Dashboarding and Reporting with

Oracle BI Enterprise Edition

April 2009

© 2008 KPMG Advisory Services Private Limited, the Indian member firm of KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative. All rights reserved.

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 Agenda : Day I
Introduction
• Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management System
• Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Plus Architecture

Session I
• Oracle BI Answers
• Navigation
• Create queries
• Format views and charts
• Add user interactivity and dynamic content

Session II
• Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards
• Navigation
• Build a custom Dashboard to contain the requests and views
created 2
Introduction

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Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management System

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Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Plus Architecture

Interactive Reporting & Ad-hoc Proactive Disconnected SmartView

Dashboards Publishing Analysis Detection Analytics
and Alerts

Simplified Business Model and Abstraction Layer

Oracle Intelligent Caching Services

BI Server Multidimensional Calculation and Integration Engine

Intelligent Request Generation and Optimized Data Access Services

OLTP & ODS Data Warehouse SAP, Oracle Files Business

Systems Data Mart PeopleSoft, Siebel, Excel Process
OLAP Custom Apps XML

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 Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Plus Components

Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards

Provides fully interactive dashboards where

scorecards/analyses build using Oracle BI
Answers can be published along with a rich
variety of visualizations. The dashboard would
provide you with information filtered and
personalized to your identity, function, or role
based on predefined security rules. In addition,
Alerts can be defined which would call your
attention to specific anomalies or exceptions
you would like to investigate immediately, thus
saving you the trouble of sifting through
volumes of data to find them yourself.

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Oracle BI Answers

This is an ad hoc query and

analysis tool. With this tool you
can create new analyses from
scratch or modify existing
analyses using just a few Clicks &
Drags. Exceptions can be
automatically highlighted, using a
rich variety of visual indicators,
through the means of the
conditional formatting feature. In
addition, hierarchies can be built
which enable guided drill downs
from summary to progressive
levels of detail.

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Oracle BI Delivers

This is an alert engine which can

trigger workflows based on
business events and notify you
via your referred medium and
channel. This means field sales
representatives can receive a
short message service alert on
their cell phone and business
managers can get a PDF / Excel
attachment via e-mail

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Oracle BI Briefing Books

This tools allows you to save Dashboard
pages into a "Briefing Book" viewable by
anyone with an Oracle BI Briefing Book
reader. The Briefing Book provides a way to
create snapshots of dashboard pages, view
them offline, or share them with others.
Multi-page Briefing Books have paging
controls and are well-suited for presenting
information to others. Briefing Books also
provide a way to archive the information in
a dashboard, or they can be saved locally
(on a desktop, for example) and can be
updated with a single click whenever the
user chooses.

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Oracle BI Publisher
This tools allows you to create “Pixel Perfect” reports, and documents such as checks,
government forms etc. Users can work with familiar tools such as Microsoft Word or
Adobe Acrobat for report layouts to create the formats.

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 Key functionalities
•Support for unstructured data
•Multi-dimensional OLAP capability
•Drill to transaction capability
•Proactive alerts
•MSOffice integration
•Role based security

Benefits
•Single portal for enterprise wide
information dissemination
•Enables user to quickly zero in on problem
areas
•Enables automatic delivery of critical
information
•Enables use of MSOffice tools as the
interface for query, analysis and input
•Maintains confidentiality of information
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 Session I
Oracle BI Answers

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 OBIEE Login Credentials

URL :
User ID :
Password :

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Login Login

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 Default Dashboard

Click the Answers link to navigate to the Answers start page.

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Select the Sales History subject area by clicking the SH link in the Subject Areas list.

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In the left-hand selection pane of the Answers interface, click the Plus icon next to
Times to expand it. Expand the Calendar table and click the Calendar Month Desc
column to add it to your query criteria, which appears in the right pane.

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Click the Calendar Month Name column to add it to your query. From the Products
table, add the Prod Category column. Finally, add Measures > Sales Facts > Amount Sold
(000). Your query should look like this:

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You can reorder the columns in your query by clicking and dragging them. Drag the Prod
Category column in front of the columns from the Calendar table in your query. Your
query criteria should look like this:

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Add a saved filter to the query to limit the data to the last 12 months (based on the SH
data, this will cover from January to December 2001). Under Filters in the left-hand
selection pane, expand the SH folder and click the Most Recent 12 Months. The Apply
Saved Filter dialog box is displayed.

This filter has been created and saved in a shared folder so that it can be used by
other users. The filter uses a variable defined as the value of the maximum month
ID, which has been created in the Oracle BI repository metadata to ensure that it
is synchronized with the data.
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Click OK in the Apply Saved Filter dialog box to add the filter to your query.

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To add a filter for the direct channel, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Criteria tabs, using the selection pane, add Channels > Channel Desc to your
query criteria.

2. In the criteria pane, click the Filter button on the Channel Desc column to add a filter
on that column.

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3. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, click the All Choices link to display all values for
the column.

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4. Verify that the Operator for the filter is set to "is equal to / is in" and then click the
Direct Sales value in the list of choices. Direct Sales is added as a value in the filter. Click
OK to create the filter.

5. Click the Delete button (with and X) on the Channel Desc column to delete it from the
criteria. You are filtering on the channel, but you don't need the column in your query.

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6. Your query criteria should look like this:

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7. Click the Results tab to view the results of your query.

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Return to the Criteria tab and remove the Channel Desc filter you just created by
clicking the ‘X’ next to the filter in the Filters section.

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To create totals and format results, perform the following steps:

1. To open the Edit Table view for your results, click the Edit view icon for the Table view
in the Compound Layout.

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2. Click the Total By icon above the Calendar Month Desc column to add subtotals by
month to your results.

The measure is totaled each time the value in Calendar Month Desc changes. In this case, the
default aggregation rule (SUM) is applied. The default aggregation rule is set in the Oracle BI
repository metadata, but can be overridden using controls in the Edit Formula dialog box
accessed through the Edit Formula icon in the Edit Table view or the Criteria tab.

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3. Click the Grand Total button at the view level to add a grand total to your results.

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4. In the Display drop-down menu, select Results Only to eliminate the Header Toolbars.

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5. Scroll down to the bottom of the Results pane and click the All Pages button to
navigate to the end of your results. Verify that the grand total that you set for the
results is present.

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6. In the Display drop-down menu, select Header Toolbars with Results to access the
Header Toolbars.

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7. Click the Column Properties icon above the Amount Sold (000) column. In the Column
Properties dialog box, click the Data Format tab, select the Override Default Data
Format option, then select Use 1000's Separator option and click OK. This will display a
comma separator in the number results for the column.

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8. In the Edit Column Format dialog box, click the Save button. If you have permissions
as a Web administrator, you can save the data format as the system-wide default for
the column you are working with, or for all columns with the same data type.

Since you don't want to set this format as the system-wide default, click in the dialog
box to close the Save menu.

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9. Click OK and verify that a 1000's separator is displayed in the results for the Amount
Sold (000) column.

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To create a chart, perform the following steps:

1. Pick Chart in the View menu. By default charts are displayed as a Vertical Bar graph.

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2. Select Line from the Graph drop-down menu and 2D from the Type drop-down menu.

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3. Under the Legends icon in the column area of the left side of the Chart view, select
Prod Category create a separate line in the chart for each product category. Click the
Redraw button at the bottom to confirm the change.

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4. Click the Axis Titles and Labels icon. In the Left tab of the Axis Titles & Labels dialog
box, select Custom Title and change the custom title to Amount Sold. In the Bottom tab,
change the custom title to Calendar Month.

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5. Explore some of the other options in the Axis Titles & Labels dialog box. For example,
you can toggle whether scale labels are displayed on the axes and set orientation
guidelines for your labels. In addition, you can set overrides for the default data format
on measures, similarly to the modification you made to the amount sold column in the
steps above. Click OK. Your chart should look like this:

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6. Click the General Chart Properties icon. In the General dialog box, select Custom Title,
enter Sales Last 12 Months as the chart title, and click OK.

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7. Click the Additional Charting Options icon. In the Additional Charting Options dialog
box, click the Borders & Colors tab and set the background color to light gray. Click the
color box for Background Color and, in the Color Selector dialog box, select light gray
from the palette and click OK.

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8. In the Additional Charting Options dialog box, click the Grid Lines tab and set the
major grid line color to white and the minor grid line color to light gray, using the same
method as above. After you've set both colors, click OK to apply your changes.

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Your chart should look like this:

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9. Sort the legend by sorting the data. You want to sort by month in ascending order
and then by sales in the last month in descending order:
a. Click the Criteria tab and add the Measures > Sales Facts Current Month > Amount
Sold (000) Current Month column to your query.

b. Click the Order By button in the Calendar Month Desc column. The arrow points up to
indicate an ascending sort.

c. Click the Order By button in the Amount Sold (000) Current Month column twice. The
arrow points down to indicate a descending sort, and the number 2 is displayed to
indicate a secondary sort.

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10. Click the Results tab to verify that your sort has been applied to the legend in your
chart. The legend is sorted to match the order of the lines in the last month.

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11.Select Compound Layout from the View drop-down menu.

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12.Click the Add View link and select Chart to add the Chart view to the Compound
Layout view.

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13. Scroll to the bottom of the Compound Layout view and drag the Chart view above
the Table view in the Compound Layout. A yellow line will appear when you have a valid
insertion point.

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14. Click the Delete View icon in the Title view to delete it from the Compound Layout.

15.Click the Save Request icon. In the Choose Folder dialog box, click Shared Folders, then
click the Create Folder button. In the Create Folder In Shared Folders dialog box, enter
Learn and click OK.

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16. In the Save Request dialog box, click the Learn folder. Enter Category Sales as the
name and click OK.

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To create and set the basic layout for a pivot table, perform the following steps:

1. Pick Pivot Table in the View menu. This opens the Pivot Table Layout page.

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2. Examine the default pivot table that's created and displayed below the layout
controls. Measure labels for the measures in your query appear in blue as columns in
the pivot table. Row headings for the dimensional attributes in your query are displayed
in grey as rows by default. The measures are displayed at the intersection of the rows
and columns.

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3. Deselect the Display Results option. This option displays the results of any layout
modifications you make as you work in the Pivot Table layout. To speed performance,
you will only view your results periodically.

4. Drag the Amount Sold (000) Current Month column from the Measures area to the
Excluded area in your layout controls. When you see a blue line appear around the
control, you have a valid insertion point and can drop the column.

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5. Drag the Calendar Month Desc column below the Measure Labels in the Columns
area in your layout controls. When you see a blue line appear, you have a valid insertion
point and can drop the column.

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6. Drag the Calendar Month Name column below the Calendar Month Description in the
Columns area in your layout controls. Click the Display Results link to verify your
changes in the pivot table.

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Your pivot table should look like this:

Deselect the Display Results link.

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To add calculations and formatting to the pivot table, perform the following steps:

1. You need to add a measure to your pivot table to display the percentage of total
monthly sales for each product category. Duplicate the Amount Sold measure. Click the
More Options icon in the Amount Sold (000) measure and select Duplicate Layer.

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2. Click the More Options icon in the duplicated measure and select Format Headings.

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3. In the Edit Format dialog box, change the caption to % of Period and click OK.

Also note the other formatting options available in the dialog box.
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4. Click the More Options icon in the duplicated measure and select Show Data As >
Percent of Column.

This setting means that the measure will be displayed as a percentage of the column,
which is Month. Note the other options that are available; you can present a measure
as a percentage of the total amount for any dimension present in the pivot table
layout, for example a row or a section. You can also set alternate aggregation rules for
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5. To total the values of the rows in each column, click the Total icon in the Rows layout
control and select After.

Note that you have formatting options available for the total row labels as well as values.

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6. To add totals for each column in each row, click the Total icon in the Columns layout
control and select After.

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7. Click the click the More Options icon in the Calendar Month Desc column and select
Hidden.

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8. To show both measures together within each calendar month, drag Measure Labels
under Calendar Month Name in the Columns layout control.

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9. Click the Display Results link. Your pivot table should look like this:

Note that there are section and page levels of the pivot table that we have not used in
this example. Effective use of these would require additional attributes. Experiment, if
you want, by temporarily dragging Prod Category to section and then page.

10. Save the request by clicking the Save Request icon.

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To create a Narrative View, perform the following steps:

1. Click Answers to navigate to the Answers start page, and select the Sales History
subject area by clicking the SH link in the Subject Areas list.

You want a query to detail what happened in the most recent month, pointing out
all product categories where sales are less than the previous month.

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2. In the left-hand selection pane of the Answers interface, expand the Products table
and click the Prod Category column to add it to your query criteria.

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3. Add Measures > Month Ago Facts> % Chg Amount Sold MAgo to your query . Your
query should look like this:

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4. Add a saved filter to the query to limit the data to the current calendar month. Under
Filters in the left-hand selection pane, expand the SH folder and click the Current
Calendar Month filter. Click OK.

This filter has been created and saved in a shared folder so that it can be used by other
users. The filter uses a maximum month variable defined in the Oracle BI repository
metadata to ensure that it is synchronized with the data.
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To add a filter for the percent change in the amount sold, perform the following steps:

1. In the criteria pane, click the Filter button on the % Chg Amount Sold MAgo column to
add a filter on that column.

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2. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, select the is less than operator, and enter 0 as the
value, then click OK.

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The filter is added to the existing saved filter you used earlier. Your filters should look
like this:

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3. Click the Display Results button to view the results of your query.

Your results should look like this:

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4. Select Narrative from the View drop-down menu.

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5. In the Narrative view workspace, enter the following: @1 declined @2% this month
compared with last month in the Narrative field.

The narrative is a combination of text and query column values. In this example, @1
refers to the first column in the query, Prod Category, and @2 refers to the second
column, % Chg Amount Sold MAgo. Note that you can control the number of row values
returned in the Narrative view by setting the Rows to display value. By default, all
queried rows are displayed.
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3. To highlight the column values in the narrative, select @1 in the narrative and click
the Bold button. Also add bold tags to @2%.

Your results should look like this:

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4. Select No Results from the View drop-down menu. You need to create a No Results
view to appear when there are no results for the query.

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5. In the No Results view workspace, enter No categories declined this month! as the
headline. Enter All categories had positive sales results compared with the previous
month as text.

Your results should look like this:

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6. Click the Save Request icon. In the Choose Folder dialog box, select the Learn folder
and save the request as Narrative and No Results Views.

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To create a Column Selector, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Answers link and open the first query you saved. In the selection pane, click
Shared Folders > Learn > Category Sales.

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2. Click the Modify button.

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3. Click the Results tab and select Column Selector from the View drop-down menu.

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4. Select the Include Selector option in Column 3, currently Prod Category.

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5. In the selection pane, click the following columns to make them available in the
Column Selector: Customers. Country Region, Customers. Country, and Channels.
Channel Desc.

Your Column Selector in the results pane should look like this:

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6. Select Compound Layout from the View drop-down menu.

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7. Click the Add View link and select Column Selector to add the Column Selector view
to the Compound Layout view.

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8. Scroll to the bottom of the Compound Layout and drag the Column Selector view
above both Table and Chart views.

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9. In the Column Selector, select Country.

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10. Your Compound Layout view should look like this:

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To create a View Selector, perform the following steps:

1.Duplicate the existing chart:

a. Using the Views menu, navigate to the Chart view.

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b. Click the Menu icon and select Duplicate View.

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You should now have a new view, Chart:2:

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c. In the Type drop-down menu, select 3D.

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2.Select View Selector from the View drop-down menu.

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3. In the View Selector design workspace, select Chart, Chart:2, and Pivot Table in the
Available Views field, using CTRL + Click to select multiple views.

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Click the Move Right icon to add them to the Views Included field.

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4. Select Chart in the Views Included field, click the Rename button, and, in the Rename
dialog box, rename it 2D Chart. Click OK.

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5.Rename Chart:2 as 3D Chart and Pivot Table as Trend Data. Use the Move buttons to
arrange the views in the list as follows: 2D Chart, 3D Chart, Trend Data.

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6. Use the View drop-down menu to navigate to the Compound Layout view. Delete the
Chart view from the Compound Layout.

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8.Add the View Selector view using the Add View button and drag it above the Table
view.

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9.Select Trend Data from the View Selector.

Your chart should now change to the Pivot Table view:

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 Session II
Oracle BI Interactive
Dashboards
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 Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards

To create an Interactive Dashboard, perform the following steps:

1. Click the Settings link and select Administration.

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2. In the Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration window, click the Manage

Interactive Dashboards link.

The Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration window offers access to many

administrative features, including session monitoring and management of user and
group privileges across the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog.

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3. In the Manage Dashboards window, click Create Dashboard.

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4. In the Create Dashboard window, set the Group Folder to CountryManagers, name
the dashboard CountryManagers2, and click the Finished button .

The dashboard inherits the security of the group folder. Click Finished again to close the
Manage Dashboards window. Finally, click Close Window to close the Oracle BI
Presentation Services Administration screen.
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5. Click the Dashboards link and then click the CountryManagers2 Interactive Dashboard
link to navigate to the new dashboard.

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Your new dashboard is empty and should look like this:

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6. Click the Page Options button in the upper right corner and select Edit Dashboard to
open the Dashboard Editor.

7. In the Dashboard Editor, you can drag saved content from your Presentation Catalog
directly into the dashboard. Sections are automatically created in the layout to contain
the requests and other objects you add to the dashboard. In the left-hand selection
panel, expand the Learn folder you've saved your work in.

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Drag the Category Sales request onto the layout workspace. The layout area is
highlighted in blue to indicate that you have a valid insertion point for the object.

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Your dashboard layout should look like this:

Notice that a section was automatically added to contain the request. You could also
have dragged a Section object from the Dashboard Objects palette to create the section
before dragging content into the section. Sections and columns are containers you can
use to control the layout of your dashboards.

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8. Drag the Narrative and No Results request into Section 1 of the dashboard layout,
below the Category Sales request.

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9. In the Narrative and No Results object, select Properties > Show View > Narrative 1 to
ensure that when the dashboard is presented, the request will be in the Narrative view.

You can select any other view; note that the list is limited to views which you've created
or worked with for the request. The Compound Layout is the default view. The No
Results view is always displayed if there are no results for the request at runtime.
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10. Click Save to save your changes and display the dashboard.

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Your dashboard should look like this:

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Scroll to the bottom of the dashboard to verify that the narrative view appears correctly
for the Narrative and No Results embedded request. It should look like this:

Note that the Column Selector only applies to the request that contains it. If you select
a column in the control, it will only apply to the table and chart, not the narrative
request in the same dashboard.

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To create a dashboard prompt that filters on Country Region, perform the following
steps:

1. Click the Answers link. In the selection pane, click the New Dashboard Prompt icon
and, in the drop down Subject Area menu, select SH.

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2. In the selection pane, click Customers. Country Region to add it to the prompt.

The prompt should look like this:

This prompt will filter the Country Region column in any requests which contain it in a
dashboard with which it is associated. Note that you can control several aspects of the
prompt. You can select the type of control users will use to enter their selections in the
prompt, and you can determine what values will be presented in a drop-down list or
multi-select control, limiting the available values either through SQL or by constraining
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3. Leave the default selections for the prompt and select Dashboard from the Scope
drop-down menu. This means the filter will be applied to all pages in any dashboard it is
associated with.

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4. Click the Save icon and save the prompt in the Learn folder as Prompt for Country
Region.

You have created the prompt, but for it to take effect on any embedded requests in a
dashboard, the requests must contain filters on the column being prompted.
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5. Click the Open icon, and in the Open dialog box, select the Category Sales request in
the Learn folder and click OK.

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6. In the selection pane, CTRL + click the Customers. Country Region column to add a
filter on it. In the Create/Edit Filter dialog box, select is prompted as the operator for
the filter and click OK.

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Your filters should look like this:

7. Save the Category Sales Request and, using the same steps, add a filter to the
Narrative and No Results Views request and save it. When complete, the filters on the
request should look like this:

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8. Click the Dashboards link and navigate to the CountryManagers2 dashboard, then
click Page Options > Edit Dashboard to open the Dashboard Editor.

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9. From the left-hand selection panel, expand the Learn folder and drag Prompt for
Country Region Category Sales request in Section 1 of the dashboard. The area will be
highlighted in blue when you have found a valid insertion point.

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Your dashboard should look like this:

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10.Click Save.

Your dashboard should look like this:

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11.Add a Filter view to the Category Sales request to verify that the dashboard prompt
is filtering the data on the dashboard correctly.
a. Open the dashboard in the Dashboard Editor. In the dashboard, click the Properties
button for the Category Sales request and select Modify Request.

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b. Click the Results tab and select Filters in the View menu.

Your results should look like this:

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c. Using the View menu, navigate to the Compound Layout. Click the Add View link and
select Filters

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d. Drag the Filters view to the top of the Compound Layout and save the request.

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e. Navigate back to the CountryManagers2 dashboard, select Americas in the Country

Region dashboard prompt, and click Go.

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f. Verify that the dashboard prompt has added a filter to the requests on the dashboard
for Country Region is equal to Americas.

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To use a Presentation variable to populate a title with the name of the selected country
region, perform the following steps:
1. Navigate to Answers, open the Category Sales request, and click the Modify button.

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2. Click the Compound Layout View button, add a Title view to the Compound Layout
view using the Add View link, and drag the new Title view to the top of the layout.

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Your Compound Layout should look like this:

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3. Click the Edit View icon for the Title view.

4. In the Title field, enter Category Sales Last 12 Months for @{CountryRegion}. This is a
reference to the Presentation variable you are going to create. Click OK.

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The syntax for calling a Presentation variable, whether in a column or a Title view, is @
{VariableName}. Your results should look like this, as the variable has not been defined
or populated yet:

Click OK to save your changes and return to the Compound Layout view. Add the Title
view in the Compound Layout, if not already present.

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5. Create the variable by designating that it be populated by the Prompt for Country
Region. Click the Open icon and open the Prompt for Country Region.

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6. In the Set Variable field of the prompt, select Presentation.

Note that you could also reference a Request Variable. Request Variables are defined as
SessionVariables in the Oracle BI metadata and are instantiated when the user's session
begins. Their values for any request can be updated by dashboard prompts.

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7. In the Set Variable text field, enter CountryRegion.

By entering the name of the variable here, you are creating the variable as well as
setting it to be populated by the user selection in the Prompt for Country Region.

8. Save the dashboard prompt.

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9. Click the Dashboards link to navigate to the CountryManagers2 dashboard and verify
that the Title view appears and that the CountryRegion Presentation variable is not yet
populated.

10. Select Asia in the Country Region prompt and click Go.

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11. Verify that the Prompt for Country Region dashboard prompt is filtering the
dashboard and updating the CountryRegion Presentation variable.

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By the close of this session you would have learned how to:
• Create and work with different views, including charts, pivot
tables, and narratives
• Use selector views to add interactivity and navigability to
requests
• Build, lay out, and work with Interactive Dashboards
• Use dashboard prompts to filter dashboard data and
populate Presentation variables

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Thank You

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