BI Beans includes thin beans, which provide analytic capabilities for HTML-client applications.
You have the following options for creating an HTML-client application that includes thin beans:
Use tags -- BI Beans includes JSP tags and uiXML tags that correspond to each of the thin beans, and tags for rendering, invoking thin dialogs, and so on. When you use tags, BI Beans handles several servlet-development tasks for you, such as routing events to appropriate thin beans.
Because the tags perform tasks for you, using JSP tags or uiXML tags is an easy way to use thin beans in an HTML application.
Write a servlet in Java -- For full control of the HTML application, you can write your own servlet, incorporating the thin beans into your application. You can start with the BI Servlet that is generated when you complete the BI Servlet Generation wizard and then customize the generated servlet. Or you can use your own servlet design.
BI Beans thin beans use the following related technologies:
UIX -- The BI Beans thin beans build on UIX Component technology. UIX Components
is the UIX framework for rendering HTML pages. UIX Components represents
HTML that is rendered as a tree of UINode
elements, and each
node generates a bit of HTML. Each thin bean has a UIX UINode
.
You can use UIX Components to render the entire HTML page that you want
to display, or you can write your own HTML and include the HTML that the
thin beans render through UIX Components. In either case, your servlet must
use UIX Components, in order for the thin beans to render HTML.
The thin beans also use other UIX technologies for various features. For example, the BI UIX tags are uiXML tags, and they use UIX Controller for page navigation. In a servlet, you can use UIX classes for storing state in the HTTP session.
BI Beans Catalog -- Presentation beans and queries are stored as XML in the BI Beans Catalog. Thin explorer beans provide access to the Catalog.
OLAP data -- OLAP data is stored in the database. You can use any data source with the presentation beans, but the Sort tool and the Favorite tool require an OLAP data source.
BISession
-- The BISession
creates an appmodule
object, which stores application-wide information. When you use a JDeveloper
wizard to build an application, the wizard creates a BISession
object for you.