OBIEE 11.1.1.9: New Features for Front-End Developers and Business Users

Search & Sort options inside the Subject Area

There is a new option to search inside the subject area when we create an analysis. If we press the magnifying glass icon in the Subject Areas pane, a search box appears and OBIEE will return all the objects that contains the text that we entered. We can also use the % wildcard.

In addition there is also the option to order the objects inside the subject area sorting the folders and the presentation columns inside them. The default value is showing the objects in the way that are saved in the repository.

Save Calculated Items in the Web Catalog

A very useful feature for business users is the possibility to create calculated items in an analysis and save it in the catalog in order to reuse it in other analyses for the same subject area.
In the Results tab there is a new icon for creating a new measure. The calculation is created in the same way the column formulas are created.

After the new measure is created you can go to the Criteria tab and in the column pop-up menu select the Save Column As option. In this manner you save this new measure as a new object in the catalog to be reused in other analyses. The feature of creating a new calculated measure for tables and pivot tables was included in the 11.1.1.7.10 version but the possibility to save the column in the catalog is a new feature of the OBIEE 11.1.1.9.

You can also change the properties of the new column in the Criteria tab but be aware that conditional formatting and conditional action links for the column are not saved to the catalog. Regular action links are saved for the column as well as the format properties.
The saved column can be edited from the catalog pane and catalog page. All the changes that you make in the catalog are applied to every analysis that used this column. If you modify it inside a particular analysis, these changes are valid only for the analysis that you are working on.

To be able to save new measures as columns you should have the Save Column privilege.

Global Variables

In this version we find a new new type of variables: the Global Variables. Global Variables can be defined in the context of an analysis and can be used in other analysis. Useful to do some intermediate reusable calculations.
To create a new global variable, select the Edit Formula option for the required column. When you press the Variable button in the Formula Editor you will see the new Global option. The Insert Global Variable dialog appears and you can select an existing global variable to be used in the formula, or you can create a new one. To create a new one you need to enter a name, type and value. If you want to use an expression like in the example (Min(Revenue)) as value, the data type should be Text.

To reference a global variable you need to use the fully qualified name including the context: @{global.variables.variablename}.

Also to manage global variables you should have the Manage Global Variables privilege.

New Visualisation: Treemap

There is a new visualisation called Treemap since OBIEE 11.1.1.7.10. Treemap groups the dimensional data that you selected in the analysis in tiles. By default, the tiles size is based in the content of first measure of the analysis and the tiles colour is based in the content of the second measure. If you have only one measure in your analysis, is used for both size and colour.

You can edit it as any other view and change the group by information as well as the measures which affects the size and colour of the tile and the range of colours that you want to use. Also you can choose the style between seeing the information in coloured bins or using continuous colour fill. If you selected the first one you can also select the amount of different coloured bins do you want to use.

New Preview Styles

When you want to preview an analysis in the Results tab, instead of showing immediately how the analysis will look, OBIEE offers you different Styles to see your analysis. These feature was also included since the 11.1.1.7.10 version. In case you want to create a custom style, Oracle recommends to use the new Skyros style as a starting point.

Horizontal Layout for Radio Button and Check Box Dashboard Prompts

Radio button and check box dashboards prompts can be showed horizontally. When you create a new dashboard prompt using check box or radio button under Options, you can select between horizontal or Vertical Layout appears under Options.

Enhancements in Export & Print Options

In this version, you will find more options in the Print and Export Options dialog. You can select if you want to include charts, images and formatting or to specify column properties like the column width and to wrap the text in columns.

In summary, these features are simple but quite useful for business users and front-end developers, and give more flexibility to create better data visualisations.

OBI 11.1.1.9.1 just released

Oracle has released March 10th, 2015 a new version of Oracle Business Intelligence Applications
OBIA 11.1.1.9.1.( Part Number : B81628-01 M).
More to come as we check for the new features or bug fixes in this release.

Here the link to the Release Notes: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E53672_01/index.htm

OBIEE - Upgrading my Windows 11.1.1.7 to 11.1.1.9 tutorial

OBIEE 11.1.1.9 is available. So I will upgrade my existing installation of 111.1.1.7 to 11.1.1.9. 

Follow Upgrade Guide, chapter 1.7 1.7 Moving from 11.1.1.3, 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6, or 11.1.1.7 to 11.1.1.9.   

Note: Out of Place BI Upgrade is NOT supported and the procedure is not documented in the guide. the following is In Place Upgrade.

1. Stop All and stop the service of Node Manager (Oracle WebLogic NodeManager (D_MWHOME_wlserver_10.3) in my case) under services.

2. Backup, Backup, Backup.

3. Run the installer. Select the Software only option and the existing OBIEE folder (my was D:\MWHOME), that was the default. Next accept the weblogic there.

R

4. Run patch Set Assistant (D:\MWHOME\Oracle_BI1\bin\psa.bat) and upgrade the RCU (after backup and version certification - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi/bi-11gr1certmatrix-11-1-1-9-0-2541437.xls - the 3 RCU entries in the Database sheet).  

5. Start the Node Manager service and Admin Server (D:\MWHOME\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin\startWebLogic.cmd on my computer).

6. Run ORACLE_HOME\bin\config.bat (on my computer it's D:\MWHOME\Oracle_BI1\bin\config.bat). Select the Update BI Domain option, fill parameters and run Configure.

7. I had a problem in the "starting the Managed server" phase. So I've run "startManagedWebLogic.cmd bi_server1" manually from D:\MWHOME\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin\. I had to run the configuration utility twice, until it worked.

Now it's working :)
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In the document you can also find the option of running the above in silent mode and a note about the change in users folders behavior; Unlike previous releases 11.1.1.9 users folders are created only when needed and not in advance, they also have a different structure. The guide suggests optional step to alter them.  


The following list shows the structure of the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog for a user before Release 11.1.1.9.0:

/users/<user>
/users/<user>/_delivers
   /users/<user>/_delivers/_deliveries
/users/<user>/_filters
/users/<user>/_portal
/users/<user>/_selections
/users/<user>/_savedcolumns
/users/<user>/_subscriptions
/users/<user>/_thumbnails
/users/<user>/_prefs
   /users/<user>/_prefs/deliveryprofiles
/users/<user>/_prefs/devices

The following list shows the structure of the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog for a user in Release 11.1.1.9.0 and later. Objects previously stored in the "_prefs" and "_subscriptions" folders are moved to the "_internals" folder. The "_deliveries" folder is merged with its parent folder "_delivers".

/users/<user>/_delivers
/users/<user>/_portal
/users/<user>/_filters
/users/<user>/_selections
/users/<user>/_savedcolumns
/users/<user>/_thumbnails
/users/<user>/_internals
   /users/<user>/_internals/subscriptions
      /users/<user>/_internals/subscriptions.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/_deliveryprofile_profile1
      /users/<user>/_internals/_deliveryprofile_profile1.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/_device_device1
      /users/<user>/_internals/_device_device1.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/_favorites
      /users/<user>/_internals/_favorites.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/cacheduserinfo
      /users/<user>/_internals/cacheduserinfo.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/volatileuserdata
      /users/<user>/_internals/volatileuserdata.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/defaultdevices
      /users/<user>/_internals/defaultdevices.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/defaultdeliveryprofile
      /users/<user>/_internals/defaultdeliveryprofile.atr
   /users/<user>/_internals/userprefsxmlstore
      /users/<user>/_internals/userprefsxmlstore.atr

OBIEE 11.1.1.9 New Interface,new features

They say "the god is in the details"; It seems that that god of details, that so often stays in Cupertino, had a visit in Redwood Shores, with the release of OBIEE 11.1.1.9.
You want an example?
 It's the little things some of them nobody bothers to mention in the "New Features" documentations. For example: the "View Properties" option we can access without entering/editing the specific view:

Or the  ability to have much better control in session Manager (Robin Moffatt has more to say about it)

 If you are a printing person:

• The Custom Orientation control for PDF and PPT.
• The marks that specify whether to include charts, images and formatting.
• New option to specify whether to wrap text in columns.
• New option to limit column width.
• Unfortunately the change of default of Print Rows to all, didn't work for me. 

Of course they are cooler features:
Search in analysis metadata is one of the long awaited options:

(I'm personally less excited about the Sort option there).

One more great feature is the Save Column option:

Just the same way we can save filters and use them in various analysis, we can now save columns/formulas. This way complex columns, with variables, calculations... can be used. This is critical for advanced users.

There is one more somewhat similar feature of Global Variables:

In the Global Variable Menu we can press the Plus sign and add a new Global Variable:

There I can select name and paste/type a Value. there is something tricky with the Type, for example the formula 100*"Base Facts"."Revenue"/"Base Facts"."Billed Quantity" the type was text and not number.

Now I can reuse the Variable:

The result is the same as similar formula, of course:

The question is when to use Global Variables and when Save Column, is not clear to me at this point.


One more nice feature is the Treemap:

As all visualizations, you can drill in it etc...

The colors can be binned or continuous and there are sets of colors available:

I will continue with more new features and hidden jams in the next part.