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Oracle® Fusion Middleware Oracle WebCenter Analytics Administrator's Guide (for Oracle WebLogic Portal)
10g Release 4 (10.3.0.2.0)

Part Number E14111-03
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3 Using Analytics Administration

This chapter provides information on accessing and working with the Analytics Administration console.

It includes the following topics:

Accessing Analytics Administration

To access Analytics Administration:

  1. Navigate to WebLogic Portal Administration.

  2. Under Configuration & Monitoring, choose Analytics.

    The Oracle WebCenter Analytics application appears.

  3. Click the Administration Console tab.

Using Analytics Administration

This section contains the following topics:

Configuring Runtime Settings

The Runtime Settings page lets you configure timeout periods, and choose the format of exported reports. The timeout settings that you specify on the Runtime Settings page are only for Oracle WebCenter Analytics reporting purposes; there is no relationship between these timeout settings and other portal timeout settings.

The following table describes the timeout settings that you can configure.

Table 3-1 Timeout Settings

Setting Description

Visit Timeout (seconds)

Type the maximum number of seconds that a user must remain inactive during a portal visit in order for Oracle WebCenter Analytics to report subsequent activity as a new portal visit. Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports this data on the Duration console page. The default is 1800 seconds.


In the Preferred Locale area of the Runtime Settings page, use the drop-down list to select the locale (language) in which you want Oracle WebCenter Analytics to display report data. The locale that you select determines the object names that Oracle WebCenter Analytics requests from your portal. For example: if you select France - France [fr_FR], Oracle WebCenter Analytics requests the French names—localized for France—of objects from your portal.

The Preferred Locale setting only determines the language of the data in Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports. Individual users must configure their own browser's locale setting to specify their language preference for non-data strings that appear on Oracle WebCenter Analytics console pages. Examples of non-data strings are text in dialog boxes, drop-down lists, buttons, and tabs.

Note:

You must ensure that strings in the preferred locale that you select exist in your portal. If your portal does not return object names in your preferred locale, Oracle WebCenter Analytics performs one of the following:

  • If your preferred locale is not country-specific (for example, if your preferred locale is French - [fr]), Oracle WebCenter Analytics requests object names from your portal using the locale setting of the machine on which Oracle WebCenter Analytics is installed. If your portal does not return object names in this locale, Oracle WebCenter Analytics displays object IDs in reports instead of localized strings.

  • If your preferred locale is country-specific—and your portal does not return object names in this locale—Oracle WebCenter Analytics attempts to find strings in the most appropriate locale that is not country-specific. If your preferred locale is not country-specific (for example, if your preferred locale is France - France [fr_FR]) and your portal does not return object names in this locale—Oracle WebCenter Analytics requests object names from French - [fr]. If your portal does not return strings in this locale, Oracle WebCenter Analytics requests object names using the locale setting of the machine on which Oracle WebCenter Analytics is installed. If your portal does not return object names in this locale, Oracle WebCenter Analytics displays object IDs in reports instead of localized strings.

The following table describes the export report settings that you can configure.

Table 3-2 Export Report Settings

Setting Description

Export Report

Select to export reports in one of the following formats:

  • Excel (10,000 row limit): Exporting to Excel is limited to 10,000 rows. If you choose this option, reports that contain more than 10,000 rows in Oracle WebCenter Analytics contains only the first 10,000 rows when exported to Excel.

  • TSV: Tab Separated Values is a text-based file format in which exported columns are separated by tabs. TSV files are typically opened by Excel.

Note that although TSV reports have no limitation on numbers of rows, exported reports in excess of 10,000 rows might take an extended period of time to generate.


Configuring Partition Settings

This section discusses the configuration of Analytics Administration's Partition Settings page. For guidelines on archiving and restoring partitions in your Oracle WebCenter Analytics database, see Archiving and Restoring Partitions.

Oracle WebCenter Analytics data is segregated into month-by-month partitions in the database. The Partition Settings page lets Portal Administrators specify the number of data partitions that are accessible to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports. The Analytics Engine regularly scans each data partition that is accessible. For this reason, you can have more control over system performance by limiting the number of accessible partitions to only those that are needed.

At the beginning of each month, the system creates a new partition and stores all new Oracle WebCenter Analytics data in that partition until the month ends.

Note:

You also use the Partition Settings page to refresh database views after archiving or restoring partitions. To do so, click Finish. If you do not refresh the database views, Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports fail.

Working with the Scrolling View Window

The Scrolling View Window, which you configure on the Partition Settings page, is a rolling database view that changes month-to-month. For example, suppose that on August 5, you enable the Scrolling View Window and set its size to 4 months. The following occurs:

The Scrolling View Window makes data from 4 months available: May, June, July, and August. (Note that even though the month of August has not completed, the Scrolling View Window makes data from the August partition available so that the most current data appears in Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports).

On September 1, the Scrolling View Window scrolls one month forward and makes data from the June, July, August, and September partitions accessible. Though the Scrolling View Window removes the May partition from view, the partition and its data is still stored in the database. In this example, if in December of the same year the Portal Administrator wanted to make the data from the May partition available to reports, he or she would increase the Scrolling View Window size to 8 months so that it includes the May to December time frame.

To set the number of months, that are accessible to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports, first enable the Scrolling View Window, then specify the number of months: between 3 and 60. Data from monthly partitions that do not fall within the Scrolling View Window size is made unavailable to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports.

Note:

If you do not enable the Scrolling View Window, all data from all partitions is accessible to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports.

Previewing Partitions

At any time, you can click Preview on the Partition Settings page to view a chart that displays a representation of all partitions and indicates whether they are available or unavailable to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports:

  • Green squares indicate partitions whose data is available to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports.

  • Red squares with an X indicate partitions whose data is unavailable to Oracle WebCenter Analytics reports; these partitions do not exist in the database.

  • Grey squares indicate partitions for months that do not currently fall within the Scrolling View Window's date range. These partitions may or may not exist in the database.

Registering Events

The Event Registration feature lets Portal Administrators and developers register custom portal and non-portal events that are sent to Oracle WebCenter Analytics using the OpenUsage API. Event data is saved to the Oracle WebCenter Analytics database, which can then be queried for reporting to a non-portal application. This feature's user interface includes the Event Registration and Create Event pages.

Use the Event Registration page to:

  • Launch the Create Event page, which you use to create events and their parameters.

  • Enable and disable the storage of data generated by individual events. Once event data is stored in the database, you can query the data for reporting in a portal or non-portal application.

  • Create dimensions, which are discussed below.

This topic only discusses the Event Registration user interface. To utilize the full capabilities of this feature, you must use the OpenUsage API. For additional details on using the OpenUsage API, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Analytics.

Overview of Events, Event Parameters, and Dimensions

An event typically defines one user action that you would like to capture. Each event is composed of several event parameters, which defines the various kinds of data that is generated by the event. By default, each event includes the USERID, TIMEID, VISITID, and OCCURRED event parameters (for more details on these parameters, see Delivered Parameters).

Event Registration also lets you create your own event parameters to capture data that is not defined by the delivered defaults. To capture data of type Date, Integer, or Float, simply create an event parameter for that data type. To capture data of type String, you must create a dimension to define this data (a dimension defines data of type String). After you create the dimension, you must create a new event parameter of type String, and associate it to the dimension that you created.

Note:

We recommend that you do not create too many dimensions, since they slow down the speed of data collection and reporting.

Event Registration also lets you use dimensions from your own application's tables. To do so, create a parameter of type Integer. Then, using your database schema, map the parameter to the ID column in your dimension table.

Creating Custom Dimensions

The Managed Dimensions section of the Event Registration page lets you create custom dimensions to define data of type String.

To use a dimension, you must associate it to an event parameter on the Edit Event page. You can associate a dimension to multiple event parameters and use that dimension in multiple events.

Dimension names can be up to 20 characters in length and can only include letters, numbers, spaces, and underscores.

The names that you create only define how dimensions appear on the Event Registration page. In the database, custom dimension tables use the following naming convention: ascdim_dimension_name (spaces in dimension names are replaced by underscores).

Note:

You cannot remove or change the name of a dimension after clicking Finish on the Event Registration page.

To store only unique values in this dimension's table, check Unique.

Note:

In the database, dimension tables using the naming convention asdim_dimension_name store events that are generated by the portal; they do not store custom events. For descriptions of these tables, see the Oracle WebCenter Analytics Database Schema document.

Creating Events

The Create Event page lets you define the event name and parameters that are included in the event. After you define the event and its parameters, click Finish to save an event and create its fact table in the database. Access the Create Event page by clicking Add on the Event Registration page.

Note:

After you save an event, you cannot change the names of the event and its parameters; you also cannot delete parameters from an event. You can, however, add parameters after saving an event.

Event Names

Event names can be up to 14 characters in length and can only include letters, numbers, spaces, and underscores.

Note:

You must set the OpenUsage API to send data to the fact table using the event name that you specified on this page, not its column name in the database.

Table Names

Table names are read-only, and define the name of the fact table that will store the event's data. Custom event tables use the following naming convention in the database: ascfact_event_name (spaces in event names are replaced with underscores).

Parameter Names

Parameter names can be up to 14 characters in length and can only include letters, numbers, spaces, and underscores. Use this parameter name when passing parameters with the OpenUsage API.

Note:

You cannot remove or change the name of a parameter after clicking Finish on the New Event page.

Delivered Parameters

The following table describes the parameters that are delivered with Oracle WebCenter Analytics which are, by default, included in every event:

Table 3-3

Parameter Description

USERID

The ID of the user who triggers the event. You must use the OpenUsage API to set the User ID.

TIMEID

The unique ID number that is created for each occurrence of the event. This value is set by Oracle WebCenter Analytics.

VISITID

The portal visit ID of the user who triggered the event.

Note: This parameter is only compatible with events that occur in the portal. This value is set by Oracle WebCenter Analytics.

OCCURRED

The date and time when the event was generated. The format of the date/time stamp is determined by your database type. This value is set by Oracle WebCenter Analytics.


Saving Event Data

To begin saving an event's data, select the check box next to an event on the Event Registration page and click Enable. By default, the BEA AL Analytics Collector service starts saving the event's data 30 minutes after you click Enable.

Stopping Event Data Storage

To stop saving an event's data, select the check box next to an event on the Event Registration page and click Disable. You can edit events even when they are disabled. By default, the BEA AL Analytics Collector service stops saving the event's data 30 minutes after you click Disable.