5Setting Up Custom Subject Areas
Custom Subject Areas
Oracle Public Sector Compliance and Regulation Cloud contains prebuilt subject areas, but you can also create your own subject area for your unique reporting needs.
The subject areas that you create is called a custom subject areas.
Concepts and Terminology in Custom Subject Areas
Before creating a custom subject area, you should understand the concepts and terminology used with custom subject areas. These concepts are discussed in their related topics in detail.
Objects: Objects within Oracle Public Sector Compliance and Regulation Cloud represent an entity; for example, a contact list. When you create entities such as permit types within Oracle Public Sector Compliance and Regulations, you create custom objects.
Fields or attributes: A field, also called an attribute, is where entity information is stored. A contact type is stored in a field under the contact list entity or object.
Measures: Measures are a set of functions that you can apply on date, numeric, or currency type fields of the selected primary or child objects while defining a custom subject area.
Date Leveling: Date leveling is a date hierarchy representation between dates and their associated measures. For example, total actual annual gross revenue by month.
Creating Custom Subject Areas
This topic covers how you create and edit custom subject areas, and how you can activate or inactivate a custom subject area while editing.
You cannot modify a predefined report subject area, however, you can create custom subject areas to meet your reporting needs.
Adding a Custom Subject Area
You add custom subject areas using train stops that appear at the top of the page. These train stops enable you to move back and forth during the configuration process. You can also save your configuration at a logical point and then continue to create later.
To create a custom subject area using train stops:
Navigate to Application Composer.
Click Custom Subject Areas on the Overview page of Application Composer.
Select Create from the Actions menu.
These are the steps in the train stops that you can use for configuring your custom subject area:
Define Custom Subject Area
In this step, you provide the name for your subject area and select the primary object that is the basis for the reports you create later using the custom subject area. Subject areas usually have names or labels that correspond to the type of information they contain. Display labels have the Custom: prefix added automatically.
Select Child Objects
In this step, you select the child objects whose data you want to use in your reports. You can add child objects only if the primary object has child objects. Otherwise, the add icon is disabled. You can only add one child object per level. The parent-child-grandchild-grand grandchild hierarchy supports adding up to three levels of child objects with one child object at each level, for example, parent-child1-child1.1-child1.1.1.
Configure Fields
In this step, you select the fields that you want to display on your reports. You typically add at least one field from each of the objects that you have selected for your custom subject area.
Select the desired measures to generate for number, date, or currency fields from all the available objects so that the subject area includes only those measures that you want to analyze. Also, define at least one measure.
In the Measure Aggregations column, select an option from the list of predefined formulas that you can apply to the Measure field. When you select the formula, the application applies the selected formulas to the selected field and measures.
Note: You can choose measures only for the lowest child. For example, if only a primary object exists with no children, you can select measures for the primary object. Otherwise, if any child objects exist, you can select measures only at the lowest child object level, not for the parent object.You can change the display labels of the fields that you select in this step. Additionally, you can use the Select Fields dialog to remove fields that belong to the primary object. The Select Fields dialog appears when you click Select Fields when configuring fields for your custom subject area.
After you publish your custom subject area, the fields you have selected for your subject area are automatically added to their owning object's folder. If you have also defined measures, those fields are automatically added to the Facts folder. If you did not define a measure, then one is automatically created for the custom subject area.
For more information on measures, see Measures.
Configure Date Leveling
If required, select the Date columns for date leveling. For more information on date leveling, see Date Leveling.
Configure Security
Select the required security level for the Everyone Role Name, which is added by default, or add additional Role Names by clicking in the + icon and define the security level for each one of them.
The security definition here only controls who can access the custom subject area definition to create reports. It doesn't control data visibility which is automatically controlled based on the user running the reports.
For more information on securing custom subject areas, see Custom Subject Area Security.
Review and Submit
Review the custom subject area configuration for all added objects, attributes, and measures, and if satisfied, click Submit. If changes are required click Back to navigate back to the required screen.
After you submit, the custom subject area configuration is prepared for publishing. You can create and submit a custom subject area either immediately or save and close the custom subject area at any point and submit it later. You must first submit a custom subject area for publishing before you can select it from within Oracle BI Composer. After you save or submit a custom subject area, you cannot modify its primary object.
To access the published custom subject area in BI:
From the Navigator menu, select .
In the Contents pane, click Create.
Select the published custom subject area and start creating your report.
Editing Custom Subject Areas
You can edit a published or saved custom subject area and then republish it when your changes are done. Modifying a custom subject area does not affect the reports that you had created using that custom subject area before making the changes. You can use the modified custom subject area if you need to enhance existing reports.
To edit a custom subject area:
On the Overview page of the Application Composer, click Custom Subject Areas.
Locate the custom subject area that you want to edit, and click the Edit icon.
You can filter out inactive custom subject areas in Application Composer by viewing custom subject areas in Active status. This is safer than deleting them, because the inactive subject areas are still available and can be found by searching.
Make the desired changes and then click Submit to republish the custom subject area.
While you can edit a custom subject area in any status, there are considerations on what you can or can't do when editing. When editing a published custom subject area, it is not possible to:
Change the primary object.
Add or remove child objects.
Remove previously added measures.
Add more aggregation types for measures that are already published.
Activating or Inactivating Custom Subject Areas
When editing custom subject areas, you can activate or inactivate custom subject areas when your reporting or business requirements change. This step enables you to control what information is displayed on the reports that use the information from custom subject areas.
You can inactivate only those custom subject areas that are published and have a status of OK, and can activate only previously inactivated custom subject areas.
To inactivate a custom subject area, select it in the list and then click the Inactivate button. To activate an inactive custom subject area, select it and click Activate. Note that if no custom subject area is selected in the list, the button doesn't appear.
When searching for custom subject areas, you can filter out inactive custom subject areas in Application Composer by viewing only those in Active status. Inactivating a custom subject area is safer than deleting it, because the inactive subject areas are still available and can be found by searching.
Objects in Custom Subject Areas
This topic covers how you use the various types of objects in the Application Composer to create custom subject areas.
A custom subject area is a set of entities (objects), attributes, and measures that you use to build reports.
Objects can be classified under broad categories of custom objects and standard objects. Every custom subject area has a primary object, which is the focus of any reports that you create. You can also optionally add child objects to the custom subject area. Custom subject areas support both custom and standard objects. The objects that you create are called custom objects.
Before designing your custom subject area, use Intake Form Designer to identify or create the objects and fields that you want to use.
Primary Objects
A primary object is any top-level object. You create a custom subject area based on the primary object. Additionally, the primary object is the focus of the report that you create based on the custom subject area.
The list of available primary objects includes all objects, which are either top-level custom objects, or standard objects that are configured by the owning application. After you save your custom subject area, you can't change its primary object; but you can create another custom subject area using a different primary object.
Based on how you want to configure your custom subject area, you can add one child to an object.
Child Objects
A child object is an object that has a one-to-many relationship with a parent object and can be a parent object of another child object. Add a child object to a custom subject area if you want your report to include data from both the primary object and its children. If an object's parent object is already a child object (of another parent object) then the object is a grandchild object. For example, if object Y is a child of object X, and object Z is a child of object Y, then object Z is a grandchild of object X. Custom subject areas support parent-child-grandchild-great-grandchild objects.
You can only add one child object to the primary object per level, as long as there are child objects available. If there are no child objects for the chosen primary object, the list that enables selecting child objects does not appear.
The parent-child-grandchild-great-grandchild hierarchy supports adding up to three levels of child objects with one child object at each level; for example, parent-child1-child1.1-child1.1.1.
Fields or Attributes in Custom Subject Areas
This topic explains the various types of fields or attributes that you use for configuring your custom subject area.
Fields or attributes store entity information in the application. Fields can be standard or custom.
Types of Reporting Fields
The fields you can use to create reports are as follows:
Text
Number
Date
Percentage
Date time
Currency
Check box
Fixed choice list
Dynamic choice list
Long text
When you create a custom field, you can create reports for the following data types:
Boolean
Note: Note: If you are using the Boolean data type for fields other than check boxes, those fields are displayed as either 0 or 1 on your custom reports.Number
Currency
Date
String
Percentage
Phone
Date time
Long text
Measures
Measures are a set of functions. Examples include a SUM of the actual gross revenue in USD, or a COUNT of the number of building permits worth over $500,000.
The designer defines the aggregation function (SUM, COUNT, and so on) for custom measures, so end users don't need to do so themselves when they create an analysis. You can apply these functions on fields of type Date, Numeric, or Currency.
Measures available to a particular type of field may differ depending on the field type. After you define the measures for the required fields and publish the custom subject area, you can select these fields and the applied measures when creating your report in the Oracle BI Composer. You can only specify aggregate formulas to apply to a measure when creating a custom subject area. It is not possible to edit a measure in an already published custom subject area.
Here are some measures you can apply to fields of type Numeric, Currency, or Date.
For Numeric and Currency fields, a measure can be:
All
Note: All is not a measure, but an option in the UI that selects all of the measures.Sum: Calculates the sum of the values.
Average: Calculates the mean value.
Count: Calculates the number of rows that are not null.
Count Distinct: Calculates the number of rows that are not null. Each distinct occurrence of a row is counted only once.
Note: Although Count Distinct is usually used in cases requiring a count on a foreign key (because a count of distinct rows is what's wanted), it is not required. If your requirements allow multiple instances of the same foreign key value to be counted multiple times, you can use Count rather than Count Distinct.Maximum: Calculates the highest numeric value.
Minimum: Calculates the lowest numeric value.
First: Selects the first occurrence of the item.
Last: Selects the last occurrence of the item.
Median: Calculates the middle value.
Standard Deviation: Calculates the standard deviation to show the level of variation from the average.
Standard Deviation Population: Calculates the standard deviation using the formula for population variance and standard deviation.
For Date fields, a measure can be:
All
Maximum
Minimum
You can select measures based on your reporting needs. For example, you can use measures to view product sales per store, state, or country. Or, to view the number of support tickets opened or closed per day, week, or month, and so on.
If you do not define a measure, then one will be automatically created for the subject area when you submit the custom subject area for publication.
Date Leveling
Date leveling is a hierarchy representation of dates and associated measures, which enables you to view the data over different periods of time.
To use this hierarchy, create a report that shows the total Actual Gross Revenue amount for each year. Drill down from year to show gross revenue per quarter, sales per month, gross revenue per week and gross revenue per day, and then drill back up to gross revenue per year. The date hierarchy aggregates the measures by the required hierarchy or leveling period.
To configure date leveling when defining a custom subject area, use the Configure Date Leveling step of the train stop to either allow or disallow leveling. You may need to expand the field list in the Date field to select or clear the Date Leveling check box, as applicable.
For more information on where the Configure Date Leveling step appears in the train stop, see Creating Custom Subject Areas.
Custom Subject Area Security
You can secure a custom subject area by granting or revoking access rights from the role names that access the custom subject area. This topic covers how you can add or delete role names, or grant or revoke access rights from those role names.
You can also add role names from a predefined list and assign or revoke permissions.
Managing Role Names and Access Rights
While defining a custom subject area using the train stops, you can use the Actions list in the Configure Security step to manage role names and access rights as follows:
Select and add role names for a custom subject area from a predefined list of role names. This predefined list also provides the description for each role name. You can also select and add multiple role names from this predefined list using either the Shift or Ctrl keys. Once you add a new role name, you can select appropriate access for that role name.
Select and delete role names listed for a custom subject area. You can also select and delete multiple role names using either the Shift or Ctrl keys.
Note: You cannot delete the role name listed as Everyone.Read access is granted by default to each role name you add. If you want to revoke Read access from a listed role name, select No access for that role name.
Publication Statuses of Custom Subject Areas
This topic covers what happens when you submit a custom subject area for publishing, and what the submission statuses indicate.
After you successfully publish your custom subject area, you can start building reports using Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Composer based on your published subject area.
What Happens When You Submit for Publishing
When you submit a custom subject area for publishing, two processes occur in the background. The first process is synchronous and creates Oracle Applications Development Framework (Oracle ADF) artifacts. You must wait until this first process is over. The second process is asynchronous and creates centralized metadata repository (RPD) fragments and submits them to the Oracle BI server.
A custom subject area can have one of the following statuses:
Pending: This status indicates either of the following:
You saved and closed the configuration process for a custom subject area before submitting it for publishing.
A failure occurred in the background processes when creating Oracle ADF and RPD artifacts.
In Process: This status indicates that the data is in the process of being published to Oracle BI.
Note: If the in-process status doesn't change to OK, even after multiple refresh attempts, then there could be an error in publishing. If an error occurs, then the details are displayed, as well as information about how to fix problems, where applicable. These error status details allow you to pinpoint and fix problems quickly.
OK: This status indicates that the custom subject area has been published successfully. You can use Oracle BI Composer to create reports using the objects, attributes, and measures that you have configured in the subject area.
Including Custom Fields on Reports
This topic discusses how to create a custom subject area using an attribute and create a report.
Creating a Custom Subject Area
In this example, you create a custom subject area using the LNP1KitchenRemodel object.
If you are working in a sandbox, exit the sandbox.
Click the Navigator menu at the top.
Click the Application Composer link.
Note: You might need to click the more >> link first.You are on the main page of Application Composer, where you create a custom subject area using the LNP1KitchenRemodel object.
Change the Application from CRM Cloud to ERP and SCM Cloud.
In the Overview region, click the Custom Subject Areas link.
You are on the Custom Subject Areas page. You can use this page to search or create custom subject areas.
In the Search Results region, click the Create button.
Enter a name for the custom subject area that you are creating. Enter Kitchen Remodel in the Label field.
In the Primary Object region, click the Primary Object list.
Click the LNP1KitchenRemodel list item.
In the upper-right region of the page, click the Next button.
In the upper-right region of the page, click the Add Child Object button.
In the Add Child Object dialog box, click the Child Object list.
Click the ContactList list item.
Click OK.
In the upper-right region of the page, click Next.
You now define the fields for the LNP1KitchenRemodel primary object.
Ensure that the selected value in the Fields Fromlist is LNP1KitchenRemodel. Click the Select Fields button.
On the Select Fields modal page, select the fields that you want to include for the LNP1KitchenRemodel primary object.
Repeat steps 16 and 17 for the ContactList child object.
In the upper-right region of the page, click Next.
You now select fields to apply date leveling. In the Date Field Leveling table, click the Expand button of the LNP1KitchenRemodel object.
Select the Allow Leveling option for the Business Start Date field.
In the upper-right region of the page, click Next.
Leave the default role access of Read for Everyone. In the upper-right region of the page, click Next.
Review your custom subject area. In the upper-right region of the page, click Save.
In the upper-right region of the page, click Submit.
A confirmation message appears.
Click OK.
You successfully created a custom subject area.
Creating a Report Using a Subject Area
In this example, you create a report in Oracle Business Intelligence Composer (BI Composer) using the Kitchen Remodel subject area.
Click the Navigator menu at the top.
Click the Reports and Analytics link under Tools.
Note: You might need to click themore >> link first.
The Reports and Analytics page appears.
In the left pane, click Create and select Analysis.
From the Select Subject Area dialog box that appears, you must first select a subject area to build your report. In this activity, you are building a report using the Kitchen Remodel subject area.
In the Select Subject Area dialog, select the check box next to Custom:Kitchen Remodel and click Continue.
Tip: You can add more than one subject area to a report by selecting the check box next to additional subject areas.
You are in the Select Columns step of Oracle Business Intelligence Composer (BI Composer) wizard. In the left box, click the Expand button of the Custom:Kitchen Remodel tree.
Add the following fields to the Selected Columns box on the right:
RecordNumber under LNP1KitchenRemodel tree.
Submission Date under LNP1KitchenRemodel tree.
Status under LNP1KitchenRemodel tree.
Expiration Date under LNP1KitchenRemodel tree.
Female Owned under LNP1KitchenRemodel tree.
First Name under ContactList tree.
Last Name under ContactList tree.
Gender under ContactList tree.
Phone Number under ContactList tree.
State under ContactList tree.
In the upper-right region of the page, click Next.
You are in the Select Views step of the wizard.
Enter Kitchen Remodel Permits in the Title field.
Click the Table list.
Click the Table (recommended) list item.
Click the Preview option on the right of the Title field to view a preview of the table. Click OK.
In the upper-right region of the page, click the Next button.
You are in the Edit Graph step of the wizard.
In the upper right region of the page, click Next.
You are in the Sort and Filter step of the wizard.
In the upper right region of the page, click Next.
You are in the Highlight step of the wizard.
In the upper right region of the page, click Next.
You are in the Save step of the wizard.
Enter Kitchen Remodel Permits in the Analysis Name field.
In this activity, you will save your report in only My Folders. In the Save In area, click the My Folders tree.
In the upper right region of the page, click Submit.
A confirmation message appears.
Click OK.
You can now view the report you just created. Click the Expand button of the My Folders tree.
Locate the report you just created.
You successfully created a report in BI Composer using the Kitchen Remodel subject area.
Custom Subject Areas: Frequently Asked Questions
This topic provides answers to some frequently asked questions regarding custom subject areas.
Can I change a custom subject area's primary object?
No. Once you save a custom subject area, you cannot change its primary object; however, you can create a new custom subject area with a different primary object.
What happens if I change a custom subject area after it is published?
You can edit a published custom subject area and then republish it after your changes are done. Modifying a custom subject area does not affect the reports that you created using that custom subject area before making the changes. You can use the modified custom subject area should you need to enhance existing reports.