Working with Subject Areas

In the Presentation layer, subject areas enable you to show different views of a business model to different sets of users.

Populate subject areas using the contents from a single business model. Subject areas cannot span business models.

Subject areas are created automatically by dragging and dropping business models from the logical layer.

See Setting Permissions for Presentation Layer Objects.

See Localizing Oracle Business Intelligence in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

See Controlling Presentation Object Visibility and Creating Aliases (Synonyms) for Presentation Layer Objects.

1. In the Presentation layer, double-click a subject area.
2. In the General tab, you can change the name for the subject area.

   Note:

   Aliases are created automatically whenever presentation objects are renamed, so that any queries using the original name do not break.

   A subject area cannot have the same name as any of its child presentation tables. For example, you cannot have a subject area called Customer that has a Customer table within it.

3. To set permissions for this subject area, click Permissions.
4. Select Custom display name to dynamically display a name based on a session variable and to edit the Translation Key field. Select Custom description to dynamically display a custom description based on a session variable.

   These options are used typically for localization purposes. When you externalize strings in the Presentation layer and run the Externalize Strings utility, the results contain the session variable information and the translation key.

5. The Business model list displays the business model for this subject area.
6. To expose the logical keys to other applications, select the option Export logical keys.

   In most situations, this option should be selected. Many client tools differentiate between key and nonkey columns, and the option Export logical keys provides client tools access to the key column metadata. Any join conditions the client tool adds to the query, however, are ignored, because the Oracle BI Server uses the joins defined in the repository.

   Note:

   If you are using a tool that issues parameterized SQL queries, such as Microsoft Access, do not select the Export logical keys option. Not exporting logical keys stops the tool from issuing parameterized queries.

7. Optionally, you can set an Implicit Fact Column. This column is added to a query when it contains columns from two or more dimension tables and no measures. The column is not visible in the results. It is used to specify a default join path between dimension tables when there are several possible alternatives or contexts.
8. Optionally, you can specify an expression in the Hide object if field that controls whether this subject area is visible in the Subject Area Tree in Answers and BI Composer. Leave this field blank (the default) to show the object.
9. Optionally, type a description. This description appears in a mouse-over tooltip for the subject area in Oracle BI Answers.
10. In the Presentation Tables tab, you can add, remove, edit, or reorder the presentation tables for this subject area.
11. Use the Aliases tab to specify or delete aliases for this subject area.
12. Click OK.