1 Introducing Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Topics
This chapter includes the following sections:
Introduction to Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
Oracle BI Enterprise Edition is a powerful tool for analyzing and presenting data.
Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (sometimes referred to as Oracle Business Intelligence) provides a full range of business intelligence capabilities that allow you to:
-
Collect up-to-date data from your organization
-
Present the data in easy-to-understand formats (such as tables and graphs)
-
Deliver data in a timely fashion to the employees in your organization
These capabilities enable your organization to make better decisions, take informed actions, and implement more-efficient business processes.
The illustration shows a portion of an example dashboard that presents organizational data in easy-to-understand formats (tiles, tables, graphs, and so on).
In Oracle BI Enterprise Edition, you can work with:
-
Analyses — (This area of Oracle BI EE is also known as Answers.) Analyses are queries against an organization's data that provide answers to business questions. Analyses allow you to explore and interact with information by presenting data in easy-to-understand formats (such as tables and graphs). You can save, organize, and share the results of analyses.
Your organization might also have purchased prebuilt analyses specific to your industry. You can use prebuilt analyses to suit your business's information needs.
See Creating Analyses.
-
Dashboards — (This area of Oracle BI EE is also known as Interactive Dashboards.) Dashboards provide personalized views of corporate and external information. A dashboard consists of one or more pages that contain content, such as analyses, links to web sites, Oracle BI Publisher reports, and so on. Dashboards allow you to provide end users with access to analytics information.
Your organization might also have purchased preconfigured dashboards that contain prebuilt analyses specific to your industry.
-
Filters, Selection Steps, and Prompts — Filters, selection steps, and prompts allow you to limit or specify the data that is displayed in dashboards and analyses.
See Filtering and Selecting Data for Analyses and Prompting in Dashboards and Analyses.
-
Agents — (This area of Oracle BI EE is also known as Delivers.) Agents enable you to automate your business processes. You can use agents to provide event-driven alerting, scheduled content publishing, and conditional event-driven action execution. You can schedule agents and can trigger them with a specific condition, which enables you to deliver timely information to users.
See Delivering Content.
-
Conditions — Conditions are objects that return a single Boolean value that is based on the evaluation of an analysis or of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). You use conditions to determine whether something is to be done, for example whether an agent is to deliver its content.
-
Actions — Actions provide functionality to navigate to related content or to invoke operations, functions, or processes in external systems. You can include actions in various objects, such as analyses and dashboard pages. Actions allow users to take the proper action based on the business insight that they gained from the data that they received.
See Working with Actions.
-
Scorecards — (This area of Oracle BI EE is known as Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management). Scorecards allow you to model the objectives and initiatives that comprise your corporate strategy, evaluate their performance by assigning KPIs, and determine and display overall performance.
See Scorecarding.
-
Other Products — Oracle BI EE interacts in various ways with other products. For example, with Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office, you can access and run analyses from Oracle BI EE within your Microsoft Office applications (that is, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint).
Note:
These areas of Oracle BI EE (that is, Analyses, Agents, Dashboards, and so on) are sometimes referred to as Presentation Services.Where Do I Store and Manage Oracle BI EE Objects?
You use the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog to store the objects, such as analyses, dashboards, and KPIs, that you and other users create using Oracle BI EE.
Users have their own personal folder (My Folders), where they can store the objects that they create. You can access the objects in a personal folder and save content into that folder. Users can add sub-folders to their personal folders to organize their content in the way that is the most logical to them.
You can also store objects in shared folders where other users or groups can access the objects. A combination of business logic security, catalog object security, and data level security determines who can view data and objects, edit objects, and delete objects from the catalog. Your administrator creates and maintains the catalog's shared folder structure.
See What is the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog?, Managing Objects in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, and Configuring and Managing the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
Signing In to Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
You need a few pieces of information to sign in to the application.
To access Oracle BI EE, you use a URL, a user ID, and a password that have been provided by your organization. Be sure your web browser is set to accept cookies to track signed-in sessions.
You might not be prompted to enter values in all fields of the Sign In page if you have already signed on using single sign-on (SSO).
Signing Out of Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
You must sign out properly to completely exit the application.
- In the global header, click Sign Out.
Navigating Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
The interface provides simple access to the various areas of the application.
After signing in to Oracle BI EE, you are presented with one of the following pages, depending on what has been configured for you:
-
Your personal dashboard, named My Dashboard
-
The Home page
-
A dashboard that is specific to your job function (for example, Call Center representative)
This page is your starting point for working in Oracle BI EE. You can find the analyses, dashboards, and other things that you access frequently on the Home page. If you cannot find what you are looking for, enter the name of the item in the Search box at the top of the page. Or click the Catalog link to explore all available content. As you work, you can use the global header and the Home page as the primary ways to navigate Oracle BI EE:
-
The global header — The global header is displayed at the top of the Oracle BI EE interface and is always available as you work. It enables you to access the functionality that Oracle BI EE provides. For example, you can access the Home page, access dashboards, open objects (such as analyses and dashboard prompts), create new objects, and so on. Privileges determine which functionality is available to you in the global header. Your administrator can modify the global header by changing the order of the links, or by adding links specific to your company or industry. For example, your administrator could add a link to the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). See What Is the Oracle BI EE Global Header?
-
The Home page — From the Home page, you can learn how to get started with Oracle BI EE, create and modify objects, and browse and manage objects. See What Is the Oracle BI EE Home Page?
After you have accessed the starting point of a task, the interface then presents you with the page, dialog, or editor that you use to perform the task.
Do not use the browser's Back button to navigate Oracle BI EE, unless no other navigation methods are available. The browser Back button might not maintain the state of the dashboard upon return. Breadcrumbs are the recommended navigation approach. See About Navigating With Breadcrumbs.
What Is the Oracle BI EE Home Page?
The Home page provides a starting point for performing tasks in Oracle BI EE.
The Home page is divided into sections that allow you to begin a specific task or locate an object. It also includes sections (for example, Recent and Favorites) that allow you to access objects that you have recently viewed, created, or updated, and objects that are accessed the most often by the users assigned to the groups to which you belong.
The illustration shows an example of a Home page.
Depending on what has been configured as your starting page, you might be presented with the Home page when you sign in to Oracle BI EE.
Otherwise, you can always navigate to the Home page by clicking the Home page link in the global header. For information on the global header, see What Is the Oracle BI EE Global Header?
What Is the New Home Page?
The New Home Page provides a way to easily work with Data Visualization (DV) projects, analyses, and dashboards.
The New Home Page includes a variety of functions including BI Ask which allows you to find, view, or create visualizations, analyses, and dashboards.
You can toggle from the New Home Page to the OBI Classic page by clicking Open OBI Classic. Use the OBI Classic page to create other objects such as alerts, prompts, and BIP Reports.
What Can I Do on the New Home Page?
Creating and Using Data SourcesData Sources contain the data that you use to create analyses and DV projects. A data source can be either a subject area or a data set. You can create data sets by either uploading an Excel file or by building a connection to Oracle BI Applications or to a database. See Workflow for Adding Data Sources.
Using the CatalogThe Display area provides several categories to help you quickly locate analyses, dashboards, and DV projects stored in the catalog. Use My Folder or Shared Folders to browse the catalog. Or click the Favorites, Recents, DV Projects, Dashboards, or Analyses category to quickly locate an object that you recently viewed or a specific object by type.
Searching for Objects in the CatalogYou can use keywords to search for the objects in the catalog. Type a search term in the Find content or visualize field to see a list of objects that match your search criteria, and click on a row with the magnifying glass icon (located at the top of the dropdown window in the Search results containing section). See Searching for Saved Projects and Visualizations.
Visualizing Data with BI AskYou can use BI Ask to quickly combine existing data objects into an analysis. Type a search term in the Find content or visualize field to see a list of objects that match your search criteria, and click on a row with an object icon (located in the Visualize data using section of the dropdown window) to start building your visualization. See Visualizing Data with BI Ask.
Creating Objects-
DV Project. See Typical Workflow for Exploring Content in User's Guide for Oracle Data Visualization.
Note that in version 12.2.1.4 that the direct link to Data Visualization has been removed, and that it can be accessed by replacing theanalyticsin your URL withdv/ui; for examplehttp://<host>:<port>/dv/ui -
Dashboard. See Creating Dashboards.
-
Analysis. See Specifying the Criteria for Analyses.
You can learn more about the New Home Page functions by clicking Academy to access the Oracle BI EE documentation library.
Searching for Saved Projects and Visualizations
From the Home page you can quickly and easily search for saved objects.
- Enter your search criteria by typing either keywords or the full name of an object such as a folder or project. As you enter your criteria, the system builds the search string in the drop-down list. See Search Tips.
The drop-down list contains results that match saved objects, but also can contain BI Ask search results. To see object matches (for example, folders or projects), click the row with the magnifying glass icon (located at the top of the drop-down list in the Search results containing section). Note that any BI Ask matches are displayed in the Visualize data using section of the drop-down list and are flagged with different icons.
Description of the illustration GUID-EFC73807-BAA8-4356-83AA-187AA978C337-default.gif
Visualizing Data with BI Ask
Use BI Ask to enter column names into the search field, select them, and quickly see a visualization containing those columns. You can use this functionality to perform impromptu visualizations without having to first build a project.
- Enter your criteria. As you enter the information, the application returns search results in a drop-down list. If you select an item from this drop-down list, then your visualized data is displayed.
-
What you select determines the data set for the visualization, and all other criteria that you enter is limited to columns or values in that data set.
Description of the illustration GUID-1A462EC3-0B8E-44FB-925D-C6E9D20ABAF2-default.gif -
You can search for projects and visualizations or use BI Ask. When you enter your initial search criteria, the drop-down list contains BI Ask results, which are displayed in the Visualize data using section of the drop-down list. Your initial search criteria also builds a search string to find projects and visualizations. That search string is displayed in the Search results containing section of the drop-down list and is flagged with the magnifying glass icon. See Search Tips.
Description of the illustration GUID-EFC73807-BAA8-4356-83AA-187AA978C337-default.gif
-
Search Tips
You must understand how the search functionality works and how to enter valid search criteria.
Wildcard Searches
You can use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard when searching. For example, you can specify *forecast to find all items that contain the word “forecast”. However, using two wildcards to further limit a search returns no results (for example, *forecast*).
Meaningful Keywords
When you search, use meaningful keywords. If you search with keywords such as by, the, and in it returns no results. For example, if you want to enter by in the search field to locate two projects called “Forecasted Monthly Sales by Product Category” and “Forecasted Monthly Sales by Product Name,” then it returns no results.
Items Containing Commas
If you use a comma in your search criteria the search returns no results. For example, if you want to search for quarterly sales equal to $665,399 and enter 665,399 in the search field, then no results are returned. However, entering 655399 does return results.
Date Search
If you want to search for a date attribute, you search using the year-month-date format. Searching with the month/date/year format (for example, 8/6/2016) doesn’t produce any direct matches. Instead, your search results contain entries containing 8 and entries containing 2016.
Searching in Non-English Locales
When you enter criteria in the search field, what displays in the drop-down list of suggestions can differ depending upon your locale setting. For example, if you’re using an English locale and enter sales, then the drop-down list of suggestions contains items named sale and sales. However, if you’re using a non-English locale such as Korean and type sales, then the drop-down list of suggestions contains only items that are named sales and items such as sale aren’t included in the drop-down list of suggestions.
For non-English locales, Oracle suggests that when needed, you search using stem words rather than full words. For example, searching for sale rather than sales returns items containing sale and sales. Or search for custom to see a results list that contains custom, customer, and customers.
What Is the Oracle BI EE Global Header?
The global header provides quick access to commonly used functions and is always available from the user interface.
For example, you can use the global header to begin a new task, search the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, access the product documentation, or view a different object, without having to return to the Home page. The global header also includes the Home page link so that you can access the Home page from other pages.
What you see in the global header is determined by privileges. Your administrator can customize the global header by changing the order in which the links display or by adding links to internal or external locations such as Google or Oracle Technology Network (OTN). See Providing Custom Links in Presentation Services in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
The illustration shows the leftmost portion of the global header.
The global header includes the following components:
-
Search — Enables you to search the catalog. See How Can I Search for Objects?
-
Advanced — Displays the Catalog page in search mode, where you can search for objects in the catalog. In search mode, the Search pane is displayed rather than the Folders pane within the page.
-
Administration — Available if you are logged in as an administrator. Displays the Administration page, where you perform administration tasks such as managing privileges and metadata for maps. See Administering Oracle Business Intelligence in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Understanding the Administration Pages in Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
-
Help — Displays the following options:
-
xxx Help (where xxx is the name of the page, editor, or tab) — Displays the help topic for the current page, editor, or tab.
-
Help Contents — Displays a cascading menu with options that link to the tables of contents for Oracle BI EE, BI Publisher, and Marketing.
-
Documentation — Displays the Oracle BI EE documentation library.
-
OTN — Displays the Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Technology Center page on the OTN.
-
About Oracle BI EE — Shows the Oracle BI EE version and copyright information.
-
-
Sign Out — Signs you out of Oracle BI EE.
-
Alerts — Available only if one or more alerts have been generated for you. Displays the Alerts dialog, where you can manage your alerts. An alert is a notification that is generated by an agent that delivers personalized and actionable content to specified recipients and to subscribers to the agent.
-
Home — Displays the Home page. See What Is the Oracle BI EE Home Page?
-
Catalog — Displays the Catalog page, where you can locate objects in the catalog and perform tasks specific to those objects.
-
Favorites — Displays your favorite objects and any categories that you created to organize your favorite objects. Also displays the Manage Favorites link that you can click to access the Manage Favorites dialog, where you can create and manage categories to organize your favorites. See What Are Favorites?
-
Dashboards — Contains links to all dashboards that are stored within the
Dashboardssub-folder of the user's folder or any shared folder. Dashboards that are not saved to theDashboardssub-folders are not displayed from the global header's Dashboards list. -
New — Displays a list of the objects that you can create. To create an object, select it from the list. The appropriate dialog or editor is displayed for you to create the object.
-
Open — Displays the following options:
-
Open — Displays the Open dialog, where you can select the object with which you want to work.
-
Recent objects — Displays a list of the objects that you have recently viewed, created, or updated. You can use this list to select an object with which you want to work.
-
Most Popular objects — Displays a list of the objects that are accessed the most often by the users that are assigned to the groups to which you belong. You can use this list to select an object with which you want to work.
-
-
Signed In As username — Displays the following options:
-
My Account — Displays the My Account dialog, where you can specify your preferences, such as time zone, delivery devices, and delivery profile. See Setting Preferences.
-
Act As — Available only if your organization has enabled this functionality and you have been granted the appropriate permissions. Enables you to act as another user. See Acting for Other Users.
-
Where Can I Get Help or More Information?
Oracle BI EE provides direct access to guides, context-sensitive help, and libraries that contain conceptual and procedural information to help you understand Oracle BI EE.
Specifically, you can access:
-
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Help — Each Oracle BI EE user interface page, tab, editor, pane, and dialog has a help topic associated with it. Each of these topics contains overview information, links to related concept and procedures, and an explanation of each component.
To access the online help for a page, editor, tab, or dialog, click its Help button.
Alternatively, for a page, editor, or tab, you can select xxx Help (where xxx is the name of the page, editor, or tab) from the Help menu that is located in the global header. For example, for help on the Catalog page, select Catalog Page Help . See What Is the Oracle BI EE Global Header?
-
Help Tables of Contents for Oracle BI EE, Oracle BI Publisher, and Marketing — Navigating through these Table of Contents is a good way to get acquainted with the products and access a particular topic of interest.
To access one of these tables of contents, click Help Contents on the Help menu in the global header and then select the appropriate table of contents.
-
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Documentation Library — The books in the Oracle BI EE documentation set are included in the Fusion Middleware Documentation Library on the OTN.
To access the Oracle BI EE documentation library, click Documentation on the Help menu in the global header.
-
Oracle Technology Network (OTN) — On OTN, you can find information that is specific to Oracle Business Intelligence and information about all other Oracle products. OTN provides services and resources to help developers, database administrators (DBAs), and architects share and find expertise and best practices about how to design, build, deploy, manage, and optimize applications. Examples of the types of items that you find on OTN include information about industry-standard technologies such as JAVA and Linux, all Oracle product documentation, discussion forums, Oracle software, blogs and podcasts, and technical articles that are written by other OTN members.
To access OTN, click OTN on the Help menu in the global header.
About Privileges and Permissions
User privileges and permissions allow or restrict actions and access within the application.
Privileges and permissions allow you to perform specific actions, such as creating an analysis or editing a scorecard, and entitle you to access and manage objects, applications, and so on. Roles group related privileges together that pertain to specific requirements, enabling continuity and limiting access based on responsibility.
Privileges and roles govern what you can see and access in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. Refer to Managing Presentation Services Privileges in Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for additional information and refer to Who Uses the Catalog? to learn more about permissions.
About Acting for Other Users
Acting as another user allows non-administrators to perform other users’ functions.
The Act As functionality enables you to act for another user in Oracle BI EE. This functionality is useful, for example, when you must work on another user's dashboard or content, or when IT support staff wants to troubleshoot another user's account.
To use the Act As functionality, the administrator must enable you to act for another user. See Enabling Users to Act for Others in Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
When the administrator authorizes you to act for another user, the administrator can grant you full access or restricted access to another user's account:
-
Full access — When you are granted full access, you inherit the target user's privileges and can change the user's default dashboard and modify the user's content and preferences.
-
Restricted access — When you are granted restricted access, you maintain your user privileges, but inherit the target user's permission for viewing data. Restricted access enables you only to view the user's data.
You can view a list of the users with access to your account by opening the My Account Dialog: Delegated Users tab. This tab displays a list of the names of the users that have been given access to your account. See Acting for Other Users.
Setting Preferences
You and end users can set personal preferences for Oracle BI EE.
While working with Oracle BI EE, you can set account preferences. For example, you might specify a Sales Dashboard for your starting page Sales Dashboard and Pacific Standard Time for your time zone. By specifying a starting page, you can access Oracle BI Enterprise Edition and get working with your dashboard right away. Using the My Account dialog, and depending on your privileges, you can:
-
View general account information, such as your display name and user ID.
-
View and modify your preferences, such as language, time zone, and currency.
-
View and modify your preferences for BI Publisher, such as location and time zone.
-
View and modify your preferences for Oracle BI Mobile.
-
View and modify your delivery options for agents.
-
View the roles and groups to which you belong.
- In the global header, click Signed In As username and select My Account.
- In the My Account dialog, complete the appropriate settings.
- Click OK to save your changes.
Downloading BI Desktop Tools
You can download BI desktop tools that you have permission to access.
Depending on the products that you are eligible to download, you can download various BI desktop tools from the Oracle BI EE Home page, including:
-
Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office (Smart View) — This tool lets you access and run Oracle BI EE analyses within your Microsoft Office applications. To learn more about using Smart View after downloading and installing it, see Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide and Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office Developer's Guide.
-
Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools Installer — This tool lets you install the Business Intelligence Administration Tool, the Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager, and the Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager.
-
Template Builder For Word Add-in — This tool lets you design RTF templates for use in published reporting.
Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools
Oracle Business Intelligence supports the client tools on 64-bit Windows operating systems.
-
Oracle BI Administration Tool
-
Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager
-
Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager client tools on 64-bit Windows and Linux operating systems.
About Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools
When you install Oracle Business Intelligence on a computer running a Linux, or UNIX operating system, the Catalog Manager is the only client tool installed. See Starting the Catalog Manager User Interface in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. However, if you installed Oracle Business Intelligence on a computer running a Linux, or UNIX operating system, or if you installed on a Windows operating system but want to use the client tools on another Windows computer, you must run the Oracle Universal Installer to install the Oracle BI Administration Tool, Job Manager, and Catalog Manager.
Considerations for Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools
Consider the following before installing the client tools:
-
The Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer installs the Oracle BI Administration Tool , Job Manager, and Catalog Manager.
Oracle BI EE Plus Client installer does not install the Oracle Database Client. To access the Oracle database you must separately install the Database Client on the same machine. Similarly, to access the IBM DB2 database, you must install the IBM DB2 CLI on the same machine. See About Importing Metadata and Working with Data Sources in Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
-
The Oracle BI Administration Tool requires its own system DSN for connecting to the Oracle Business Intelligence system. You create and configure the system DSN after you install the client tools. Your system administrator should supply the details required to create the system DSN.
When running the Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer, if the install path contains any multi-byte characters, Job Manager and Oracle BI Administration Tool cannot launch. To avoid this issue you must change the install path if it contains any multi-byte characters. Make sure that the install path contains only ASCII characters.
-
Oracle Business Intelligence supports multiple instances of the Oracle Business Intelligence client tools on the same computer. That is, if your organization has installed multiple instances of Oracle Business Intelligence, you can install and configure the client tools multiple times, or once for each instance of Oracle Business Intelligence. However, do not install the client tools on the same computers that host your Oracle Business Intelligence server instances, as the client tools are already installed on those computers (as part of the Oracle Business Intelligence installation).
Before running the Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer, do all of the following:
-
Identify a computer running a supported 64-bit Windows operating system where you can install the Oracle Business Intelligence client tools.
-
Verify that the computer where you want to install the client tools can access the Linux, UNIX, or Windows computer that hosts your Oracle Business Intelligence system.
-
Contact your system administrator to obtain the information necessary to create the system DSN for the Oracle BI Administration Tool.
-
Obtain the Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer file using one of the following methods:
-
Access the Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer file from the Oracle BI EE home page by selecting the Download BI Desktop Tools link. From the Downloads tab of the page that opens, select your Oracle BI EE version, accept the license agreement, and click Oracle Business Intelligence Developer Client Tool. You can display the Oracle BI EE home page from the following URL:
http://<host>:<port>/analytics/saw.dll?bieehomeFor example:
http://computer1:9704/analytics/saw.dll?bieehome -
Access the Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer file on OTN and download it to the computer where you want to install the client tools. You can find the Oracle BI EE Plus Client Installer file on OTN at the following link:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html
-
How Does Oracle BI EE Interact with Other Products?
Oracle BI EE can work with a variety of other products.
Oracle BI EE interacts in various ways with other products. This section contains the following topics:
Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle BI Publisher
Oracle BI EE and Oracle BI Publisher work together to provide a complete data analysis and presentation tool.
Note:
This guide assumes that Oracle BI EE and BI Publisher have been installed and configured to run as integrated components at your organization. If this is not the case, then some mentions of BI Publisher in this guide might not be applicable to you. For information on running BI Publisher, see User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.BI Publisher enables you to create highly formatted reports that are suitable for printing. BI Publisher reports are built on top of BI Publisher data models. A BI Publisher data model can consist of data sets from a wide range of sources, such as subject areas from the BI Server or analyses, SQL queries against relational databases, MDX queries against Essbase or other Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) sources, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Web Services, Microsoft Excel, HTTP feeds, or XML files. BI Publisher supports a wide range of layout types, so you can create the full range of documents that your organization might need. Within Oracle BI EE, you can view, create, edit, and schedule BI Publisher reports and can include them in dashboard pages.
Oracle BI EE includes a fully integrated BI Publisher. All the BI Publisher functionality appears within the Oracle BI EE application, and all reports and related objects are created within Oracle BI EE and saved to the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog. See Creating Reports and Creating Reports: Process Overview in Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.
When using the integrated environment, you see that the following areas are affected by the integration:
-
Editors — You can create or edit BI Publisher content. When you work with a BI Publisher object, the appropriate BI Publisher editor is displayed. For example, when you work with a data model, the Data Model editor is displayed.
-
Dashboards — You can embed BI Publisher reports in dashboards. You can also create custom print layouts for high-fidelity printing of dashboard pages and custom export layouts for exporting dashboard content to Excel. See Building and Using Dashboards.
-
Catalog — The Oracle BI Presentation Catalog contains all BI Publisher objects, such as reports and templates. You can work with BI Publisher objects in the catalog just as you work with other catalog objects, such as analyses or filters.
-
Security — Single sign-on capability is provided. The Release 11g security model has been extended to include additional BI Publisher-specific permissions, such as xmlp_template_designer.
Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle BI Mobile App Designer
You can design analyses and presentations for display on mobile devices.
Note:
This guide assumes that Oracle BI EE and Oracle BI Mobile App Designer have been installed and configured to run as fully integrated components at your organization. If this is not the case, then some mentions of Oracle BI Mobile App Designer in this guide might not be applicable to you.Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile App Designer is a tool for designing purposeful apps for mobile phones and tablets.
The apps you create with Oracle BI Mobile App Designer are platform and device independent. The generated apps are based on the modern HTML5 standard, which means they can run on any modern browser on your mobile device. No client install is required.
Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile
Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile is an application that enables you to view and interact with Oracle BI EE content on smartphones and tablets.
You can easily access Oracle BI Enterprise Edition analyses and dashboards through Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile. You see the same content, and it is optimized for viewing on your mobile device. You can install Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile on your mobile device from Apple's App Store or from the Google Play store.
For information on Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile, see the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile Products Documentation Library here:
Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System
The Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System helps ensure your suite of applications work efficiently.
Oracle BI EE offers the following integration with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System:
-
You can download Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office from the Oracle BI EE Home page. See Integration of Oracle BI EE with Microsoft Office.
-
Within EPM Workspace, you can work with analyses, agents, dashboards, and BI Publisher reports. See Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Workspace documentation.
Interaction of Oracle BI EE with Oracle BI Applications
Oracle BI Applications work with Oracle BI EE to provide an entire suite of integrated data analysis tools.
Oracle Business Intelligence Applications are pre-built business intelligence solutions that are available for Oracle applications such as Oracle Fusion, Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Peoplesoft, and Siebel. Oracle Business Intelligence Applications are built on Oracle BI EE.
Oracle BI Applications consist of industry-specific dashboards and analyses that are built using industry best practices to address key functional areas within an organization. Dashboards and analyses are tailored for each end user's role in an organization.
Typically, Oracle BI Applications are integrated with and accessible from other operational applications, such as Oracle's Siebel CRM applications, to provide business metrics in analyses in the context of an organization's business function and industry. Oracle BI Applications include Extract Transform Load (ETL) routines to extract, transform, and load data into the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse. Oracle BI Applications also contain metadata that maps to the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse and a transactional database, and define key measures and metrics for all levels of the organization. These measures and metrics are available to content designers in Oracle Business Intelligence.
Integration of Oracle BI EE with Microsoft Office
There are add-in components that link Oracle BI EE functions with Microsoft Office.
Oracle BI EE offers a set of add-ins to Microsoft Office that can be downloaded and installed to enable integration between components of Oracle Business Intelligence and Microsoft Office. The Get Started section of the Oracle BI EE Home page provides links to install the following add-in components:
-
Template Builder for Word
-
Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office
Topics of Interest in Other Guides
Some topics that might be of interest to content designers and administrators are covered in other guides. The table lists these topics, and indicates where to go for more information.
| Topic | Where to Go for More Information |
|---|---|
|
Installing Oracle BI EE |
Installing Oracle Business Intelligence in Installing and Configuring Oracle Business Intelligence |
|
Configuring Oracle BI EE |
Configuring Oracle Business Intelligence in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition |
|
Integrating Oracle BI EE |
Overview of Integrating with Oracle Business Intelligence in Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition |
System Requirements and Certification
The system requires specific certificates, hardware and software to operate properly.
Refer to the system requirements and certification documentation for information about hardware and software requirements, platforms, databases, and other information. Both of these documents are available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN).
The system requirements document covers information such as hardware and software requirements, minimum disk space and memory requirements, and required system libraries, packages, or patches:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-requirements-100147.html
The certification document covers supported installation types, platforms, operating systems, databases, JDKs, and third-party products:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/ias/downloads/fusion-certification-100350.html