This chapter provides conceptual information about integrating Oracle BI Presentation Catalog with a WebCenter Portal application, and adding the Oracle BI Composer functionality to a WebCenter Portal application or WebCenter Spaces.
This chapter includes the following topics:
"Overview of the Oracle BI Presentation Services and WebCenter Portal Application Integration"
"Creating a WebCenter Portal Application that Integrates with Oracle BI Presentation Services"
"Can I Add BI Composer to a WebCenter Portal Application or WebCenter Spaces?"
"Adding BI Composer to a WebCenter Portal Application or WebCenter Spaces"
You can use JDeveloper to create WebCenter Portal applications that integrate with Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services. At runtime, these applications include the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog in the WebCenter Resource Catalog. Users can then browse for and add business intelligence analyses, dashboard pages, dashboards, or scorecard components (strategy maps, strategy trees, KPI watchlists, cause and effect maps, and custom views) to their WebCenter Portal application pages. Any filters, prompts, and actions links included in the business intelligence objects will work within the WebCenter pages.
At runtime, WebCenter users can expand and browse the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog's folders to view an analysis' views. The following view types display in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog: table, pivot table, chart, funnel chart, gauge, narrative, ticker and title. The following view types do not display in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog: view selector, column selector, logical SQL, and no-results view.
Users can also browse the dashboard folder for the pages associated with the dashboard; however, users cannot browse within the dashboard pages to see their components (for example, any analyses embedded in the dashboard). Users cannot include entire Scorecards (only a Scorecard's components) in their WebCenter Portal application pages.
For more information, see "Creating a WebCenter Portal Application that Integrates with Oracle BI Presentation Services".
To properly create a WebCenter application that integrates with Oracle BI Presentation Services, you must configure the application's library settings, update the web.xml and default-catalog.xml files, and have properly configured security.
For information describing how to configure a WebCenter Portal application to integrate with Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services, see "Integrating Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter.
BI Composer is a simple-to-use wizard that allows users to quickly and easily edit or view the design of Oracle BI EE analyses from a WebCenter Portal Application or WebCenter Spaces.
When configured, the BI Composer interface allows WebCenter users to edit the analysis by selecting or modifying the analysis' columns, add views (for example, table and graphs), sort and filter data, and apply conditional formatting to data appearing in tables.
For more information about setting up this integration, see "Adding BI Composer to a WebCenter Portal Application or WebCenter Spaces".
For information about using the BI Composer interface, see Chapter 14 "Using BI Composer to Work With Analysis" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
To add BI Composer to a WebCenter Portal application or WebCenter Spaces, you must extend the WebCenter domain to include the BI Composer implementation libraries, add library references to the WebCenter Portal application, and specify the WebCenter BI Composer's viewer and editor container task flow parameters. For WebCenter Spaces, you must also add task flow permission security and apply the domain extension template to deploy the BI Composer libraries.
Oracle JDeveloper offers the following Oracle BI EE extensions:
Business Intelligence ADF Task Flow
Business Intelligence ADF View Regions
Business Intelligence Composer
Business Intelligence Logical SQL View Objects
Business Intelligence Soap Connection
Use this procedure if you are not sure whether you have the required Oracle JDeveloper 11g extensions and Oracle BI EE extensions.
In JDeveloper, click the Help menu and click About. The "About Oracle JDeveloper 11g" dialog displays where you can confirm the release number.
Click the Extensions tab to view a list of the installed extensions. To sort the list, click either the Name or Identifier column heading.
Note that all Oracle BI EE extensions contain the "bi-" prefix. If no extensions begin with the "bi-" prefix, then you do not have the required extensions.
Use this procedure to install the required extensions.
From the JDeveloper Help menu, select Check for Updates.
Follow the steps in the wizard to locate, download, and install the Oracle BI EE extensions. If you will create a WebCenter application that integrates with Oracle BI EE, then you need to also install the WebCenter Framework.
For a list of the available Oracle BI EE extensions, see"Checking for Installed JDeveloper Extensions".
Perform this procedure to extend the WebCenter domain to include the BI Composer implementation libraries. Perform this procedure for a WebCenter Portal application and WebCenter Spaces.
For information about how to perform this procedure, see "How to Extend the Domain".
Use the following procedure to add the required library reference to the WebCenter Portal application. You do not need to perform this procedure for WebCenter Spaces.
In JDeveloper, go to the Application Navigator, open the Projects tab, navigate to the project's WEB-INF subdirectory, and open the weblogic.xml document.
Add the following library reference:
<library-ref> <library-name>oracle.bi.composer</library-name> </library-ref>
Open the application's weblogic-application.xml document. To do this, go to the Application Navigator, open the Application Resources tab, and navigate to the Descriptors subdirectory where the weblogic-application.xml document is stored.
Add the following library reference:
<library-ref> <library-name>oracle.bi.jbips</library-name> </library-ref>
If you are configuring BI Composer with WebCenter Spaces, use the following procedure to create a permission security entry for the BI Composer task flow. You do not need to perform this procedure for a WebCenter Portal application.
In Oracle Enterprise Manager, expand the WebCenter node.
Select WebCenter Spaces, right click, select Security, and then select Application Policies. The Applications Policies dialog displays.
In the Search pane, click the Select Application Stripe to Search box.
Click the list and select web center and click the Search application security grants button. The search results display.
From the search results, select the principal to which you want to add permissions. Click Edit. The Edit Application Grant dialog displays.
In the Permissions pane, select Add. The Add Permissions dialog displays.
In the Customize pane, specify the permission information. Note the following:
In the Permission Class field, enter oracle.adf.controller.security.TaskFlowPermission
In the Resource Name field, enter /WEB-INF/oracle/bi/adf/apps/answers/webcenter/flow/BIWebCenterTF.xml#BIWebCenterTF
In the Permission Actions field, enter customize,personalize,view
Click OK.
Use the following information to initialize the taskflow with values for parameters based on other elements in the page.
The container task flow aggregates the editor and viewer task flows and allows the user to switch between the editor and viewer modes at runtime. Note that if the BI Composer libraries are not available in WebCenter Portal applications or WebCenter Spaces, then only the BI Composer's viewer is exposed and the edit functionality is disabled. However, if the BI Composer libraries are available, then the container task flow is used to expose the BI Composer's viewer and editor functionalities.
The task flow document location is:
WEB-INF/oracle/bi/adf/apps/answers/webcenter/flow/BIWebCenterTF.xml
The task flow's ID is:
BIWebCenterTF
For more information about adding parameters to a task flow, see Chapter 16: Using Parameters in Task Flows in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
Table 5-1 lists each task flow parameter, its description, type, default value, and if it is required.
Table 5-1 BI Composer WebCenter Viewer and Editor Task Flow Parameters
| Name | Description | Type | Required? | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The catalog path for the analysis being viewed or edited. |
String |
No |
null |
|
|
The ID of the deployed Oracle BI EE Presentation Services connection. |
String |
No |
null |
|
|
The type of content being viewed or edited. Use "biReportContent" for analysis, "biDashboardContent" for dashboard, and "biScorecardContent" for scorecard. |
String |
No |
null |
|
|
The sub item name of the Oracle BI content (for example, analysis view or dashboard page). This parameter applies to the viewer, only. |
String |
No |
null |
|
|
The prompt or filter's XML. This parameter applies to the viewer, only. |
String |
No |
null |
|
|
The Oracle BI object's width. This parameter applies to the viewer, only. |
String |
No |
null |
|
|
The Oracle BI object's content height. This parameter applies to the viewer, only. |
String |
No |
null |