This chapter describes how to create dashboards in Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (Oracle BAM).
This chapter includes the following sections:
A business view or view is a visual representation of data fetched by a business query or one or more key performance indicators (KPIs). A dashboard is a collection of related business views. To display data to users, a view must be included in a dashboard. Dashboards can display point-in-time or real-time information (active data).
Users can view dashboards, and alerts can send users links to dashboards based on conditions changing in the queries and KPIs on which the business views within them are based.
When designing dashboards, you can choose from a variety of style templates based on how many views you need and how much horizontal and vertical space each view requires. Each view occupies a rectangular space, called a cell, in the dashboard. You can add, resize, clear the contents of, and delete cells.
A tabbed dashboard contains other complete dashboards, which you view by clicking the tabs.
Dashboard prerequisites are a set of tasks you must complete before you create a dashboard, to ensure its smooth functioning.
Before you can create a dashboard, you must do the following:
Add to your project the data objects containing the data the dashboard will display. For more information about projects, see Planning and Creating Projects. For more information about data objects, see Working with Data Objects.
If the dashboard will include a KPI Watchlist type view, create one or more KPIs on which to base the view. For more information about KPIs, see Creating KPIs.
If the dashboard will include prompts for users to choose values, create parameters for query filters. For more information about parameters, see Creating Parameters.
You can use a bottom-up approach and create business queries and views before creating a dashboard. Or you can use a top-down approach and create a dashboard before creating the views and queries within it. See Choosing Bottom-Up or Top-Down Project Building Steps, Creating Business Queries, and Creating and Using Business Views for more information.
Note:
You cannot create KPI Watchlist, Tree Map, or Geo Map views from within a dashboard. First create these views using the navigator pane, then you can add them to dashboards.
After you create dashboards, you can use them in the following ways:
One type of view action opens a dashboard. See Using Actions in Business Views for more information.
One type of view drill-across target is a dashboard. See Configuring Drill-Across Targets for more information.
Some alert actions send users links to dashboards. See Creating Alerts for more information.
You can link to one dashboard from another. See Adding Other Content to Cells for more information. A tabbed dashboard contains other complete dashboards. See Creating a Tabbed Dashboard for more information.
You can copy the dashboard link and use it as you would any other URL to provide single-click access to the dashboard. See Displaying a Dashboard URL for more information.
This section outlines the procedure to create a dashboard and add views in it.
To create a dashboard and add views:
Go to the Designer page.
Click Dashboards in the left panel navigator, or right-click Dashboards and select the Create menu item.
The Dashboards dialog opens.
Type a Name, optionally edit the Display Name, and optionally add a Description.
The Name is case sensitive, must begin with a letter, and may consist only of letters, numbers, and the underscore character. It may have up to 128 characters. It cannot be changed after the dashboard is created.
The Display Name is case sensitive and may contain any characters except the forward slash (/), which indicates a folder path. It may have up to 128 characters. It can be changed at any time.
Select Dashboard as the dashboard type.
To create a Tabbed Dashboard, see Creating a Tabbed Dashboard.
Select a thumbnail representing the desired style template.
You can add, resize, clear the contents of, or delete cells later if needed. See Formatting Dashboard Cells for more information.
Click Create.
A tab opens for the new dashboard, with a default arrangement of cells corresponding to the selected style template.
To create and add a new view:
Note:
You cannot create KPI Watchlist, Treemap, or Geo Map views from within a dashboard. First create these views using the navigator pane, then you can add them to dashboards.
Drag and drop a view category icon from the Views palette to one of the cells.
The Create View dialog opens.
For an alternative to dragging and dropping, see Adding Other Content to Cells.
See Creating and Using Business Views for more information about view icons, categories, and types.
Type a Name and a Display Name.
The Name is case sensitive, must begin with a letter, and may consist only of letters, numbers, and the underscore character. It may have up to 128 characters. It cannot be changed after the view is created.
The Display Name is case sensitive and may contain any characters except the forward slash (/), which indicates a folder path. It may have up to 128 characters. It can be changed at any time.
Select a thumbnail representing the desired view type.
Click Create.
The new view opens in the cell, with a visual preview using generic data.
Click the Open Query Editor icon in the top right corner of the cell that contains the view.
The Business Query Editor opens.
Select a query from the Query drop-down list or create a query by clicking the Create New Query icon.
See Creating Business Queries for more information about creating and editing queries.
Click Apply, then click Close.
The preview changes to reflect the data fields fetched by the query.
To edit view properties or runtime interactions, click the Business View Actions icon in the top right corner of the cell that contains the view.
See Creating and Using Business Views for more information about view properties and runtime interactions.
To add an existing view from the current project, drag and drop a view from the Project Views palette or the left navigation pane to one of the cells.
The view opens in the cell, with a visual preview using data fields fetched by the query on which the view is based.
Click the Refresh Views List icon to update the Project Views palette.
For an alternative to dragging and dropping, see Adding Other Content to Cells.
If the queries on which the views are based reference parameters, you can coordinate the parameters in the dashboard. Click the Parameter Mapping Editor icon in the top right corner of the dashboard.
See Driving Parameters from Other Views for more information.
To add items other than views to dashboard cells, see Adding Other Content to Cells.
To format the cells, see Formatting Dashboard Cells.
To format the title and background of the dashboard, see Formatting the Dashboard.
Click Save.
Note:
If you do not save the dashboard, any views and queries you create from the dashboard are not saved and do not appear in the left navigation pane.
In the center of each cell is an Add icon. Clicking this icon displays a menu of items you can add to a cell:
Create a View creates a new view and adds it to the cell.
The steps are the same as if you had dragged and dropped an icon from the Views palette, except that you must select a view category as well as a view type. See Creating a Dashboard and Adding Views for more information.
Browse opens the Resource Catalog, from which you can add a view in the project to the cell.
Open URL references the content at the specified URL and displays it in the cell. Be sure to include the full URL, including the protocol, such as http://, or an error will result.
Insert Image uploads the specified graphics file and displays it in the cell. You can also specify another dashboard to link to, so that when the user clicks on the image, the other dashboard opens in another browser window. Supported image file types are .png, .gif, and .jpg.
Click Save after making any of these changes.
Note:
If you do not save the dashboard, any views and queries you create from the dashboard are not saved and do not appear in the left navigation pane.
In the top right corner of each cell is a Dashboard Actions icon which helps you format dashboard cells.
Clicking this icon displays a menu of cell formatting options:
Add New Cell Left adds a new cell to the left of the current cell and either splits the cell or adjusts cells in the same row.
Add New Cell Right adds a new cell to the right of the current cell and either splits the cell or adjusts cells in the same row.
Add New Cell Below adds a new cell below the current cell and either splits the cell or adjusts cells in the same column.
Add New Cell Up adds a new cell above the current cell and either splits the cell or adjusts cells in the same column.
Change Width displays a slider you can use to adjust the current cell width.
Change Height displays a slider you can use to adjust the current cell height.
Clear deletes the contents of the current cell from the dashboard but leaves the empty cell in place.
Delete the Cell deletes the current cell from the dashboard and adjusts any cells in the same row or column.
You can also add a cell at the bottom of the dashboard by clicking the Add New Cell icon. This icon is to the left of the Save button in the top right corner of the dashboard.
Click Save after making any of these changes.
In the top left corner of the dashboard is a Change Dashboard Properties icon which helps you format dashboards.
Clicking this icon displays the Dashboard Properties window. Changing dashboard properties is optional.
Clicking Title displays the following properties:
Font — Select a font from the drop-down list. The default is Tahoma.
Font Size — Specifies the point size of the font. The default is 11.
Foreground Color — Specifies the text color. Click the down arrow to display a palette. The default is white.
Background Color — Specifies the background color of the dashboard banner. Click the down arrow to display a palette. The default is blue.
B I U — Specifies whether text is bold, italic, underlined, or a combination. The default is plain text.
Subscript, Superscript, Strikethrough — Specifies whether text is subscripted, superscripted, struck through, or a combination. The default is plain text.
Outdent, Indent — Outdents or indents title text.
Text — Specifies the title text to be displayed.
Clicking Background displays the following properties:
Default — Specifies the default background, which is plain white.
Color — Specifies the background color of the dashboard. Specify a hexadecimal or RGB color code or click the down arrow to display a palette. The default is white.
Image — Specifies an image file for the background. Supported image file types are .png, .gif, and .jpg.
Centered, Tiled — Specifies whether the background image is centered and used once, or whether it repeats with a tiled appearance.
To save the properties you have edited, click OK, then click Save.
A tabbed dashboard contains other complete dashboards, which you view by clicking the tabs.
Before you can build a tabbed dashboard, you must create the other dashboards it will contain.
To create a tabbed dashboard:
This section outlines the procedure to edit a dashboard.
Use the following procedure to open a dashboard for editing, edit it, and save it.
To edit a dashboard:
You can edit the properties or runtime interactions of a view from the dashboard using the Business View Actions icon. However, to switch the view type, you must edit the view by opening it from the left navigation pane. See Creating and Using Business Views for more information.
You can edit the configuration of the query on which a view is based from the dashboard using the Open Query Editor icon. See Creating Business Queries for more information about query configuration.
This section outlines the procedure to rename a dashboard.
Use the following procedure to change the Display Name of a dashboard.
The Display Name is case sensitive and may contain any characters except the forward slash (/), which indicates a folder path. It may have up to 128 characters. It can be changed at any time.
To rename a dashboard:
When you edit the dashboard, the new Display Name is displayed on the tab. This name is also displayed when you view the dashboard.
However, the internal Name remains unchanged. When you edit the dashboard, this name is displayed on the left in the header. The dashboard URL uses the internal name, so view actions, view drill-across targets, alert actions, and links from other dashboards that reference the renamed dashboard are unaffected.
This section outlines the procedure to delete a dashboard.
Use the following procedure to delete a dashboard. Any view actions, view drill-across targets, alert actions, or links from other dashboards that reference the deleted dashboard must be edited.
To delete a dashboard:
To delete a view or other content from a dashboard cell, click the Dashboard Actions icon in the cell and select Clear from the menu.
A dashboard inherits security settings from the project in which it is created.
For more information about projects, see Planning and Creating Projects.
To change security settings for a dashboard:
In the left navigation pane, click the arrow to the left of Dashboards.
All saved dashboards in the current project are displayed in a list.
Right-click the dashboard and select Security Settings from the pop-up menu.
The security tab for the dashboard opens.
To add a role or group to whom you can explicitly grant or deny permissions, follow these steps:
Click the Add icon in the Grant Permissions or Deny Permissions table.
The Add Application Roles, Groups, and Users dialog opens.
See Managing Oracle BAM Users for information about how to add users to roles and groups.
Type a Name for the role or group you are adding.
Select from the drop-down List: Application Role or Group.
Click Search to populate the Available Members list.
To add a member to the Selected Members list, select the member and click the single right arrow.
To add all members to the Selected Members list, select the member and click the double right arrow.
To remove members from the Selected Members list, use the single and double left arrows.
When the Selected Members list is final, click OK.
The Add Application Roles, Groups, and Users dialog closes, and the Name you specified appears in the table.
To remove a role or group, select the table row and click the Remove icon.
To grant permissions, select Read, Write, Remove, or Security for the users, roles, and groups listed in the Grant Permissions table.
To deny permissions, select Read, Write, Remove, or Security for the users, roles, and groups listed in the Deny Permissions table.
Click Save.
Make sure all the views in the dashboard grant the same or greater permissions to users. See Securing a Business View for more information.
Use the following procedure to display the URL of a dashboard.
To display the URL of a dashboard:
The URL uses the internal Name of the dashboard. Therefore, renaming the dashboard, which changes the Display Name, does not affect view actions, view drill-across targets, alert actions, and links from other dashboards that reference the renamed dashboard.
You can use the URL to add a BAM dashboard link to a web page. For example:
<html> <body> <iframe src="http://www.example.com:8001/bam/composer/faces/proxypage?project=MyProject&dashboard=MyDashboard width="100%" height="100%"> </iframe> </body> </html>
You can set the height and width attributes of the iframe.
Use the following procedure to open a dashboard for viewing from the Designer page.
To open a dashboard for viewing:
The main part of BAM from which you open dashboards for viewing is the BAM Viewer (the Home page). From the Designer page, you can configure how a dashboard is handled in the BAM Viewer:
To add the dashboard to the Favorites list in the BAM Viewer, right-click it and select the Favorites menu item.
To automatically launch the dashboard whenever you log in to BAM, right-click it and select the Start on Launch menu item.
See Using Oracle Business Activity Monitoring as a Viewer for more information about using the BAM Viewer.