Creating Physical Layer Folders

Use folders to organize the contents of the Physical layer.

This section contains the following topics:

Creating Physical Layer Catalogs and Schemas

Physical layer catalogs are optional ways to group different schemas.

A catalog contains all the schemas (metadata) for a physical database object. A schema contains only the metadata information for a particular user or application.

  • You must create a physical database object before you can create a physical catalog object or a physical schema object.

  • After you implement a certain type of grouping, you cannot change it later. For example, if you decide to implement database then schema then table, you cannot add a catalog afterward.

Creating Catalogs

In the Physical layer of a large repository, administrators can create physical catalogs that contain one or more physical schemas.

  1. In the Physical layer of the Administration Tool, right-click a physical database and select New Object, then select Physical Catalog.

  2. In the Physical Catalog dialog, type a name for the catalog.

  3. Type a description for the catalog and click OK.

Creating Schemas

The schema object contains tables and columns for a physical schema.

Schema objects are optional in the Physical layer of the Oracle BI Administration Tool.

  1. Open the repository in the Administration Tool.

  2. In the Physical layer right-click a physical database or physical catalog, select New Object, and then select Physical Schema.

  3. In Physical Schema, in Name, type a name for the schema.

  4. Type a description for the schema, and click OK.

Using a Variable to Specify the Name of a Catalog or Schema

You can use a variable to specify the names of catalog and schema objects.

For example, you have data for multiple clients and you structured the data source so that data for each client was in a separate catalog. You would initialize a session variable named Client, for example, that could be used to set the name for the catalog object dynamically when a user signs on to the Oracle BI Server.

You specify the session variable to use in the Dynamic Name tab of the Physical Catalog or Physical Schema dialog.

Note:

The Dynamic Name tab is active when at least one session variable is defined.

The name of the variable is displayed in the dynamic name field, and the Select button toggles to the Clear button.

  1. In the Name column of the Dynamic Name tab, click the name of the session variable that you want to use.
  2. To select the highlighted variable, click Select.
  3. (Optional) In the Default Initializer column, update the variable value.

To remove assignment for a session variable in the Dynamic Name tab:

  • Click Clear to remove the assignment for the variable as the dynamic name.

    The value not assigned is displayed in the dynamic name field, and the Clear button toggles to the Select button.

To sort column entries in the Dynamic Name tab:

  • Click the Name or Default Initializer column heading to sort the entries in a column. Clicking a column heading toggles the order of the entries in that column between ascending and descending order, according to the column type.

Setting Up Display Folders in the Physical Layer

You can create display folders to organize table objects in the Physical layer. They have no effect on query processing.

After you create a display folder, the selected tables appear in the folder as a shortcut and in the Physical layer tree as an object. You can hide the objects so that you only view the shortcuts in the display folder. See the information about the Repository tab of the Options dialog in Setting Administration Tool Options.

Note:

Deleting a table in a display folder deletes only the shortcut to that object. When you delete a column in a display folder, however, the column is actually deleted.

  1. In the Physical layer of the Administration Tool, right-click a physical database and select New Object, then select Physical Display Folder.
  2. In the Physical Display Folder dialog, type a name for the folder.
  3. To add tables to the display folder, click Add. Then, in the Browse dialog, select the fact or physical tables you want to add to the folder and click Select.
  4. Click OK.