1 Introducing Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile

This chapter describes Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile, an application for the Apple iPhone and iPad. The chapter contains the following topics:

"Which User Interface Graphics Are Used in Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile?"
"What Is Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile?"

Which User Interface Graphics Are Used in Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile?

This chapter refers to Apple's user interface graphics as explained in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1 Apple's User Interface Graphics

Icon Graphic	Naming in this Chapter and Function
	Home button
	Application icon for Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile. Appears on Home screen of device. Tap this to launch the application.
	Login button
	Accept button. Used for accepting the end-user license agreement.
	Desktop Layout icon (iPad). Near the Home button on the iPad, this icon changes the layout of BI content from mobile to desktop.
	Mobile Layout icon (iPad). Near the Home button on the iPad, this icon changes the layout of BI content from desktop to mobile.
	Menu icon. In navigation bar, this icon displays the Action menu for whichever screen you are viewing.
	Menu icon (iPad). In navigation bar, this icon displays the child panel which contains the Action menu for whichever screen you are viewing.
	Checkmark. Indicates the selected server connection.
	Favorites icon. In tab bar, this icon displays the Favorites screen.
	Alerts icon. In tab bar, this icon displays the Alerts screen.
	Catalog icon. In tab bar, this icon displays the Catalog screen.
	Search icon. In tab bar, this icon displays the Search screen.
	Settings icon. In tab bar, this icon displays the Settings screen.
	Search field
	Add icon. Creates a new item.
	Next icon
	Next character. This icon appears on the right edge of a list item or property field. By tapping this, you navigate to the next level (for example, to the next level of a catalog hierarchy). A single tap anywhere on the item initiates the transition.
	Refresh icon. Refreshes content.
	Edit button.
	Cancel button.
	Save button.
	Done button.
	Delete icon
	Search Criteria icon. In the Search screen, tapping this icon displays the Search Criteria screen.
	Badge visible on Alerts icon.
	Previous icon
	Action menu. Displays as an overlapping screen on top of whichever screen you are viewing.

What Is Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile?

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile allows you to view Oracle BI EE content on supported mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad.

Using Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile, you can view and analyze BI content such as analyses and dashboards, BI Publisher content, scorecard content, and content delivered by agents.

Viewing content on a mobile device requires a presentation that differs from how you view the same content on a desktop monitor. Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile optimizes the presentation of your BI content for mobile devices. Beyond the default presentation of content provided by the Oracle BI Mobile application, you can customize how you view dashboards and analyses by setting properties for layout display. You can mark certain content as favorites.

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile for Apple iPhone and Apple iPad can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes App Store. Use of the application requires that you have access to an instance of Oracle BI EE that is configured and running.

Figure 1-1 Home Screen on iPhone with Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile Application Installed

This image is described in the surrounding text.

Which BI Content is Viewable Using Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile?

All of your Oracle BI EE content is available for immediate consumption on your mobile devices. There is no need to move content to specially marked folders. Nor do you need to redesign any content specifically for viewing on the mobile devices.

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile supports the following object types:

Dashboard
Analysis
BI Publisher report
Agent-resultant report
Scorecard

For all supported object types, Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile supports rendering of all report content, though content is sometimes altered to optimize for the mobile context. In analyses and dashboards, the Oracle BI Mobile application provides all analytic actions (such as drill, action link, prompts, and so on). For BI Publisher, the actions supported match those of the desktop (based on output type). In scorecards, the Oracle BI Mobile application provides a subset of actions.

Table 1-2 BI EE Objects Viewable in the Oracle BI Mobile Application

BI EE Object	Can be viewed in the Oracle BI Mobile application?	Can be delivered by an agent?
Analysis	Yes, including analytic actions	Yes
Dashboard Page	Yes, including analytic actions	Yes
Briefing Book	No Note: Users are unable to open a briefing book or view any content from a briefing book on the mobile application. However, briefing books' titles may appear in the mobile application in a user's catalog or in a list of favorites.	Only its alert is visible (in the Alerts list)
BI Publisher Report	Yes, including same actions as full-browser version (based on output type)	NA
Action	Yes	NA
Prompt	Yes	NA
Scorecard	Yes, including analytic actions	NA
Catalog Search Results	Yes	NA
Views: Tables	Yes, including drilling	NA
Views: Pivots	Yes, including drilling	NA
Views: Graphs	Yes, images only	NA
Views: Gauges	Yes	NA
Views: Maps	Yes, including interactive	NA

Localization of BI Content

You can use a setting—called Device Locale— within the Oracle BI Mobile application to determine how BI content is rendered on the mobile device. This setting affects only BI content, not the user interface language of the application shell.

Note:

The standard behavior of Apple's mobile operating system requires that the application shell user interface be changed only through the Apple iOS Settings application and not by the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile application. The Device Locale toggle in the Oracle BI Mobile application changes the language of the BI content, but not the client shell user interface.

Bi-Directional Text and the BI Mobile Client Shell User Interface

It is important to note, if you intend to use the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile client with a right-to-left language such as Hebrew or Arabic, the client shell UI will not show the layout correctly.