Session Objectives
This presentation covers:
Whats is Discoverer ? Key Terminology in Discoverer Responsibilities of the end-user An overview of Discoverers components Discoverer Architecture Drawback of Discoverer older versions What is new in Discoverer 10g Discoverer Administration Discoverer Desktop
What is Oracle Discoverer and what is it used for?
Oracle Discoverer provides end users easy access to data and allow them to do data analysis and set-up ad-hoc queries. Discoverer is the reporting and analysis tool, which Provides quick development environment to develop Data Warehousing & Business intelligence reports Discoverer is a point and click, drag and drop user interface that the end users can use Discoverer allows functional people to create their own interactive reports
Key Terminology
Interface to database Grouping of Tables Group of worksheets
Tables Columns Rows Queries
= End User Layer = Business Area = Workbook
Folders Items Records Worksheets
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Responsibilities of the end-user
You cannot Create a report if you are not aware of the
data available to you, if you dont know which folders contain the data and what the end result is that you are trying to achieve.
Therefore before you begin to explore the power of
Discoverer, you will need to:
1 - Understand your business, 2 - Understand your reporting requirements, and 3 - Understand your database
Discoverer Components
Administration (T) Desktop (T) Plus (BI) Viewer (BI)
T = Tool, BI = Business Intelligence,
Components of Oracle Discoverer
Administration Edition The Administration Edition is used to create and maintain the "End User Layer" (EUL) which is a metadata layer that hides the complexity of the database from end users. User Edition The User Edition is used by end users to perform ad hoc-query, reporting, analysis and web publishing. (Web) Viewer Edition The Viewer Edition is used to view pre-defined reports. Viewer Edition is currently available for the Web only.
Discoverer Architecture
Discoverer Older Version vs. Discoverer 10g
Discoverer Older Version Users share one logon Queries are saved on Hard Drives must be Emailed to share with others Parameters are always required Totals do not always work Many customizations Queries run faster Issue with Page items Discoverer 10g Users have individual logons Queries are saved on Dbase easy to share with others Parameters can be optional Totals not been an issue in any testing Limited customizations Queries may at times run slower Page items can view one or all items
Whats new in 10.1.2?
Reporting Enhancements
Parameter enhancements
Cascading parameters Optional and Mandatory parameters Support for keywords and tokens
SYSDATE, NULL and USER
Exception handling
Conditional formatting (formerly Exceptions) Stoplight formatting
Reporting Enhancements
Greatly enhanced Viewer capability
Save
If enabled you can save changes This depends on individual privileges Print to PDF Export to PDF
High fidelity printing within Viewer
New calendar popup for dates Email
If enabled, send worksheet content as an attachment to an email
Discoverer Administrations
Role of Admin EUL creation Importation of database tables Ordering of folders and items How to check folder and item properties The use of item separators Creation of alternate sorts Creation of complex folders Creation of hierarchies Creation of new calculated items Security and Privileges Scheduling Workbooks Import and Export of Discoverer items
Source to Destination
We need to think a little about what we are going to
do. We are going to take a set of data definitions from a source database and convert that into a new set of definitions a Discoverer business area
Source Oracle database, containing 12 tables Destination A star schema, better for Discoverer
users to query from
Source
Destination
Creating the End User Layer
need to create the end user layer itself
Launch and log in to Discoverer Administrator
Before we can begin creating our first business area, we
Follow on screen prompts
EUL
End User Layer
is a Metadata repository for Business areas, folders and items on which Discoverer workbooks or reports based on.
The EUL is a set of database tables that contain information (or 'metadata') about the other tables and views in the database. Note: A database can be Oracle, Oracle Applications or any RDBMS.
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Logging On
Type the username, password and connect, then click Connect
EUL Message
We dont have an EUL right now, so Discoverer gives the following message:
Click Yes to continue
Creating
When prompted, click Create an EUL
Create EUL Wizard Step 1
1. Check existing user
2. Grant access to PUBLIC [Link] Select
Pick the user
1. Type the user, or part of the user, and click Go 2. Pick the user from the list
3. When done, click OK
Commit Status - Part 1 of 3
Discoverer first creates the tables and views
Watch the jigsaw
Commit Status - Part 2 of 3
Then populates the tables with default data
Commit Status - Part 3 of 3
Finally granting access to the new EUL tables
Empty EUL is created
When done, click OK
Oracles Video Tutorial
When prompted to install the tutorial data:
Click Yes if you want Oracles Video tutorial, We dont need this for the demo, click No
EUL installed
When done, click Close
A Business Area is a set of folders containing
Business Areas
related information with a common business purpose. Using Discoverer Administration Edition, you can tailor the grouping of data to provide users with the proper access to the precise data they need for ad hoc query, decision support, and presentation of results.
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Business Areas:
Business Areas
Meet the specific data needs of the users Usually contain data from several different tables or views Have tables or views and their associated columns mapped to folders and items respectively Can contain many simple folders and complex folders
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Business Areas
Continued
May contain folders from one or more physical databases Include conditions, joins, calculations, formatting, hierarchy structures, and other custom features
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The load wizard steps
Discoverer administrator wizard has 5 steps:
1. 2.
Create or Open a business area Select the schema
3.
Select the objects to use
Name the business area
4. Define the import options 5.
Load Wizard 1 - create or open?
Click Create a new business area
Load Wizard - continued
Check On-line dictionary then click Next
Wizard 2 - which schema?
Pick desired link and schema then click Next
Wizard 3 which objects?
Take a look at the source schema
Wizard 3 - select the objects
Select desired objects, then click Next
Wizard 4 - data options
Select desired objects, then click Next
Wizard 5 what name?
Complete the business area, then click Finish
Importing the objects
As Discoverer loads the chosen objects, you will see the status approaching 100%
Objects imported
After the business area has been imported, we need to check a few things:
The order of the folders The names of the folders The names of the items The order of the items Lists of values
Joins
How to move a folder location
To move the location of a folder, follow this workflow:
1.
Left click on the folder that you want to move and hold the mouse button down
2.
Move the mouse cursor to the location where you would like this folder to be
Wait until Discoverer highlights the destination folder
3. 4. 5.
Release the mouse button
The folder will now move to the chosen position
Check the names of the folders
Many times, especially when importing objects from
the database, you will find that the name of the table is not user friendly
Rename all non user friendly folder names
In our case, the folder names are ok so I will not
change them
How to rename a folder
To rename a folder, use this workflow:
1. Right click on the folder that you want to rename 2. From the pop up menu, select Properties 3. Single click in the field called Name 4. Enter a more business friendly name 5. Check the Identifier and change if need be 6. When done, click OK
Check the name of the items
Many times, especially when importing objects from
the database, you will find that the name of the item is not user friendly
Rename all non user friendly item names
In our case, the item names are cryptic so I will change
them
How to rename an item
To rename an item, use this workflow:
1. Right click on the item that you want to rename 2. From the pop up menu, select Properties 3. Single click in the field called Name 4. Enter a more business friendly name 5. Optionally, provide a description 6. When done, click OK
Names in Sales Folder
Before After
Leave Identifiers unchanged
Rename other items
Gs Channel
Change Name to Channel
Gs Customer
Change Custid to Cust ID
Change Name to Cust Name
Change Contactname to Contact Name Change Creditlimit to Credit Limit
Gs City
Change Name to City
Check the order of the items
Open each folder and look at the ordering of the items
We need to rearrange the order to make selections for
users easier Move metrics to the top, followed by descriptor items, dates and finally non essential identifiers Finally, insert item separators
How to change an items position
To change the position of an item, use this workflow:
1.
Left click on the item that you want to move and hold the mouse button down
2.
Move the mouse cursor to the location where you would like this item to be
Wait until Discoverer highlights the destination item Release the mouse button The item will now move to the new position
3. 4. 5.
How to insert an item separator
To insert an item separator, use this workflow:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Right click on the name of the folder into which you want to insert an item separator From the pop up menu, select New Item Discoverer opens the New Calculation dialog box Give the item a separator Name such as: *** M e t r i c s *** In Calculation use NULL Click OK to complete the calculation Move the item to its correct position
Sales Order folder with separators
Note how each logical group gets its own separator
Default Position
When Discoverer imports data items from the database it automatically assigns the position of the items as follows:
Dates Top
Integers Top
Numbers with decimal places Data Point Strings Top
How to change an items position
To change an items position, use this workflow:
1. 2.
Right click on the item whose position you want to change From the pop up menu, select Properties
3.
Single click in the field called Default Position Your options are Data Point, Page, Side, Top, Top or Side
Change the position When done, click OK
4. 5.
Default Format
When Discoverer imported the data items from the
database it automatically assigned the default format of the items as follows:
Dates DD-MON-RRRR
Integers 9999999999
Numbers with decimal places 999999D99 Strings As defined in the database
Why change the format?
To allow for leading zeros in numbers To increase the number of decimal places to allow
for better mathematical accuracy To increase the number of places before the decimal to allow for summations To insert comma separators To truncate dates To format dates as MM/DD/YYYY
And many other reasons.
How to change an items format
To change an items default position, use this workflow:
1. Right click on the item whose format you want to
change
2. From the pop up menu, select Properties 3. Single click in the field called Format 4. Change the format 5. When done, click OK
Formats to change
We will change the following:
Cost Price and Selling Price From 999999D99 to Order Qty and Ship Qty From 9999999999 to Inserted a leading zero
999999990D99
Increased number of places to left and inserted a leading zero
99999999990
How to check a list of values
To check a LOV, follow this workflow:
1. 2.
In the Admin edition, click on an item with a LOV Open up the lists of values for the item by clicking on the + along side the item name
3.
Discoverer will give you a warning that this could take a while. Ignore this and continue see note below.
Confirm that the LOV is ok
4.
Note: you should always open up a list of values in the admin edition before releasing to a user. This prevents the user seeing the warning message that opening up could take a while
Problems with LOVs
The most common errors that occur with LOVs and how to fix them:
1.
They take too long to generate and time out
a. b.
Increase the time out limit Use another data item to create the LOV
2.
They show the data in the wrong sort sequence
a.
Use an alternative sort
Alternative sorts
Sometimes, when we look at a list of values, we will see
that it is not in the order that we would like
To overcome this, we can use an alternative sort
To create an alternative sort we must have one of the
following:
Another available 1:1 item in the same folder, or
An artificially created sequence
Month data is a candidate for an alternative sort
Natural order
April August December February January July June March May November October September
Required order
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Add alternative sort on Month
To add an alternate sort, use this workflow:
1. 2. 3. 4.
Click the Item Classes tab Expand the list of item classes Locate the list of values that needs the alternate sort Right click on the LOV and from the pop up menu, select Edit Item Class
Folders & Items
Folders
The tables and views loaded into a Business Area. Folder Types - Simple, Complex and Custom Items The Columns within a Table or View
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Types of new folder
1.
We can insert three types of new folders:
New This type of folder is the sort that we choose when we wish to create a new, complex folder. A complex folder is one that is made up from items from existing folders 2. Custom Select this type if you want to key the SQL yourself 3. From Database Select this type if you want to create a folder based on a database object (table or view)
Creating new folders
To create a new folder, follow this workflow:
1. 2. 3.
Single click on the business area such that the business area name is highlighted Right click on the highlighted name Discoverer will pop up a context menu From the context pop-up menu, click on the type of folder you want to create
Note:
an alternate way to step 2 is to select Insert | Folder from the menu bar
Split the screen Window | New Window
Move day key into the folder
Populate the new folder with Calendar Date
Move rest of date items in
Rename Calendar Date, Fiscal Month, Fiscal Qtr and Fiscal Year to be more user friendly
Joins
A Join relates two folders using common items. The Joins affect the combinations of items that can be selected during the following operations: 1. Creating a worksheet in Discoverer Plus. 2. Creating a Complex Folder in Discoverer Administration Edition.
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Rename and make 1:N join to Sales
Right click Order Date, select New Join
Conditions
Conditions filter worksheet data, enabling Discoverer end users to analyze only the data they are interested. Conditions are applied to the folders or items
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Finish the date folders
To finish the Order date link, we hide the original Day, Month, Quarter and Year folders so that user has to select from the new folder
To hide a folder, use this workflow:
1. Right click on the folder you want to hide 2. From the pop up menu select Properties 3. Change Visible to user from Yes to No 4. Click OK
Notes about Complex Folders
Whenever you use complex folders, note:
Lists of values are copied and the item classes are
shared with the original items Joins are not copied, they must be created manually
Item Classes
Groups of items that share similar properties Used to enable the following: List of Values Alternative Sorts Drill to Detail links
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A calculated item is an item that uses a formula to derive data for the item
Calculations and Hierarchies
Hierarchies are default drill paths between item that you define in Discoverer Administrator There are two types of Hierarchy in Discoverer Administration Edition: 1. Item Hierarchies 2. Date Hierarchies
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Hierarchies
A hierarchy allows a user to drill within the data. Typically we use 1:N relationships to define hierarchies.
There are two types of drill: 1. Rolling Up: This expands a query by allowing a user to include data from a higher level of the hierarchy 2. Drilling Down: This expands a query by allowing a user to include data from a lower level In both types, Discoverer may re-query the database
Hierarchy workflow
To create a hierarchy, use this workflow:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Click Hierarchies tab Right click on business area to use Select New Hierarchy from the drop down list Wizard step 1 - check appropriate hierarchy type Click Next Wizard step 2 - locate and open folder containing the items
Hierarchy workflow
7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Select the lowest level drill item and place in right hand side Select next items, in order When all items selected, click Next Wizard step 3 - give a meaningful name to the hierarchy Click Finish
Source ERD showing time folders
New Feature when creating items
If you are creating new items in a complex folder,
Discoverer lists all of the folders that were used to create the complex folder It also displays all of the items in the original folders, irrespective as to whether they were used in the complex folder This allows you to build new items on any item from the original folders, not just on the items in the new complex folder
Complex Folder expanded
Original folder
Scheduling Workbooks
Workbook scheduling is useful in the following situations: The user has created a report that could take a long time to run - they can submit the report to run overnight and view the result in the morning. The user wants to create a report that needs to be updated at regular intervals.
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One of your most important tasks, as a Discoverer Administrator, is defining the access permissions and task privileges allowed for each user or role. Access permissions determine who can see and use the data in business areas. Task privileges determine the tasks each user or role is allowed to perform.
Security and Privileges
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Exporting and Importing Business Areas Discoverer Administration Edition enables you to export/import a business area to a file. This can be useful when copying business areas between EULs or when archiving data.
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Discoverer Desktop/Plus
Data Listing Reports
Cross-Tabulation Reports (Pivot Tables) Graphs & Charts
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How To Build a Query in Discoverer
Connect Choose a Layout Select Items
To Display To Filter By
Specify Totals and other Calculations (Optional) Specify Sorting (Optional) Specify Run-Time Parameters (Optional) Run Report
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Starting Discoverer Plus
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Successful connection
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Create/Open a Workbook
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Creating a New Workbook
Use the
Workbook Wizard
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Selecting Items
Select the
Business Area Scroll through list of folders Expand a folder to see its items
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Selecting Items, contd
Highlight items
and move them to the Selected side by clicking on the right arrow
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Conditions
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Conditions, contd
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Conditions, contd
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Calculations
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Calculations, contd
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Table Layout
Click and drag headings to desired order
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Table Layout, contd
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Sorts
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Results
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Formatting
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Parameters
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Parameters, contd
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The Same Results
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Saving a Workbook
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Opening a Workbook
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Sharing a Workbook
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Sharing a Workbook, contd
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Exercise
1. 2. 3.
4.
5. 6. 7.
Connect to Discoverer Admin. Create one Business Area Create one simple , one custom and one complex folder Create some Joins within the folders Connect to Discoverer Desktop Create a simple report by using the above folders Add some conditions and parameters for the report.
8.
9.
Add an appropriate title
Save the workbook on the database
10. Share your workbook with your neighbor
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Theres lots you can do! Discover the data with DISCOVERER!
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Q&A
