About Connections and Data Sources

Data sources define how Reports grids and tables connect to cloud data sources.

In Narrative Reporting Deployments:

Connections need to be defined by the Service Administrator with a native, and not SSO, user to connect Reports to the various supported data sources. A data source defines a specific cube or relational schema to connect to.

  • Connections streamline the creation and maintenance of Reports data sources and provide a single area of credentials maintenance for multiple cubes in an application.

  • When creating or editing a Connection, you can select cubes to be added as data sources. Data Source artifacts in the Library can also optionally be used to maintain connections to cubes, however, this can also be done in Connections. Data sources use the Connections as a parent artifact "container". When creating or editing a data source, you can select a Connection to use and select a cube from that connection. When connected to a supported Cloud EPM business process for system reporting, the applicable relational schemas are displayed when setting up an inserted table.

  • When users access a report in Narrative Reporting, their User ID is passed to the data source, so their cube access permissions (data and member security) are applied to the report results.

Connections also allow accessing reporting artifacts in Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management platform instances on the same domain via a Remote Library. In the Narrative Reporting Library, users can browse remote libraries for reporting artifacts to open, or to copy Reports from the Cloud EPM Platform to Narrative Reporting.

Note:

Remote Libraries should only be enabled when they are regularly used and accessed, where the credentials defined in Connections are always valid. When the Library and related cards (for example, Reports, Books, and so on) are accessed for the first time in a session, the system performs checks on all Connections with Remote Libraries enabled. If the remote connection cannot be accessed due to expired credentials or an unavailable instance, there may be significant performance degradation when accessing the Library and related cards.

It is recommended to only enable Remote Libraries for Connections where regular access to reporting artifacts is required. Also, keep the Connection credentials up to date and do not leave stale or unused Connections defined with Enable Library selected.

Data sources enable you to maintain your connections on two levels:

  • Global changes: Change all reports that use a specific connection to use a different connection. For example, all report grids that point to server1:cubetype1 will now point to server2:cubetype2.

  • Selective changes: For selected reports, change the connection to point to a different data source. For example, you have created two data source connections, and half of your report grids point to connection1 while the other half point to connection2. You can change the connection details for either connection1 or connection2 without affecting the other grids.

Supported data sources include:

  • Oracle Fusion Enterprise Performance Management, used for:

    • Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management

    • FreeForm

    • Planning and Planning Modules

    • Financial Consolidation and Close

    • Tax Reporting

  • Oracle Essbase

  • Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM Profitability and Cost Management

  • Oracle Fusion Cloud Essbase

  • Oracle Essbase On-premises Deployment

Note:

  • The User ID logged into Narrative Reporting that is creating the Connections, as well as the Administrator ID in the Connections, need to be the same User ID.

  • Both the Narrative Reporting and Connections Administrator ID need to be native users and not Single Sign-On (SSO). For more information, see Managing User Credentials for SSO-Enabled Cloud EPM and Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud Environments in Getting Started Guide for Administrators .

  • When connecting Narrative Reporting to Cloud EPM data sources, the release version of Narrative Reporting needs to be the same release version as the Cloud EPM data source. This is required for the Remote Library feature as well as compatibility between Narrative Reporting and the Cloud EPM Platform ADM driver, which is used for data and member queries against the Cloud EPM Platform cubes.

In Enterprise Performance Management Cloud deployments:

Data Sources are automatically created based on the Cloud EPM application cubes that are on the instance, no manual data source creation/maintenance is necessary. You can only utilize cubes on the same Cloud EPM instance.

For Narrative Reporting Deployments:

video icon -- Working with Connections and Remote Libraries.