How to Build a Report in OBIEE

Scenario: Building Dashboards in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)

Assumption: (A User has a valid User ID and password already configured).

Once we Login, we get the ‘My Dashboard’ which would appear as shown below:
Click the Answers Link at the top right corner

In the following example, a report is generated for the D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B Organisation for the Fiscal year 2009.

Step 1: Select the Subject Area on which the report has to be generated. The Subject Area lists the attributes, which can be viewed in the Report. This consists of Dimensions (e.g Organisation Name, Project Name Project Status etc.) and Facts or Measures (e.g Total Funding Amount etc).

In the present example, Project Funding Subject Area is selected.

The Dimensions and Measures appear on the left hand side titled ‘Columns’

Step 2: Select the Configuration Criteria for the Report.

· Select the required columns from the Columns pane on the left.

· In the current example, the following columns are selected:

1) Project ® Project Organisation: Organisation Name

2) Time ® Fiscal: Fiscal Year Long Name

3) Project: Project Number, Project Name and Project Status

4) Measures: Total Funding Amount

Step 3: The screenshot below shows all the columns that have been included in the Report.

Step 4: Create Filters on appropriate columns to restrict the number of records that are displayed in Results.

In this example we create the following filters:

Organisation Name = D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B
Fiscal Year Long Name = FY2009
Exchange Rate Type = Constant Dollar Rate – FY09
Project Status = ACTIVE

IMPORTANT

For all reports in this scanario,

Filter for the Exchange Rate Type column must be clearly defined. In absence of this filter, the report results will be incorrect.

· The ‘Exchange Rate Type’ can be either defaulted to Constant Dollar Rate - FY 09 or Project Functional Currency.

· If Constant Dollar Rate - FY 09 is selected then the Measures will be displayed in constant US Dollars ($).

If Project Functional Currency is selected then the Measures will be in the respective functional currency eg. Euros, Great Britain Pound (GBP), Australian Dollars (AUD) etc.

The screenshot below shows how to configure a filter for the Organization Name column with a value ‘D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B’.

1) Click the Filter icon for the column Organization Name

2) The Create/Edit Filter window opens.

· Search for the required Column value on the right pane of the window.

· In this example we have selected ‘D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B’.

3) Select the required choice from the right side to populate the Value field.

Step 5: The screenshot below shows the report Criteria once all the filters have been configured.

Note: To include a filter for a column that is not present as part of the report we need to press CTRL and then click on the desired column in Columns pane.

Step 6: To view the result click on the Display Results button (By default the report is displayed in the Compound Layout view.)

Step 7: To change the way the Report appears the View needs to be modified. The Compound Layout as the name suggests combines more than one view. By default the Compound Layout contains Title and Table view.

The most commonly used Views are given below:

1. Pivot Table:

· We can place the attributes in either Rows or Columns based on how the User desires. In the above screenshot the Fiscal Year Long Name has been placed in the columns section.

· It is possible to drill on values in the Report to greater level of detail. In this case if we click on FY2009 we will get how the Total Funding Amount is distributed over the 4 Quarters

· Grand Totals can be added in the Report by clicking

· If any column needs to be excluded in the report then that column needs to be dragged to Excluded section.

Table

· In the table view, only the order of the columns can be changed in the Report.

· In addition to the drill and Grand Totals available in Pivot Table, the Table view allows sorting by Column Heading. To enable this we need to tick the checkbox: Enable column sorting in Dashboards, in Table View Properties (

Filters:

The filter view gives the list of filters that have been added in the Report.

Chart:

The Chart View generally gives a pictorial repsentation of data in the Reports.
The Chart can be plotted for any of the columns included in the Criteria of the Report.
In the above screenshot the Total Funding Amount has been plotted against the Project Name.
We can modify the way the chart appears by selecting appropriate values for Graph, Type and Style.
We can modify the properties of the Chart (e.g Chart Name, Width and Height of the Chart etc) by clicking on Properties .

Note: There are a large number of Views available, which can be included in the Report, depending on the User’s requirement.

Step 8: Saving the Report

· Click on the icon (shown below) located at the top-right corner of the page to save the Report.

· The Save Request Window opens.

· The User can save the Report in an appropriate folder.

· In this case, we save the Report under My Folders as Organization Report shown in the screenshot below.

Sample Dashboard Prompt

Steps to create a Dashboard Prompt

Step 1:

A dashboard prompt is a special kind of filter that filters requests embedded in a dashboard.
Click the Answers link to navigate to the start page in Oracle BI Answers, and then click on New Dashboard Prompt… in the Left Pane.
Select the subject area that contains the column to use as the filter. In this case we select Project Funding as the Subject Area.

To select a column to use as a filter in the dashboard prompt, click it in the selection pane. You can add multiple columns to a dashboard prompt. To remove a column from the prompt, click the Delete button for that column.
Select the Operator and Control type for the columns that have been added.
We can also default the value for a particular column. In this case we are setting the default for Fiscal Year Long Name to FY2009.

We can change the way the column gets displayed in the Dashboard by entering an appropriate value in Label.

We can constraint columns by checking Constrain in the prompt. Constrained columns will be constrained by all other columns in the prompt. For e.g if we select Fiscal Quarter = Q2 and if Fiscal Month is constrained, then Fiscal Month will show only those months in Quarter Q2.

Result:

In this case we add the following columns in the prompts.

Fiscal Year Long Name, renamed as Fiscal Year and default set to ‘FY2009’.
Fiscal Quarter.
Fiscal Month Name renamed as Fiscal Month.
Project Number, with Contol set to Multi-Select.
Project Status, with Contol set to Multi-Select and default set to ‘ACTIVE’.
Exchange Rate Type with default set ‘Constant Dollar Rate - FY09’.

Note:

The Group check-box is ticked for at Project Number to ensure that Project Number appears in the next line in the dashboard prompt.

Step 2: Saving the Dashboard prompt.

Click on the icon (shown below) located at the top-right corner of the page to save the Dashboard Prompt.

The User can save the prompt in an appropriate folder.
In this case, we save the Report under My Folders as ‘Dashboard Prompt’ shown in the screenshot below.

IMPORTANT:

When we use Dashboard Prompts we have to ensure that the Columns in the Report are set to ‘is prompted’.

This operator is required for columns included in dashboard prompts where no prefiltered values are desired.
Note that we add 2 more filters, Fiscal Quarter and Fiscal Month and set them also to ‘is prompted’.

The final Report with all the filters added is shown below:

Creating a Dashboard

Click on Dashboard at the top right corner of the page to view the Dashboard Page.
If the Dashboard Page is empty is will appear as shown below. In this case the Dashboard Prompt and the Report are added to ‘My Dashboard’

Click ‘here’ and we will be able to add the Dashboard prompt and the Report to different sections of the page.

Drag and drop the ‘Dashboard Prompt’ and ‘Organization Report’ to different sections of the Dashboard page.
To add certain features to the Report we click on Report Links… check the box for Refresh, Printer Friendly, Download, Add to Briefing Book.