Topics
This chapter includes the following sections:
Using Conditions to Determine Whether Agents Deliver Their Content or Execute Their Actions
Using Conditions to Determine Whether Action Links Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages
Using Conditions to Determine Whether Sections Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages
Editing, Customizing, Testing, Saving, and Disabling Conditions Used in Agents
Editing, Testing, Saving, and Removing Conditions Used in Action Links in Dashboard Pages
Editing, Testing, Saving, and Removing Conditions Used in Sections in Dashboard Pages
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.
Specific information is filtered best by conditions.
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 About Conditionally Enabling Actions Added to Analyses.
Conditions are made up of multiple elements.
A condition consists of the following elements:
An analysis or KPI.
The criteria to use when evaluating the condition:
For an analysis, the criterion is a row count and an operator to apply to the row count (for example, the row count equals 100) and values for any prompted filters that are associated with the analysis.
For a KPI, the criterion is a KPI status (for example, the KPI status is OK) and values for KPI dimensions that were set to is prompted in the KPI. Note that this will display as Not Set when creating the condition.
A named condition is a condition that you define and then save by name in the presentation catalog so that you can reuse it in agents and dashboard pages.
You create a named condition when you create a 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 Condition tab on the Agent editor when you save an inline condition to the catalog. For information on inline conditions, see What Are 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 Condition tab on the Agent editor) that the agent is to deliver its content and run associated actions conditionally. See Using Conditions to Determine Whether Agents Deliver Their Content or Execute Their Actions.
For information on creating agents, see Creating Agents.
Add an action link to a dashboard page and specify that the action link is to be displayed conditionally. See Using Conditions to Determine Whether Action Links Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages
For information about adding action links to dashboard pages, see About Adding Actions to Dashboard Pages.
Add a section to a dashboard page and specify that the section is to be displayed conditionally. See Using Conditions to Determine Whether Sections Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages.
For information about adding sections to dashboard pages, see Adding Content to Dashboards.
Conditions are created by specific users.
Generally:
Administrators create the named conditions for an organization, which are then used by content designers (providing they have the appropriate permissions to the conditions or the folders in which the conditions are saved) as they create dashboards and agents.
The ability to create or edit named conditions is controlled by the Create Conditions privilege, which is managed by the administrator.
Content designers create inline conditions.
For information about privileges, see Managing Presentation Services Privileges in Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
For information about permissions, see Managing Objects in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog.
You can create named conditions that you can reuse in agents and dashboard pages.
See What Are Named Conditions?for additional information on named conditions.
You can use conditions to determine whether agents deliver their content or execute their actions.
For information on agents, see Delivering Content.
You can use conditions to determine whether action links are displayed in dashboard pages.
For information on adding actions links to dashboard pages, see About Adding Actions to Dashboard Pages.
You can use conditions to determine whether sections are displayed in dashboard pages.
For information on adding sections to dashboards, see Adding Content to Dashboards.
Some conditions require that the settings be specified.
You must specify the settings for a condition in either the New Condition, Create Condition, or Edit Condition dialog, when you create or edit a condition as described in the following sections:
Using Conditions to Determine Whether Sections Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages
Using Conditions to Determine Whether Agents Deliver Their Content or Execute Their Actions
Using Conditions to Determine Whether Action Links Are Displayed in Dashboard Pages
Editing, Customizing, Testing, Saving, and Disabling Conditions Used in Agents
Editing, Testing, Saving, and Removing Conditions Used in Action Links in Dashboard Pages
Editing, Testing, Saving, and Removing Conditions Used in Sections in Dashboard Pages
You can edit named conditions.
Editing a named condition allows you to keep the named condition up-to-date. For more information on completing the Edit Condition dialog, see Specifying the Settings for Conditions.
You can perform several actions on conditions used in agents.
You can:
Edit inline conditions
Customize named conditions by editing prompted filters
Test conditions to see whether the conditions evaluate to true or false
Save inline conditions to the catalog as named conditions
Remove conditions
You can perform several tasks on conditions.
You can perform the following tasks on conditions that are used in action links in dashboard pages:
Edit conditions
Test conditions to see whether the conditions evaluate to true or false
Save inline conditions to the catalog as named conditions and save named conditions to the catalog by other names
Remove conditions
You can perform several tasks on conditions in sections.
You can perform the following tasks on conditions that are used in sections in dashboard pages:
Edit conditions
Test conditions to see whether the conditions evaluate to true or false
Save inline conditions to the catalog as named conditions and save named conditions to the catalog by other names
Remove conditions