28 New Features in BI Publisher Release 10.1.3.4

Oracle BI EE Release 10.1.3.4 introduces several new features for Oracle BI Publisher. These are outlined in the following list and explained in detail in the updated documentation for BI Publisher Release 10.1.3.4:

• Section 28.1, "Integration with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace"

• Section 28.2, "Integration with Oracle Smart Space"

• Section 28.3, "Support for Multidimensional Data Sources"

• Section 28.4, "Enhancements to the BI Publisher Web Service"

• Section 28.5, "Support for "After Report" Triggers"

• Section 28.6, "Support for Complex Web Services as a Data Source"

• Section 28.7, "New Report Property "Disable Client Access from Analyzer for Excel""

• Section 28.8, "Enhancements to the Template Builder for Microsoft Word Add-in"

28.1 Integration with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace

Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace (EPM Workspace) is a component of Oracle's Hyperion Foundation Services. It is the central Web interface for users to access all Performance Management content and tools. With its ease-of-use and flexibility, EPM Workspace provides users with a "windows-on-the-Web" experience. In Release 10.1.3.4, BI Publisher can be integrated into the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace, Fusion Edition 11.1.1 release.

For more information, see the topic "Setting Up Integration with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace," in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Administrator's and Developer's Guide.

28.2 Integration with Oracle Smart Space

Oracle Smart Space, Fusion Edition is a personalized information delivery solution for Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management that uses configurable desktop gadgets to deliver BI and EPM to every user in the enterprise, utilizing the Windows desktop. In addition, Oracle Smart Space includes a development toolkit for creating additional gadgets that employs common development languages and methodologies and a secure instant messaging system for shared decision making.

You can use gadgets from Oracle Smart Space, Fusion Edition 11.1.1 release to access and interact with the Release 10.1.3.4 BI Publisher reports repository. For example, you can launch BI Publisher reports in the Oracle Smart Space Content Viewer and add BI Publisher reports to a Smart Book gadget and a Favorites gadget. You can use Oracle Smart Space Collaborator to share BI Publisher content with other Oracle Smart Space users.

For more information, see the topic: "Using Oracle BI Publisher in Oracle Smart Space, Fusion Edition," in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Report Designer's Guide.

This integration also enables you to set up a link to the Oracle Smart Space client download page that is accessible to all BI Publisher users. For more information see the topic: "Setting Up Integration with the Oracle Smart Space Client Download Page," in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Administrator's and Developer's Guide.

28.3 Support for Multidimensional Data Sources

BI Publisher now enables you to connect to databases that are configured for online analytical processing (OLAP) and submit an MDX query to return the report XML. In this release, BI Publisher supports connections to the following multidimensional data sources:

• Oracle's Hyperion Essbase

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Service

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Service

• SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW)

For more information, see the topic: "Setting Up a Connection to an OLAP Data Source" in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Administrator's and Developer's Guide.

28.4 Enhancements to the BI Publisher Web Service

In Release 10.1.3.4, the BI Publisher Web service PublicReportService has been expanded to support several more operations. These new operations include:

• Operations to run reports

  • uploadReportDataChunk

  • downloadReportDataChunk

• Operations to Manage Scheduled Reports and History of Scheduled Reports

  • suspendScheduledReport

  • resumeScheduledReport

  • deleteScheduledReport

  • getScheduledReport

  • getScheduledReportInfo

  • getScheduledReportHistoryInfo

  • deleteScheduledReportHistory

  • getScheduledReportStatus

• Operations to Create and Manage Reports

  • createReport

  • deleteReport

  • updateReportDefinition

  • createReportFolder

  • uploadTemplateForReport

  • removeTemplateForReport

  • uploadReport

  • downloadReport

• Operations about the Report Server

  • getSecurityModel

  • getBIPHTTPSessionInterval

For more information about these new Web service operations, see the chapter: "Using the BI Publisher Web Service APIs" in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Administrator's and Developer's Guide.

28.5 Support for "After Report" Triggers

BI Publisher now provides the ability to set up an HTTP notification as part of the report schedule. When the report completes, BI Publisher sends a notification to a designated URL, along with the report job information. Your remote application can use this information with the BI Publisher APIs and Web services to access the job details, including the report output and XML data to enable third-party postprocessing of the report.

For more information, see the topic: "Setting Up an After Report Trigger" in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Administrator's and Developer's Guide.

28.6 Support for Complex Web Services as a Data Source

In previous releases, BI Publisher could accept only simple Web services that returned simple data types, such as string and Boolean. Starting with Release 10.1.3.4, BI Publisher can accept Web services that return complex data types. The Web service data source user interface has been enhanced so that when you provide the WSDL, BI Publisher presents you with the list of Web services that are available from the WSDL, the methods available within the selected service, and the required parameters for the selected method.

For more information see the topic: "Defining a Web Service Data Set Type" in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Report Designer's Guide.

28.7 New Report Property "Disable Client Access from Analyzer for Excel"

In this release BI Publisher introduces a new method for downloading report data to the Excel Analyzer. The new property "Disable Client Access from Analyzer for Excel" enables you to control the method used to download data to Microsoft Excel at the report level. Turning this property on has the following effects:

• Your report data downloads faster and large data sets are handled more efficiently.

• You do not have to enable macros when you download the data.

• You can enable your own custom macros in Microsoft Excel.

• You cannot log in or connect to the BI Publisher server from your Microsoft Excel session. Therefore you cannot upload a template directly from Excel, nor can you update the report parameters or apply a new template.

For more information about this property, see the topic "Using the Report Editor" in Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Report Designer's Guide.

28.8 Enhancements to the Template Builder for Microsoft Word Add-in

Release 10.1.3.4 of BI Publisher introduces the following enhancements for the Template Builder for Microsoft Word:

• Page Break Support

  You can now insert a page break in the report layout when setting properties for a repeating group. When you insert a repeating group, the Properties dialog now includes the following options:

  • No break

  • Page break

  • Section break

  When you select page break, BI Publisher inserts a page break between each occurrence of the element selected in the "For each" field.

  The break options are also available within the Table Wizard when defining groups for a table.

  For more information, see the topic: "Inserting a Repeating Group" in the Template Builder online help.

• Support for Additional Chart Types

  The following chart types are now supported by the Template Builder chart wizard:

  • Combination Charts

  • Scatter Plot

  • Bubble Chart

  • Stock Charts

  For more information, see the topic: "Inserting a Chart" in the Template Builder online help.

• More Properties Supported for Charts

  This release includes expanded support for setting chart properties within the Chart Wizard. You can now set properties for the following:

  • Fonts - you can define the font size, family, weight, color (and effect) for the x-axis and y-axis, the chart legend, and chart labels.

  • Colors - you can now specify the color for bars and lines, the chart plot area and legend, the background, and the border of the plot area and legend.

  • Chart legend properties - you can now define the look and feel of the legend including the legend background and border color and the legend font family and font size. You can also define the position of the legend as follows: bottom, top, left, right.

• Support for Multiple Measures in Charts

  The chart builder now supports multiple measures. You can also specify the name displayed in the legend for each measure.

• Enhanced Crosstab Features

  The crosstab builder has been enhanced to support the following:

  • Total Options - previously, only the sum was displayed and it was always displayed. Now you can define whether to show totals or totals based on sum, count, min, max or average.

  • Number Formatting - you can now define the number formatting for the crosstab measures within the crosstab builder.

  • Create and Omit Subtotal and Totals - the crosstab builder now enables you to choose whether to display total and subtotal rows or columns.

  • Row Layout Options - you can now select whether you want the row groups to be displayed inline (as in a financial report) or not inline (as in Microsoft Excel).