Oracle® Retail Data Model

Release Notes

10g Release 2 (10.2)

B32407-04

July 2009

Known issues in the current release of Oracle Retail Data Model are documented in the following sections:

- Performance Improvements

- Oracle Database Certification Issues

- OUI Installer and Help issues

- Out-of-Stock Intra-ETL included

- Physical Data Model tables renamed

- Issues with Relational, Data Mining, and OLAP components

- Translation issues

- Sample Report and Dashboard issues

- Features Not Included in This Release

- Bugs Fixed

- Updated Documentation

Performance Improvements

This release contains several fixes to Intra-ETL that significantly improve Intra-ETL performance. The changes to Intra-ETL are described in bugs 8393457. 8393467, 8536971, 8562335, 8562916, and 8569785.

Oracle Database Certification Issues

The following issues exist regarding using Oracle Retail Data Model with Oracle Database 11g:

- Deinstallation not available for Oracle Retail Data Model when using Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.7)

- Oracle OLAP Certification

Deinstallation not available for Oracle Retail Data Model when using Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.7)

When using Oracle Database 11.1.0.7, the deinstallation option for Oracle Retail Data Model is greyed out in Oracle Installer.

This issue is documented with Oracle bug 8272088

Oracle OLAP Certification

The OLAP component of Oracle Retail Data Model is certified with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.3 and higher) and Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.6 and higher).

The details relating to the certification of Oracle Retail Data Model OLAP Option of Component are as follows:

- The Oracle Retail Data Model Installation Guide lists the certified versions of Oracle OLAP (and AWM).

- The OLAP component of Oracle Retail Data Model contains two different code bases for the 10g and 11g versions of the Database. These two sets of sources are present in different folders (directories) in the shiphome and are used as described in the database version-specific install process outlined in the Oracle Retail Data Model Installation Guide.

- The OLAP component of Oracle Retail Data Model that is installed for use with Oracle Database 11g Release 1 was developed with the OLAP cube type setting of 11g. However, some OLAP features of Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (for example, Query Rewrite using Cube-based Materialized Views and automatic refresh of cubes from relational tables) are not available in this release of Oracle Retail Data Model. These OLAP features are planned in the next release.

- The OLAP Dashboard for Oracle Retail Data Model functions against either version of the Database (that is, Oracle 10g Release 2 or Oracle 11g Release 1). Access to the Database from OBIEE (front-end, mid-tier) is the same as the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 mode of access of Oracle OLAP cubes from OBIEE.

OUI Installer and Help issues

The following issues exist when using the OUI Installer or online Help for Oracle Retail Data Model:

- Database readme.txt file displays on the last screen of the Installer

- Help Topics for Oracle Retail Data Model in the OUI Installer Issues

- Non-ASCII characters on Help Navigator display garbled

Database readme.txt file displays on the last screen of the Installer

After installation, the OUI Installer automatically shows the Oracle Database readme.txt file on the last screen. It does not show information specific to Oracle Retail Data Model

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug number 8284660.

Help Topics for Oracle Retail Data Model in the OUI Installer Issues

Selecting Help by clicking a Help button on the OUI Installer dialogs does not display a Help topic that is specific to a displayed Oracle Retail Data Model dialog. Instead, selecting Help in this manner always displays the Help topic that is the introduction to Oracle Retail Data Model.

Non-ASCII characters on Help Navigator display garbled

Non-ASCII characters on Help Navigator may display garbled for most Java GUI conventional components on Linux 4.0. The problem only impacts Help Navigator tree; it does not impact the Help topic window.

This issue is tracked with Oracle bug 6503286 which also provides a workaround.

Out-of-Stock Intra-ETL included

Oracle Retail Data Model provides relational implementation of out-of-stock prediction through the use of a model SQL function. The Intra-ETL that transforms the base model to the relational out-of-stock model is now included with the Oracle Retail Data Model package.

Physical Data Model tables renamed

The following tables have been renamed and synonyms for the original table names have been created.

Original Table Name and New Synonym Name

New Table Name

DWB_MKT_SLS_ITEM_WK

DWB_MKT_SL_ITEM_WK

DWB_RTL_SLS_RETRN_LINE_ITEM

DWB_RTL_SL_RETRN_LINE_ITEM

DWB_SLS_PLAN_ITEM_ORG_HRCHY_WK

DWB_SL_PLAN_ITEM_ORG_HRCHY_WK

DWA_PRMTN_SLS_MRGN_WK

DWA_PRMTN_SL_MRGN_WK

DWA_MKT_SLS_DEPT_WK

DWA_MKT_SL_DEPT_WK

DWD_FCST_SLS_MV

DWD_FCST_SL_MV

DWR_SLS_RSTRCT

DWR_SL_RSTRCT

Note:
Do not delete the synonyms even if this is the first time you have installed Oracle Retail Data Model.

This issue is documented with Oracle bug number 8227932.

Issues with Relational, Data Mining, and OLAP components

Oracle Retail Data Model has the following known issues relating to the Relational, Data Mining and OLAP components:

- Forecasting process is triggered automatically during the initial population of OLAP cubes

- Materialized View Refresh may experience ORA-03113 & ORA-00600

See also:
Oracle OLAP Certification

Forecasting process is triggered automatically during the initial population of OLAP cubes

Oracle Retail Data Model OLAP cubes are populated through SQL scripts that use the RBIA_OLAP_ETL_AW_LOAD package that is provided with the OLAP component to load data from relational tables (defined by the bia_rtl schema) into the OLAP cubes in the PSLSINV analytic workspace (defined by the bia_rtl_olap schema).

As discussed in Oracle Retail Data Model Reference, Oracle Retail Data Model provides you with a script to perform the initial load of the OLAP cubes. This script (sometimes called the OLAP cube "historical load script" or "initial load script") starts from a "clean slate" (that is, an empty analytic workspace). It not only populates the Sales and Inventory cubes, but also generates forecasts into the Sales Forecast and Inventory Forecast cubes, and, then, aggregates those forecast cubes. Oracle Retail Data Model performs this forecasting using two generic OLAP DML forecast programs, FORECAST_STOCK_SALES and FORECAST_STOCK_INV present in the PSLSINV analytic workspace. By default, these programs generate the forecasts for Year 3 (BSNS_YR_2007) based on the input data for Year 1 (BSNS_YR_2005) and Year 2 (BSNS_YR_2006). These programs run on a per store, per product, per day (period) basis.

To perform incremental loading of OLAP cubes you need to write your own incremental load script using the subprograms of the RBIA_OLAP_ETL_AW_LOAD package documented in Oracle Retail Data Model Reference. If you want that incremental load script to perform forecasting, then it must contain OLAP DML CALL commands to execute OLAP DML forecasting programs.

When creating forecasts to run intermittently, the main points to consider are the frequency with which you want to run the forecasts and the duration of future time periods over which you want to forecast. For example, you could schedule the forecasts to execute every month and use the same forecasting time periods as those used by the historical load script. In this case, you could decide to have the intermittent forecasts overwrite the data in the forecast cubes. On the other hand, you could forecast more frequently, in which case, to avoid overlapping forecasts, you could create new forecasting programs and new measures to hold the intermittent forecasts.

Materialized View Refresh may experience ORA-03113 & ORA-00600

When refreshing the materialized views, users may experience some abnormal disrupts due to Oracle bug 7330434. This issues is also recorded in ORDM bug 8276387. This may happen during installation or Intra-ETL execution.

Translation issues

Oracle Retail Data Model has the following known issues related to translation:

- Oracle Retail Data Model supports only one language per instance at this time for Lookup seed data translation.

- Some labels and text in certain areas of on the sample BIEE reports are not translated. For example, the webcat contents under /shared are translated, while those under /users are not translated.

- The lookup messages described in the following table are not translated in the 10.2.1.0.0 release. This issue is documented with Oracle bug number 8267819.

Lookup Type

Lookup Category

Lookup Code

Untranslated Description

DWL_TRX_TYP

POSCNTRL

SUSPEND

POS Control Transaction
Suspend Transaction

DWL_TRX_TYP

POSCNTRL

RESUME

POS Control Transaction
Resumed Transaction

Sample Report and Dashboard issues

These are the issues related to sample reports and dashboards:

- Sample Reports and dashboards are not supported

- Currency display problem in dashboard used with OBIEE 10.1.3.4

- Sample Reports metadata file consistency problem

See also:
Translation issues.

Sample Reports and dashboards are not supported

The reports and dashboards that are used in examples and delivered with Oracle Retail Data Model are provided only for demonstration purposes. They are not supported by Oracle.

Currency display problem in dashboard used with OBIEE 10.1.3.4

Some reports that display currency data fail on the dashboard when used with OBIEE 10.1.3.4. They display the following error:

Invalid Handle Of 'PKN3saw8CurrencyE' Exception.

This issue is documented with Oracle bug number 8267842.

Workaround

1. Edit the report:

1. Select Page Options, then select Edit Dashboard.

2. Select Properties, then select Modify Request.

3. Set the format of column that is not displaying properly to the default format.

2. Save the Report.

3. Go to Dashboard.

4. Edit the report:

1. Select Page Options, then select Edit Dashboard.

2. Select Properties, then select Modify Request.

3. Set the format of the column back to Currency data type.

Sample Reports metadata file consistency problem

When you:

1. Login into dashboard as rbiaii user.

2. Select Answers, then RBIA, then Campaign, then Campaign Key.

3. Add Campaign Key onto the report.

4. Show results for the answers fails with the following error.

Error: Status: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 14026] Unable to navigate requested expression: Campaign.Campaign Code.

Solution

The solution to this problem is to fix the metadata consistency warnings (that is, the problem stated in HY000):

1. In BIEE Administrator, open the reports metadata file (that is, the RPD file).

2. Select File, then select Check Global Consistency.

3. Check the result of Step 2. Fix the warnings.

Features Not Included in This Release

The following features are not included in this release:

- The Parser from Flexible Hierarchies to Named Dimensions

- The 4690 POS Collector

- Sample POS Loss Report

Bugs Fixed

This release of Oracle Retail Data Model also fixes the following bugs:

- Bitmap index corrected (bug number 8393431)

- Foreign key added to DWB_CUST_SRVC_RQST (bug number 8575533)

- Correction to DWD_POS_CONTRL (bug number 8562335)

- Data type correction (bug number 8562448)

- Partition option now creates partitions for all tables (bug number 8536859)

- Missing DAY_KEY added to derived tables (bug number 8508075)

- Corrected target table column name (bug number 8289087)

Updated Documentation

The Oracle Retail Data Model Operations Guide, new at this release, describes how to create and maintain a data warehouse based on the Oracle Retail Data Model. Operations information that was in the Oracle Retail Data Model Installation Guide and the Oracle Retail Data Model Reference is now in this new manual, along with additional information.

You can find the most recent documentation for Oracle Retail Data Model on the Oracle Technology Network Documentation Web site at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html.

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Oracle Retail Data Model Release Notes, 10g Release 2 (10.2)

B32407-04

Copyright © 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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