About Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence

Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence, an analysis and reporting tool, helps you gain real-time insight into transactional data from your Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite.

Read this guide to understand the product enhancements.

Topics:

For the latest Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence news, product enhancements, customer and partner stories, and market insights, see Oracle Analytics Community for OTBI.

Important Product Announcements

You can take action now to prepare for these updates that are coming in future releases of Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence.

April 2024 Release (24B)

  • Oracle Mobile Application Designer (MAD) Deprecation

    The Oracle Mobile Application Designer (MAD) feature is disabled in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence. If you want to enable the Mobile Application Designer feature, the administrator can set the Enable Mobile App Designer property to true in the Publisher Runtime Configuration page.

    In 24D, Oracle Mobile Application Designer (MAD) will be desupported.

January 2024 Release (24A)

  • Oracle Mobile Application Designer (MAD) Deprecation

    In 24B, the Oracle Mobile Application Designer (MAD) feature will be disabled in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence.

October 2023 Release (23D)

  • Change in exporting data to CSV or tab delimited files

    In 24A and later releases, when you export analyses results to a CSV or tab delimited file, Microsoft Excel treats the data in the exported CSV file as text. The formula characters are prefixed with the escape character (which is the apostrophe (‘)). If you don’t want to export data to CSV or tab delimited files as text, you as the administrator can disable the Export Data to CSV Files as Text property in the administration page for analyses and dashboards.

    If your current system processes CSV or tab delimited files, Oracle recommends you to review workflows and update logic to handle the apostrophe (‘) escape character prefixed to formula characters in the files exported in the text format.

  • Open-source fonts to replace licensed Monotype fonts in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence

    In 24A, open-source fonts will replace the Monotype fonts currently available in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence. You can use the open-source fonts available in the current release with your existing reports and edit the layouts as appropriate.

    For details on this replacement, see Open-Source Fonts to Replace Licensed Monotype Fonts.

Product Enhancements

Here’s an overview of the enhancements that we've added to improve your Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence experience.

July 2024 Release (24C)

Analyses and Dashboard Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Email a link to analysis results

Users can create an agent that sends an email with a link to the results of analysis.

See Create Agents to Deliver Content.

April 2024 Release (24B)

Administration Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Enable the Oracle Mobile Application Designer (MAD) feature

The administrator can set the Enable Mobile App Designer property to true in the Publisher Runtime Configuration page.

See Mobile App Designer Properties.

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Use of the Equals operator restricted for searching the report jobs of other users

In the Report Job History page, users with the BI Consumer role are restricted from using the Equals operator in the Owner field to search for the report jobs of other users. Only users with the BI Administrator role can search for the report jobs of other users.

See Search for Report Job History.

Register multiple digital signatures

Register multiple digital signatures and choose a digital signature for a PDF report. See Apply a Digital Signature.

January 2024 Release (24A)

Administration Enhancements

Enhancement Description
Open-source fonts replace the Monotype fonts Analyses, dashboards, and pixel-perfect reports use Go Noto font as the fallback font. See Open-Source Fonts to Replace Licensed Monotype Fonts.

Change in exporting data to CSV or tab-delimited files

When you export analyses results to a CSV or tab-delimited file, the formula characters are prefixed with the escape character, and the analyses results exported to a CSV or tab-delimited file are treated as text. If you don’t want to export data to CSV or tab-delimited files as text, you as the administrator can disable the Export Data to CSV and Tab-Delimited Files as Text property in the administration page for analyses and dashboards.

See About the Administration Page.

Change in URI of the provisioned FA_UCM_PROVISIONED Oracle WebCenter Content Server

In 24A, the URI of the provisioned FA_UCM_PROVISIONED Oracle WebCenter Content Server changed from http to https for Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications environments converted to the new Oracle Cloud Console.

Every time you upgrade, verify the URI of the provisioned FA_UCM_PROVISIONED Content Server, and make sure the URI of the custom connection is similar to the URI of the provisioned FA_UCM_PROVISIONED Content Server. See Create a Custom Connection.

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description
The qrcode function for specifying the barcode type supports additional parameters The qrcode function supports additional QR attributes to specify the QR code correction level, encode data format, mask pattern, and the version to be encoded. See 2D Barcode Functions.

October 2023 Release (23D)

Administration Enhancements

Enhancement Description
Go Noto font is the default fallback font for PDF output Oracle recommends that you test the use of Go Noto font as the fallback font in your reports, analyses, and dashboards. See Open-Source Fonts to Replace Licensed Monotype Fonts.

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Secure delivery of pixel-perfect reports using RFC8268 new key exchange methods

Deliver pixel-perfect reports through SFTP using these RFC8268 Diffie-Hellman key exchange methods:

  • diffie-hellman-group14-sha256
  • diffie-hellman-group16-sha512
  • diffie-hellman-group18-sha512

See SSH Options for SFTP.

Use of the Contains operator restricted for searching the report jobs of other users

In the Report Job History page, users with the BI Consumer role are restricted from using the Contains operator in the Owner field to search for the report jobs of other users. Only users with the BI Administrator role can search for the report jobs of other users.

In 24B, for users with the BI Consumer role, even the use of the Equals operator will be restricted in the Owner field.

See Search for Report Job History.

The default value of the Webservice optimization property changed to true

Publisher caches the report definition by default and avoids multiple requests to the catalog when the same report runs multiple times within a short interval of time. Caching helps to improve the system performance.

You can configure the Webservice optimization property to false to avoid caching of the report definition. See All Outputs Properties.

Earlier Announcements and Enhancements

July 2023 Release (23C)

Administration Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Use Go Noto font as fallback font for PDF output

You can use Go Noto font as the fallback font for analyses, dashboards, and pixel-perfect reports. The system uses the fallback font when the default PDF fonts (such as Helvetica, Times-Roman, and Courier) can’t display non-Western characters included in the data when generating PDF output. Oracle recommends that you test the use of Google Noto font as a fallback font in your reports, analyses, and dashboards. See Open-Source Fonts to Replace Licensed Monotype Fonts.

Configure the retention period of old metadata data of scheduled jobs in Publisher

Publisher automatically purges transient data of reports from scheduled jobs older than 365 days. See Publisher Automatically Purges Transient Data of Old Jobs.

The administrator can reduce the rentention period of metadata data of old scheduled jobs. See Manage Metadata of Old Scheduled Jobs.

Configure the retention period of old audit data in Publisher

Publisher automatically purges audit data older than 180 days to improve system performance.

The administrator can reduce the rentention period of old audit data. See Manage Audit Data.

Secure delivery of pixel-perfect reports using the RFC8332 RSA keys

Deliver pixel-perfect reports through SFTP using the RFC8332 RSA keys (SHA-256 or SHA-512).

See SSH Options for SFTP.

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description
Use Libre barcode encoder to generate barcodes in reports

You can configure at the Publisher instance level or at the report level to use the Libre barcode encoder to generate barcodes in PDF reports.

See RTF Template Properties, Barcode Font Mapping, Encode the Data.

Configure the timeout value for SQL queries in datasets to be less than the Resource Manager limit

If the timeout value for SQL queries in datasets exceeds the Resource Manager limit, you can't save the data model.

See Data Model Properties.

April 2023 Release (23B)

Announcements

  • Publisher to automatically purge the transient data of jobs completed more than 365 days ago to improve system performance

    In 23C, Publisher will automatically delete transient data for reports from scheduled jobs older than 365 days. Once the report output has been deleted, it can’t be restored.

    If you need to retain report output beyond the system retention period, you can download the report output. See View Job History for a Specific Report, View Details of a Job History, Download Data from a Report Job, and Send an Output to a New Destination for instructions on how to download reports or deliver report outputs outside the Oracle Analytics Publisher application.

  • Open-source fonts to replace licensed Monotype fonts in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence

    In 24A, open-source fonts will replace the Monotype fonts currently available in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence. You can use the open-source fonts available in the current release with your existing reports and edit the layouts as appropriate.

    For details on this replacement, see Open-Source Fonts to Replace Licensed Monotype Fonts.

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Configure fallback font for PDF Reports

Configure to use either Monotype Albany fonts or Google Noto fonts as fallback fonts for PDF reports. Oracle recommends that you test the use of Google Noto fonts as fallback fonts in your pixel-perfect reports. In a future release, Oracle plans to remove support for Monotype fonts in the Oracle Analytics applications. Review all your critical reports and edit the layout to format the reports as required.

See Open-Source Fonts to Replace Licensed Monotype Fonts and PDF Output Properties.

Use the logged in user as author for reports delivered to Content Server

Configure to use the logged in user as author for reports delivered to Content Server.

See Create a Custom Connection.

January 2023 Release (23A)

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Cache the report definition

Configure the Webservice optimization property to cache the report definition when you need to run a report multiple times within a short interval of time.

See All Outputs Properties.

July 2022 Release (22C)

Publisher Report Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Email the URL to access the job output

Configure job delivery to email the URL to access the job output instead of attaching the job output to the email. See Configure Delivery Options.

Make a report private

Configure a report to make the report private. See Advanced Options.

Disable generation of XML data of a report

Configure a report to disable the generation of XML data for republishing the report. See Advanced Options.

January 2022 Release (22A)

Administration Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Catalog groups migrated to application roles

New custom application roles use a naming convention with a suffix of "_GRP2ROLE".

A catalog group might contain prebuilt roles such as BI Consumer, BI Administrator, and BI Author. When the catalog groups are migrated to the application roles, the permissions of the prebuilt roles included in the catalog groups are also migrated to application roles.

See Set Presentation Services Privileges for Application Roles.

Limit for catalog object permission setting

The maximum number of entries for the Access Control List (ACL) of a catalog object is 64.

To assign permission to a catalog object, don't add user IDs directly to the catalog object ACL. Instead, group users under an application role, then add the application role to the catalog object ACL.

Search for users

The search string that you enter for user search defines the search.

The user name and display name identify an OTBI user:

  • User name - OTBI login name or ID of the user. For example, SCambridge.
  • Display name - First name and last name of the user. For example, Steve Cambridge.

When you enter a search string without the asterisk character (*), the search result lists the display names of users where the search criteria matches one of these conditions:

  • The search string is contained in the user name.
  • The search string exactly matches the display name.

For example, if you enter Jack John as the search string, the search result lists the display names of the users with user name containing Jack John or with display name as Jack John.

Examples for using the asterisk character (*) in the search string:

  • Enter Jack* as the search string to search for users with display name or user name starting with Jack.
  • Enter *Jack as the search string to search for users with display name or user name ending with Jack.
  • Enter *Jack* as the search string to search for users with display name or user name containing Jack.

Consider a user with Mike.David as the user name and "Jonty Rhodes" as the display name. In this case, if you enter Rhodes*, David* or *Jonty, Jonty, or Rhodes as the search string, the search result won’t list the user. If you enter *Mike*, *David*, *Jonty*, *Rhodes*, Mike*, *David, Jonty*, * Rhodes, David, Mike, or Jonty Rhodes as the search string, the search result lists the user.

Note that user search isn't case-sensitive.

Search for application roles

Search for application roles using the exact string or the asterisk character (*).

For example, enter BI Author, or BI*, or *Author to search for the role called BI Author.

See Set Presentation Services Privileges for Application Roles.

Rename your account

Before you rename your account, move your content in the catalog from My Folders to Shared Folders/Custom folder, and back up your Shared Folders/Custom folder. Make sure the permissions of the Shared Folders/Custom folder aren't restricted to your user account. See Renamed Users Can’t Access Their Custom Reports.

Set prompts to auto-complete

Set prompts to auto-complete on the Preferences tab in My Account.

Use the BulkDataExportService web service

Use the BulkDataExportService web service from the analytics-ws/saw.dll/wsdl/v12 private namespace.

Download Desktop tools

Download Desktop tools using Download Desktop Tools in the Others section on the Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence Home page.

Upload custom logos to create custom branding, manage themes, and style dashboards and analyses.

See Manage Themes.

Configure and use geo maps in dashboards.

See Manage Map Information for Analyses.

Configure safe domains to enable videos and images to display correctly in reports.

If you embed videos or images from external sources in reports, you must indicate that those external domains are safe. See Allow Safe Domains.

Provisioned JDBC and JNDI connections in Publisher

Create a JNDI connection to the system-defined data source only to access the audit data source (AuditViewDataSource). You can't create JDBC and JNDI connections from Publisher to other data sources. See Set Up a JNDI Connection to Access Audit Data.

Analysis and Dashboard Enhancements

Enhancement Description

Export an analysis

Export an analysis as a formatted file or as a data file using the More menu on the Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence Home page.

Email an analysis

Email an analysis from the Results tab of the Analysis editor or from the More action menu in the catalog. See Send Email Reports and Track Deliveries.

Scale column display

Specify whether to multiply data by a 100 to display it as a percentage when setting the properties of a column. See the Scale for % (x 100) component in the Column Properties dialog Data Format tab.

Format the Visual Appearance of Graphs

Override the default data format at graph level. Configure the column to override the default display of data. See Format Columns and Format the Visual Appearance of Graphs.

View data in two dimensions with values represented in a gradient of colors

Use the heat matrix view to view data in two dimensions with values represented in a gradient of colors. See About Heat Matrix Views.

Sort graph, heat matrix, pivot table, table, treemap, and trellis views

Sort graph, heat matrix, pivot table, table, treemap, and trellis views by using a context menu (right-click). A sort dialog is displayed when you right-click in a graph view in the Results tab of the Analysis editor tab or on a dashboard page. You can right-click legend, data marker, and group-level (X axis) items to display a menu of interactions that includes options such as Sort and Drill.

Specify whether to send the display value or the code value of a dashboard column to a Publisher report

Configure the dashboard prompt of a double column to specify whether to send the display value or the code value to a Publisher report.

If you don’t select Filter by Code for the dashboard prompt of a column value, the Publisher report includes the display value of the column.

When you create filters for columns, you can view both the name and descriptor ID of double columns.

Concatenate two character strings

Use the CONCAT function to concatenate two character strings. You can't concatenate non-text values.

See String Functions.