OBIEE 11g: Save Current Customization feature

We often hear complaints from users saying they have to enter to many values before they could run the report and get their desired data set. This is more in cases where we have more Column prompts on dashboards. Oracle has once again saved us by providing a feature which exactly serves the need in this scenarios "Save Current customization" .This allow users to save and view dashboard pages in their current state with their most frequently used choices for items such as filters, prompts, column sorts, drills in analyses, and section expansion and collapse. By saving customizations, users need not make these choices manually each time that they access the dashboard page.

There are two levels at which Save Current Customization can be created.

• Create Save Current Customization for Individual.
• Create Save Current Customization for Group of Users

Create Save Current Customization for Individual.


Click on Page Options – Save Current Customization.


Check on “Me – Use this option to save the customization for your own personal use and If you would like to make this dashboard page as default with this customization, check on “Make this my default for this page”
Click OK.

Create Save Current Customization for Group of Users

Click on Page Options – Save Current Customization.


Select on the others – Use this option to save the customization for use by others. Set Permissions and include the Group of Users\LDAP Groups. If you would like to make this dashboard page as default with this customization, check on “Make this my default for this page”


Click on + sign to open the window.

Click on Search to get all LDAP groups list and Application roles.
Select appropriate LDAP and application roles and Click OK.
This customization will save for all users’ who are part of the selected LDAP groups.

Save Current Customization will be very helpful if there are different requirements to analyze the same report by different users.

If you are using the customization as Default by selecting the option “Make this my default for this page”. The Customization will be the default for this dashboard page. If you are not using the default option, the saved customization will be available in “Apply Saved Customization”. To delete the Save customization, use the “Edit Saved Customization”.

OBIEE 11g: Master Detail view and Limitations

Master detail linking of views enables you to establish a relationship between two or more views such that one view, called the master view, drives data changes in one or more other views, called detail views.

For example, If you have the following two views: A table that shows Revenue by Brand and A graph that shows Revenue by Product Category with Brand on the graph Prompt section.
Using the master detail linking functionality, you can link the two views so that when you click a particular Brand in the table, the Product Category on the Prompt section of the graph as well as the data in the graph changes to reflect the Brand that was clicked on the table.

Master Views: A master view is one which, primary interaction value in the column properties have set to Send Master-Detail Events using a channel name.

The following types of views can be master views: Graph, Funnel graph, Gauge, Map, Pivot table & Table.
The following types of views can be detail views: Graph, Funnel graph, Gauge, Table & Pivot table

Let us see How Master Detail Linking Works:

Let us take an example and select few columns including Brand, Revenue and Product Category.


Go to the Revenue Column properties and click on Interaction.


Select Primary Interaction “Send Master-Detail Events” and specify the Channel: Channel01. This channel name should match with channel name which we will update in the graph.

Create a simple table view or pivot view to show the Revenue by Brand.


Create a simple Graph view as below


Select on the graph properties


Check on the “Listen to Master-Detail Events” and provide the same channel name as given in Revenue column. This channel name will link the master view. Ensure to have the Brand column either on Graph prompts or on Section as Slider.

Add these two views into the compound layout.


When you click on any of the Brand Revenue Value, the Graph view will automatically change the view to bring the Product Category Revenue details for the Brand value clicked.

Note:

1.Master View:

• Master column cannot be displayed on the prompt section or on the section slider in the master view. It must be displayed in the body of the view. In our example, the revenue column is the master view and it is present in the body of the view.

2.Detail View:

• Can listen to master-detail events from multiple master views
• Can be in the same analysis as the master view or in a different analysis
• Cannot act as a master to another view

OBIEE 11g: Changing the RCU Schema to a new database

We are all well aware that before installing OBIEE11g, it is mandatory to install RCU because it creates repository metadata into the database. For some reason we might want to change the metadata repository to some other database,the question here is can we ?...Well yes, we can do it.

Say we have a  System 1 – OBIEE11g and database (orcl1) with RCU metadata repository and a System 2 – Database (orcl2).Now we want to move the RCU from orcl1 to orcl2  

Most importantly we can change the RCU repository metadata from one database to another database without impacting the current installed OBIEE11g environment.

Steps:
Firstly, ensure the RCU Repository metadata is created in the new database.

Logon to Weblogic Server Admin Console
Click on services


Click on Data sources



Click on bip_datasource and click on connection pool

Click on “Lock & Edit” button


Provide the new database details like host name, instance and password as shown above.

Do the same for all four data sources (EMPsystemregistry, mds-owsm, rtd_datasource), save and activate changes.

Logon to Enterprise Manager



Go to Business intelligence folder – coreapplication – deployment – scheduler.

Provide the new database details, apply and activate the changes.

Restart the services and run the analysis (analytics).

Note: The same steps can be followed when there is a name change of RCU database or hostname.

OBIEE 11g: The connection has failed while importing Data

The most common error when we ar ein initial stages of setting up the OBIEE 11g environment and started developing “The connection has failed” error especially while trying to import data from the database using OCI call interface in RPD, there must be nly one reason the BI server is not able to identify the connections using OCI. Just follow the steps to ensure it has all the information needed.

1. Add the tnsnames.ora file in the BI Home Directory

Add all the data source tns entry details in the tnsnames.ora file
Copy the tnsnames.ora file from Oracle Home (Root directory: \App\User\Product\Network\Admin) and paste the file to the below location in OBIEE11g directory
Root directory: \OBIEE11g\Oracle_BI1\network\admin and
Root directory: \OBIEE11g\oracle_common\admin

2. Add the tnsnames file location path in User.cmd file

Add the tnsnames file location path from one of the above location in the user.cmd file. The user.cmd file is found in the below location
Root directory: \OBIEE11g\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication\setup



If you are still facing the issue please reopen the Admin tool and try, if it doesnt workout then try restarting the complete services.

OBIEE 11g: Page number display format

When we print from answers by default the page number under print options header and footer is @{pageNumber}, which will provide Page X format but if you need Page X of Y Pages, you will need to use the below format.

@{pageNumber} of @{numberOfPages}

OBIEE 11g: Interactions at Analysis Level

OBIEE 11g is truly user friendly this is weel known and we will now see one among the reasons, We are aware that we have analysis interactions when we right click ,but the beauty is you can specify which interactions are available when users right click in a pivot table, table, treemap, or trellis view at runtime. Not all right-click interactions are available for each view type. as a developer we can specify which right click interactions are available for an analysis. Following are the interactions available when user right click on the data at the run time in the dashboard reports.

Analysis editor->Edit Analysis properties->Interactions



Run time right click interactions on dashboard reports as shown below.



Customize the interactions based on the business requirements. If they need only one or few like below

The report will only show the Sort option when the user right click on the value as below.




There are additional interactions available for presentation hierarchy columns like expand, collapse etc.

OBIEE Setting Data Format for Dates

Most of the times when we are dealing with dates we end up in a situation where we have to decide whether to go for a date or date time. For sure you know the situation having a date field like Order Date which provides date information in Date Time format. In such a case the user should be able to decide if Date or Date Time format is used, because both possibilities may apply.

                                                                        

Thus, your OBIEE application will provide those date fields in Date Time format. Otherwise users won't be able to access the time information. Date data format for reports not needing time information needs to be changed via Column Properties.

When implementing reports for users using Oracle BI in different languages you will lose locale settings if you select a specific date format, e.g. MM/DD/YYYY  or any other from the date format list below.



To avoid lose of locale setting select Custom and insert as Custom Date Format:

[FMT:dateShort]

Tip: If you just want to see time information use [FMT:time]. Run your report, go to My Account, change the locate and reload OBIEE analysis results. Date format appears in locale selected.

Inline Prompts in OBIEE 11g

In recent times I have come across a question from beginners asking to explain how a in-line prompt can be applied in OBIEE 11g. I wondered how they got to know about in-line prompt where its usage is very limited to few reports and people don't talk about them very often.

However it does exist in OBIEE and has the same functionality as of a dashboard prompt except that it cannot be used as a dashboard prompt and is limited to the report in which it is created.

This is very simple to understand if you can create one and see for yourself. A dashboard prompt is a stand alone object and can be used independently anywhere in the answers and can be used for any report with the columns same as in prompt.

Whereas an in-line prompt is specific to the report and works only on the report and nowhere else. When you run the report with in-line prompt first the prompt is displayed and after the selection the result.