Preface

Welcome to OracleAS Discoverer!

This guide explains how to configure and customize Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Viewer after they have been installed as part of Oracle Application Server.

This guide does not explain how to install OracleAS Discoverer. For information about installation, refer to the Oracle Application Server Installation Guide.

To use this guide effectively, we recommend that you are already familiar with HTTP servers and database concepts.

For the latest information about Oracle9AS Discoverer, please read the OracleAS Discoverer Release Notes in conjunction with this guide.

Intended Audience

This guide is intended for OracleAS administrators (also referred to as Discoverer middle tier administrators).

Conventions

In this manual:

EUL, the End User Layer, refers to the metadata interface between the database and Discoverer.
<ORACLE_HOME> refers to the directory where the OracleAS software, the Oracle HTTP Server, and the OC4J servlet engine software are installed.

Other conventions used in this manual are shown in the table below:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipses in examples indicate omitted information not necessary for the example.
. . .	Horizontal ellipses in statements or commands indicate omitted material not necessary for the example.
boldface text	Boldface type in text indicates a field label on a Discoverer graphical user interface or Web page.
italic text	Italic type represents a user-supplied variable.
< >	Angle brackets enclose user-supplied names or values.
[]	Brackets enclose optional clauses from which you can choose one or none.
Menu name \| Command	Text in this format conveys a sequence of menu choices, e.g. choose the menu, then the command under that menu.
`Courier text`	Text in this format indicates a command to be typed at a command prompt.

Note that OracleAS Discoverer is supported on Windows 2000, and UNIX. Instructions for the Windows platform in this manual assume you are using Windows 2000 (unless stated otherwise).

Prerequisites to run Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Viewer

Before users can use Discoverer to analyze data, the database must contain a Discoverer EUL Version 5.1. The Discoverer manager must have created or updated the End User Layer (EUL) Version 5.1 with Oracle Discoverer Administrator Version 9.0.4 or later (shipped as part of Oracle Developer Suite 10g (9.0.4)).

OracleAS Discoverer Navigation and Accessibility

Keyboard Navigation

OracleAS Discoverer supports standard keyboard navigation. Standard keyboard navigation includes the use of the tab key, mnemonics (using the Alt key and the underlined character), and accelerators (such as Alt+F4 to exit a window).

Using the JAWS screen reader with Discoverer

If users will use Discoverer with a screen reader (e.g. JAWS), you must do the following to maximize usability:

display Discoverer Plus in a separate window by deploying Discoverer Plus with the framedisplaystyle configuration value set to 'separate' (for more information, see Section 11.7, "Discoverer Plus URL parameters").

To further maximize usability, you might also do the following:

make sure that the screen reader has sufficient time to read a page before the page is refreshed by delaying the query progress page. You can do this in two ways:
- on a per-user basis by deploying Discoverer Viewer with the qpd URL parameter value set to a number of seconds delay (for more information, see Section 11.8, "Discoverer Viewer URL parameters").
- on a global basis by using Application Server Control to specify a number of seconds delay (for more information see Application Server Control Help).
  
  Note: You can also specify a number of seconds delay on a global basis using the query_progress_delay configuration value in the configuration.xml file (for more information, see Section A.4, "List of configuration settings in configuration.xml").

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, might not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS might not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation might contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle Corporation does not own or control. Oracle Corporation neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.