What’s New for Oracle Analytics Desktop

Here’s an overview of the new features and enhancements we’ve added recently to improve your Oracle Analytics Desktop experience. It's organized by the release a specific feature or capability became available.

Topics:

Release 5.8

Feature Description
Consistent legend properties across visualizations

The following visualizations have properties (such as location and fonts) added to their legend: Sankey, Network, Tree Diagram, and Chord.

See Adjust Visualization Properties.

Image backgrounds for heat maps

Visualize data with heat map layers on your custom image maps.

See Apply Map Backgrounds and Map Layers to Enhance Visualizations.

Single header on all pages

The user interface in Oracle Analytics has been enhanced with a single header that helps to maximize your workspace. With the content density provided, you can realize the benefits of your viewing capability with a modernized user interface and improved navigation.
Enrichments for live data sets

You can leverage enrichments for live data sets along with cached or file-based data sets.

See About Data Preparation.

Release 5.7

Feature Description
Spark charts within performance tiles You can liven up your visualizations with spark charts added to tiles. See Examine Trends with Spark Charts.
Responsive canvas layouts You can use controls for setting vertical and horizontal scrolling of canvas reports and automatic responsive design across screen resolutions. See Adjust the Visualization Canvas Layout.
On-canvas filters You can add on-canvas filters that allow users to choose, change, and apply filters to attribute columns within some or all of the visualizations on the canvas. See Add an On-Canvas Filter.
Oracle machine learning models and Oracle Analytics Desktop In Oracle Analytics Desktop, you can register and use Oracle machine learning models to model, score, and output large data sets on the database. You can register and use Oracle machine learning models from Oracle Database and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse connections. See How Can I Use Oracle Machine Learning Models In Oracle Analytics?.
Top/Bottom filters for attributes Add a Top/Bottom filter for an attribute and then pick the measure. Previously you could only add the Top/Bottom filter for a measure and then pick the attribute. See Apply Top Bottom N Filters.
Bridge reports You can use the Waterfall visualization to build a bridge report. A bridge report groups data by contributions of each member to the overall variation between values of categories. For example, show the respective contribution of various products to the total sales variation year by year. See Create a Project and Add Data Sets.
Database Advanced Analytics functions in data flows

You can consume advanced analytics functions from Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse and Oracle Database. These include Dynamic Clustering and Dynamic Anomalies, Unpivoting of columns and rows, and Smart sampling. See Add Analytic Functions to a Data Flow.

Earlier Releases

Release 5.6

Feature Description
Connect to Microsoft Azure SQL Database Visualize data from Microsoft Azure SQL Database. See Supported Data Sources.
Create digitized custom map layers Easily create custom interactive visualizations from any image. Upload images and create map layers that support defining areas on the images with no-code polygon definitions bound to data interactively. See Use an Image as a Map Background and Draw Map Layer Shapes on the Image.
Create data actions to Publisher reports Create data actions to easily navigate to a Publisher report. See Create Data Actions to Connect to Publisher Reports.
Enhanced color in Waterfall visualizations Assign custom colors for increase and decrease values in a waterfall visualization.
Copy calculation expressions to the Clipboard Access a simple menu option to copy an entire expression to the Clipboard without opening the formula editor.
Create calculations more quickly Quickly copy and duplicate custom calculations to create derivatives of calculations, to make backup copies, and to test syntax scenarios quickly.
Improved usability of the Canvas As you create a project, you have many different tabs of analyses. Explore the improved content density of canvas names for better visibility and quick duplication of a canvas for iterative report creation and testing. As you duplicate or copy canvas tabs, new canvasses are added next to the original and not at the end of the list for ease of accessibility.
Enhanced map rendering and ability to disable gestures The performance of map rendering is enhanced including data truncation warnings when using large data sets. You can lock the display of a map and disable interactive gestures for a better experience.
Flexible and persistent cell sizing in tables and pivot tables Enhance the clarity of tables and pivot tables. You can control the size of columns and rows for specific data points that need more attention or more room for visibility.

Release 5.5

Feature Description
Butterfly visualization You can select the Butterfly visualization to present two sets of data series side by side and organized by a specific metric.
Spacer visualization You can add spacers to the canvas to provide filler space between visualizations.
Assign a map layer to a column You can use the Location Details option to assign a map layer to a column. See Assign a Map Layer to a Data Column.
Auto focus in map layers When you've added filters to your map visualization, you can use the Auto Focus on Data option to automatically focus on a particular map area. See Auto Focus on Data for a Map Visualization.
Enhance grand totals in pivot tables and tables For pivot tables and tables, use the Property tab to control the formats and positions of grand totals and subtotals.
Canvas and project background configuration You can add background colors and images to canvases and projects.
Hierarchical coloring You can select the Hierarchical Coloring option to ensure consistent coloring for each metric's attribute values.
Reference line in Explain In Explain's Key Drivers results for attribute columns, a constant reference line is displayed in 100% stacked charts. See Analyze Data with Explain.
Oracle NetSuite Connection Type Visualize data from Oracle NetSuite data sources.
Oracle Database Advanced Connection Options Connect to an Oracle Database configured on multiple clusters using a Single Client Access Name (SCAN) ID. In the Create Connection dialog, you select Advanced to configure the Single Client Access Name (SCAN) ID. See About Specifying Connections to Databases.

Release 12.2.5.4

Feature Description
Oracle Analytics Desktop Oracle Data Visualization Desktop is renamed to Oracle Analytics Desktop.
Delimiter Support When creating a data set from a CSV or TXT file, you can specify a thousand separator and a decimal separator.

When you output data from a visualization, the outputted file uses the data delimiter for your computer's locale.

See Add a Spreadsheet from Your Computer and Share a Visualization or Story as a File.

Trellis Row (Y2 Axis) improvements The default position of a visualization’s trellis row is the left side of the visualization. The formatting of the Values Axis is preserved when you change the position of the trellis row to the right side of the visualization.
Copy and Paste Between Projects You can copy and paste a visualization or canvas from one project into another. See Copy and Paste a Visualization or Canvas.
Review Location Matches for a Map Visualization You can review mismatch issues between data and match results in map layers, such as when there are ambiguous or partial matches between words. See Review Location Matches for a Map Visualization.
Create Custom Data Action Plug-ins You can create custom data action plug-ins to use in Analytics Cloud. See Create Custom Data Action Plug-ins.
Font Customizations You can customize all title and label text in a visualization. Options include font (for example, Arial), type size, and emphasis (for example, bold, underline, or color). See Adjust Visualization Properties.
Server-side SSL support You can enable server-side SSL for these additional connection types:
  • Apache Hive
  • DB2
  • Hortonworks Hive
  • IBM Biginsights Hive
  • MapR Hive
  • Pivotal HD Hive
  • Spark
  • SQL Server
Enhanced home page and search bar Use the enhanced home page and search bar to quickly locate your analytics content. See Search for Content.

Release 12.2.5.3

New Features

Feature Description
Tooltips improvement

Use the Tooltips field to adjust a visualization's tooltips content, or to turn a visualization's tooltips off. See Modify a Visualization's Tooltips.

Select alias table

You can select an alias table when creating or updating Essbase data sets. See Create Data Sets from Essbase Cubes.

Configure currency symbols

You can dynamically populate a currency symbol in visualizations based on the configured currency. See Set Currency Symbols for Visualizations.

Release 12.2.5.2

New Features

Feature Description
Add notes

Add, edit, and adjust notes on a canvas.

See Add Notes.

Enhanced column operations

Quickly reorganize items in the Projects, Data, and Machine Learning pages by sorting the items based on their attributes.

See Sort the Items in a Page.

Data flow improvements

Employ improvements to data flows including:
Map improvements

Employ improvements to maps in visualizations including:
Connection improvements
Specify filters for relative time periods

Display data for a specified time period based on the current date and time using the relative time filter on a Date or Date/Time column.

See Apply Relative Time Filters.

Upload larger data files

Upload files with a maximum size of 250 MB. The number of data columns allowed in a single file is 250 columns.

See About Adding Spreadsheets or Other Files.

Connect to on-premises databases Visualize data in on-premises databases using the Use Remote Data Connector option. See Supported Data Sources (to find out supported remote database types, look for databases with a Y in the 'Remote Connection to Data Sets' column).

Release 12.2.5.1

Creating Connections

Feature Description
Autonomous Data Warehouse connection enhancements You can more easily create a connection to Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse because key connection details are prepopulated from the selected client credentials zip file.

See Create Connections to Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse.

Autonomous Transaction Processing connections You can create connections to Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing.

See Create Connections to Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing.

Release 12.2.5.0

Creating and Working With Projects

Feature Description
Preparing data You can use data transformation and enrichment recommendations to prepare your data before visualizing it. See Preparing Your Data Set in a Project.
Visualization types You can create Grid Heatmap, Picto, 100% Stacked Bar, Horizontal 100%, 100% Area, and Correlation Matrix visualizations.
Map layers and backgrounds
Inspect object properties You can use inspectors to view and edit the properties of standalone objects in the Home, Data, Projects, and other top-level pages. See Viewing and Editing Object Properties.

Managing Data

Feature Description
Data flow enhancements
Saving changes automatically You can use the Auto Save option to automatically save your updates to a project without repeatedly clicking Save. See Saving Your Changes Automatically.
Opening objects using keyboard shortcuts You can use keyboard shortcuts to open artifacts in a new tab or window. See Keyboard Shortcuts for Oracle Analytics.
Replacing a data set in a project You can replace a data set by re-mapping columns used in a project to columns from a different data set. See Replacing a Data Set in a Project.
Duplicating a data set You can duplicate an uploaded data set listed in the Data Sets page to help you further curate (organize and integrate from various sources) data in projects. See Duplicating Data Sets.

Release 12.2.4

Machine Learning

Feature Description
Use machine learning to make predictions and intelligent suggestions You can use machine learning (ML) algorithms to show patterns and uncover insights in your data sets, and then add them to your visualizations.
  • Use the Machine Learning catalog to manage your ML scripts and models.
  • Use data flows to train ML models using custom or built-in scripts.
  • Use data flows to score and predict data sets using ML models.
  • Self-service ML for diagnostics analytics of attributes (explain).
  • Create a custom scenario for attributes by applying ML models to a data set.

See Working with Machine Learning.

Managing Data

Feature Description

Connect to more databases

 You can connect to several new data sources:
  • Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse
  • Oracle Big Data Cloud Service
  • Oracle Talent Management Cloud

See Connecting to Database Data Sources.

Data flow enhancements

Creating and Working With Projects

Feature Description
Improved narration and storytelling features When you use the improved narrate feature it makes presenting your data stories even easier. See Building Stories.
Include links to related content in your project Enhance visualizations by offering links to related content under a handy Data Actions menu. See Working with Data Actions.
Numeric values in file-based data sources uploaded as measures When you upload a file based data source, columns containing numeric values are imported as measures with the Number data type.
More display formatting options for numbers and dates You can select from a wide range of number and date formats to choose the best display format for data in your visualizations. See Adjusting the Display Format of Date or Time Columns.
New properties area in the Data Panel For quick and easy access, the properties of objects you select are displayed in the Data Panel. See Adjusting Visualization Properties.
Improved sharing Use the Share icon to share a visualization, canvas, or story with others, as a file, by email, a printed page, and on cloud.

You can also share a project or folder only in DVA format, as a file, by email, and on cloud.

See Importing and Sharing.

More options to copy, paste, and duplicate It’s often quicker to copy visualizations than starting from scratch. You can paste within the same canvas and between canvases in the same project.

Use the duplicate option to make copies of an object within the same canvas or to duplicate the entire canvas.

See Adjusting the Canvas Layout.

Add unrelated data sets to the same project Your projects can contain visualizations from multiple, unrelated data sets; that is, the data sets don't have to be joined.
Date and time intelligence You can seamlessly transition through different levels of time hierarchies or granularities with ease.
Data warning indicator Warning signs Warning icon indicate possible issues with your data. If you don't want to see any warnings in your projects you can hide them. Warnings never display in printed or shared output. See Visualization Data Warning Notification.
Background maps Use background maps to enhance your geographical visualizations. See Enhancing Visualizations with Map Backgrounds.
Coloring maps using attribute column values You can use color features to interpret the measure columns and attribute values in projects that include map visualizations. See Interpreting Data Measure and Attribute Values by Color in Map Visualizations.

Other Enhancements

Feature Description
Brand new home page Improved design that’s simple to navigate and easy to use. Personalize your home page to suit the way you want to work.

Release 12.2.3.0

Creating and Managing Data Sets

Feature Description
Connect to new data sources New connection types are available with limited support, and are marked as Beta in the product: OData, Oracle Docs, JDBC, and ODBC.
Data Source editor Previously you used the Data Source dialog to create or edit data sources. The Data Source dialog is replaced by the Data Source editor, which provides the same functionality but is more dynamic and easier to use. See Using the Data Source Editor.
CSV and text file delimiters When uploading CSV and text files for data sets, you can override the auto-detected delimiter. Your choices are: Comma, Semicolon, Space, Tab, and Custom. If you select Custom, you then specify the delimiter used in your CSV file.
Subject areas as data sources You can build data sources from Oracle Fusion Applications with Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence or Oracle BI EE subject areas. See Composing Data Sources from Subject Areas.
Data flow improvements You can save a data flow as a database connection, which stores the data flow data to a database table. See Saving Data Flow Output Data to a Database.

You can merge two or more columns in a data flow to display as one column. See Merging Columns in a Data Flow.

The Data Flow editor layout is now easier to use. See Using Data Flows to Curate Data Sources.

Creating and Working With Projects

Feature Description
Visualization types You can create box plot, horizontal box plot, and waterfall visualizations.
Apply top or bottom N filters You can use the top or bottom N filter to filter a measure to display a subset of its largest or smallest values. See Applying Top or Bottom N Filters.
Date and time column improvements

You can convert a text column into a true date, time, or timestamp column. See Converting Text Columns to Date or Time Columns.

You can adjust the display format of a date or time column to show a different level of granularity. See Adjusting the Display Format of Date or Time Columns.

Canvas duplication and multi-canvas reordering You can duplicate an existing canvas on a visualization and use the duplicate canvas as a starting point for a similar canvas. You can also manually reorder the sequence of multiple canvases in a visualization. See Adjusting the Canvas Layout.
Support for event data at second or millisecond grain Line visualizations can show a continuous datetime reading on the x-axis. You can analyze data at the second or millisecond grain. Previous versions supported analyzing data at the day grain, only.
Custom map layers support You can load and manage custom map layers in a project using geometric JSON files. See Adding Custom Map Layers.

Other Enhancements

Feature Description
Custom Visualization Plug-in Upload If you want to display data in a custom visualization that was created by another user or an Administrator, then you can upload and deploy the custom visualization’s plug-in to your installation. See Managing Custom Plug-ins.

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