BI Blogs

The mapping to construct the XML for the example 3-46 in the XDB documentation can be found in the xdb_example_3_46.mdl MDL file. This MDL is for 11.2.0.2, so you will need at least that version.

The example was described in the earlier post on leveraging XDB, the Oracle doc has changed since that older post and example 3.44 is now 3.46 … so by the time you read this it might be different.

The code can be generated and you can inspect with the SQL in the XDB documentation to see how the different parts have been composed.

The other technique that can be used and described here is the inline view, so you can effectively bury your own SQL in a view that is not deployed in the database but the code is generated inline when used in the mapping.

Both of these illustrations are included in the MDL file mentioned above.

For the BPM people (and other interested people): Oracle has released feature pack 4 of the oracle BPM suite. It contains lots of nice new features, but i found it difficult to install using the accompanying release notes. Luckily Niall Commiskey thought the same, found out how it should be done, and was kind enough […]

Table filtering, aka Query by example, is a great feature of ADF tables. This feature provides filterboxes on top of a column(es).

and filters the data based on the values in the filterbox:

This works like a charm on an Oracle database, but when you use MySQL the filtering doesn’t work and actually doesn’t retrieve any data […]

A quick note on the notion of valves and pipelines that can be configured in File (and FTP) Adapter Services and References (inbound and outbound) to perform file pre- and post processing on the files before they enter the composite application proper as XML or after they have left the composite application, turned from XML […]

While working on the challenge to publish a message to a JMS Queue in a remote WebLogic Server from within the Oracle Database – using a Java Stored Procedure – I came across a few things that I would like to record for future reference. Note that unfortunately I have not [yet?] succeeded in making […]

Just a short note to let everyone know that I’m running a two-day, live virtual class for Oracle University on 23rd and 24th November 2011 around OBIEE 11g “advanced” development. The class will consist of two, four hour sessions over two days, where I’ll be talking through a number of the more tricky OBIEE 11g concepts around repository modeling and actionable intelligence.

The agenda for the event is as follows:

Day 1 : 2:00pm – 6pm CET : Oracle BI Repository development:

In this session, we will look at intermediate-to-advanced techniques with the Oracle BI Repository, with a particular focus on what’s new with the 11g release (version 11.1.1.5).

over the following topics, using slides and online demos: -

• Vertical and horizontal federation
• Fragmentation (combining real-time and historic data)
• Modeling advanced hierarchies (ragged, skip-level, parent-child)
• Lookup functions and tables
• Logical vs. Physical column calculations
• Modeling Essbase data

We will also look at repository lifecycle topics such as managing repository files using Enterprise Manager and WLST scripting and patching repositories using the Oracle BI Administration tool.

Day 2 : 2:00pm – 6pm CET : Oracle BI Actionable Intelligence

On this second day, we will look at the integration and automation features of Oracle Business Intelligence 11g, using the Action Framework. We will look at how business intelligence and ADF functionality can be brought together to create custom business intelligence applications, how web services can be leveraged (including security implications) and how BI can be automated using Agents.

will cover include:

• Creating navigation and invocation actions
• Registering web services and working with the credential store
• Accessing ADF view objects as data sources
• Integrating BI objects into ADF applications
• Creating agents to automate business intelligence tasks

If you’ve wanted to attend this sort of technical, intensive-type of training particularly around RPDs and the Action Framework, but you couldn’t get the budget to travel, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about these topics in an interactive, online environment.

The cost of the two half-days is £580 or local equivalent, and you can book through Oracle University, on this web page. As always with these sort of events though, book now before they end up cancelling it

Recently I received an email from Peru. An ADF developer from Peru was facing a challenge with ADF. In short: ‘the upload of a (large) file should be followed by a potentially long running job. Ideally, the browser would not freeze while the uploaded file is processed and on top of that it would be […]

Hier vind je twee uitgebreide artikelen met een verslag van Oracle Open World 2011 en van JavaOne 2011. Ook vind je in deze blog-post de slides van de ‘Report from Oracle Open World 2011′ sessie die op 17 oktober plaatshad bij AMIS in Nieuwegein.
Je vindt ook nog enkele additionele resources en referenties.
Artikelen
Ons team heeft exclusief […]

If you had watched the announcements in Open World this year, one of the products that got silently released was HFM Analytics. Basically this is an Analytics Suite under the umbrella of BI Applications but without any ETL. This suite provides comprehensive set of pre-built reports/dashboards for customers who have Hyperion Financial Management (and Close Management) and Oracle Business Intelligence 11g. This is a very interesting analytics application in many ways.

1. This does not have a ETL layer – Basically this is the second time i am seeing a BI Apps suite without a ETL layer (last time being the CPM Analytics which is no more available). So the reports/dashboards directly go against HFM & Close Management. Interestingly there is also a Single Sign-on support. So essentially we can start using this as an alternative to Hyperion Financial Reporting (functionality is still behind when compared with HFR – but at least to some extent wherever possible) that has been the standard & only reporting tool available so far on HFM.

2. This has support not only for data but also for HFM Process Management. Essentially we can not only report on the data but to an extent on the process management. This has been the sore point in HFM considering there are no built in tools outside of HFR that can leverage this (but of course there is always the API). Even ODI or HyperionDIM(based on Informatica) cannot extract Process Management related details out of HFM. So, we always had to rely on external adapters or direct API calls to do this. That is not the case anymore.

3. This has support for the newly released Close Management suite. Considering the fact that HFM & Close Management go together, it makes sense to have these 2 together supported out of the box.

4. The entire integration is based on the connector that i had blogged about earlier here. So, no extra configuration/setup (in terms of binaries – though there is a install process which just sets up the reports/dashboards) is required for this to work.

The architecture of this suite is given below

As mentioned in the earlier linked post, this suite uses the ADM driver to connect and extract data out of HFM. So, there are 2 things to keep in mind

1. This suite requires you to be 11.1.2.1.102 version of EPM(earlier releases are supported though – 9.3.3 and 11.1.1.3) – That is you need to apply one more patch on the HFM side to basically add a new feature to the HFM driver (for process management).

2. You need to be on BI EE 11.1.1.5.1 MLR patch set for this to work without any issues. More than the above EPM certification, 11.1.1.5.1 patch is very critical for the connectivity to work. But interestingly this MLR patch is not recommended for all customers. I am not sure why it is this way but looking at the Readme of this patch, it looks like 11.1.1.5.1 patch is meant only for customers who require HFM connectivity and Fusion integration. But for other customers who don’t need this, the patch recommends not to upgrade at all which is interesting as you would expect any latest patch set to be valid for all customer environments.

Once you have both the above, download the HFM Analytics suite from Edelivery. The install itself is straight forward.

Ensure that you are using a Custom install. Looks like there is a bug in the installer. If you do a full install, the installer does not seem to install the web catalog.

The installer basically installs a RPD, Web Catalog and a configuration utility. One of the advantages of using HFM is, we will always have a constant set of dimensions (8 system dimensions + 4 custom dimensions). So, oracle has basically fixed the RPD but the web catalog structure will vary based on the number of custom dimensions used. That is where the configuration utility comes into play. The default password of the repository is welcome1. Let’s open this RPD and take a look at the contents

Basically FCM is modelled using the relational metadata directly. But the HFM one uses the ADM Driver. To complete the configuration, we need to run the configuration utility which gets installed along with the software.

We start with specifying the connection details of both the BI instance and HFM instance. In addition we need to provide the RPD and Web Catalog location details that comes along with the software. Interestingly the configuration utility injects new content into the web catalog dynamically based on our selection. We start with selecting the Entity values that we are interested in for reporting.

Then we need to provide the following account grouping details

1. Balance Sheet Accounts

2. P & L Accounts

3. Cash Flow Accounts

4. Performance Indicator Accounts

Actually there are more groupings but at a high level the above are the basic classifications required.

If we have any Custom dimensions configured then those values need to be configured as well. Basically the values chosen for custom dimensions (along with default values) will be used for the web catalog prompts and filters. Initially it might be a bit confusing but once we have web catalog, it sort of makes sense how the grouping actually works.

Issues:

Though it works and does give a high level complete picture of the HFM financials, there still are certain grey areas in this suite (atleast for me). I will list them below. If anyone has any other insights in this, i will be interested in hearing them.

1. License – This is one area of the product that i am not able to understand. Based on what i heard in Open World, this requires an extra license. But again if you look at the underpinnings of how this works, there is nothing that stops a customer to build the same set of reports and dashboards with just a HFM and BI EE 11g license. In fact, to make this work (on my demo data sets), i myself had to understand the reports and make the requisite changes to the filters. So, anyone can build the same set of reports and dashboards all by themselves without having to license this(i.e. just use the BI EE 11g-HFM connector). Or i am hoping i am just wrong in this case.

2. Journal Entries – As far as i see ADM driver is pretty limited in its functionality. There is no way to just create a report with just the journal entries. For that we still have to rely on Hyperion Financial Reports.

3. Active/Inactive Entities – IC Transactions etc – Same comment as above. The connectivity does not support reporting for Active/Inactive entities of a period, or for just creating a report containing just the Inter Company transactions etc.

5. Custom Dimension names – Somehow the connector is sort of hard-coded to use Custom1, Custom2 etc dimension names. If we had used a different name in the Aliases field then the connector throws an error. This looks more to be a bug in the connector. So, if you have a custom named dimensions then revert them to Custom1, Custom2 etc until this is fixed.

6. BI EE 11.1.1.5 – If you are using this without the MLR patch, the reports will work. But none of the custom attribute columns will work. I guess that is due to the ADM client driver that is bundled as part of the BI EE 11.1.1.5. But hopefully once you upgrade this issue should go away.

=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”>

• During what time span (within 15 minutes) is the call volume the highest?
• What time categories have the highest volume of incoming calls?
• What time categories have the highest volume of outbound calls?

=”MsoNormal”>Transformation Detailed Description

=”MsoNormal”>Download the zip file here for youto run this transformation.  In order for it to work, you will need to import the .ktr file and then make sure to change the path of the csv file in the first step to the location of where you saved the csv file that is included in the .zip file.

In my current project use a lot of re usable taskflows. In one particular situation I needed exactly the same taskflow to be re-used with one tiny small difference: The displayed query component needed to have different fields compared to page in the base taskflow. Now there are lots of possible solutions (two query components […]

The Oracle BPM Worklist app is a part of the Oracle SOA Suite. Working with the Worklist app is very annoying, because the default timeout is very short (seconds!). So after getting a cup of coffee or reading a mail you have to login again.
Solving this problem seems quite easy by increasing the session timeout […]

1. Start Pentaho Data Integration Client Tool (Spoon)
2. Go to File > Import from an XML File

   

3.   Browse to the samples library location statedabove and select the sample you wish to view and run.

Open World made it clear: 2011 is the year of the ADF developer. Not only were there a lot of sessions about ADF, but also because ADF screens could be found in many sessions like the ones on the new Enterprise Manager 12c and on Oracle Fusion Applications. Not only were the number of sessions […]

Many organizations are working to ensure consistency between internal processes to optimize efficiency and effectiveness smoothly. For many, the benefits of BPM are well known, but few know how to begin now.
On October 26, 2011 AMIS Services will give a business presentation about BPM at the conference organized by BPM Heliview in Figi in Zeist.
This year the event is particularly interesting. Because besides the phenomenon BPM there is a lot of attention for both the business approach as for the technology.
AMIS will show how BPM works! Gain direct insight into current processes, modifying existing processes without IT! We […]

What the early days of desktop publishing may tell about today’s self-service BI. Read all about it in my latest column at Information Management.

In (rman) incrementally updated backups, only incremental backups are done after the first full backup to the Fast Recovery Area.
From 11gR2 on the incremental backup pieces will get the same tag as the datafile copies, and that’s actually different behaviour from pre- 11gR2 versions of the database.
I stumbled on this different behaviour when a backup […]

If you, like me, like to use (rman) incrementally updated backups, a copy of all datafiles will be present in the Fast Recovery Area. That becomes quite handy if you are in sudden need of extra disk space for your database, and the FRA still has ample space left. By switching one or more datafiles […]