Brozowski




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Contents

Practice 1-1: Creating Requests in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers ...................... 1 Solutions 1-1: Creating Requests in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers .................. 10 Practice 2-1: Adding Filters to a Request........................................................................ 11 Solutions 2-1: Adding Filters to a Request ...................................................................... 14 Practice 2-2: Adding a Column Filter Prompt to a Request ............................................ 15 Practice 2-3: Adding an Image Prompt to a Request ...................................................... 20 Practice 2-4: Using a Saved Request as a Filter............................................................. 23 Practice 2-5: Editing SQL for a Column Filter ................................................................. 25 Practice 3-1: Combining Requests Using Set Operations .............................................. 27 Practice 3-2: Executing a Direct Database Request ....................................................... 32 Practice 3-3: Editing Logical SQL Generated for a Request.......................................... 36 Practice 4-1: Modifying Views ......................................................................................... 43 Practice 4-2: Adding a Column Selector to a Request.................................................... 48 Practice 4-3: Performing Common Tasks in Views......................................................... 52 Practice 4-4: Using the Table View ................................................................................. 59 Practice 4-5: Working with Views .................................................................................... 66 Practice 5-1: Showing Results as Gauges ...................................................................... 73 Solutions 5-1: Showing Results as Gauges .................................................................... 82 Practice 6-1: Showing Results with Pivot Tables ............................................................ 83 Solutions 6-1: Showing Results with Pivot Tables .......................................................... 90 Practice 6-2: Displaying Running Sums in Pivot Tables ................................................. 91 Practice 7-1: Creating a New Interactive Dashboard Page............................................. 95 Solutions 7-1: Creating a New Interactive Dashboard Page........................................... 97 Practice 7-2: Using Prompts to Filter Interactive Dashboard Data................................. 98 Practice 8-1: Embedding Content in an Interactive Dashboard .................................... 103 Case Study: Building Requests to Embed in an Interactive Dashboard ....................... 105 Solutions: Building Requests to Embed in an Interactive Dashboard........................... 111 Case Study: Creating Interactive Dashboards .............................................................. 122 Practice 9-1: Modifying Oracle Business Intelligence Cascading Style Sheets............ 135 Solutions 9-1: Modifying Oracle Business Intelligence Cascading Style Sheets .......... 137 Practice 9-2: Using Instanceconfig.xml to Administer Oracle Business

Intelligence Answers............................................................................................... 138 Solutions 9-2: Using Instanceconfig.xml to Administer Oracle Business

Intelligence Answers.............................................................................................. 142




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Practice 9-3: Using XML Message Files to Administer Oracle Business Intelligence Answers ..............................................................................................143

Practice 10-1: Configuring Guided Navigation Links .....................................................147 Practice 11-1: Administering Users and Groups............................................................151 Practice 11-2: Managing the Catalog.............................................................................155 Practice 12-1: Configuring Scheduler Tables ................................................................159 Practice 12-2: Configuring the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler .......................162 Practice 12-3: Creating and Delivering an iBot ..............................................................164 Practice 12-4: Chaining an iBot .....................................................................................168 Practice 13-1: Working with Briefing Books...................................................................171 Practice 14-1: Working with Oracle BI Requests and Views in Office...........................177 Practice 15-1: Building a BI Publisher Report Based on an Answers Request .............185 Practice 15-2: Building a BI Publisher Report Using Oracle Business

Intelligence Subject Areas......................................................................................196 Practice 15-3: Publishing BI Publisher Reports in Interactive Dashboards ...................200




Lesson 1: Working with Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Create Reports and Dashboards 1

Practice 1-1: Creating Requests in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Goals To create and format requests

Scenario You need to query data from the Supplier Sales subject area and format the results.

Outcome You will have saved formatted requests that return business intelligence data.

Time 25–30 minutes

Instructions 1. Start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services.

a. Select Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Presentation Services. b. Enter the following information to log in:

User ID Administrator

Password Administrator

c. Click Log In.

2. Click Answers to navigate to the Oracle Business Intelligence Answers start page. If the SupplierSales subject area is not displayed in the Subject Areas list on the Business Intelligence Answers start page, click the browser refresh button.

3. In the Subject Areas section, click SupplierSales. The SupplierSales subject area appears in the left selection pane.

4. Expand the Customers table to display the columns.

5. List the columns in the Customers table:

6. Create a request for customers by state. a. In the Customers table, click the State column. What happens in the right pane?





2 Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Create Reports and Dashboards

b. In the Customers table, click the Customer column. What happens in the right pane?

7. Review the results of the request you just created. a. In the right pane, click the Results tab. b. Notice that the results appear in a table format within the Compound Layout. This is the

default. What are three ways to review results in the table format?

c. Scroll down and click the Next Page button to view the next set of rows in the table. d. Click the All Pages button to view all the rows in the table. e. How many rows of data are in the table for this request?

f. Select Table from the drop-down view list. g. Click the Table View Properties button to explore the properties you can set for the table

in the Edit View dialog box. h. Click Cancel to close the Edit View dialog box. i. Click the Refresh button to refresh your results. This is the Answers refresh, not a typical

browser refresh. j. Notice that the display currently includes header toolbars, which allow you to access the

request criteria tools to add column formatting and filters, modify column formulas, and delete columns.

k. Select Results Only in the Display drop-down list to view the results without the header toolbars.

8. Modify the request by adding a column. a. Expand the SalesFacts table and select the Dollars column. The Dollars column is added to

the request. Check your results:

b. Click the Criteria tab to verify that the Dollars column was added to your request criteria.

9. Save the request in a new folder. a. Click the Save Request button . The Save Request dialog box is displayed. b. Click the Create Folder button. The Create Folder dialog box is displayed. c. Name the new folder. Enter My Sales in the Caption field. d. Click OK. A new folder is created in My Folders.






e. Click the My Sales folder. f. In the Name field, enter Sales by State. g. Click OK. h. The request is saved in the My Sales folder in the My Folders section of the Oracle BI

Presentation Catalog.

10. View the saved request in the catalog. a. Click the Answers link. b. In the Catalog section, select My Folders > My Sales to see your saved request. c. Click Sales by State. What happens?

d. Click the Modify button. What happens?

11. Modify the request to sort data by state, then by dollars in descending order. a. Click the Order By button in the State column. The button changes to the Order

Ascending button . b. Click the Order By button twice on the Dollars column. The button changes to the Order

Descending button with a 2. Note: The 2 on the button indicates that this is a secondary sort. In this case, the State column represents the primary sort.

12. Click the Results tab to verify the sort.

13. Format dollars to appear with two decimal points. a. Click the Criteria tab. b. Click the Column Properties button in the Dollars column. The Column Properties

dialog box is displayed. c. Click the Data Format tab. d. Check the Override Default Data Format check box. e. Select Currency from the Treat Numbers As drop-down list. f. Select $ from the Currency Symbol drop-down list. g. Select 2 from the Decimal Places drop-down list. h. Click OK.

14. Click the Results tab to verify the formatting.

15. Change the format again to appear as whole dollar amounts without decimal points. a. Click the Criteria tab. b. Click the Column Properties button in the Dollars column. The Column Properties

dialog box is displayed. c. Click the Data Format tab. d. Select 0 from the Decimal Places drop-down list. e. Click OK.






f. Click the Results tab.

16. Center the alignment of the customer column. a. Click the Edit View button for the table below the title in the Compound Layout.

b. Select Header Toolbar with Results in the Display drop-down list. c. Click the Column Properties button in the Customer column. The Column Properties dialog

box is displayed. d. Click the Style tab. e. Select Center from the Horizontal Alignment field drop-down list. f. Click OK.

17. Repeat the process and set the Vertical Alignment of the State column to Top and examine the results.

18. Return the Customer column settings back to the defaults and check the results.

19. Modify the Customer column heading. a. Click the Column Properties button in the Customer column. b. Click the Column Format tab. c. Select the Custom Headings check box. d. Enter Customer Name in the Column Heading field. e. Click OK.

20. Navigate to the Criteria and Results tabs and verify that the new name is displayed in both places.






21. Set up conditional formatting on the Dollars column. a. Click the Criteria tab. b. Click the Column Properties button in the Dollars column. c. Click the Conditional Format tab. d. Click the Add Condition button. e. Select Dollars from the drop-down list. The Create/Edit Filter dialog box is displayed. f. Select is less than from the Operator drop-down list. g. Enter 250000 in the Value field. h. Click OK. The Edit Format dialog box is displayed. i. Click the Color button. j. Select red from the color selector and click OK. k. Select Bold from the Style drop-down list. l. Click OK. m. Repeat the process and create the following conditional formatting:

Criteria Operator/Value Color Style

Dollars is between 250000 and 500000 Blue Bold

Dollars is greater than 500000 Green Bold

n. Click OK to close the Column Properties dialog box after you finish. Marco Cruz ([email protected]) has a non-transferable





o. Click the Results tab to view the conditional formatting.

p. Save this request as a new request in your My Sales folder. Name the request Formatted

Sales By State.

22. Add formulas to your request. a. Add a formula to the request to increase the dollar amount by 10 percent.

i. In the Dollars column, click the Edit Formula button. The Edit Column Formula dialog box is displayed.

ii. Click at the end of the column name in the Column Formula field. iii. Click the Multiply button in the Formula Editor.






iv. Enter 1.10.

v. Click OK and verify that the dollar amount increases in your results.

The criteria for SalesFacts should look like this:

The results should look like this:

b. Add a formula to the request to rank customers by dollar sales and sort by state.

i. In the Dollars column, click the Edit Formula button. ii. Select the text in the Column Formula field. iii. Click the Function button. The Insert Function window appears. iv. Expand the Aggregate functions group and select Rank. Notice that a description of the

Rank function appears in the bottom of the window.






v. Click OK.

vi. Click OK and verify that your results are ranked.

vii. In the Dollars column, click the Edit Formula button. viii. Complete the syntax by adding the “by” statement to the expression in the Column

Formula field: Rank(SalesFacts.Dollars*1.10 by ). ix. With your cursor at the end of the expression in the Column Formula field (inside the

parentheses), add the State column by clicking the Column button and selecting State.

x. Select the Custom Headings check box. xi. In the Column Heading field, enter RANK(Dollars By State). xii. Click OK.






xiii. Click the Criteria tab to check your request:

c. Change the format of the column to eliminate the $ sign from the custom formatting because

now you will be showing results as a rank. i. In the RANK(Dollars By State) column, click the Column Properties button. ii. Click the Data Format tab. iii. In the Treat Numbers As drop-down list, select Number. iv. Click OK.

d. Click the Results tab to view the results.

23. Save the request to the My Sales folder. a. Click the Save button. The Choose Folder dialog box is displayed. b. Verify that the Folder field indicates My Folders: My Sales. c. Enter Ranked Sales by State in the Name field. d. Click OK.






Solutions 1-1: Creating Requests in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Answers

8. List the columns in the Customers table: Region, Sales District, Sales Rep, Customer, Address, Phone, City, State, and Route Code

9.a. In the Customers table, click the State column. What happens in the right pane? The State column is added to the request criteria.

9.b. In the Customers table, click the Customer column. What happens in the right pane? The Customer column is added to the request criteria.

10.b. What are three ways to review results in the table format? Click the Results tab, click the Table button, or click the Display Results button.

10.e. How many rows of data are in the table for this request? 136

13.c. Click Sales by State. What happens? The request is executed and the results are displayed in the workspace.

13.d. Click the Modify button. What happens? The request is ready for editing.




Lesson 2: Filtering Requests in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers


Practice 2-1: Adding Filters to a Request

Goals To add a column filter to constrain a request to obtain results that answer a particular question and to limit results to specific months

Scenario Add a filter that allows you to filter results based on region, state, and city.

Time 10 – 15 minutes

Instructions

1. If necessary, start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as Administrator. To do this, click Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Presentation Services and enter Administrator in the User ID and Password fields.

2. Add filters to your saved request. a. Click the Answers link. b. Open the Formatted Sales By State request.

i. Click the Catalog tab (in the selection pane). ii. Select My Folders > My Sales and expand the My Sales folder. iii. Click the saved request, Formatted Sales By State. iv. Click the Modify button.

c. Add a filter to show records only from the West region. Note that you don’t want to add the Region column to your results. i. Click Region in the Customers table. The Region column is added to the Columns

section on the Criteria tabbed page. ii. Click the Column Properties button in the Region column. The Column Properties

dialog box is displayed. iii. Click the Column Format tab. iv. Check the Hide check box at the upper-right corner. v. Click OK. vi. Click the Add Filter button in the Region column. The Create/Edit Filter dialog box is

displayed. vii. In the right panel, click All Choices, and then click West. Note that West is added to

the Value field.






viii. Click East. Note that it is added as a second value.

ix. Click OK. x. Note that you are returned to the Criteria tab and that in the Filters section you have a

new filter called “Region is equal to / is in West, East.”

xi. Click the Filter Options button and select Edit Filter. xii. In the Create/Edit Filter window, click the Delete button next to the East value. xiii. Click OK.

d. Add another filter value to show records only from 1999. Follow the steps above, using the

Periods table and the Year column. e. Check your filters:

f. How would you change the AND to an OR in your filters?

g. Click the Results tab to view the results.

h. How many records appear?






i. Save the filter for use with other content. i. Click the Criteria tab. ii. Click the Save Filter button. The Save Filter dialog box is displayed. iii. Click the My Filters folder. My Filters: Supplier Sales appears in the Folder text box. iv. Enter West Region, 1999 in the Name field. v. Click OK.

j. Save the existing request with the filter. i. Click the Save button. ii. Select My Folders > My Sales. iii. Name the request Formatted Sales by State, West Region 1999. iv. Click OK.

3. Create a filter for the current and previous month using variables. a. Click the Answers link. b. Open the Sales by State request in the My Sales folder. c. Click the Modify button. d. Add the Month column to the request by selecting Periods, and then Month in the selection

pane. e. Click the Add Filter button in the Month column. f. In the filter Operator field, choose is equal to / is in. g. Change Value to Variable by clicking the Add button and selecting Variable, and then

Repository from the drop-down list. Note: The administrator has predefined variables called CURRENT_MONTH and PREVIOUS_MONTH.

h. In the Server Variable field, enter CURRENT_MONTH. i. Click the Add button and select Variable, and then Repository from the drop-down list. j. In the Server Variable field, enter PREVIOUS_MONTH. k. Click OK. l. Click the Results tab to review the results. m. Save the request as Sales by State for Current and Previous Month in the My Sales

folder.






Solutions 2-1: Adding Filters to a Request

Answers

2.f. How would you change the AND to an OR in your filters? Click the AND.

2.h. How many records appear? 29






Practice 2-2: Adding a Column Filter Prompt to a Request

Goals To use a column filter prompt to constrain a request to obtain results that answer a particular question

Scenario Build a column filter prompt that allows you to filter results based on region, state, and city.


Instructions

1. If necessary, start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as Administrator.

2. Create a request. a. Click the Answers link. b. Select the SupplierSales subject area. c. Create the following request:

3. Add a column filter prompt. a. Click the Prompts tab. b. Select Create Prompt > Column Filter Prompt. The Column Filter Properties dialog box

opens. c. In the Caption field, enter Filter by Region. This caption will appear to the user. d. In the Description field, enter Filter by Region. Descriptions are displayed when

administrators use the Catalog Manager. e. In the Filter on Column drop-down list, select the Region column. f. In the Operator drop-down list, select is equal to / is in. g. Under How should the user choose a value or values?, accept the defaults: Select it from a

drop-down list and Single Value Only. h. Under What values should be shown to the user?, select Limited Values. Limiting values

prevents a user from choosing values that would result in no data. In this example, when a Region is selected in the first prompt, only states within that region will be available for selection in the next prompt.

i. Select Allow user to skip prompt. This will cause a Skip Prompt option to appear. The user can then click this option to bypass a selection for this filter.






j. Check your work:

k. Click OK. The prompt is added to the request.

4. Test the prompt.






a. Click the Test Prompts button. The prompt appears in a separate window. Notice the Skip Prompt option:

b. Click the drop-down list and verify that three regions appear: Central, East, and West.

c. Close the window where the prompt appears.

5. Repeat the steps outlined above and build two more column filter prompts: one for State, and one for City. Use the screenshots below as a guide. a. State column filter prompt:






b. City column filter prompt:

6. Set the execution order of the column filter prompts. a. If necessary, use the up and down arrows to move the prompts so they appear in the

following order:

7. Test your work. a. Click Test Prompts. b. In the Filter By Region prompt, select West from the drop-down list. The next prompt, Filter

By State, appears automatically. c. In the Filter By State prompt, select CA (California) from the drop-down list. Notice that

only states in the West region appear. The next prompt, Filter By City, appears automatically.






d. In the Filter By City prompt, select San Francisco from the drop-down list. Notice that only cities in California appear. The filtered request appears, displaying customers who are in the West region, in the state of California, in the city of San Francisco.

e. Close the prompt test window.

8. Save the request as My Column Filter Prompts in the My Sales folder.

9. Leave Answers open for the next practice.






Practice 2-3: Adding an Image Prompt to a Request

Goals To add an image prompt to an Oracle Business Intelligence request

Scenario Create an image prompt for a map image that users click to return results filtered by region.


Instructions

1. Save an image file in the inetpub\Wwwroot directory so that the Oracle BI Presentation Server can locate the file. a. In Windows Explorer, navigate to D:\labs. b. Copy the file USAMap.jpg. This image has already been defined with “hot spots” for the

purposes of this practice. The image is a United States map with three drillable regions defined: West, Central, and East.

c. Paste the file into D:\Inetpub\Wwwroot.

2. Create the following request:

3. Create an image prompt. a. Click the Prompts tab. b. Select Create Prompt > Image Prompt. c. In the Caption field, enter Click a region on the map to see total region revenue

by customer. d. In the Image URL field, enter http://localhost/USAMap.jpg. e. Navigate to D:\labs and open the file USAMap.txt. This file has the appropriate HTML

<map> tags and data for the USAMap.jpg file, including the “hot spots” and image coordinates.






f. Select and copy the contents of USAMap.txt and paste them into the HTML image map field.

g. Click Extract Image Map from HTML. The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog box

expands to show the area titles, shapes, and coordinates entered in the HTML field. h. Enter the following values. Area Title can be any value. Column needs to be a fully qualified

column name in the format Table.Column. The Value column must display values contained in the request table. Column and Value are case-sensitive. Area Title Column Value

West Customers.Region West

Central Customers.Region Central

East Customers.Region East

i. Check your work.

j. Click OK. The image prompt is displayed on the Prompts tab.






k. Click Test Prompts.

l. Move your cursor over the different regions of the map and verify that the region names

appear. m. Drill down on the West region. n. Verify that you see the expected results.

o. Close the prompt test window. p. Save the request as My Image Prompt in the My Sales folder.







Practice 2-4: Using a Saved Request as a Filter

Goals To create a filter based on the results of another saved request.

Scenario Use a saved request as a filter to limit the number of rows returned for a new request.


Instructions By using the results of a saved request to filter a column in another request, you can ensure that the results are limited to the same dataset between related requests.

1. Create and save a request to be used as a filter in another request. a. Create the following request and associated filter:

b. Click Results. There should be 31 records. The screenshot shows only a portion of the

records.

c. Save the request as Customers – West Region in the My Sales folder.

2. Create a request to be filtered by a saved request. a. Create the following request:






b. Click Results. There should be 136 records returned. These are all the customers in all regions. The screenshot displays only a portion of the results.

c. Click the Criteria tab. d. Click the Filter button for the Region column. The Create/Edit Filter dialog box is displayed. e. Click Advanced. f. Select Filter based on results of another request.

g. In the Relationship field of the Filter on Saved Request dialog box, select is equal to any. h. Click Browse. i. In the Choose Request dialog box, select the Customers – West Region request. j. Click OK. k. In the Use values in Column field, select Region. l. Click OK. The filter appears in the workspace.

m. Click Results. n. Verify that only 31 rows are returned, and that results include only customers in the West

region.







Practice 2-5: Editing SQL for a Column Filter

Goals To edit the SQL for a column filter in an Oracle Business Intelligence request

Scenario You edit the logical SQL WHERE clause to be used as a filter to add another region to the filter.

Time 5 minutes

Instructions While it is generally not necessary to directly edit SQL in your requests, it is sometimes preferable to directly edit the WHERE clause issued in the SQL for a filter.

1. Edit the SQL generated for a column filter. a. Open the saved Customers – West Region request. b. Click Modify. c. Click the Filter button for the Region column. d. Click Advanced > Convert this filter to SQL.

e. In the Advanced SQL Filter text box, enter Customers.Region = ‘East’. f. Click OK. The filter appears in the workspace.

g. Click the AND operator to change it to OR.

h. Click Results. i. Verify that the request now returns results for customers in the East and West regions. There

should be 87 records returned.

j. Save the request as Customers – East and West Regions in the My Sales folder.




Lesson 3: Oracle Business Intelligence Answers Advanced Features


Practice 3-1: Combining Requests Using Set Operations

Goals To combine the results of two requests using union, union all, intersect, and minus set operators


Instructions:

1. If necessary, start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as Administrator. To do this, click Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Presentation Services and enter Administrator in the User ID and Password text boxes.

2. Combine criteria from multiple requests using the Union set operator. a. Click the Answers link to navigate to the Answers start page. b. Select the SupplierSales subject area. c. Create the following request and filter:

d. Click Combine with Similar Request. The Subject Area list appears.






e. Select the SupplierSales subject area. The Set Operations page appears.

f. Click column names in the selection pane to create the following request and filter:

Please note that the number of columns and data types must be consistent.






g. Click the Set button and select the Union set operator (Union is the default).

h. Click the Results tab to display the combined, nonduplicate rows (union) from all requests.

In this example, the table displays all customers with revenue between five thousand and twenty thousand.

3. Combine criteria from multiple requests using the Union All set operator. a. Click the Criteria tab to return to the Criteria view. b. Click the Set button and select the Union All set operator.






c. Click the Results tab to display all rows from all requests (Union All). In this example, the table displays all customers with revenue between five thousand and twenty thousand, and includes dollar values that meet criteria from both requests.

4. Combine criteria from multiple requests using the Intersect set operator. a. Click the Criteria tab to return to the Criteria view. b. Click the Set button and select the Intersect set operator.






c. Click the Results tab to display all rows that are common to both requests (Intersect). In this example, the table displays all customers with revenue between ten thousand and fifteen thousand.

5. Combine criteria from multiple requests using the Minus set operator. a. Click the Criteria tab to return to the Criteria view. b. Click the Set button and select the Minus set operator.

c. Click the Results tab to display all rows from the first request that are not in the other request

(Minus). In this example, the table displays all customers with revenue between five thousand and ten thousand.

6. Save the combined request as Customers – Revenue Between Five and Ten Thousand in the My Sales folder.







Practice 3-2: Executing a Direct Database Request

Goals To create and issue a database request directly to a physical back-end database

Scenario Use Oracle Business Intelligence Answers to set the appropriate privilege to execute direct database requests and then create, display, and manipulate a direct database request.


Instructions:

1. Set the privilege to allow the Administrator user to create and issue direct database requests. Any user can execute a direct database request, provided that the Administrator has granted the user this privilege. a. Click the Settings link and select Administration. The Oracle BI Presentation Services

Administration window opens.






b. Click the Manage Privileges link. The Privilege Administration window opens.

c. Scroll to the Answers section.

d. Locate the Execute Direct Database Requests privilege. e. Click (not permitted). The Change Privilege Permissions window opens.

f. Click the Show users and groups link.






g. Next to Administrator, click Add to give the Administrator the privilege to execute direct database requests.

h. Click Finished in the Change Privilege Permissions window. i. Click Finished in the Privilege Administration window. j. Click Close Window in the Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration window.

2. Create and execute a request in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers. You compare the results of this request with the results of a direct database request in the next step. a. Click the Answers link b. Select the SupplierSales subject area. c. Create the following request and associated filters:

Please note: If you add the Region column to your request to create the filter, delete it from the request after creating the filter. Another way to do this is to press the CTRL key while clicking the column in the selection panel, which opens the Create/Edit Filter dialog box without adding the column to the request.

d. Click Results and verify that the following results are returned:

3. Create and execute a direct database request. a. Click the Answers link.






b. On the Answers start page, click Create Direct Request.

c. In the Connection Pool field, enter “Connection Pool”. Include the double quotation marks.

This is the name of the connection pool specified in the Physical layer of the repository. d. In the SQL Statement field, enter the following SQL statement:

SELECT D1_customer2.Name, sum(D1_Orders2.ActlExtnd) FROM D1_customer2, D1_Orders2 WHERE ( D1_customer2.NewKey = D1_Orders2.CustKey and D1_customer2.Region = 'East' ) GROUP BY D1_customer2.Name having 2000000 < sum(D1_Orders2.ActlExtnd)

e. Click Validate SQL and Retrieve Columns and verify that the appropriate columns appear

under Result Columns:

f. Click the Results tab and verify that the same results from the previous step are returned:







Practice 3-3: Editing Logical SQL Generated for a Request

Goals To examine and edit the logical SQL generated for an Oracle Business Intelligence Answers request

Scenario Edit the logical SQL for a request after an underlying presentation object has been changed.


Instructions:

1. Create and execute a request, and examine the SQL generated by the request. a. Click the Answers link and the SupplierSales subject area. b. Create the following request and associated filters:

c. Click the Results tab.






d. Click the Advanced tab. e. In the SQL Issued field, examine the SQL that was issued to the Oracle BI Server when the

request was generated.

f. Copy the SQL and paste it to Notepad. g. Save the Notepad file as SQL_Edit on your desktop. h. Save the request in My Folders as SQL_Edit.

2. Change the Customer Presentation layer object in the repository. a. Log out of Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services. b. In the Services dialog box, stop the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Server

services. c. In Windows Explorer, navigate to D:\OracleBI\server\Repository and copy and paste

reports_dashboards.rpd to create a backup copy.

d. Double-click reports_dashboards.rpd to open the repository in the Administration Tool. e. Log in as Administrator/Administrator. f. In the Presentation layer, expand SupplierSales. g. Expand Customers. h. Double-click Customer.

i. In the Presentation Column – Customer properties dialog box, click the General tab. j. Deselect the Use Logical Column Name check box.






k. In the Name field, delete Customer and enter Name.

l. Click the Aliases tab. m. Select the Customer alias and click the Delete button . When an alias is deleted from a

repository object, the link from the stored object in the Presentation Catalog to the metadata is broken. Later in this practice, you modify the SQL generated by a request to restore the link.

n. Click OK. o. Verify that the column changed to Name in the Presentation layer.

p. Select File > Save to save the repository. q. Click No. r. Select File > Close to close the repository. s. Select File > Exit to close the Administration Tool.

3. Edit the logical SQL generated for a request to restore the link from the stored object in the Presentation Catalog to the metadata. a. Start the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Server services. b. Log in to Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services as

Administrator/Administrator. c. Click the Answers link.






d. In the selection pane, select the SQL_Edit request from My Folders.

e. You receive a view display error. Expand the error details to view the details. The error

message indicates that there is an unresolved column: “Customers”. “Customer”. This is the expected error because you changed the name of the Customer column to Name and deleted the alias.

f. Click Modify. g. Click the Advanced tab. h. Notice the content in the Request XML field. Requests are stored in the Presentation Catalog

in XML format. In this example, the fourth line of the XML code indicates that the request is still pointing to the Customer column in the Customers presentation catalog. <saw:column formula="Customers.Customer" columnID="c0"/> After you modify the SQL in the next steps, you observe the changes to the XML code in the Request XML field.

i. Notice the error message below the SQL Issued field.

j. Open the SQL_Edit Notepad file you saved on your desktop in the earlier step. k. In the SQL Issued field, copy and paste the SQL from the SQL_Edit Notepad file.






l. In the SQL Issued field, modify the SQL as follows: SELECT Customers.Name saw_0, SalesFacts.Dollars saw_1 FROM SupplierSales WHERE SalesFacts.Dollars > 2000000 ORDER BY saw_0

m. Click Set SQL. n. Notice that the error message disappears. o. Notice also that the XML code in the Request XML field has been updated with the correct

information. p. Save the request. Replace the existing request when prompted.

4. Verify your results. a. Select the Answers link. b. In the selection pane on the left, click the SQL_Edit request. c. Verify that you receive the following results:

d. Click Modify. e. Click Advanced. f. Verify that the correct SQL appears in the SQL Issued field.






5. Replace the modified repository with the backup copy you created. a. Log out of Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and close your browser. b. In the Services dialog box, stop the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Server

services. c. In Windows Explorer, navigate to D:\OracleBI\server\Repository and delete the

reports_dashboards.rpd file. d. Rename the Copy of reports_dashboards.rpd file as reports_dashboards.rpd. e. Start the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Server services.




Lesson 4: Building Views and Charts in Requests


Practice 4-1: Modifying Views

Goals To modify the results of a request beyond the default format

Scenario Add a chart to a request and rearrange how the various views within a request are displayed.


Instructions In the following exercise, you add and arrange Chart, Table, and Title views within the Compound Layout view.

1. Start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as Administrator.

2. Click Answers to clear the workspace and navigate to the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog where saved requests are stored.

3. Modify the Sales by State request. a. Select the saved request, Sales by State, from the catalog. b. Click Modify. c. From the SalesFacts folder, add the measures Units Ordered and Units Shipped to the Sales

by State request. d. From the My Filters folder, click the West Region, 1999 filter you created previously to add

it to the request. e. In the Apply Saved Filter dialog box, click OK.

4. Create a chart view.

a. Click the Show results in a chart view button to display the results of the request. The default chart type is Vertical Bar.

b. In the Graph drop-down list, at the top of the screen, select Horizontal Bar. c. Explore chart options.

i. Click the General Chart Properties button to explore chart properties. Notice that data labels are set to the default, in which they are displayed when you move your cursor over them.

ii. Click Cancel to close the General dialog box. iii. Click the Axis Titles and Labels button . Notice that you can set label properties for

the axes in the chart and add custom labels and data formats for the display of data. iv. Click Cancel to close the Axis Titles & Labels dialog box.






v. Click the Additional Charting Options button and explore the charting options, including setting gridlines and chart legends, defining behavior when a user clicks a chart, and setting borders and colors.

vi. Click Cancel to close the Additional Charting Options dialog box.

5. Format the chart to display as a three-dimensional cylinder. a. In the Type drop-down list, select 3D. b. In the Style drop-down list, select Rectangle.

6. Add different facts to the chart. a. In the horizontal axis in the Columns section, uncheck the Dollars fact and select the check

boxes for both Units Ordered and Units Shipped. b. Click the Redraw button (below the chart view) and notice the results.

7. Change the chart width by clicking and dragging the horizontal bar at the bottom of the chart two tick marks to the right.

8. Verify that the horizontal and vertical axes titles are displayed, create a title for the chart, and move the legend. a. Click the General Chart Properties button . The General dialog box is displayed. b. Select Custom Title and enter Western Sales 1999 in the field. c. Click OK. d. Verify that the title was added to the chart. e. Click the Additional Charting Options button. f. Select the Legend tab. g. Select Bottom in the Location drop-down list. h. Click OK. i. Verify that the legend moved from the default location to the bottom of the chart. j. Roll over the rectangles in the chart and verify that the data value is displayed.

9. Add position formatting to your chart. Set the Units Ordered bars to display as red and the Units Shipped bars to display as blue. a. Click the Format Chart Data button . The Format Chart Data dialog box is displayed. b. In the Positional tab, click the Color button for Position 1. c. In the Color Selector, select red and click OK. d. Click the Color button for Position 2.






e. In the Color Selector, select blue, and click OK.

f. Click OK and verify your results.

10. Add conditional formatting to your chart to indicate states that have crossed a high threshold for units ordered. Build a condition to display Units Ordered as green in the chart if they exceed 100,000 units. a. Click the Format Chart Data button . b. In the Conditional tab of the Format Chart Data dialog box, click the Add Condition button

and select Units Ordered. The Create/Edit Filter dialog box is displayed. c. Set the Operator to is greater than. d. Enter the value 100000. e. Click OK. Verify that the condition is listed in the Conditional tab of the Format Chart Data

dialog box under the Units Ordered column. f. Click the Color button for the condition.






g. In the Color Selector, select green and click OK.

h. Click OK. i. Verify that the Units Ordered bar in the chart turns green to indicate that California has more

than 100,000 units ordered.

11. View the results in the Compound Layout. a. Select Compound Layout from the result view drop-down list.

b. Click the Chart button to add the chart to the Compound Layout. c. If necessary, scroll down to view the chart.

12. Change the title view in the Compound Layout. a. Scroll up to see the Title view. b. Select the Edit View button for the Title view. c. Enter Western Region Sales 1999 in the Title field. d. Deselect the Display Saved Name check box. e. Click OK at the upper-right corner. f. Verify that the title view is changed.

13. Move the views to change the display. a. Scroll down to the Chart view. b. Click the Chart view and drag it to the top of the Compound Layout. c. Click the Table view and drag it to the right of the Chart view. d. Drag the Title view to the top of the Compound Layout. e. Save the request as Western Region Sales with Chart in the My Sales folder.






14. Notice the results when attempting to save a request using the same name as a saved request. a. Click the Save button. The Save Request dialog box is displayed. b. Click OK. c. Click Yes in the prompt to replace the existing file.







Practice 4-2: Adding a Column Selector to a Request

Goals To add a column selector to a request

Scenario You need to add a column selector view to enable users to dynamically change the columns that appear in a request.


Instructions Using the Column Selector view in your Compound Layout view, you can provide a quick way for users to select a column for which they would like to view sales fact results.

1. Click the Answers link to clear the workspace and return to the Answers start page.

2. Click the SupplierSales subject area.


4. Click the Results tab to view your results. By default, the results appear in a Compound Layout with a title view and a table view.






5. Add a Column Selector view to the Compound Layout view. a. Click the Add View link and select Column Selector from the list.

b. In the Column 1 column (Customer), select the Include Selector option.






c. Add choices to the column selector by clicking the following columns in the selection pane: Periods.Month, Periods.Year, Customers.Region, Customers.State.

d. Click OK to return to the Compound Layout view. e. Scroll to the bottom and locate the Column Selector view. f. Drag the Column Selector view above the Table view in the Compound Layout.

.

6. Use the Column Selector to modify the table results. a. Select Region from the Column Selector drop-down list and notice the results.

b. Select the other columns from the Column Selector and notice the results.






7. Save your request as My Column Selector in the My Sales folder.







Practice 4-3: Performing Common Tasks in Views

Goals To perform some common tasks while working with views

Scenario While working with the various results views, you perform common tasks such as creating a Compound Layout, adding a chart, duplicating a view, previewing how a view will appear in an Interactive Dashboard, adding a Title view, adding a Column Selector view, and displaying an image in a view.


Instructions:

1. Create a Compound Layout view. a. Create the following request and associated filter:

Please note: If you add the Region column to your request to create the filter, delete it from the request after creating the filter.

b. Click Results:

c. Click the Chart button to add a Chart view. d. Click OK to return to the Compound Layout view. e. Drag the Chart view above the Table view in the Compound Layout.






f. Verify your work:

2. Create a duplicate of the Chart view. Duplicating a view is useful when you want to make changes to a view while preserving the original view, or when you want to create a new view based on an existing view. a. Click the Edit View button for the Chart view. b. Click the Duplicate View button at the top of the workspace. c. Select Duplicate View from the list. d. Notice that the duplicate view has the numeral 2 appended to it.

e. Change the chart type to Horizontal Bar. f. Deselect the check box for the Units Ordered column on the horizontal axis. g. Select the check box for the Dollars column on the horizontal axis.






h. Click Redraw and check your work.

i. Select Compound Layout from the view drop-down list. j. Select Add View > Chart: 2.






k. Drag the Chart (2) view above the Table view and below the original Chart view.

3. Add a Column Selector view to the Compound Layout view. a. Select Add View > Column Selector. b. In the Column 1 column (Customer), select the Include Selector check box.






c. Add choices to the column selector by clicking the following columns in the selection pane: Periods.Month, Periods.Year, Customers.Sales Rep, and Customers.State.

d. Click OK to return to the Compound Layout view. e. Scroll to the bottom, locate the Column Selector view, and drag it above the Chart view. f. Check your work:






g. Select Month from the Column Selector drop-down list and observe the results:

h. Select the other columns from the Column Selector drop-down list and observe the results.

4. Add a title to the Compound Layout view. a. Click the Edit View button for the Title view located at the top of the workspace. b. Select Display Saved Name. When the request is saved, the saved name will appear as the

title. c. Click the Edit button to the right of the Title field. d. Make your choices for font, cell, and border options, and then click OK. e. In the Subtitle field, enter West Region. f. Click the Edit button to the right of the Subtitle field. g. Make your choices for font, cell, and border options, and then click OK. Notice that if

Display Results is checked, the results are displayed. h. In the Logo field, type fmap:Images/report_salesVolume.jpg to display an image in the

Title view. This image file is located in D:\OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10\images.

i. Click the Edit button to the right of the Logo field. j. Make your formatting choices, and then click OK. k. In the Started Time drop-down list, select Display Date and Time to identify when the

request started to execute. l. Click OK to return to the Compound view layout. m. Save the request in the My Sales folder as Units Ordered/Shipped – Revenue.






n. Check your work. Your Title view should look similar to the following:

5. Preview how the view will appear on an Intelligence Dashboard. a. Click the Preview button near the top of the workspace. The dashboard preview appears

in a new window.

b. Click the Close button to close the preview window.







Practice 4-4: Using the Table View

Goals To use the Table view to show results in a standard table.

Scenario You use the Table view to display column totals and grand totals, combine values into bins, and specify Table view properties, such as location of paging controls, number of rows per page, green bar styling, and column and table headings.


Instructions:

1. Create the following request and associated filters:

Please note: If you add the Year column to your request to create the filter, delete it from the request after creating the filter.






a. Click Results.

2. Specify report totals. a. Click the Edit View button for the Table view.






b. To add a grand total for the report, click the Grand Total button at the top of the workspace. A grand total is added to the bottom of the table.

c. Click the Grand Total button again to verify that the option Report-Based Total is selected.

This option is selected by default. If this option is not selected, the Oracle BI Server calculates the total based on the entire result set before applying any filters to the measures.

d. Click the Grand Total button again and select the Format Labels option. Specify caption, cell, font, and border options as desired.

e. Click the Grand Total button again and select the Format Measure Values option. Specify cell, font, and border options as desired.

f. Click the Total By button for the Month column to apply totals for the individual column. g. If desired, click the Total By button for the Month column again to modify the format for

labels and measure values.






h. Your request should look similar to the following:

3. Combine values into bins. a. Click the Edit Formula button for the Day column. The Edit Column Formula dialog box

opens. Notice the column formula. b. Click the Bins tab. c. Click Add Bin. You want to build bins that will compare revenue in the first half of the

months with revenue in the second half of the months. d. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, create a filter where Day is between 19980201 and

19980214. e. Click OK. f. In the Edit Bin Name field, enter February – First Half. g. Click OK. h. Add another bin called February – Second Half with a filter where Day is between

19980215 and 19980228.






i. Repeat the steps and create two more bins: March – First Half and March – Second Half.

j. Click the Column Formula tab and examine the column formula created when you built the

bins.

k. Click OK to close the Edit Column Formula dialog box.






l. Your results should look similar to the following:

4. Specify Table view properties. a. Click the Edit Formula button for the Day column. b. Click the Bins tab. c. Click Clear All. d. When prompted with the Clear Bins message, click No to revert to the original formula. e. Click OK to close the Edit Column Formula dialog box. The table reverts to its original

format. f. Click the Criteria tab. g. Delete the filter Name is equal to / is in 2nd & Goal Sports Café. h. Add the Region column and a filter where Region is equal to / is in Central. i. Delete the Region column. j. Click Results.






k. Click the Table View Properties button near the top of the workspace. The Edit View dialog box opens.

l. Experiment with specifying the Table view properties: paging controls, rows per page,

display column and table headings, and green bar styling. m. When you are done, save the request in the My Sales folder as My Table View.







Practice 4-5: Working with Views

Goals To add a variety of views to results.

Scenario You add a variety of views to the results of a request to help you look at data in meaningful and intuitive ways. Preparing multiple views of results helps users to identify trends and relationships in data. You create a request and add Filters, Legend, Narrative, Ticker, and Logical SQL views. Finally, you add a View Selector view so that users can choose the view that’s useful to them.


Instructions:


2. Click Results.

3. Add a Filters view. a. Select Add View > Filters to add a Filters view. b. Drag the Filters view above the Table view and below the Title view. c. Drill down on the Central region. d. Notice how the Filter view changes after drill down. This is because drilling down limits the

result set and automatically creates a filter. The Filter view tracks the results. e. Drill down on the Gulf sales district. f. Drill down on Mary Silver. g. Check your results:






h. Click the Criteria tab. Notice that columns and filters have been automatically added to the original request.

i. Remove all filters. j. Remove the Sales Rep and Customer columns.

4. Add a Legend view. a. Create a conditional format for the Dollars column where the background cell color for

dollars less than one million is red, dollars between one million and two million is yellow, and dollars greater than two million is green.

b. Click Results. c. Delete the Filters view you created in an earlier step. d. Select Add View > Legend. e. Set legend items per row to 3.






f. Populate title and items based on the following screenshot. Use the Sample Text format buttons to set colors to match those used in the conditional formatting for the Dollars column.

g. Click OK to return to the Compound Layout view. h. Check your work.

5. Add a Narrative view. a. Select Add View > Narrative. b. In the Prefix field, enter This report shows sales by sales district. The sales

districts are:. c. Select the text in the Prefix field and click the Bold button .






d. Place your cursor at the end of the text, after the close bold tag, and click the Line Break button twice.

e. In the Narrative field, enter @2. This will include the results from the second column (Sales District) in the narrative text. You use @n to return results from a column, where n represents the desired column based on the sequence of columns in the request. In this example, Sales District is the second column in the request.

f. Place your cursor after @2 and click the Line Break button. g. In the Postfix field, enter Please address sales marked as red. h. Bold the text in the Postfix field. i. Place your cursor at the beginning of the text in the Postfix field, before the bold tag, and

click the Line Break button once. j. Check your work.






k. Click OK to return to the Compound Layout view and check your results.

6. Add a Ticker view. a. Select Add View > Ticker. b. In the Beginning Text field, enter Total Sales by Sales District between the <tr> and

<td> tags. c. In the Row Format field, enter @2[br/]@3. This will display data from columns two and

three in separate rows in the ticker. Column 2 is Sales District and column 3 is Dollars.






d. Check your work.

e. Accept all other defaults and click OK to return to Compound Layout view.

7. Add a Logical SQL view. This view is useful for Administrators and developers for debugging purposes, and is usually not included in results for typical users. a. Select Add View > Logical SQL. b. Verify that a logical SQL view was added to the Compound Layout and that the logical SQL

for the query appears.

8. Add a View Selector view. This view allows users to select among available views and display the most useful view. a. Select Add View > View Selector.






b. In the Caption text box, enter Select a view: c. Set the Caption Position to Above. d. Select the Table view in the Available Views list and click the right-arrow button to add

it to the Views Included list. e. Repeat the above step to add the following views to the Views Included list: Logical SQL,

None, and Narrative. f. In the Views Included list, select the None view and click the down-arrow button to move

it to the bottom of the list. The views appear in the list in the order that they appear in the view selector. Note that you can also rename views in the list to give them names that are more meaningful to your users.

g. Check your work.

h. Click OK. i. Scroll down to the bottom of the Compound Layout. In the View Selector view, toggle

between the different available views and verify that each is displayed.

9. Save the request as My Views.





Lesson 5: Showing Results with Gauge Views


Practice 5-1: Showing Results as Gauges

Goals To use the Gauge view to show results as gauges in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Scenario You create a request and display results in a Gauge view using the Dial Gauge type. You set general background properties for the Gauge view, modify Gauge ranges, modify Gauge titles and footers, set advanced Dial Gauge properties, duplicate a Gauge view and use a different Gauge type to display results, and set Gauge interaction to navigate to a saved request.


Instructions:


2. Click Answers and select the SupplierSales subject area. a. Create the following request and associated filters:

Note: If you add the Date column to your request to create the filter, delete it from the request after creating the filter.

3. Click Results.






4. Add a Gauge view to the Compound Layout view. a. Select Add View > Gauge. b. In the Gauge view, in the Gauge drop-down list, select Dial. c. In the Size drop-down list, select Small. d. In the Measure drop-down list, select Dollars. e. In the Marker Type drop-down list, select Line. f. Click the Color button to change the color for the indicator needle. g. In the Color Selector dialog box, select black as the color of the indicator needle and click

OK.

5. Add another marker to the Gauges. a. Click the Add Marker button. b. In the Measure drop-down list, select Units Shipped. c. Set Market Type to Line. d. Change the units shipped marker color to bright green.

6. Set general background properties for the Gauge view. a. Click the Gauge Canvas Properties button at the top of the Gauge view page. b. In the Title section of the Gauge Canvas Properties dialog box, select Override default. c. In the Title field, enter Q199 Revenue – Units Shipped. d. If desired, click the Edit Format button next to the Title field to change the format of the

title. e. Verify that legend location is set to Default. The default location of the legend is beneath the

title. f. If desired, click the Edit Format button next to the Legend Location field to change the

format of the legend. g. If desired, use the Borders and Colors section to change the background color for the area in

which the Gauges appear, the color of the title text, and the color of the border around the Gauge area.

h. Change the number of Gauges per row to 4. The default is 3. i. Change the space between Gauges to 50. The space between Gauges is measured in pixels.






j. Check your work. Your Gauge Canvas properties should look similar to the following:

k. Click OK and check your results. There is a Gauge for each customer. The black line shows

dollars. The green line shows units shipped. The Gauge colors show the Gauge ranges. Please notice that the screenshot shows only partial results.

7. Modify the Gauge ranges. a. Click the Gauge Ranges button at the top of the Gauge view. b. By default, the Gauge ranges for the Dial Gauge are set to show percentage of total.

Currently, the Dial Gauge displays three percentage ranges. Click Add to add a fourth range. c. Click the Color button for the new range. d. In the color field, select light blue and click OK.






e. Check your results. The Dial Gauges now display four percentage ranges and the legend captions have changed to reflect the new ranges.

f. Which customer’s revenue for Q199 fell within the 50% – 75% range?

g. Which customer’s revenue for Q199 fell within the 75% – 100% range?

8. Modify Gauge titles and footers. a. Click the Gauge Titles button at the top of the Gauge view. b. In the Title field of the Gauge Titles dialog box, enter Rev-UnitsShipped. c. In the Sub Title field, enter Q199. d. Notice that in the Footer field, the default is @1. This automatically includes the results from

column 1 (Customer in this example). e. In the Secondary Footer field, enter @2 Region. This automatically includes the results from

column 2 (Region in this example) and appends the results with the word “Region.” f. If desired, click the Edit Format button for any of the fields to change formatting. g. Check your work.






h. Click OK and check your results. Your Gauge view should look similar to the following:

9. Set advanced Dial Gauge properties. a. Click the Advanced properties button for the Dial Gauge. The Dial Specific Properties

dialog box is displayed. b. In the Show scale labels drop-down list, select Actual Value. c. Under Dial Properties, set Dial Arc Length to 360 and Dial Thickness to 5.

d. Click OK and observe the results. Gauges now appear as a complete circle, dial thickness is

reduced, and dollar values appear as scale labels instead of percentages.






e. Click the Advanced properties button for the Dial Gauge again and reset all properties to Default.

f. Click OK to close the Dial Specific Properties dialog box.

10. Set additional Gauge properties. a. Click the Additional Gauge Properties button at the top of the Gauge view. The

Additional Gauge Properties dialog box is displayed. b. Click the Appearance tab. c. In the Show data labels drop-down list, select On rollover, which is the same as Default.

When selected, data labels appear when a user moves the cursor over the Gauge. d. If desired, modify the background, text, and border appearance of the Gauges. e. If desired, experiment with the size settings. The size is set by default when the Gauge size is

initially selected. In this case, the Gauge size is set to small.






f. Your appearance settings should look similar to the following:

g. Click the Interaction tab. h. Verify that Default is selected. This allows users to drill down on the Gauge to retrieve detail

results. i. If desired, click the Scale tab and experiment with Gauge limit and tick mark settings. j. Click OK to close the Additional Gauge Properties dialog box. k. Place the cursor over the Gauges to verify that data labels appear. l. Verify that other appearance settings are displayed as expected. Your results should look

similar to the following:

11. Create a duplicate Gauge view and use a different Gauge type to display results. a. Click the Duplicate View button at the top of the workspace and select Duplicate View

to duplicate the current Gauge view. b. Notice that Gauge:2 now appears in the View drop-down list.

c. In the Gauge drop-down list, select Bar. d. In the Type drop-down list, select Filled. e. In the Measure drop-down list, select Dollars. f. Click the Gauge Canvas Properties button and change the title to Q199 Revenue.






g. Click the Gauge Titles button and change the title to Revenue. h. Modify Gauge ranges and Gauge properties as desired. i. Click the Additional Gauge Properties button at the top of the Gauge view. The

Additional Gauge Properties dialog box is displayed. j. Click the Interaction tab. k. Select Navigate and click the Add Navigation Target button. l. Click the Browse button. The Choose Request/Dashboard dialog box is displayed. m. Select one of your saved requests. This allows you to click a Gauge to navigate to another

request or dashboard. n. Click OK to close the Choose Request/Dashboard dialog box. o. Click OK to close the Additional Gauge Properties dialog box. p. Check your work. Your results should look similar to the following:

12. Modify the Compound Layout view layout. a. Save the request as My Gauge View in the My Sales folder. b. Select Compound Layout from the View drop-down list. c. Verify that the Compound Layout view contains three views: a Title view that says My

Gauge View, a Table view with results from the original request, and the Gauge view as it appeared before you duplicated the view.

d. Select Add View > Gauge:2 to add the duplicated Gauge view to the Compound Layout view.

e. Drag the Table view to display below the Gauge2 view. f. Verify that the Compound Layout view now has four views displayed: Title, Gauge, Gauge2,

and Table:






g. Save the request again as My Gauge View. h. Click Yes when asked to replace existing item with the same name.

13. Verify your work. a. Click the Answers link. b. Verify that My Gauge View appears under My Sales in the selection pane. c. Click My Gauge View. d. Click the bar gauge and verify navigation to the saved request you specified.







Solutions 5-1: Showing Results as Gauges

Answers

7.f. Which customer’s revenue for Q199 fell within the 50% – 75% range? Palestine Club

7.g. Which customer’s revenue for Q199 fell within the 75% – 100% range? Compound




Lesson 6: Showing Results with Pivot Tables


Practice 6-1: Showing Results with Pivot Tables

Goals To use the Pivot Table view to display results in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Scenario You use a Pivot Table view to take row, column, and section headings and swap them around to obtain different perspectives of the data. You create multiple drop-down lists for attributes; add totals; override default aggregation rules for measures; display an item’s relative value; use calculations; and modify pivot table formatting.


Instructions

1. Create a request and add a Pivot Table view. a. Create the following request and associated filter:

b. Click the Pivot Table button at the top of the workspace to add a Pivot Table view. The

Pivot Table template appears.

c. Drag Year and Region to the Pages section to create a prompt for the pivot table. d. Drag Generic Description to the Columns section. Make sure Generic Description is below

Measure Labels.






e. Check your work:

f. Verify that Display Results is selected. If not, select it. g. Your results should look similar to the following:

2. Create separate drop-down lists for each of the attributes in the Pages layout area. a. Click the More Options button for Region and select Start New Page Drop Down.






b. Check your results. Notice that there are now two drop-down lists in the pivot table.

3. Add totals to the pivot table. a. Click the Totals button in the Columns area and select After. b. Click the Totals button in the Rows area and select After. c. Your results should look similar to the following:

4. Override the default aggregation rule for the Dollars measure. The default aggregation rule is specified in the Oracle Business Intelligence repository, or by the original author of a report. In this example, the default aggregation rule for Dollars is SUM. a. What is the total dollar amount for 2nd & Goal Sports Café? You compare this value with the

value after you override the default aggregation rule in the next steps.

b. Click the More Options button for the Dollars measure.






c. Select Aggregation Rule > Average.

d. What is the total dollar amount now for 2nd & Goal Sports Café?

e. Check your results. Notice that the total dollar amount is now the average rather than the sum.

f. Experiment with some of the other available aggregation rules and notice how the value

changes for total dollars. g. After you finish, reset the aggregation rule to Default.

5. Add green bar styling and formatting to the Pivot table to make it more visually appealing. a. Click the Pivot Table View Properties button near the top of the workspace. The Edit

View dialog box is displayed. b. Select the Enable alternating row “green bar” styling check box. c. In the alternate drop-down list, select All Columns. d. If desired, click the Set alternate format button to modify the formatting of the

alternating rows. e. Click OK to close the Edit View dialog box.






f. Check your work. Your results should look similar to the following:

6. Add formatting for sections and section content. a. Drag Region from Pages to Sections. Notice that the Pivot table is now divided into three

sections, one for each region.

b. Click the Section Properties button . c. Change the column heading display to Left. d. Click OK to close the Sections Properties dialog box. e. Check your work. Your results should look similar to the following:

7. Show dollars as a percentage of the total for each section. a. Click the More Options button for Dollars. b. Select Duplicate Layer.

c. Click the More Options button for the Dollars column that you just created, and select

Format Headings. The Edit Format dialog box is displayed. d. In the Caption field, enter % Dollars.






e. Click OK. f. Click the More Options button for % Dollars, and select Show Data As > Percent of >

Section.

This displays the percentage of the section that this value constitutes.

g. Your results should look similar to the following:

h. Which customer in the Central region bought the highest percentage of sugar in 1998?

i. Which customer in the Central region bought the highest percentage of white sugar in 1999?

8. Build a calculation that identifies combined dollar sales and percentages for powdered sugar and white sugar only. a. Click the More Options button for the Generic Description column. b. Select New Calculated Item. The Calculated Item dialog box opens. c. In the Name field, enter Powdered & White. d. In the Function drop-down list, select Sum.






e. On the right, select the Powdered Sugar and White Sugar values.

f. Click OK to close the Calculated Item dialog box. g. Your results should look similar to the following:

h. Which customer in the Central region purchased the highest percentage of powdered and

white sugar in 1998?

i. Save the request as My Pivot in the My Sales folder.

9. In the Choose a result view drop-down list, select Compound Layout.

10. Delete the Table view in the Compound Layout view.

11. Click the Pivot Table button to add the pivot table to the Compound Layout.

12. Save the request again.







Solutions 6-1: Showing Results with Pivot Tables

Answers

4.a. What is the total dollar amount for 2nd & Goal Sports Café? $3434

4.d. What is the total dollar amount now for 2nd & Goal Sports Café? $1145

7.h. Which customer in the Central region bought the highest percentage of sugar in 1998? Penn Brewery: 18.7%

7.i. Which customer in the Central region bought the highest percentage of white sugar in 1999? Demos’ Steak and Spaghetti House: 4.6%

8.h. Which customer in the Central region purchased the highest percentage of powdered and white sugar in 1998? Demos’ Steak and Spaghetti House: 6.3%






Practice 6-2: Displaying Running Sums in Pivot Tables

Goals To display running sums in a Pivot table

Scenario You display a running sum for dollars from January through December of 1998, and a running sum for percentage of dollars from January through December of 1998.


Instructions You now build a pivot table that contains running sums for revenue throughout each month of the year 1998. You also create running sums of the percentage of revenue for the year for each month.

1. Create the following request and associated filters:

Note: If you add the Year column to your request to create the filter, delete it from the request after creating the filter. a. Click the Order By button once to sort the MonthCode column in ascending order. b. Hide the MonthCode column so it does not appear in the results.

i. Click the Column Properties button for the MonthCode column. ii. Click the Column Format tab. iii. Select Hide. iv. Click OK.

2. Add a pivot table with totals.

a. Click the Pivot Table button at the top of the workspace to add a Pivot Table view. b. Click the Totals button for Rows. c. Select After.






d. Check your results:

3. Build a running sum column for the Dollars measure. a. Click the More Options button for the Dollars measure. b. Select Duplicate Layer. c. Click the More Options button for the duplicate Dollars column you created in the previous

step. d. Select Format Headings. e. In the Caption field, enter RSum Dollars. f. Click OK. g. Click the More Options button for RSum Dollars. h. Select Display as Running Sum.

i. Notice that the RSum Dollars column now displays a running sum for dollars from January

through December of 1998. For example, the RSum for January is the same as the basic total for January, whereas the RSum for February is the total of January and February, and so on.






4. Build two additional columns to display percentage and running sum for percentage. a. Click the More Options button for the Dollars measure. b. Select Duplicate Layer. c. Click the More Options button for the duplicate Dollars column you just created. d. Select Format Headings. e. In the Caption field, enter %Dollars. f. Click OK. g. Click the More Options button for the %Dollars column. h. Select Show Data As > Percent of > Column. The column displays the percentage of total

revenue earned in each month.

i. Click the More Options button for the %Dollars measure. j. Select Duplicate Layer. k. Click the More Options button for the duplicate %Dollars column you just created. l. Select Format Headings. m. In the Caption field, enter RSum %Dollars.






n. Click OK. o. Click the More Options button for the RSum %Dollars columns. p. Select Display as Running Sum. The RSum %Dollars column now displays a running sum

for percentages from January through December of 1998.

5. Save the request as My Running Sum Table in the My Sales folder.





Lesson 7: Creating Interactive Dashboards


Practice 7-1: Creating a New Interactive Dashboard Page

Goals To create a new Interactive Dashboard page in Oracle Business Intelligence and populate it with content

Scenario You create a new Interactive Dashboard and populate it with request content created in previous practices.

Time 5–10 minutes

Instructions You now build a page in My Dashboard containing a report you created in an earlier practice. This dashboard presents you with regional sales data when you load it after logging in to Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services.


2. Click the Dashboards link.

3. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard in the upper-right corner.

4. Create a new Interactive Dashboard page. a. Click the Add Dashboard Page button . The Add Dashboard Page dialog box is displayed. b. Enter Western Region Analytics in the Page Name field. c. Click OK. Notice that the new Interactive Dashboard page has one column by default.

5. Add a request to the section. a. Expand the My Sales folder. b. Drag the Western Region Sales with Chart request onto the default column. Notice that a

section is added and the request is embedded in it.

c. Rename the report in the dashboard.

i. Click the Rename button for the Western Region Sales with Chart report object in the Dashboard Editor.






ii. In the Rename dialog box, change the name to Western Region Sales. iii. Click OK.

d. Click the Save button in the upper-right corner. e. Select the Western Region Analytics page in the Interactive Dashboard and verify that it

includes the request.

f. Which view do you see in the dashboard page?






Solutions 7-1: Creating a New Interactive Dashboard Page

Answers

5.f. Which view do you see on the dashboard page? Compound Layout view






Practice 7-2: Using Prompts to Filter Interactive Dashboard Data

Goals To create a prompt and add it to an Interactive Dashboard

Scenario You add a Presentation variable to a request to be populated by a dashboard prompt. You then create an Interactive Dashboard prompt and add it to the Interactive Dashboard page created in the previous practice.


Instructions

1. Prepare a request to use Interactive Dashboard prompts, including a Presentation variable. a. Click the Answers link. b. Select the Sales By State request from the My Sales folder. c. Click Modify. d. In the selection panel, add the Customers > Region column. e. Click the Add Filter button in the Region column. The Create/Edit Filter dialog box is

displayed. f. Set the filter operator to is prompted and click OK. g. Click the Add Filter button in the State column. The Create/Edit Filter dialog box is

displayed. h. Enter AZ in the Value field to create an initial value for the prompt. i. Click OK. j. Click the Edit Formula button in the Region column. The Edit Column Formula dialog box

is displayed. k. Select the Custom Headings check box and enter Region Variable as the Column

Heading. l. In the Column Formula field, select the Customers.Region column and press the Delete key. m. Click the Variable button and select Presentation. The Insert Variable dialog box is

displayed.






n. Enter FavoriteRegion as the Variable Name and do not set a default value.

o. Click OK. p. Add single quotation marks around the variable in the Column Formula field. Because the

variable will be treated as a string, it requires single quotation marks in the formula.

q. Click OK. r. Save the request as Sales by Region - State in the My Sales folder.

2. Create the prompt. a. Click the Answers link. b. Click the New Dashboard Prompt button in the selection pane beneath the Catalog tab. c. Select the Supplier Sales subject area from the Subject Area pop-up window. d. Select Page from the Scope drop-down list to limit the filter’s scope to the current page in

the Interactive Dashboard. e. Expand the Customers table and select the Region column.






f. Set or enter the following: Operator is equal to/is in Control Drop-down list Label Select Region:

g. In the Set Variable column, select PresentationVariable from the drop-down list and enter FavoriteRegion in the text field.

h. In the Customers table in the selection pane on the left side, select the State column. i. Set or enter the following:

Operator is equal to/is in Control Drop-down list Label Select State:

j. Select the Constrain check box to constrain values for the State prompt based on the value selected for the Region prompt. Deselect the (All Choices) check box.

k. Save the prompt as Region and State Prompt in the My Sales folder.

3. Edit the Western Region Analytics page to add the dashboard prompt you created. a. Click the Dashboards link. b. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard in the upper-right corner. c. Select Western Region Analytics from the Page drop-down list.

d. Click the Add Column button. A new column is added on the right. e. Drag Section 1 from the left column to the right column.

f. Expand the My Sales folder. g. Drag the Region and State Prompt object onto the empty column on the left.






h. Drag the Sales By Region - State object below the Region and State Prompt object.

i. Click Save. j. Click the Collapse button for the Western Region Sales request in the dashboard page so

that you can view the prompt without distraction. Note: When the dashboard displays, the Region Variable is not populated in the request and the initial value for State is AZ.

4. Test the prompt. a. In the Select Region: drop-down list, select West. b. Click the Select State: drop-down list. Notice that all the available states are in the West

region due to the constraint you set. c. Select CA from the prompt drop-down list.






d. Click Go. Notice that the data in the request changes to show only data from California and that the dashboard prompt has set the FavoriteRegion Presentation variable to “West” based on the prompt.





Lesson 8: Configuring Interactive Dashboards


Practice 8-1: Embedding Content in an Interactive Dashboard

Goals To add content other than requests to an Interactive Dashboard

Scenario You have an Interactive Dashboard with content generated by Oracle Business Intelligence requests. You want to add additional content from sources other than a request. You add a folder object and embed a PDF file and an HTML link.


Instructions


2. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard.

3. Select Western Region Analytics from the Page drop-down list.

4. Add an existing folder to display information on the dashboard page. a. Add a new column to the dashboard page. b. Click and drag a new Section object onto the right column. c. Click and drag the Folder object onto the new section you added in the previous step. d. Click the Properties button in the Folder object. e. In the Folder Properties dialog box, click the Browse button. f. In the Choose Folder dialog box, select the My Sales folder and click OK. g. Select the Expand check box. h. Click OK.






i. Click Save and view the results. You can collapse other objects on the Interactive Dashboard page to more easily view the column and folder you added.

5. Add an embedded content object. a. In Windows Explorer, navigate to D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\oui\guide. b. Copy the file oui.pdf. c. Paste the file into D:\Inetpub\Wwwroot. d. In Presentation Services, click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard. e. Drag the Embedded Content object onto the section below the Sales By Region - State

request. f. Click the Properties button in the Embedded Content object. g. Enter the following values:

h. Click OK. i. Click Save. j. View the results in the dashboard. You may have to scroll down to see the embedded content.

If the PDF file does not appear in the dashboard, you may have to minimize the browser to accept the Adobe license agreement. If Adobe asks if you want to check for updates, click Cancel.






Case Study: Building Requests to Embed in an Interactive Dashboard

Goals To build requests to embed in an Oracle BI Interactive Dashboard page with other content

Scenario Use the knowledge obtained in prior practices to build a request and a dashboard prompt to embed in Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards.


Instructions In the following case study, step-by-step instructions for building requests are scaled back to allow you to practice the skills acquired in previous lessons. Please use previous lessons for reference as needed. Screenshots are provided with the desired results. If you have difficulty with the practice, use the solutions for this practice, which provide step-by-step instructions.


2. In Answers, select the SupplierSales subject area.

3. Build a request that shows total sales revenue and change in sales revenue for 1999 by sales district, prompted by region. Use a Pivot table with a pivot table chart to display the results. Save the request as 1999 Revenue by Sales District in a shared folder named Team Sales. Use the following screenshot as a guide:






4. Build a request that shows change in revenue across all sales districts for 1999. Use a regular Table view to display the results. Save the request as Change in Revenue – All Districts (Table) in the Team Sales shared folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:

5. Build a request that shows change in revenue across all sales districts for 1999. Use a Gauge view to display the results. When users click a gauge, they should navigate to the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Table) request created in the previous step. Save the request as Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) in the Team Sales shared folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:






6. Build a request that shows change in revenue across all regions for 1999. Use a regular Table view to display the results. Save the request as Change in Revenue – Region in the Team Sales shared folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:

7. Build a request that shows total sales revenue and change in sales revenue for 1999 by sales rep, prompted by region. Use a pivot table to display the results. Be sure to include the Percent of Year Total Dollars column. Save the request as 1999 Revenue by Sales Rep in the Team Sales shared folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:

8. Build a request that shows a running sum of dollars and percent of dollars by month, prompted by year, region, and sales rep. Use a pivot table to display the results. Save the request as RSum Revenue by Month in the Team Sales shared folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:






9. Build a request that shows the top five total sales by employee. In a later step, when you build a dashboard, you will add a dashboard prompt to prompt by region and year. Use a table with a chart to display the results in the Compound Layout. Save the request as Top Five Total Sales by Employee in the My Sales folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:






10. Build a request that shows the top ten total sales by employee across all years. Use a Pivot table to display the results. Totals for all measures should not be report-based. Save the request as Top Ten Total Sales by Employee in the Team Sales shared folder. Use the following screenshot as a guide:

11. Build a dashboard prompt for region and year. a. Click the Answers link to navigate to the start page. b. Click the New Dashboard Prompt button at the top of the selection pane. c. Select the SupplierSales subject area. The Dashboard Prompt page appears. d. In the Scope drop-down list, select Page to specify that the prompt applies to the dashboard

page only. e. In the selection pane, select Customers > Region to add the Region column to the prompt.

Accept all default settings. f. In the selection pane, select Periods > Year. Accept all default settings. g. Check your work:

h. Click the Preview button to preview how the prompt will appear in a dashboard. i. Close the preview window. j. Save the prompt as Region - Year Dashboard Prompt in the Team Sales shared folder.

12. Set filter conditions to Is Prompted for the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request. Every column contained in a dashboard prompt must be contained in the projection list or in the filter, in each request that you want the prompt to filter. The columns in the request must have filters set, or the filter condition has to be set to Is Prompted. Recall that you can set a filter on a column without adding it to your request results by pressing the Ctrl key while selecting columns to filter in the selection pane. a. Click the Answers link.






b. In the selection pane, open the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request. c. Click Modify. d. Set Is Prompted filters as shown in the screenshot.

e. Save the request.







Solutions: Building Requests to Embed in an Interactive Dashboard

Answers

3.a. Create the following request:

3.b. Add the following filter to the request:

3.c. Click the Column Properties button in the Percent Change Dollars Year Ago column. In the Column Properties dialog box, select the Data Format tab, and select Override Default Data Format. Set the following and click OK: Treat Numbers as Percentage Negative Format Minus: -123 Decimal places 0

3.d. Click the Pivot Table button.

3.e. Drag Region to the Pages section.

3.f. Select Compound Layout in the Views drop-down list and, in the Compound Layout, delete the Table view.

3.g. Click Add View > Pivot Table.

3.h. Save the request as 1999 Revenue by Sales District in a new folder named Team Sales under Shared Folders and view the request in Answers. Please be careful to create the Team Sales folder in the Shared Folders folder so that you can complete the next practice.






3.g. Select Central from the Region drop-down list. Compare your results with the pivot table below:



4.c. Click the Table button.

4.d. If necessary, select Header Toolbar with Results in the Display drop-down list.

4.e. Click the Column Properties button in the Percent Change Dollars Year Ago column. In the Column Properties dialog box, select the Data Format tab, and select Override Default Data Format. Set the following and click OK: Treat Numbers as Percentage Negative Format Minus: -123 Decimal places 0

4.f. Select Compound Layout in the Views drop-down list.

4.g. Click Add View > Filters.

4.h. Drag the Filters view above the Table view in the Compound Layout view.






4.i. Save the request as Change in Revenue – All Districts (Table) in the Team Sales folder and view the request in Answers.



5.c. Click the Order By button for the Percent Change Dollars Year Ago column once to ensure that the request is sorted in ascending order.

5.d. Click the Results tab and select Gauge from the Views drop-down list.

5.e. Select Percent Change Dollars Year Ago as the measure for the gauges.

5.f. Click the Gauge Canvas Properties button. Select Override Default, set the number of gauges per row to 4, and click OK.

5.g. Click the Gauge Titles button. In the Gauge Titles dialog box, enter @1 Region in the Footer text box and click OK.

5.h. Click the Gauge Ranges button. In the Gauge Ranges dialog box, add a new range and select bright green as its color.

5.i. Enter ranges of 0 to 25, 25 to 50, 50 to 75, and 75 to 100, then click OK. A white range is included for negative percentage values.






5.j. Click the Gauge Ranges button and enter captions for each of the ranges: • 0% - 25%

• 25% - 50%

• 50% - 75%

• 75% - 100%

Check your work and then click OK:

5.k. Click the Additional Gauge Properties button and select the Interaction tab in the Additional Gauge Properties dialog box.

5.l. Select Navigate and click the Add Navigation Target button.

5.m. Click Browse and navigate to and select the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Table) request, then click OK.

5.n. Click OK.






5.o. Add the Gauge view to the Compound Layout, save the request as Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) in the Team Sales folder, and view the request in Answers.



6.c. Click the Table button.

6.d. If necessary, select Header Toolbar with Results in the Display drop-down list.

6.e. Click the Column Properties button in the Percent Change Dollars Year Ago column. In the Column Properties dialog box, select the Data Format tab, and select Override Default Data Format. Set the following and click OK: Treat Numbers as Percentage Negative Format Minus: -123 Decimal places 0

6.f. Select Compound Layout in the Views drop-down list.

6.g. Click Add View > Filters.






6.h. Drag the Filters view above the Table view in the Compound Layout view.

6.i. Save the request as Change in Revenue – Region in the Team Sales folder and view the request in Answers.



7.c. Click the Column Properties button in the Percent Change Dollars Year Ago column. In the Column Properties dialog box, select the Data Format tab, and select Override Default Data Format. Set the following and click OK: Treat Numbers as Percentage Negative Format Minus: -123 Decimal places 1

7.d. Click the Pivot Table button.

7.e. Drag Region to the Pages section.

7.f. In the Rows area, click the Totals button and select After.

7.g. In the Measures area, click the More Options button for the Year Total Dollars column and select Duplicate Layer.

7.h. Click the More Options button for the Year Total Dollars column that you just created, and select Format Headings.

7.i. In the Edit Format dialog box, in the Caption field, enter Percent of Year Total Dollars and click OK.

7.j. Click the More Options button for Percent of Year Total Dollars, and select Show Data As > Percent of > Column.

7.k. Drag the Percent of Year Total Dollars column below the Year Total Dollars column in the Measures area.






7.l. Select Compound Layout in the Views drop-down list and, in the Compound Layout, delete the Table view.

7.m. Click Add View > Pivot Table.

7.n. Save the request as 1999 Revenue by Sales Rep in the Team Sales folder and view the request in Answers.

7.o. Select East from the Region drop-down list. Compare your results with the pivot table below:


8.b. Click the Order By button for the MonthCode column once to ensure that the request is sorted in ascending order.

8.c. Click the Pivot Table button.

8.d. Drag Year, Region, and Sales Rep to the Pages section (in that sequence).

8.e. Click the More Options > Start New Page Drop Down for both Region and Sales Rep to create separate pages.

8.f. Click More Options > Hidden for MonthCode.

8.g. Click More Options > Duplicate Layer for Dollars.






8.h. Click More Options > Format Headings for the new Dollars column.

8.i. Enter RSum Dollars in the Caption text box and click OK.

8.j. Click More Options > Display as Running Sum for the RSum Dollars column.

8.k. Click More Options > Duplicate Layer for Dollars.

8.l. Click More Options > Format Headings for the new column that you created in step 8.k.

8.m. Enter %Dollars in the Caption text box and click OK.

8.n. Click More Options > Show Data As > Percent of > Column for the %Dollars column.

8.o. Click More Options > Duplicate Layer for the RSum Dollars column.

8.p. Click More Options > Format Headings for the new column that you created in step 8.o.

8.q. Enter RSum %Dollars in the Caption text box and click OK.

8.r. Click More Options > Show Data As > Percent of > Column for the RSum %Dollars column.

8.s. Click the Totals button for Rows and select After.

8.t. Add the pivot table to the Compound Layout, save the request as RSum Revenue by Month in the Team Sales folder, and view the request in Answers.

8.u. Select 1998 from the Year drop-down list, East from the Region drop-down list, and STEVEN SMITH from the Sales Rep drop-down list. Compare your results with the pivot table below:







9.b. Click the Add Filter button for the Dollars column.

9.c. Select is in top from the Operator drop-down list of the Create/Edit Filter dialog box.

9.d. Enter 5 in the Value text box and click OK.

9.e. Click the Order By button for the Dollars column.

9.f. Click the Results tab.

9.g. Click the Add View link and select Chart.

9.h. In the “Columns on the vertical Y-axis” column, ensure that Units Ordered, Units Shipped, and Dollars are all selected.

9.i. Click OK.

9.j. Save the request as Top Five Total Sales by Employee in the Team Sales folder and view the results in Answers. Check your results:







10.b. Click the Add Filter button for the Dollars column.

10.c. Select is in top from the Operator drop-down list of the Create/Edit Filter dialog box.

10.d. Enter 10 in the Value text box and click OK.

10.e. Click the Order By button twice for the Dollars column once to ensure that the request is sorted in descending order.

10.f. Click the Pivot Table button.

10.g. Click More Options > Duplicate Layer for the Dollars column.

10.h. Click More Options > Format Headings for the new Dollars column.

10.i. Enter % of Total Sales in the Caption text box and click OK.

10.j. Click More Options > Format Headings for the Dollars column.

10.k. Enter Total Sales in the Caption text box and click OK.

10.l. Click More Options > Show Data As > Percent of > Column for the % of Total Sales column.

10.m. Click More Options > Aggregation Rule and deselect Report-Based Total for the % of Total Sales column.

10.n. Save the request as Top Ten Total Sales by Employee in the Team Sales folder and view the request in Answers. Compare your results with the pivot table below:






12.d.(1) Select the Criteria tab.

12.d.(2) In the selection pane, click Customers > Region while pressing the Ctrl key.

12.d.(3) Select is prompted from the Operator drop-down list of the Create/Edit Filter dialog box and click OK.

12.d.(4) In the selection pane, click Periods > Year while pressing the Ctrl key.

12.d.(5) Select is prompted from the Operator drop-down list of the Create/Edit Filter dialog box and click OK.






Case Study: Creating Interactive Dashboards

Goals To create and modify Interactive Dashboards and create saved selections

Scenario You create a new Interactive Dashboard and add the content created in the previous section of the case study. You then customize the dashboard and create saved selections, which allow users to view dashboards with the most frequently used or favorite choices for filters and prompts.


Instructions

1. Create a new Interactive Dashboard. a. Click the Settings link and select Administration to access the Oracle BI Presentation

Services Administration page. b. In the Activities section, select Manage Interactive Dashboards. The Manage Dashboards

page appears.

c. Click Create Dashboard. The Create Dashboard page appears. d. In the Group Folder drop-down list, select Team Sales, the folder you created in the previous

practice. e. In the Dashboard Name field, enter Employee Sales Revenue. f. In the Dashboard Builder field, enter Administrator. This is the name of the user or group

that can modify the dashboard. g. Click Finished. h. Repeat the steps and create another dashboard called District Sales Revenue. i. Click Finished. j. In the Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration page, click Close Window. k. Click the Dashboards link. l. Verify that the Employee Sales Revenue and District Sales Revenue dashboard links appear

at the top of the screen.






2. Add content to the District Sales Revenue dashboard. a. Click the District Sales Revenue link. b. Click here to add content. The Dashboard Editor opens. c. By default, there is one page with one column in a new dashboard. From the Dashboard

Objects section on the left, drag and drop Section into the first column. Sections are used within a column to hold the content of a dashboard.

d. From the Saved Content section on the left, drag and drop 1999 Revenue by Sales District into the section you created in the previous step.

e. From the Saved Content section on the left, drag Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) and drop directly below Section 1. Notice that a new section is created automatically in the column, and the content is included in the section.






f. Click Save. The dashboard is displayed with the embedded requests.

3. Verify your work. a. Use the prompt in the 1999 Revenue by Sales District section to change the region. Notice

that the data changes in the 1999 Revenue by Sales District section, but not in the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) section. If you do not get these results, it means you did not correctly set up the original requests. Try to troubleshoot the requests. If necessary, inform your instructor.

b. Click any of the gauges in the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) section. You should navigate to the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Table) request. If you do not get these results, try to troubleshoot the requests. If necessary, inform your instructor.

c. Click Return.

4. Change how results display when a user drills down in a dashboard. a. Select the Central region in the prompt and click any sales district in the 1999 Revenue by

Sales District section to drill down on the report. Notice that the dashboard is replaced and






the results are displayed in a new window.

b. Click Return. c. Select Page Options > Edit Dashboard. d. In Section 1, select Properties > Drill in Place.

e. Verify that Drill in Place is now checked.

f. Click Save. g. Drill down on any sales district. h. Notice that results are now displayed directly in the dashboard, replacing the original report.

5. Display results as a link within the dashboard. a. Open the Dashboard Editor.






b. In Section 2, for the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) request, select Properties > Display Results > Link – In a Separate Window.

c. Click Save. d. Notice that the request is now displayed as a link in the dashboard.

e. Click the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) link and the request opens in a

separate window. f. Close the window displaying the request.

6. Arrange section content to appear horizontally. By default, section content is aligned vertically. a. Select Page Options > Edit Dashboard. b. In Section 2, for the Change in Revenue – All Districts (Gauge) request, select Properties >

Display Results > Embedded in Section. This returns the request to its default display. c. Click the Rename button for Section 2. d. In the Rename field, type Change in Revenue. e. Select Display Section Heading.

f. Click OK to close the Rename dialog box. g. Add the Change in Revenue – Region request to the Change in Revenue section. Be sure to

add the request to the Change in Revenue section. Do not create a new section.

h. Click Save. i. Notice that the two requests are displayed vertically in the Change in Revenue section of the

dashboard.






j. Select Page Options > Edit Dashboard. k. Click the Properties button for the Change in Revenue section and select Arrange

Horizontally. l. Notice that (Arrange Horizontally) now appears below the Change in Revenue section.

m. Click Save.






n. Check your work.

7. Add content to the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard. a. Click the Employee Sales Revenue link. b. Click Page Options > Edit Dashboard to open the Dashboard Editor. c. From the Saved Content section on the left, click and drag RSum Revenue by Month into

the empty column. d. For the embedded RSum Revenue by Month request, select Properties > Show View > Pivot

Table 1.






e. Click Save and check your work.

8. Add a new page and content to the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard. a. Open the Dashboard Editor. b. Click the Add Dashboard Page button . The Add Dashboard Page dialog box is displayed. c. In the Page Name field, enter Top Sales By Employee and click OK. The new page

appears on the dashboard. d. Drag the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request into the column. e. If desired, change the section name.






f. Click Save and check your work.

9. Add a dashboard prompt to the Top Sales by Employee dashboard page. a. Open the Dashboard Editor. b. Drag the Region – Year Dashboard Prompt and drop it above the Top Five Total Sales By

Employee request.






c. Click Save and check your work.

d. Use the Region and Year prompts to manipulate the data. Only data in the Top Five Sales By

Employee request should be affected by the dashboard prompt. If not, the requests were not set up correctly. If not set up correctly, try to troubleshoot. If necessary, inform your instructor.

10. Modify the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard properties. a. Open the Dashboard Editor. b. Click the Dashboard Properties button . c. Click the Rename button for page 1. d. Change the name of page 1 to Total Sales By Employee. e. Click Update. f. Click Finished.






g. Click Save and check your work. Verify that the dashboard prompt appears only on the Top Sales By Employee page.

11. Save a selection for personal use. a. Make the following prompt choices for the Top Sales By Employee page in the Employee

Sales Revenue dashboard.

b. Click Go. c. Select Page Options > Save Current Selections > For Me …. d. Accept the name for the selection: Central – 1998. e. Click OK.

12. Create additional saved selections for personal use. a. Change the prompt choices to Central and 1999 and click Go. b. Save the selection for personal use as Central – 1999. c. Change both prompt choices to (All Choices) and click Go. d. Save the selection for personal use as All Choices.

13. Apply a saved selection. a. Select Page Options > Apply Saved Selections > Central – 1998. Notice that the saved

selection is applied to the dashboard.

14. Change a saved selection to the default view. a. Select Page Options > Save Current Selections > Edit Saved Selections and Defaults... b. Click the radio button next to the All Choices selection. c. Click the Rename button for the All Choices selection. d. Change the name to All Regions and Years. e. Click OK to close the Edit Saved Selections and Defaults window. f. Select Page Options > Apply Saved Selections and check your work.

15. Test the default saved selection. a. Click the District Sales Revenue dashboard link to step off the Employees Sales Revenue

dashboard.






b. Click the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard link. c. Verify that the expected default selection, All Regions and Years, is applied to the Top Sales

By Employee page.




Lesson 9: Customizing the Oracle Business Intelligence User Interface


Practice 9-1: Modifying Oracle Business Intelligence Cascading Style Sheets

Goals To locate and modify cascading style sheets used for Oracle Business Intelligence

Scenario You want to make global changes to the appearance of Interactive Dashboards and requests. You use cascading style sheets to make changes to the default font and colors.

Time 30 minutes

Instructions

1. Locate the folder containing the cascading style sheets (CSS) for Oracle Business Intelligence and create a backup copy of the folder. a. In Windows Explorer, navigate to D:\OracleBI\web\app\res and copy the s_oracle10 folder. b. Navigate to the D:\OracleBIData\web\res folder and paste the s_oracle10 folder. c. Rename the folder s_oracle10_backup.

2. View style sheet formatting for an existing request. You compare this current formatting with the results of your edits to the appropriate cascading style sheet. a. If necessary, start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as

Administrator. b. Click Answers. c. Select My Folders > My Sales > Formatted Sales By State. d. What is the background color of the table cells?

e. What is the background color of the column headings?

3. Edit the Views.css style sheet. a. In Windows explorer, navigate to D:\OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10\b_mozilla_4. b. Right-click views.css and select Open With > Notepad. c. Find the .ResultsTable class and make the following edits:

font-family times, serif

font size 16pt

background-color #F0E68C

d. Find the .ColumnHdg class and make the following edits:






Font size 24pt

background-color #48D1CC e. Save and close Views.css.

4. View the style sheet changes in Answers. a. Press and hold Ctrl and click the browser Refresh button (Ctrl + refresh the browser). If you

do not get the expected results, restart Oracle BI Presentation Services. b. Select My Folders > My Sales > Formatted Sales by State. c. What is the background color of the table cells?

d. What is the background color of the column headings?

e. Navigate to other saved requests. Do other requests have the same style changes?

5. Restore the original views.css file. a. Delete the edited views.css file in D:\OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10\b_mozilla_4. b. Copy the original views.css file from

D:\OracleBIData\web\res\s_oracle10_backup\b_mozilla_4 to D:\OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10\b_mozilla_4.

c. Press and hold Ctrl + refresh the browser and verify that the original styles are applied. Note: If the browser refresh does not work properly, perform the following steps: i. Log out and close the browser window. ii. Delete the views.css file. iii. Copy the original views.css file back into D:\OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10. iv. Open a new browser window. v. Clear the browser cache by selecting Tools > Internet Options > Delete Files.

Additionally, clear the browser history. vi. Log back into Answers.






Solutions 9-1: Modifying Oracle Business Intelligence Cascading Style Sheets

Answers

2.f. What is the background color of the table cells? Light blue

2.g. What is the background color of the column headings? Medium blue

4.c. What is the background color of the table cells? Gold

4.d. What is the background color of the column headings? Aqua blue

4.e. Navigate to other saved requests. Do other requests have the same style changes? Yes






Practice 9-2: Using Instanceconfig.xml to Administer Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Goals To use instanceconfig.xml to modify default settings in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Scenario You use instanceconfig.xml to override some of the default settings in Oracle BI Answers. You specify the maximum number of records to process in a pivot table and the maximum number of populated cells to process in a pivot table.


Instructions:

1. Specify the maximum number of records to process in an Answers Pivot Table view. a. Navigate to D:\OracleBIData\web\config. b. Right-click instanceconfig.xml and open it with Notepad. c. At the end of the file, before the tag closing the ServerInstance definition, add the following

entry: <CubeMaxRecords>1</CubeMaxRecords>.

d. Save and close instanceconfig.xml. e. Restart the Oracle BI Presentation Server service. f. Log in to Presentation Services as Administrator. g. Open the My Pivot request you created in an earlier practice.






h. Notice that the following error is returned:

i. What is the meaning of this error?

j. Modify the entry in instanceconfig.xml to <CubeMaxRecords>20000</CubeMaxRecords>. k. Restart the Oracle BI Presentation Server service. l. Log in to Presentation Services as Administrator. m. Open the My Pivot request you created in an earlier practice. n. Verify that the Pivot table records are returned as expected.

2. Specify the maximum number of populated cells to process in an Answers Pivot table. a. If necessary, open Instanceconfig.xml in Notepad. Marco Cruz ([email protected]) has a non-transferable





b. Add the following entry: <CubeMaxPopulatedCells>1</CubeMaxPopulatedCells>.

c. Save and close instanceconfig.xml. d. Restart the Oracle BI Presentation Server service. e. Log in to Presentation Services as Administrator. f. Open the My Pivot request. g. Notice that the following error is returned:

h. What is the meaning of this error?

i. Modify the entry in instanceconfig.xml to <CubeMaxPopulatedCells>150000</CubeMaxPopulatedCells>.

j. Restart the Oracle BI Presentation Server service. k. Log in to Presentation Services as Administrator. l. Open the My Pivot request.






m. Verify that the Pivot table records are returned as expected.






Solutions 9-2: Using Instanceconfig.xml to Administer Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Answers

1.i. What is the meaning of this error? The maximum number of records that can be processed by a pivot table is set too low in instanceconfig.xml.

2.h. What is the meaning of this error? The maximum number of populated cells that can be processed by a pivot table is set too low in instanceconfig.xml.






Practice 9-3: Using XML Message Files to Administer Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Goals To use XML message files to administer Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Scenario You use XML message files to override the default values distributed with Oracle BI Presentation Services. You add a default header and footer to new reports and automatically include links in reports that are embedded in dashboards.


Instructions:

1. Use a custom XML message file to add a default header and footer to new reports. An .xml template has been provided to you for the purposes of this practice. a. Navigate to D:\labs. b. Copy HeaderFooter.xml. c. Paste HeaderFooter.xml into D:\OracleBIData\web\msgdb\l_en\CustomMessages. Note that

you need to create the required folders under D:\OracleBIData\web\msgdb. d. Right-click HeaderFooter.xml and open with Notepad. e. Locate the caption tags between the pageHeader tags. f. Change AAAA to ABC Company. g. Locate the caption tags between the pageFooter tags. h. Change AAAA to Confidential. i. Save the file and close Notepad. Marco Cruz ([email protected]) has a non-transferable





j. Double-click HeaderFooter.xml and verify your work.

k. Close HeaderFooter.xml.

2. Check your work. a. Log out of Presentation Services. b. Restart the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Server services. c. Log in to Presentation Services as Administrator. d. Create a new request. e. Click Results. f. Verify that the header and footer appear in the request. Your results should look similar to

the following:






g. Save the request as HeaderFooter in the My Sales folder.

3. Use a custom XML message file to automatically include links in reports that are embedded in dashboards. By default, the results of embedded reports within a dashboard are displayed without including the Modify, Print, Refresh, Download, and Add to Briefing Book links. You modify an .xml message file template to include these links. a. Select My Dashboard. b. Open the Dashboard Editor. c. Add the HeaderFooter request to the dashboard. d. Save the dashboard and observe the results. The table appears without the Modify, Refresh,

Print, Download, and Add to Briefing Book links.

e. Navigate to D:\labs. f. Copy Links.xml. g. Paste Links.xml into D:\OracleBIData\web\msgdb\l_en\CustomMessages. h. Right-click Links.xml and open with Notepad. i. Add the attribute values to the file so that links=“mfrdg”. j. Save the file and close Notepad. k. Double-click Links.xml and verify your work.

l. Close Links.xml.

4. Check your work. a. Log out of Presentation Services. b. Restart the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Server services. c. Log in to Presentation Services as Administrator. d. Navigate to My Dashboard and open the Dashboard Editor.






e. Embed another instance of the HeaderFooter request in the dashboard. f. Save the dashboard and observe the results. The second instance of the HeaderFooter request

includes the links.




Lesson 10: Configuring Guided Navigation Links


Practice 10-1: Configuring Guided Navigation Links

Goals To create guided navigation links in an Interactive Dashboard

Scenario You want to help users navigate Oracle Business Intelligence information by embedding common scenarios and best practices directly into Interactive Dashboards through guided navigation. You add guided navigation links to an Interactive Dashboard created in a previous practice.


Instructions 1. Navigate to My Dashboard in Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services.

2. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard.

3. Add a new dashboard page. a. Click the Add Dashboard Page button. b. Name the page Guided Navigation Example. c. Click OK.

4. Add the Sales By State request. a. From the My Sales folder, drag the Sales By State request object into the empty column.

5. Add a static guided navigation link. a. Drag the Guided Nav. Link object above the Sales By State request in Section 1. b. Click the Properties button. The Guided Navigation Link Properties dialog box is displayed. c. Create a target for the static link by referencing a request.

i. Verify that Reference Source Request is set to No. ii. Click the Browse button in the Link Properties section. The Choose Request/Dashboard

dialog box is displayed. iii. Select the Ranked Sales by State request from the My Sales folder. iv. Click OK. v. In the Caption text box, enter Click this link to see customer rankings by

state. (Include the period).






vi. Verify that the Use Dashboard Object name as link text check box is not selected.

vii. Click OK.

d. Click Save. e. Click the Ranked Sales By State link to test the results.

6. Create a conditional guided navigation link. a. Click the Dashboards link. b. Open the Dashboard Editor. c. Click and drag the Guided Nav. Link object below the guided navigation link you added in

the previous steps. d. Click the Properties button. e. Create a conditional guided navigation link by referencing a source request.

i. Make sure that Reference Source Request is set to Yes. ii. Click the Browse button for the Source Request. iii. Select the Western Region Sales with Chart request from the My Sales folder. iv. Click OK. v. Make sure that the Show Link value is set to If request returns rows. vi. Click the Browse button in the Link Properties section. vii. Select Sales By State for Current and Previous Month request from the My Sales

folder. viii. Click OK.






ix. Enter the following text in the Caption text box: [This link appears because the Western Region Sales with Chart request has returned data.] Compare your Guided Navigation Link Properties window with the one below:

x. Click OK.

7. Click Save and view the results. Notice that you now have two links.

8. Click the links to test them.

9. Change the properties of the conditional guided navigation link. a. Click Dashboards. b. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard. c. Click the Properties button for the Guided Nav Link 2 object. d. Change the Show Link property to If request returns nothing. e. Click OK.

10. Click Save and view the results. Notice that you now have only one link.

11. Add a conditional section to the dashboard page. a. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard.






b. Click and drag a new section under the existing section. c. Add the Formatted Sales By State request to the new section. d. Click the Properties button for the new section and select Guided Navigation from the

drop-down list.

e. Set the Reference Source Request to Yes. f. Click the Browse button for the Source Request. g. Select Western Region Sales with Chart request from the My Sales folder. h. Click OK. i. Verify that the Show Section value is set to If request returns rows.

j. Click OK.

12. Click Save and view the results. Notice that you now have two sections.

13. Change the properties of the conditional section. a. Click the Page Options button and select Edit Dashboard. b. Click the Properties button for the Section 2 object and select Guided Navigation from the

drop-down list. c. Change the Show Section property to If request returns nothing. d. Click OK.

14. Click Save and view the results. Notice that you now have only one section.




Module 11: Administering the Oracle Business Intelligence Web Catalog


Practice 11-1: Administering Users and Groups

Goals To administer dashboard access and permissions for users and groups

Scenario You are the Oracle Business Intelligence administrator and must manage dashboard access and permissions so that only the appropriate users see certain information. You will create a new group with an associated shared Interactive Dashboard, add users to the group, and set dashboard permissions for the new users.


Instructions In this practice, first you log in to Oracle Business Intelligence as a particular user to ensure that the user is authenticated. Then you add that user to a new group and explore the default Interactive Dashboard for the group, adding content first from individual folders in the Presentation Catalog to determine the impact of dashboard and request privileges.

1. Start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as CCHENG to authenticate the user. a. Select Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Presentation Services. b. Enter the following information to log in:

User ID CCHENG

Password CCHENG

c. Click Log In. d. Verify that you are logged in as CCHENG by confirming the welcome message. CCHENG is

an authenticated user. e. Click Log Out.

2. Log back in to Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services as Administrator.

3. Click Settings and select Administration. The Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration window opens.

4. Create a new non-system Catalog group and associate a default dashboard with the group. a. Click the Manage Presentation Catalog Groups and Users link. The Presentation Catalog

Security: Groups and Users window opens. b. Click the Create a new Catalog Group link.






c. In the Create Catalog Group window, enter the following: Group Name Western Region Sales

Password Administrator

Verify Password Administrator

Dashboard Name Western Region Sales

Dashboard Builder Administrator

d. Click Finished.

5. Add users to the group. a. Locate the Western Region Sales group you just created in the Existing Catalog Groups and

Users list and click its Edit button. Notice that there are no members in this group. b. Click the Add New Member link. The Add Member to Group window appears. c. Click the Show users and groups link. d. In the Catalog Groups and Users list, click the Add link for Administrator. Notice that

Administrator is now listed as a member under Group Membership.

e. Click the Add New Member link. f. Use the steps above to add the user CCHENG to the group. g. Click Finished. h. Click Finished. i. Click Close Window to close the Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration window.

6. Verify that a new shared Presentation Catalog folder and shared dashboard have been created for the new group. a. Click Answers. b. In the selection pane, verify that a new shared folder named Western Region Sales has been

created.






c. Click the Dashboards tab and verify that the group’s default dashboard has been added.

7. Click Dashboards and then click the Western Region Sales dashboard link at the top of the screen. Notice that the dashboard is empty.

8. Remaining logged in as Administrator, add content from your personal Catalog folders to the Western Region Sales dashboard. Notice that you automatically have permissions to modify the new group dashboard because you specified Administrator as the Dashboard Builder when you created the Western Region Sales group and its associated dashboard above. a. Click the here link to add content. b. Add the Western Region Sales with Chart request from My Folders > My Sales to the

dashboard page. c. Click the Save button and view the results. The request should appear in the group dashboard

because you are logged in as Administrator and therefore have access to the request you’ve added.

9. Click Log Out.

10. Log back in as CCHENG. Notice that CCHENG has no content in the My Dashboard page.


12. Click the Western Region Sales dashboard link. Notice that while CCHENG has access to the shared dashboard due to her membership in the Western Region Sales Catalog group, she cannot see the content you added to the dashboard as Administrator because it is in that user’s personal folder. Also note that CCHENG cannot see the Edit Dashboard link, as she was not designated as the Dashboard Builder and has not been granted change permissions on the dashboard.

13. Give CCHENG explicit change permissions for the dashboard. This will not permit the user to view the request, but will allow edits of content in the dashboard. a. Click Log Out. b. Log back in as Administrator. c. Click Settings and select Administration. The Oracle BI Presentation Services

Administration window opens. d. Click the Manage Interactive Dashboards link. e. Click the Permissions button for the Western Region Sales dashboard. Notice that the

Western Region Sales group has Traverse Folder permissions on the dashboard, which is why CCHENG and other members of the group can view the dashboard.

f. Click the Show users and groups link. g. Click the Add link for CCHENG.






h. Click the control property link until it changes to Change/Delete.

i. Click Finished. j. Click Finished. k. Click Close Window.

14. Click Log Out.

15. Log back in as CCHENG.

16. Click Dashboards and then click the Western Region Sales dashboard link.

17. Click Page Options and select Edit Dashboard. Notice that the Western Region Sales with Chart request is present, but that it appears with a warning icon indicating that it is not present in the catalog. This is because the request is still available only in the Administrator’s personal folder in the catalog.

18. Click Save. CCHENG still cannot see any content. This is because CCHENG does not have permission to access this content.

19. Click Log Out. In the next practice, you will copy the request to the Western Region Sales shared folder and assign necessary privileges for all content so that it will be available to all members of the group. Finally, you will delete all personal folder content from the shared dashboard so that anyone later added to the Western Region Sales group will automatically have access to the dashboard and its embedded content.






Practice 11-2: Managing the Catalog

Goals To use the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager to manage the catalog

Scenario You need to give a group permission to view specific content on a shared dashboard. You use the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager to copy a request from one user and make it available to a group.


Instructions

By default the Presentation Services Catalog autosaves every five minutes. To ensure that you see changes from the previous practice, allow five minutes between the completion of the previous practice and the start of this practice.

1. Stop the Oracle BI Presentation Server service.

2. Select Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Catalog Manager. The Catalog Manager may take up to a minute to start.

3. Open the Presentation Catalog. a. Select File > Open Catalog from the menu. The Open Catalog dialog box is displayed. b. Enter the following:

Type Offline Path D:\OracleBIData\web\catalog\default

c. Click OK.

4. View the contents of the Presentation Services catalog. a. Click users in the left pane. b. Select the administrator folder, then select the My Sales folder. Notice the requests and

prompts you created in previous practices. c. Select the _portal folder to see the dashboard pages you created.

5. Add the Western Region Sales with Chart request to the Western Region Sales shared folder. a. Select users > administrator > My Sales. b. Copy the Western Region Sales with Chart request. c. Select shared > Western Region Sales. d. Paste the Western Region Sales with Chart request into the Western Region Sales folder. e. Select the Western Region Sales with Chart request in the Western Region Sales folder.






f. Select Edit > Permissions. In the Permissions dialog box, verify that the Western Region Sales group appears in the Users and groups (Explicit permissions) list.

g. Change the Permissions type to Read using the drop-down list.

h. Click OK.

6. Add read permissions to the West Region, 1999 saved filter that is included in the shared request. a. Select users > administrator > _filters > SupplierSales. b. Select the West Region, 1999 filter. c. Select Edit > Permissions. d. In the Permissions dialog box, select the Western Region Sales group in the Additional

users and groups list. e. Click the < button to move the group to the Users and groups (Explicit permissions) list. f. Verify that the Permissions type is Read.

g. Click OK. h. Select File > Exit to close the Catalog Manager. i. Start the Oracle BI Presentation Server service.






7. Start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as CCHENG.

8. Click Dashboards and then click the Western Region Sales dashboard link.

9. Add the shared request to the shared dashboard. a. Click Page Options and select Edit Dashboard. b. Add the Western Region Sales with Chart request from Shared Folders > Western Region

Sales to the dashboard page below the original request.

c. Click the Delete button for the request from the Administrator’s personal My Sales folder. d. Click the Save button and view the results. e. The request should appear in the group dashboard because you are logged in as CCHENG, a

member of the group, and therefore have access to the shared request you’ve added to the dashboard.




Module 12: Using Oracle Business Intelligence Delivers


Practice 12-1: Configuring Scheduler Tables

Goals To create Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler tables

Scenario In order to deliver iBots, the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler must be installed and configured. The first step is to create tables for storing information about Scheduler jobs. You create the following tables in the SUPPLIER2 database using iSQL Plus: S_NQ_ERR_MSG, S_NQ_INSTANCE, S_NQ_JOB, and S_NQ_JOB_PARAM.


Instructions

To enable the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler, certain tables need to exist (mentioned above) to store information. The scheduler, in turn, monitors these tables and performs any necessary actions. These tables store information about a job instance, parameters, and schedule. You run SQL scripts to create the tables.

1. Start the iSQLPlus service. a. Double-click the Services button on your desktop. b. Start the OracleOraDB10g_homeiSQL*Plus service.

2. Create the Scheduler tables. a. Identify your machine name.

i. Right-click your computer icon on the desktop and select Properties. ii. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Computer Name tab. iii. In the Full computer name field, note your machine name.

iv. Click Cancel. b. Select Start > Programs > Oracle – OraDb10g_home1 > Application Development > SQL

Plus. c. In the Log On dialog box, enter the following and click OK:

Login name SUPPLIER2

Password SUPPLIER2






d. Enter @ D:\OracleBI\server\Schema\SAJOBS.Oracle.sql.

e. Verify that the script has run successfully. The message should resemble the following:

f. Select File > Exit to close SQL*Plus.

3. Use Oracle Enterprise Manager to verify that the following tables exist: S_NQ_ERR_MSG, S_NQ_INSTANCE, S_NQ_JOB, and S_NQ_JOB_PARAM. a. In Internet Explorer, navigate to http://<hostname>:1158/em. b. In the Login screen, enter the following values:

Login name SUPPLIER2

Password SUPPLIER2

c. Click Login. (If the Oracle Database 10g Licensing Information window appears, click I agree.)

d. Click the Administration link. e. Scroll down and click the Tables database object. f. Click Go to search the SUPPLIER2 schema.






g. Scroll down in the list of tables and click the Next 14 link. The tables you’ve added should appear as follows at the bottom of the list.

h. Click Logout in the upper right of the screen and close the browser.






Practice 12-2: Configuring the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler

Goals To configure the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler

Scenario You have created the tables for storing information about Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler jobs in the SUPPLIER2 database. Now you need to configure the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler. You set Scheduler configuration options in the Job Manager Configuration dialog box, a feature of the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool.


Instructions

1. Set Scheduler configuration options in the Job Manager Configuration dialog box. a. Select Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Administration. b. Select File > Open > Online. c. Enter the following values:

User: Administrator

Password: Administrator

d. Click Open to open the repository in online mode. e. Select Manage > Jobs to open the Job Manager. f. Select File > Configuration Options. g. Click the Scheduler tab. h. In the Database subtab, enter or verify the following values:

Database Type Oracle 10g R1 Call Interface OCI 10gR1/R2 Data Source Name ORCL

User name SUPPLIER2

Password SUPPLIER2

Confirm Password SUPPLIER2

i. Click the General subtab.






j. In the General sub-tab, enter or verify the following values:

Administrator Name Administrator

Administrator Password Administrator

Administrator Confirm Password Administrator

2. Set mail configuration options. a. Click the Mail tab. b. In the Sender Address field, enter [email protected]. c. In the SMTP Server field, enter localhost. d. Click OK to close the Job Scheduler Configuration window. e. If you receive a message indicating that you must restart the service, click OK. f. Select File > Exit to close the Job Manager. g. Select File > Exit to close the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool.

3. Start the Oracle BI Scheduler service. If the service is already started, restart it.






Practice 12-3: Creating and Delivering an iBot

Goals To create an iBot and deliver it to an Intelligence Dashboard and an e-mail account

Scenario You need to create and test an iBot that delivers an alert to an Interactive Dashboard and an e-mail account based on a condition.


Instructions:

1. Start Oracle BI Delivers. a. If necessary, start Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services and log in as

Administrator. b. Click the More Products link and select Delivers to navigate to the Oracle BI Delivers start

page.

2. Edit your delivery profile. a. Click Edit My Account.

b. Under Delivery Options, click Add Email Device. c. Select the Email device (leftmost icon) and confirm or enter the following values:

Device Name Email

Device / Provider HTML eMail Address [email protected]

d. Click Finished. e. If you receive an AutoComplete dialog window, click No.






f. Verify that the device is listed under Devices.

g. Under the Delivery Profiles box, click Add Delivery Profile. h. In the Delivery Profile window, enter the following values:

Name Email

Content Priority Normal i. Click Finished. j. Verify that the profile is listed under Delivery Profiles.

k. Click Finished.

3. Start the e-mail server. a. Select Start > Programs > hMailServer > Service > Start Service.

4. Create the e-mail account that will receive the iBot. a. Open Outlook Express by selecting Start > Programs > Outlook Express. b. Click No if asked to make Outlook Express your default mail client. c. If necessary, click Cancel to close the Internet Connection Wizard. d. Select Tools > Accounts from the menu. e. Select the Mail tab. f. Click the Add button and select Mail from the pop-up menu. g. Enter User in the Display name text box. h. Click Next. i. Enter [email protected] in the Email address field. j. Click Next. Accept POP3 as the incoming mail server. k. Enter localhost in the Incoming mail server field. l. Enter localhost in the Outgoing mail server field. m. Click Next. n. Enter oracle in the Password text box. o. Click Next. p. Click Finish. q. Click Close. r. Minimize the Outlook Express window.






5. Create an iBot that will deliver a request to a dashboard and an e-mail account based on a schedule. a. Return to Oracle BI Delivers and click Create New iBot to open the iBot overview page.

b. Click the General tab to specify the priority of the iBot and how to send the delivery content. c. Enter or confirm the following values:

Priority Normal Data Visibility Personalized (individual data visibility) Run As <Leave Blank>

d. Click the Conditional Request tab. e. Click Select Condition. The Choose Request dialog box is displayed. f. Click the My Sales folder to expand it. g. Select the Sales By State request that will trigger the iBot. h. Click OK. i. Click the Schedule tab to schedule the iBot. j. Verify that Set Schedule, Start Immediately, and Recurrence/Once (Run once) are selected. k. Click the Recipients tab to identify recipients of the iBot. l. Select Me. m. Click the Delivery Content tab to identify the content that will be delivered by the iBot.

i. Enter a headline. ii. Click Select Content to open the Choose Delivery Content dialog box. iii. Click the My Sales folder to expand it. iv. Select the Formatted Sales By State request to pick the content that will be delivered by

the iBot. v. Click OK. vi. Verify that (Device default) is selected in the Send content as drop-down list.

n. Click the Destinations tab to select the destination for the iBot. o. Under User Destinations, check the Interactive Dashboard and Active Delivery Profile

check boxes. p. Click the Save button to save the iBot. q. Enter a name and description for the iBot. r. Click OK.

6. Verify that the iBot was sent to the specified destinations. a. Click the Dashboards link to open the My Dashboard page. b. Verify that the iBot you created appears in the Alerts section at the top of the page. c. Click the iBot name to view the iBot. d. Close the iBot.






e. Click the Alerts menu item to open the Alerts page.

f. Verify that the iBot you created appears on the page. g. Click View to view the alert. h. Close the alert. i. Return to Outlook Express. j. Click Inbox in the left pane of Outlook Express. k. Click Send/Recv. If prompted for a username, ensure that you enter the entire name, that is

[email protected]. l. In the right pane, verify that an email was delivered with the iBot. It may take a few minutes

for the iBot to appear in the Inbox. m. Leave Outlook Express open.






Practice 12-4: Chaining an iBot

Goals To create a new iBot to be automatically executed when another iBot completes

Scenario You need to “chain” iBots, so that the result of one iBot triggers the delivery of a second iBot. You create a new iBot to be automatically executed and delivered to an Interactive Dashboard and an e-mail account when the iBot created in the previous practice completes.


Instructions 1. If necessary, start Oracle BI Delivers

a. Click More Products > Delivers to navigate to the Oracle BI Delivers start page.

2. Create an iBot that will be executed automatically when another iBot completes. a. Click Create New iBot to open the iBot overview page. b. Click the General tab to specify the priority of the iBot and how to send the delivery content. c. Enter or verify the following values:

Priority Normal Data Visibility Personalized (individual data visibility) Run As <Leave Blank>

d. Click the Schedule tab to schedule the iBot. e. Verify that Set Schedule, Start Immediately, and Recurrence/Once (Run once) are selected. f. Click the Recipients tab to identify recipients of the iBot. g. Select Me. h. Click the Delivery Content tab to identify the content that will be delivered by iBot.

i. Enter a headline. ii. Click Select Content to open the Choose Delivery Content window. iii. Select the Ranked Sales By State request from the My Sales folder. iv. Click OK. v. Select (Device default) from the Send content as drop-down list.

i. Click the Destinations tab to select the destination for the iBot. i. Under User Destinations, verify that Interactive Dashboard and Active Delivery Profile

are checked. j. Click the Save button to save the iBot.

i. Enter a name and description for the iBot. ii. Click OK.






3. Open and modify the iBot created in the previous practice. a. If necessary, select Delivers to navigate to Oracle BI Delivers. b. In the left panel, click My iBots to expand the folder, and then select the iBot you created in

the previous practice. c. Click the Schedule tab and select Set Schedule and Start Immediately. d. Select the Advanced tab to select the iBot that will be executed automatically when this iBot

completes. i. Click Add Action from the “Execute these actions when iBot conditions are satisfied”

area.

ii. Select iBot from the list. iii. In the iBot Properties dialog box, click Browse. iv. In the Select iBot dialog box, select the iBot you created in this practice. v. Click OK. vi. For Execute for Recipients, select of current iBot in the drop-down list. vii. Click OK.

e. Save the iBot.

4. Verify that iBot was sent to the specified destinations. a. Click the Dashboards link to open the My Dashboard page. b. Verify that the iBot you created in the previous practice appears in the Alerts section at the

top of the page. c. Verify that the iBot you created in this practice was also executed and appears in the Alerts

section. d. Click the Alerts! link to open the Alerts page. e. Verify that both iBots appear on the page. f. Close the Alerts page. g. If necessary, open Outlook Express.

i. Select Start > Programs > Outlook Express. ii. If prompted for a user name and password, enter the following values:

User Name: User

Password: oracle

iii. Click OK. h. Click Inbox in the left pane of Outlook Express. i. Click Send/Recv. j. In the right pane, verify that both iBots were delivered. k. Close Outlook Express.




Lesson 13: Using Oracle BI Briefing Books


Practice 13-1: Working with Briefing Books

Goals To create, save, and view a briefing book

Scenario You create a briefing book to store a static snapshot of an Interactive Dashboard and an individual request. You then download and view the briefing book and add a list of available briefing books to your dashboard page.


Instructions

1. Create a briefing book. a. Navigate to the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard. b. Click the Add To Briefing Book button at the bottom of the page. The Save Briefing

Book Content page opens.






c. Click the New Briefing Book button. The New Briefing Book page appears.

d. In the Briefing Book Name field, enter My Briefing Book. e. Click Save Briefing Book. You are returned to the Save Briefing Book Content page. My

Briefing Book appears in the Briefing Book list.

f. Click Cancel to return to the dashboard page. These steps created an empty briefing book. g. Click the Answers link. h. In the selection pane, click the My Briefing Books folder and verify that My Briefing Book

appears.

2. Add the content of a dashboard page to My Briefing Book. a. Navigate to the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard. b. Click the Total Sales By Employee dashboard page. c. Click the Add To Briefing Book button at the bottom of the page. The Save Briefing

Book Content page opens. d. Select My Briefing Book from the Briefing Book drop-down list. e. Accept the default save options. Updatable means that the content is refreshed whenever the

briefing book is downloaded, or when it is specified as the delivery content for an iBot in Oracle BI Delivers. Snapshot means that the content is added in its current state. It is not updated when the briefing book is rerun.

f. Click Add. The Save Briefing Book Content page closes automatically. g. Click Answers. h. Select My Briefing Books > My Briefing Book.






i. Verify that the Total Sales By Employee page was added to My Briefing Book.

3. Set up an individual request in a dashboard to add content to My Briefing Book. a. Navigate to the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard. b. Open the Dashboard Editor. c. Select the Top Sales By Employee page. d. Click the Properties button for the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request and select

Report Links.

e. In the Report Links dialog box, select Add to Briefing Book.

f. Click OK.

4. Add the content of the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request to My Briefing Book. a. Click Save.






b. Notice that the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request now has the link Add to Briefing Book.

c. Click the Add to Briefing Book link. d. Click Add. e. Click Answers. f. Select My Briefing Books > My Briefing Book. g. Verify that the Top Five Total Sales by Employee request was added to My Briefing Book.

5. Download the briefing book. a. Click the Get Now button. b. In the File Download dialog box, click Save. c. Save My Briefing Book to your desktop. Downloaded briefing books are saved with an

.sbb file extension.






d. Click Close when download is complete.

6. View the briefing book. a. Navigate to your desktop and double-click My Briefing Book.sbb to open it. The Briefing

Book Reader application is launched. A static snapshot of your dashboard pages and requests appears.

b. Use the arrows or the menu options to navigate the content. c. When you are done, select File > Close the close the browser.

7. Add a list of available briefing books to your dashboard page. a. Navigate to the Employee Sales Revenue dashboard. b. Click the Total Sales By Employee page. c. Open the Dashboard Editor.






d. Drag a Folder dashboard object directly below RSum Revenue By Month.

e. Click the Properties button for the folder object. The Folder Properties dialog box opens. f. Click Browse. g. Select My Folders > _briefingbook and click OK. h. Select Expand. i. Click OK. j. Click Save. k. To see a list of your briefing books, click the My Briefing Books folder.

l. To edit the properties of My Briefing Book, click the My Briefing Book link. m. Click Cancel to close the My Briefing Book window.




Lesson 14: Integrating with Office


Practice 14-1: Working with Oracle BI Requests and Views in Office

Goals To install the BI Office client and use Oracle BI content in PowerPoint and Excel

Scenario You install the Oracle BI Office client and then add Oracle BI content to PowerPoint and Excel documents directly from the Presentation Catalog and by copying views in Presentation Services and pasting them.


Instructions


2. In Answers, create the following request using the SupplierSales subject area:

3. Click the Results tab to view the Compound Layout, then click the Chart button to add a chart view to the layout. Click OK to accept the default chart.






4. Save the request as Sales and Units Shipped by Region in the My Sales folder in the Presentation Catalog.

5. Download and install Oracle BI Office. a. Select More Products > Download Oracle BI for Microsoft Office. b. In the File Download dialog box, click Save. c. In the Save as dialog box, navigate to the desktop and click Save. d. When the download completes, click Close. e. On the desktop, double-click OracleBIOffice.exe. f. In the installation wizard’s Welcome page, click Next. g. Accept the defaults and click Next. h. Select Typical and click Next. i. Review the installation settings and click Next. j. When the installation is complete, click Finish.

6. Create a connection to the BI Office Server. a. Select Start > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 to start

PowerPoint. b. When prompted to enter your Oracle BI Office Server connection information, click OK. c. In the Connection Detail dialog box, enter the following:

Name BI Office

Office Server <Machine_Name>

Port 9704

d. Click Test Connection. e. Click OK to confirm that the connection was successful. f. Click OK.

7. Log in to the BI Server from PowerPoint. a. Select Oracle BI > Login.






b. Enter Administrator in the User ID and Password fields of the Add-In login dialog box, and select the BI Office connection you created above.

c. Click Login.

8. Add a table and a chart to slides in your PowerPoint presentation. a. Select Insert > New Slide to add a new slide to your presentation. Enter Sales and Units

by Region as the title of the slide. b. In the Office Pane, expand the My Folders and My Sales folders in the Presentation Catalog.

c. Locate the Sales and Units Shipped by Region request and expand it to view the available

views. The flatDataView view presents the data in a raw tabular format and is best used in Excel when you want to export data for manipulation using Excel features. The other available views correlate with the views you added above.

d. Select tableView!1 and click the Insert button . e. In the Insert View dialog box, select the Region dimension to set the level you want to

display data at and click Insert. The table is inserted as a native PowerPoint chart. Resize the table to fit the slide and change the font size of the table text as you wish. It should appear similar to the following:






f. Double-click staticchart!1 to insert the chart in the default PowerPoint Chart format.

Rearrange the table and chart so that they fit in the slide.

g. Select the chart and delete it from the slide.






h. Right-click staticchart!1 and select Insert as Image. Resize the chart so that it fits correctly in the slide.

i. Click the Secure Oracle BI Data button on the Office toolbar to secure the BI data included in your presentation. The metadata describing the view is preserved, but all BI data is secured in your presentation.






j. Select Oracle BI > Refresh All to refresh the Oracle BI content in your slides. Note that when the views are refreshed, any stored states for the views, for example levels in a hierarchy, are maintained in the view metadata and refreshed accordingly with the latest data.

k. Click OK. l. Select Insert > New Slide to add a new slide to your presentation. Enter Sales and Units

by Region as the title of the second new slide. m. In Answers, view the request in the Compound Layout in the Results tab. Note that the

Compound layout contains a Title view, a Table view, and a Chart view. n. Scroll to the bottom and click the Copy link. This copies the view’s request XML to the

clipboard. o. In PowerPoint, select Oracle BI > Paste. Notice that a dialog box is displayed listing the

views that could not be inserted because they are not supported.

p. Click OK. The table and chart view, including any state information, is pasted into the slide

in the default native PowerPoint table and chart formats. q. Insert a new slide and select Edit > Paste. The XML metadata that defines the request and

views is pasted into the slide. This metadata supports the ability to refresh data in your documents against the BI Server.

9. Close PowerPoint.






10. Log in to the BI Server from Excel and add a pivot table to your worksheet. a. Select Start > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Excel 2003 to start Excel. b. When prompted to enter your Oracle BI Office Server connection information, click OK. c. In the Connection Detail dialog box, enter the following:

Name BI Office

Office Server <Machine_Name>

Port 9704

d. Click Test Connection. e. Click OK to confirm that the connection was successful. f. Click OK. g. Select Oracle BI > Login. h. Log in as Administrator using the BI Office connection. i. In the Office Pane, expand the My Sales folder in the Presentation Catalog and then expand

the My Pivot request. Notice that in addition to the views available for insertion in PowerPoint, you can also insert the Pivot Table view in Excel.

j. Locate the Sales and Units Shipped by Region request and expand it to view the available

views. The flatDataView view presents the data in a raw tabular format and is best used in Excel when you want to export data for manipulation using Excel features. The other available views correlate with the views you added above.

k. Select pivotTableView!1 and click the Insert button . Note that you can also double-click

the view to insert it.






l. In the Insert View dialog box, select the Customer dimension to set the level you want to display data at and click Insert. The Pivot table is added to the worksheet:

m. Secure the Oracle BI content in your worksheet.

n. Click the Refresh Worksheet button in the Office toolbar to refresh the worksheet and

retrieve the data for the pivot table. o. Save the worksheet and close Excel.




Lesson 15: Using Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher


Practice 15-1: Building a BI Publisher Report Based on an Answers Request

Goals To create a BI Publisher report based on an Answers request and view its data in BI Publisher

Scenario You create an Answers request with filters for dashboard prompts and use Oracle BI Publisher for Word to open the request and save it as a BI Publisher request. You then create and upload a template for use with the report and view the results.


Instructions


2. In Answers, create the following request using the SupplierSales subject area and save it as Sales by State and Region:

3. Set filters for Is Prompted on both the Region and State columns.

4. In Word, open the Sales by State and Region.rtf file in D:\labs. This is a simple rich text format file with a header, footer, and a title that will serve as the basis for a BI Publisher template for the Answers request you have created. Observe that the Oracle BI Publisher menu and toolbar is displayed in Word, indicating that Oracle BI Publisher Desktop is installed. Explore the options in the toolbar menus.






5. Select Oracle BI Publisher > Log On and log in as Administrator with password Administrator. If you are prompted for the report server URL, enter the URL in the following format: http://<Machine_Name>:9704/xmlpserver.

6. The Open Template dialog box is displayed. By default, the template selection defaults to the BI Publisher workspace, displaying the BI Publisher folders and their respective reports and template layouts. Select Oracle BI from the Workspace drop-down list. Notice that your Presentation Catalog folders are displayed in the left-hand selection pane.

7. Select Users > Administrator > My Sales and, in the Reports list, double-click the Sales by State and Region BI Answers request. The Save As Oracle BI Publisher Report dialog box is






displayed, allowing you to save the Answers request as a BI Publisher report in the BI Publisher folders.

8. Select My Folders and click Save to save the report. When you save an Answers request as a BI Publisher Report, the XML data definitions are loaded into the RTF template file so that you can define the layout for the report data.

9. Add a bar chart to the template. a. In the report template in Word, select <Insert Bar Graph here>. b. In the BI Publisher toolbar, select Insert > Chart.

c. In the Chart dialog box, drag Salesfacts.Dollars to the Values field. d. Drag Customers.Region to the Labels field. e. In their respective drop-down lists, select Bar Graph - Vertical as the Type, and select

Comet as the Style. f. Enter Sales by Region as the Title.






g. Click Preview to see how the graph appears with your selections.

h. Drag Periods.Year to the Series field and preview the graph.

i. Click OK.






j. In the template, resize the chart so that it fits correctly in the table and verify your work:

10. Add a pie chart to the template. a. In the report template in Word, select <Insert Pie Chart here>. b. In the BI Publisher toolbar, select Insert > Chart. c. In the Chart dialog box, drag Salesfacts.Units Ordered to the Values field. d. Drag Customers.Region to the Labels field. e. In their respective drop-down lists, select Pie Chart as the Type, and select Comet as the

Style. f. Enter Units by Region as the Title. Marco Cruz ([email protected]) has a non-transferable





g. Click Preview to see how the pie chart appears with your selections.

h. Click OK. i. In the template, resize the chart so that it fits correctly in the table and verify your work:

11. Add a table to the template. a. In the report template, select <Insert Table here>. b. In the BI Publisher toolbar, select Insert > Table Wizard to define a table format for the

report data. c. Select Table and click Next.






d. Click Next. e. Select Periods.Year, Customers.Region, Customers.State, and SalesFacts.Dollars in the

left-hand list and add them to the right-hand list of fields to be included in the table, and then click Next.

f. Select Periods.Year from the Group By drop-down list to group the data by year, and then

click Next.






g. Select Customers.Region from the Sort By drop-down list to sort first by region, and then select Customers.State from the Then By drop-down list to set a secondary sort on the state.

h. Click Next.

i. Edit the labels of the fields Customers.Region, Customers.State, and Salesfacts.Dollars as Region, State, and Dollars.






j. Click Finish and verify that your table appears in the template as follows. Notice the form fields with the gray background, which reference request data in the template.

k. Save the template. Note that you could also use Word formatting commands to specify the

formatting of elements in the table, including cell formatting, justification, and font properties.

l. You need to set a format to display the dollars in the correct format. Double-click the _SalesFacts_._Dollars_ E form field in the Dollars column.

m. In the BI Publisher Properties dialog box, click Word Properties. n. In the Text Form Field Options dialog box, select Number from the Type drop-down list. o. In the Default number field, enter 99,999,999.99, and in the Number format drop-down list,

select the format with a leading $ symbol.

p. Click OK.






q. Select Preview > PDF to preview your report and template in Adobe Acrobat.

12. Upload the template. a. Select Oracle BI Publisher > Upload Template As. b. In the Upload as new dialog box, enter My Template as the template name. c. Click OK. d. Click OK when the message indicating that the template was uploaded successfully is

displayed.

13. View the BI Publisher report you created from an Answers request with the template you added to it. a. In Answers, select More Products > BI Publisher. b. On the Reports tabbed page of BI Publisher Enterprise, click the My Folders link to open the

BI Publisher folder.






c. Click the View link below the Sales by State and Region BI Publisher report.

d. Your report should appear in the template as follows:






Practice 15-2: Building a BI Publisher Report Using Oracle Business Intelligence Subject Areas

Goals To create a BI Publisher report by building a logical query in BI Publisher’s Query Builder using a BI Server metadata subject area

Scenario You create a new report, which uses a BI EE data source, building a logical query based on BI Server metadata using the BI Publisher Query Builder. You then upload an existing template and define a layout for the report so that you can view the results.


Instructions

1. Launch BI Publisher Enterprise and create a new report. a. In Answers, select More Products > BI Publisher. b. Click My Folders. c. Click Create a new report.

d. Enter Units by State and Region in the Enter Report Name field and click Create. e. Click the Edit link below the Units by State and Region report. f. In the Edit view, click Data Model and click New to define the data source for this report.

The Data Set page is displayed. g. Select SQL Query from the Type drop-down list. h. Select Oracle BI EE from the Data Source drop-down list.






i. Click Query Builder to create the SQL query. The Query Builder displays the SupplierSales subject areas from the BI Server metadata.

j. Drag the Customers, Periods, and Sales Facts SupplierSales schema objects from the left-hand Schema selection pane onto the Model workspace on the right.

k. Select the following columns for the query from objects (select the check boxes for each

column): • Customers.Region

• Customers.State

• Periods.Year

• SalesFacts.Units Shipped

l. Click the Conditions link and explore the grouping, sorting, and alias options you can use.

Accept the defaults.






m. Click the Results link to run the query and view the results.

n. Click Save. o. In the Data Set page, note that the logical SQL query is displayed. This query uses the logical

names for the metadata objects and is interpreted by the BI Server, which provides the result set.

p. Click Save to save the report’s data set.

2. Create a layout and upload a template for the report. a. Click Layouts and click New to define a layout for the report. b. On the Layout page, enter Units by Region and State in the Name field. c. Click Layouts and, in the Manage Template Files area of the Create Layouts page, click

Browse. d. In the Choose File dialog box, select the Units by State and Region.rtf file from

D:\labs. This is a rich text format template that has been prepared for the BI Publisher report you have created.






e. Click Upload to upload the template file.

f. Select the Units by Region and State layout you created and verify that the Units by State

and Region.rtf file appears in the Template drop-down list. g. Click Save. h. Click the View link to view the report in the template. i. Your report should appear in the template as follows:






Practice 15-3: Publishing BI Publisher Reports in Interactive Dashboards

Goals To add a BI Publisher report to a new Interactive Dashboard page

Scenario You create a new dashboard page and then use the Dashboard Editor to add a dashboard prompt and a BI Publisher report to the page.


Instructions

1. Create a dashboard prompt for the region and state to filter the BI Publisher report results on the dashboard. a. In Answers, open Region and State Prompt. b. In the Set Variable column, select None from the drop-down list. c. Save the prompt in the My Sales folder as Region and State Prompt - No Variable.


3. Select Page Options > Edit Dashboard to open the Dashboard Editor.

4. Create a new Interactive Dashboard page. a. Click the Add Dashboard Page button . The Add Dashboard Page dialog box is displayed. b. Enter BI Publisher Page in the Page Name field. c. Click OK.

5. Add the dashboard prompt to the section. a. Expand the My Sales folder. b. Drag the Region and State Prompt - No Variable prompt onto the default column. c. Drag the BI Publisher Report object onto the section below the prompt.

d. Click the Properties button in the BI Publisher Report 1 object. e. In the Folder Properties dialog box, click the Browse button.






f. In the BI Publisher Report Properties dialog box, click Browse. g. In the Pick BI Publisher Report dialog box, navigate to the My Folders BI Publisher folder,

select the Sales by State and Region report, and click OK. h. Click OK to close the BI Publisher Report Properties dialog box. i. Click the Save button in the upper-right corner. Your dashboard page should appear as

follows:






j. Select Central and TX in the respective drop-down lists in the dashboard prompt and click Go. Your dashboard page should appear as follows:




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