Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Presentation Services
Presentation services is a web based portal it is useful to access Answers, Dashboards, Delivers, BI Publisher, Catalog etc. Answers are useful to develop OBI requests or reports. It is the user interface used to create BI requests. Oracle Business Intelligence Answers provides solutions to business questions. It presents data visually in charts, pivot tables, and reports to enable you to explore and interact with information. Answers provides a set of graphical tools to create and execute BI requests for Information

Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Starting Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

Load .rpd into Oracle BI Server Select Start >Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > Presentation Server 1. Enter the user ID and password. 2. Click Log In to submit your login credentials. 3. Click the Answers link to navigate to Oracle Business Intelligence Answers.

Oracle Business Intelligence Answers: Start Page

It provides access to subject areas and saved request

1. Selection Pane: The selection pane contains requests and other objects saved in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog. It shows columns and filters for selected subject area. Organizes content into presentation folders, tables and columns. 2. Subject Area: Subject Area is a logical object that organizes and presents data about a business. You can select subject areas to begin creating a request or to create a direct request 3. Links: The right side top links provide access to Oracle Business Intelligence functions 4. Search: The search text box enables you to find saved requests

Answers Workspace
Workspace provides an area to create, modify, and save requests and filters Displays selected content and tabs for working with requests

Answers Tabs
Contain on-screen information and buttons to create, access, and manage requests

Working with Requests in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers

1. Select a subject Area After logging in, select a subject area to navigate to the Oracle Business Intelligence Answers workspace. 2. Construct a request After selecting Subject Area, selection pane shows columns and filters for selected subject area. Workspace display tabs for working with requests. Expand the subject areas folder to display columns Click a column to add to the request 3. Display request results Click the Results tab to see the results of a request. When you run a request, associated SQL statements are executed and the results are displayed by default in a Compound Layout format. The Compound Format layout consists of a title view and a table view.

Save a request
Click on Save Request icon, it displays Save request page. Requests are saved by default in the My Folder On the Save Request page, you can save a request in a personal or shared folder (we can create a new folder also). When a request is saved in one of the personal folders, only the owner can access it. When it is saved in a shared folder, any user with permission to access that folder can access it

Column
Modify request criteria.
Use buttons to modify request criteria:

Each Column has three rows First row displays the folder name (Customers in the above diagram) Second row contains Column name, Order by icon used for sorting (Ex: Customer Name) Third Row contains: Column Properties (a hand with a pointing finger) Edit column properties to control appearance and layout Edit Formula (a lowercase italic fx) Add a new function (such as ranking or moving averages) Add Filter (a funnel) Limit data that appears in a column Remove Column (the symbol ) Remove a column from the request criteria

Sorting columns
It is equal to Order by clause in SQL Use the Order By button for the desired column to select the order (Ascending, Descending, and Secondary column sort).

Column Properties
The Column Properties button (a hand with a pointing finger) enables you to edit the format for a column, such as the table and column headings, the no. of decimal places, the alignment, and so on. In column Properties we have 4 Tabs I. Style II. Column Format III. Data Format IV. Conditional Format

Style Tab
Style tab is useful to set background. We can override font, cell alignment and borders of columns.

Column Format
With column format we can customize Table and Column Headings Hide the columns from displaying Value Suppression is possible (Eliminating duplicate display of values) Interaction (Interaction is 2 types 1.Heading Interaction, 2.Value Interaction) - To specify what should happen when users click the column(heading interaction) or column values (value interaction), select the appropriate option:

Default: Restores the default interaction Drill: Enables drill-down functionality Navigate to other request(s) or dashboard(s): Enables navigation to another saved request or Interactive Dashboard No Interaction: Disables drilling or navigation Write Back (Only for Value Interaction): It is useful to overwrite table values from report environment.

Data Format
Data format is useful to control the format of data. Ex. In database if we have Date column as dd/mm/yy then we can convert into mm/dd/yyyy format. Provides the ability to override the way column data is displayed based on the data type Depending on the data type (Text data, Numeric data and Date & time-zone data) of the column, different options would be available. Text data options: Treat as plain text, HTML, link, and so on Numeric data options: Treat as number, percentage, currency, and so on

Conditional Format
Conditional format is useful to do format column value based on certain condition. Ex. If Amount sold is < 10,000 then the color of column is RED. If Amount sold is > 10,000 then the color of column is Black.

Edit Formula
Provide the ability to use complex formulas in your requests. It is useful to calculate a column in report level. If we need a calculation in multiple reports then we need to create or it is best practice to create in rpd. If a calculation is useful to only one report then it is best practice to create in report level. In Edit Formula we have 2 tabs I. Column Formula II. Bins

Column Formula
Column Formulas support a wide variety of functionality. Using the elements available in the Calculation Builder (Operators, Functions, Filters, Variables), you can create complex logic for the column that you are modifying in your request. Ex: CASE When Sales measures.Dollars < 1000 Then Sales measure.Dollars * 0.1 Else Sales measures.Dollares *0.2 End

Bins
It is useful to develop CASE WHEN statements as a graphical user interface, instead of creating manually in Column Formula tab.

Add Filters
Filter is useful to get the required data in a request. It is useful to restrict the unwanted data.

Filters limit the results that appear when a request is run. The filter is translated into a WHERE clause in the SQL SELECT statement that is issued to the Oracle Business Intelligence Server. Ex: Limit the results of a request to list the customers and sales reps in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and favorite-city variable only. Click the Save Filter button to save a filter if you want to embed it or link it in other requests

Parenthetical Filtering Parenthetical filtering enables filters to be grouped. Combining more than one filter. Grouped filters appear in a bounded box. Filters can be ungrouped/cut or copied by using Edit Filter Group Button Creating and Editing Filters Use the Create/Edit Filter dialog box to create and edit filters. A column filter consists of the following elements: i. Column (Ex: Order Quantity, City etc.) ii. Value (Ex: 10, South Region, Atlanta, 2002 etc.) iii. Operator (is less than, is equals to/ is in etc.)

In OBI we can develop Filters in 5 ways 1) Using Selecting Pane Column 2) Using Criteria Column 3) Using Saved Filter 4) Using another request output as a filter 5) Using Variables 1. Using Selecting Pane Column

From selection pane press ctrl button and click on the column on which you want to add filter. Create/Edit filter window will open from there you can create a filter. 2. Using Criteria column In a request click on a columns Add Filter icon on which you want to add a filter. Create/Edit filter window will open from there you can create a filter. 3. Using Saved Filter Filters can be saved and can be used in another filter. Click a saved filter in the selection pane to add it to a request. The following window will appear and click on OK to use the saved filter.

4. Using another request output as a filter

Use any saved request that returns a column of values to filter a selected column in a request.