Working with Conditions

Conditions

Conditions are objects that return a single Boolean value based on the evaluation of an analysis or of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

What a condition evaluates depends on whether it is based on an analysis or on a KPI, as follows:

For an analysis, it evaluates the row count of the analysis.
For a KPI, it evaluates the status of the KPI.

For example, a condition might evaluate whether the results of an analysis return a number of rows greater than 0:
If the analysis returns at least one row, then the condition evaluates to true.
If the analysis does not return any rows, then the condition evaluates to false.

Condition Uses

You use conditions to determine whether:

Agents deliver their content and execute their actions
Actions links (which when clicked run actions) are displayed in dashboard pages
Sections and their content are displayed in dashboard pages

For example, a sales manager wants to deliver a Monthly Sales Report to his direct reports only when sales drop below $2 million. You might create a condition that is based on an analysis that shows sales that are below $2 million and add it to an agent whose delivery content is the Monthly Sales Report. When the condition evaluates to true (that is, the analysis contains rows where sales are below $2 million), the agent is triggered to deliver the Monthly Sales Report.

You can also use a different kind of condition to determine whether action links are enabled in analyses. For information, see "Conditionally Enabled Actions Added to Analyses".

Condition Elements

A condition consists of the following elements:

An analysis or KPI.
The criteria to use when evaluating the condition:
- For an analysis, the criteria is a row count and an operator to apply to the row count; for example, the row count equals 100.
- For a KPI, the criteria is a KPI status, for example, the KPI status is OK.
Values for any prompted filters that are associated with the analysis or values for KPI dimensions that were set to Set in watchlist in the KPI.

Condition Types

Named Conditions

A named condition is a condition that you define and then save by name in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog so that you can reuse it in agents and dashboard pages.

You create a named condition when you create a new condition from the:

New menu in the global header by selecting Condition under Analysis and Interactive Reporting
Home page by clicking the More link under Analysis and Interactive Reporting in the Create area and selecting Condition

You also create a named condition from the "Agent editor: Condition tab" when you save an inline condition to the catalog. For information on inline conditions, see "Inline Conditions"

Inline Conditions

An inline condition is a condition that you define at the point of use and do not save by name in the catalog. Instead it is saved as part of the dashboard page or agent.

An inline condition is automatically deleted when the dashboard page or agent that contains it is deleted. This simplifies catalog management for conditions that make sense only within particular Oracle BI content.

You can create an inline condition when you:

Create or edit an agent and specify (in the "Agent editor: Condition tab") that the agent is to deliver its content and run associated actions conditionally. See Using a Condition to Determine Whether an Agent Delivers Content or Executes an Action.

For information on creating agents, see "Creating an Agent".
Add an action link to a dashboard page and specify that the action link is to be displayed conditionally. See "Using a Conditio to Determine Whether Action Links are Displayed in Dashboard Pages". For information about adding action links to dashboard pages, see "Actions in Dashboard Pages".
Add a section to a dashboard page and specify that the section is to be displayed conditionally. See "Using a Condition to Determine Whether Sections Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages".

For information about adding sections to dashboard pages, see "Dashboard Content".