BI Publisher: This tool can be summed up in 3 words: it makes reports. That means finance reports, HR reports, invoice statements, reports with pictures or graphs, reports from database data or reports from BI Answers.
Here are some screenshots of sample reports that get installed along with BI Publisher. This will give you an idea of what BIP is really capable of.
Dimensional Modeling is a kind of database modeling used to support OLAP applications. It contains Dimensional and fact tables and relationships are created between them.
Additive:-- That is the facts which can be aggregated or segregated on the change of the dimension level and always remains meaningful: example: sales value
Now a days almost all data warehouses contain Additrivev facts
iBots are intelligence agents or Bots. These agents are triggered by a schedule or condition that in turn generates a request to perform analytics on data based upon defined criteria.
Where do iBots originate from?
Oracle BI Delivers is the application to create, modify and manage iBots.
How do iBots work?
In order to understand how an iBot works, we should start by first creating a new iBot from scratch.
Navigate to "Delivers" ......
.....and click the link to create a new iBot.
From here, we will tackle each individual tab to get an understanding of what the process is to create an iBot.
1) Overview tab
This view is a summary of the current settings for the selected iBot.
One can navigate to specific settings by clicking on the links in the summary or clicking on the tabs located at the top.
2) General tab
This is where the priority of the iBot and how to send the delivery content are set.
The priority options are low, normal, or high. The priority works with the delivery profile for a user to determine the destination for alerts of different priorities.
The following Data Visibility options affect the customization of the delivery content:
Personalized (individual data visibility):
- uses the data visibility of each recipient to customize iBot delivery content for each recipient. Note that The Run As field if not available.
Not personalized (use the Run As user's data visibility):
- sends the iBot's delivery content to the specified recipients. All users receive the same content as if they were the user specified in the Run As field.
Not personalized (use iBot owner’s data visibility):
- sends the iBot’s delivery content to the specified recipients using the data visibility of the specified user (Run As box field) who created the iBot. In other words, all recipients will receive the content that's viewable to the Run As user.
3) Conditional Request tab
This page is used to select a request to trigger the iBot. The results of the conditional request determine whether the iBot sends its delivery content and initiates any subsequent actions:
- If the request does not return any rows, the iBot is not triggered.
- If the request returns at least one row, the iBot sends its delivery content and initiates any subsequent actions.
Requests can be chained together to create complex conditional logic.
4) Schedule tab
iBots can be executed based on a specified schedule. You can define a starting date and time for the iBot, a recurrence schedule, and an ending date.
5) Recipients tab
Use this tab to select the users and groups to receive the delivery content of the iBot.
One has the ability to select specific individual users and groups to receive the contents of the iBot.
**You can select multiple users by holding down the SHIFT or CTRL keys and selecting adjacent or nonadjacent users.**
Also, one can select which users or groups can subscribe to the iBot. This allows users the flexibility to receive and view the contents of the iBot AND customize prompted filter values for columns.
Keep in mind that in order to publish iBots, the content must be shared.
6) Delivery Content tab
Use the Delivery Content tab to specify the type of content to deliver with the iBot, such as a
dashboard page or a saved request. The delivery format for the content can also be selected, such
as HTML, PDF, XLS, CSV, or text.
The contents of the Headline field will appear as the subject of the request.
The two field text boxes below allows one to attach a message when the iBot is delivered depending on if the iBot is delivered as an attachment or if there are no records returned by the conditional request.
7) Destinations tab
The User Destinations and Specific Devices portions of this tab are pretty self explanatory.
As for System Services...
Oracle BI Server Cache is used for seeding cache.
(** To have the cache created for individual users, the Personalized option for data visibility in the General tab must be selected.)
Disconnected Application Cache is only available to companies that have licensed Disconnected Analytics.
(** To have the disconnected application cache created for individual users, the Personalized(individual data visibility) option for Data Visibility in the General tab must be selected.)
(**Nonpersonalized data is not used for Disconnected Analytics users.)
8) Advanced tab
Use the Advanced tab to specify one or more actions to execute after the iBot is finished running.
Actions include the execution of other iBots, custom scripts, custom Java programs or Workflows.
For further reading on iBots, I would suggest downloading the Oracle Business Intelligence Answers, Delivers, and Interactive Dashboards User Guide to read further about creating iBots. What I provided is just a brief glimpse of iBots.
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel errors in Siebel Answers
Running a Request in Siebel Answers gives Oracle Error.
1: Select Few columns from opportunity, position dimension and Revenue Fact in siebel Answers, when we ran the Request it gives Odbc Erros saying ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel errors.
2: when we Take the Physical SQL from the log file and Ran the same query in toad, here too it gave the same Error.
3: when we checked with the DBA it was giving an Oracle Internal Error "Core dump"
4: After debugging the SQL in Toad with Trial and error method, came to conclusion that the 2 conditions used for a column in opty DX was causing the Error.
ie( Column with " IS NOT NULL" AND "<>'N' " for an attribute.
5: when we removed any of the condition the SQL runs fine in Toad, then after further analysis , by adding the same attribute which has the same two conditions in the select list ,
the issue got resolved in Oracle Toad as well as in Siebel Analytics Answers.
OBIEE (Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition)
In this part of my OBIEE , I’ll guide you through basic steps to create an Oracle server repository and use it to bring over a relational data source for use in OBI Answers. As of OBIEE version 10.1.3.3.2, Essbase is supported as an OBI data source allowing the user to integrate Essbase data with OBI Answers, OBI Interactive Dashboards, and OBI Publisher. The latest version of OBIEE is 10.1.3.4x. Refer to my part 2 blog (OBIEE and Essbase – Defining OLAP Integration) for importing Essbase content into OBIEE.
For the below steps, I will be using SQL Server 2005 relational database as my source but you can use Oracle 10g or older versions of either tool.
To create an Oracle repository, open the Oracle BI Administration Tool and select File | New and name your new repository.
Set security by selecting Manage | Security. Assuming you are the admin, select Users | Administrator. Right click Administrator, select Properties to enter an admin password and confirm the password. Close out Security Manager.
To import a relational data source, select File | Import | from Database.
Select a connection type.
Select the relational data source, enter login credentials and click OK.
Enter the relational table to import. Deselect all but Tables, Keys, and Foreign Keys and click Import. If you are using Views instead of Tables, change accordingly.
The relational table will import into the Physical layer of the Administration Tool.
Test the import by right clicking a column (Branch_Name is selected in this example) and select View Data. Values for the selected column should populate in a view data table.
Drag the imported relational table folder from the Physical layer to the Business Model and Mapping (BMM) layer. In the BMM layer, here you can create logical tables and joins to develop the type of model needed for presentation.
Next, drag the relational table from the BMM layer to the Presentation layer to finalize its presentation for the user. Manipulation by presentation can be performed in this layer for Subject Area use in OBI Answers.
For your reference and as a recap from my part 2, here is the significance of each layer:
1.Physical layer – imported tables and views come from the relational data source; physical joins can be performed here
2.BMM layer – this layer organizes imports from the physical layer into logical categories
3.Presentation layer – BMM entities are organized for user presentation
Once your Presentation layer is complete, it can be made available for OBI Answers to create dashboard content bringing both relational and multidimensional data sources into one view. A sample of an Answers view is displayed below combining both relational and multidimensional data sources into a combo box allowing for choice among regions. Any selection of region updates both relational and multidimensional tables for view.
This is just one simple example of the product’s capabilities. OBIEE is redefining how we approach BI with the evolution of this product improving on how we develop it. There is a great deal of flexibility within OBIEE for relational and multidimensional reporting and those who understand how to leverage this tool will see its impact upon their organization for the better.
OBIEE (Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition) provides a foundation for building enterprise BI solutions. It includes a range of end-user tools such as interactive dashboards, advanced reporting and publishing, ad hoc analysis over the Web, proactive detection and alerts, mobile analytics, Microsoft Office integration, Web Services and business process integration.
When am browsing on YouTube, Found an informative video on Multi Lingual Report with BI Publisher 11G from bipublisher YouTube channel. For the benifit of reference, I am embedding the same video here…
This clip shows how you can create multi lingual reports with BI Publisher using its advanced industry leading translation framework. With BI Publisher, creating translation for your report is easy and simple, and the cost of the maintenance is dramatically reduced.
If you want to Change the defaultdisplay of 25 rows ,from Answers's Side
you can do that.
Pull Some Columns in Criteria .See the Results ..After the Results were
thrown. Edit the table view, in Table view there will be 4 buttons ,,,After
the Sum button there will be a button showing hand similar to edit format
button;
Click that button then it will open a popup window named "Edit View" ..In
that , in the Second option you can find Rows per Page .and this will be by
default blank..you can enter the no of rows per page with you wish..
I would suggest and adivise you that don't enter big numbers for " rows
per Page " as OBIEE will take Quiet more time to display all the stuff in
the results.
OBIEE Consists of Presentation Services(Web),Oracle BI (Analytics Engine) Server
The client (Answers) constructs sql and passes it to the Analytic Engine and then the Oracle BI (Analytic Engine) parses the physical sql to the Datasources and retrieve the data back to the Engine and presents to the presentation Services .
