Customizing Existing Analytics
This section describes how to use Oracle Analytics Server to customize Oracle Utilities Analytics Warehouse. It includes the following:
Modifying the RPD File
All customer modifications must be done in a separate copy of the repository file, which is separate from the product's out-of-the-box repository file. During upgrades to the latest Oracle Utilities Analytics Warehouse version, any customization done should be merged into the upgraded repository file through the Merge utility of Oracle Analytics Server.
It is recommended that customers use a staging environment for the repository upgrade. However, as long as the customer modifications are done on top of a copy of the base repository file, the Oracle Analytics Server upgrade process should be able to handle most customizations that may be made to the repository file. The simpler the changes, the less complex is the upgrade procedure; hence, it is best to try to limit the changes made to the repository file.
Note: For more information about managing, upgrading and merging repository (.rpd) files, refer to the Managing Metadata Repositories for Oracle Analytics Server documentation.
Customizing Answers
For the additional report requirements, if the need is to display additional attributes on an existing report or to include an additional view, then it is recommended to customize the answers delivered with the base product. Create a copy of the base product report and make changes directly to the copy (do not modify the base product report). All user modifications should be saved in a separate custom folder in order to guarantee that any custom modifications are preserved when upgrading to newer versions of Oracle Utilities Analytics Warehouse later on. The dashboard should be changed to point or refer to the new custom report, or a new custom dashboard can be defined to make use of the customized reports.
Note: The dashboards are overwritten during the upgrade. Any mappings between dashboards and customized answers are lost and must be re-mapped manually. Therefore, you should use a staging environment for upgrade and manually remap dashboards before moving the upgraded customized content into the production environment.
For details about managing, upgrading, and merging presentation catalogs, refer to the Configure and Manage the Presentation Catalog section in the Administering Oracle Analytics Server documentation.
For details about how to create or edit answers, refer to the Oracle Analytics Server documentation.
Customizing the Report Labels
You can customize labels or captions on an existing report or report columns. You can provide an override description that is used on the reports instead of the base product description. The override descriptions can be provided via the Base Field Maintenance page under the Administration Dashboard in the Oracle Analytics Server Dashboards menu. Once the changes are saved and the cache is cleared, upon the next login, the override descriptions are seen on the report title or the column title.
Note: For more details, refer to the Administration Dashboards Maintenance section in the Oracle Utilities Analytics Warehouse Installation and Configuration Guide available in the Oracle Utilities Analytics Warehouse documentation.