Empowering
Business
Users:
OBIEE
12c
Visual
Analyzer
&
Data
Mashup
Edelweiss
Kammermann
UKOUG
Annual
Conference
-­‐
Birmingham-­‐
December
2015

Edelweiss
Kammermann
• Computer
engineer,
BI
and
Data
Integration
specialist
with
over
18
years
of
consulting
and
project
management
experience
in
Oracle
technology.
• Co-­‐founder
and
Vice
President
of
Uruguayan
Oracle
User
Group
(UYOUG)
• Business
Intelligence
articles
published
on
OTN
site
• Frequent
speaker
at
international
conferences
as
Collaborate,
OTN
Tour
LA,
UKOUG
Annual
Conference,
OOW
and
Rittman
Mead
BI
Forum
• Oracle
ACE
email:
edelweisskf09@gmail.com
TwiZer:
@EdelweissK

Uruguay

Agenda
• New
OBIEE
12c
Front-­‐End
Features
• Visual
Analyzer
• BI
Ask
• Data
Mashups

Visual
Analyzer
• Visual
Analyzer
is
a
very
intuitive
and
interactive
web-­‐based
tool
to
explore
and
analyse
your
data
• Part
of
the
new
front-­‐end
features
of
OBIEE
12c
along
with
Data
Mashups
• It
was
available
first
in
the
Oracle
BI
Cloud
Service
(OBICS)
• Self-­‐service
oriented

Visual
Analyzer
• Visual
Analyzer
allows
you
to
create
different
analyses
or
reports
in
the
same
place
(like
a
combination
of
Answers
and
Dashboards)
• Just
dragging
and
dropping
the
columns
(or
double-­‐click
them)
from
the
Data
Elements
Panel
• Offers
interactive
visualisations
• Showing
the
results
immediately
in
the
same
page
• A
complement
to
Answers
and
Dashboards
for
data
exploration
and
discovery
patterns

Creating
Analyses
with
OBIEE
Step
1:
Define
Criteria
• To
create
an
Analysis
in
OBIEE
we
first
define
the
Criteria
• Select
the
Subject
Area
• Select
the
required
columns
• Create
filters,
calculated
columns,
etc.

Creating
Analyses
with
OBIEE
Step
2:
See
the
Results
• Then,
see
the
data
in
the
Result
tab
• Add
data
visualisations

Define
the
Content
and
See
the
Results
in
Visual
Analyzer
• In
Visual
Analyzer
you
define
the
content
and
see
the
results
immediately
in
the
same
place.

Visual
Analyzer
Login
• Visual
Analyzer
can
be
called
from
the
OBIEE
12c
Home
Page
or
from
the
Visual
Analyzer
URL.

Visual
Analyzer
Projects
• Visual
Analyzer
(VA)
Projects
are
composed
of
one
or
more
Visualizations
• Each
visualization
can
have
• Different
Content
• Different
Visualization
type
(Graph,
Table,
Scatter,
Map,
etc.)
• The
first
time
that
you
drag
columns
onto
the
empty
canvas,
a
visualization
is
automatically
created.

Creating
VA
Projects
Step
1:
Select
the
Source
• To
start
creating
VA
Projects
we
need
first
to
select
the
source.
• The
source
for
a
VA
Project
could
be:
• A
Subject
Area
(from
the
RPD
-­‐
Common
Enterprise
Model
Information)
• A
Data
File
(Excel
file)
already
uploaded
• A
new
Excel
File
to
upload

Creating
VA
Projects
Step
2:
Select
Content
• To
select
content
you
can
either:
• Double-­‐click
on
the
columns
from
the
Data
Elements
panel
• Drag-­‐and-­‐drop
the
columns
- Ctrl-­‐click
can
be
used
to
select
many
columns

Creating
VA
Projects
Step
3:
Setting
Visualization
Type
• Visual
Analyzer
will
choose
the
best
visualisation
type
depending
on
the
selected
data
• This
visualisation
type
can
be
changed.

Adding
More
Visualizations
• More
Visualizations
can
be
added
In
VA
to
show
the
same
or
different
data
like
a
Dashboard
• Create
a
New
Visualization
from
the
VA
Toolbar
and
select
the
content
for
it
• Duplicate
an
existing
one
using
Copy/Paste
Visualization
options
in
the
Visualization
Menu

Rearranging
the
Visualizations
in
a
VA
Project
• Visualizations
can
be
rearranged
just
dragging
and
dropping
on
the
VA
canvas
• Can
be
also
resized
• Visualization
properties
allows
to
• Modify
the
visualisation
titles,
axis
titles
in
case
of
graphs,
etc.
• Change
the
default
aggregation
for
measures

Filtering
the
Data
in
Visual
Analyzer
• The
data
can
be
filtered
either:
• explicitly
selecting
one
or
more
columns
and
creating
the
conditions
in
the
Filter
area
• selecting
data
in
a
visualisation
and
use
the
Keep
Selection
option

Filtering
the
Data
in
Visual
Analyzer
• By
default
the
filters
apply
to
all
the
visualizations
in
the
project
• To
change
this,
uncheck
the
option
Synchronize
Visualizations
in
the
VA
Project
Properties

Creating
Calculations
• Calculations
can
be
added
in
Visual
Analyzer
• Wide
variety
of
Functions
with
detailed
help
as
in
BI
Answers
• Columns
can
be
added
double-­‐clicking
on
them
in
the
Data
Elements
Panel

Important
differences
between
VA
and
Answers
• Some
of
the
most
complex
features
that
are
present
in
Answers
are
not
allowed
In
VA:
• VA
cannot
work
with
Hierarchy
columns
or
groups
• The
calculated
measures
that
we
created
in
Answers
and
save
in
the
catalog
cannot
be
referenced
in
VA.
• VA
Projects
cannot
be
included
in
Dashboards

BI
Ask
• A
search
based
infrastructure
that
comes
with
Visual
Analyzer
• BI
Ask
allows
creation
of
content
based
on
text
interaction
• Based
on
Lucene
search
technology
(http://lucene.apache.org)
• In
Android
and
iOS
mobiles
the
user
can
literally
talk
the
keywords
to
get
specific
results
(i.e
Revenue
by
product)

Creating
Content
with
BI
Ask
• Enter
the
keyword
for
the
columns
that
you
want
to
include
in
the
visualization
• For
example
start
searching
for
the
name
of
a
measure
• Then
add
dimension
column
names
• You
can
also
enter
the
name
of
the
visualization
type
as
Graph,
Table,
etc.

Save
the
Visualization
Created
with
BI
Ask
• The
visualization
created
by
BI
Ask
can
be
opened
in
Visual
Analyzer
in
order
to
• Perform
more
detailed
configurations
• Save
it
to
the
catalog
as
a
VA
Project

Data
Mashups
• More
sources
can
be
added
in
a
VA
Project
with
some
restrictions:
• These
sources
should
be
connected
• Only
one
of
these
sources
could
be
a
Subject
Area
• Data
Mashup
is
the
process
to
connect
or
relate
two
or
more
sources
in
OBIEE
12c
• Gives
flexibility
to
the
business
users
to
merge
their
own
data
with
the
RPD
Subject
Area.
• Available
in
Visual
Analyzer
a
well
as
in
Answers

Data
Mashups
Step
1:
Adding
New
Data
Source
• Press
the
Add
Data
Source
link
located
at
the
bottom
of
the
Data
Elements
Panel
• Select
existent
data
file
or
upload
a
new
one

Data
Mashups
Step
2:
Create
the
Matching
Criteria
• Once
you
selected
the
Excel
file
to
upload,OBIEE
12c
will
try
to
match
the
columns
from
the
Excel
file
with
the
columns
from
the
Subject
Area
that
have
the
same
name.
• This
can
be
manually
changed.
• A
file
column
can
be
a
match,
an
attribute
or
a
measure

Data
Mashups
Step
3:
Set
the
Purpose
of
the
File
Data
• The
purpose
of
this
new
File
Data
could
be
either:
• To
Add
Facts
adding
new
measures
• To
Extend
a
Dimension,
adding
new
attributes
to
an
existing
dimension

Data
Mashups
Step
4:
Use
Both
Data
Sources
• Visualizations
can
be
created
using
columns
from
both
Data
Sources
added
in
the
VA
Project

Sharing
and
Security
in
Visual
Analyzer
• A
Visual
Analyzer
project
can
be
shared
and
as
any
other
object
in
the
Web
Catalog
• When
a
VA
Project
that
contains
a
excel
file
as
a
source
is
shared
with
traverse
or
modify
permissions:
• The
excel
file
is
also
shared
and
can
be
available
for
used
in
a
new
VA
project.

Manage
External
Data
Sources
• A
external
data
source
(excel
file)
can
be
• Removed
from
a
specific
project
• Deleted
from
the
storage
• Downloaded
to
a
local
folder
• Reloaded
to
update
the
data

Conclusions
• Visual
Analyzer
is
a
very
intuitive
and
interactive
web-­‐based
tool
for
• self-­‐service
reporting
• data
exploration
• data
discovery
• A
complement
to
Answers/Dashboards
oriented
to
Business
User
for
quick
and
easy
data
analysis
• More
flexibility
with
Data
Mashups
and
BI
Ask
• Data
Mashup
allows
Business
users
to
merge
their
own
data
with
the
corporate
data
(Subject
Areas)
• BI
Ask
creates
content
based
on
keywords

Further
Information
• OBIEE
12c
download
page
in
OTN
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-­‐enterprise-­‐edition/downloads/business-­‐
intelligence-­‐2717951.html
• ORACLE
BI
TECHDEMO
Youtube
Channel
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXpjKAy010SDUXmAA67DILg
• Graph
Selection
Matrix
by
Stephen
Few
• http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/misc/Graph_Selection_Matrix.pdf

Q
&
A

Thanks
for
attending!
email:
edelweisskf09@gmail.com
TwiZer:
@EdelweissK