Oracle Business Intelligence

11 g

Module 2- Dashboards
Dashboards
Agenda

• Working with Dashboards

Building Dashboards
Prompting to filter Analysis

• Dashboard Customizations
Saved Customizations
Prompted Links

• Action Links and Conditions

Actions links
Conditions

2
Working with Dashboards

Building Dashboards
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Accessing

• Dashboards can be accessed at any time using the

“Dashboards” menu at the top of the screen, the menu will
show:

• Your most recent Dashboard.

• Your “My Dashboard” (if you have permission to have a “My
Dashboard”).
• One or more “Shared” Dashboards, separated by their “Shared
Folder”.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Content

• A Dashboard will typically consist of:

• One or more Pages.
• A Dashboard Prompt (to allow users to apply their own
filters).
• One or more Analyses.
Dashboard Dashboard
pages Prompt

Analysis
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Best Practices – Reports per page

• The best approach is to simply have a single analysis per

dashboard page. If you need to include more, try not to have
more than 4.

• Try to make sure all the content fits on a single screen

without the user needing to scroll down or across (they may
never view a report if it is not visible).

• When building your Dashboards, use a screen resolution of

1024 x 768, since not all users have large screen sizes.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Best Practices – Column/View Selector

• You can make more space available within the analysis and
therefore the dashboard page by using Column/View Selectors to
reduce the number of chart objects appearing at the same time.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Best Practices – Drill-Downs/Navigation

• It is important to implement drill-downs and/or navigations for

each analysis on a dashboard page to increase its functionality.

This
Dashboards is
useless unless
users are able
to see a more Dril Dril
Dril
detailed l l l
analysis
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Edit Dashboard

• If you have sufficient privileges, you can edit a dashboard via the
“Page Options > Edit Dashboard” menu on the right-hand side.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards –Dashboard Editor

• The “Dashboard Editor” will then open up.

• By default, you will have a single empty Dashboard Page called

“page 1”.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Adding Content

• You can add content by dragging objects from the “Catalog”

pane.
The object will be
placed inside a new
A Column can
“Section” and consists of multiple
“Column” sections

A Section can consist

of multiple Analysis or
other reporting
content e.g.
Dashboards Prompts
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Section/Columns

• You can drag additional Sections and Columns from the

“Dashboard Objects” panel:

Columns can be
placed above,
below, left or
right of existing
Columns

Sections can
be placed
above or
below existing
Sections
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Alerts

• Adding an “Alert Section” will result in the user being alerted

on the Dashboard Page whenever they are the recipient of a BI
Delivers “Agent”.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Links, Text and External Content

• You can also drag in other objects such as:

• Links or images: Include a link to another dashboard page or
request.
• Embedded Content: Embed another web-site.
• Text: Place custom text on the Dashboard using a
text editor.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Images on Your Dashboards

• It is possible to display your own custom images in the

Dashboards.

• If a dashboard is to contain images then please ensure that the

uploaded pictures are as “light” as possible (e.g. in JPG, GIF or
PNG format and not BMP).

• If the images are large then it will negatively impact the

performance of your dashboard as it will take time to download
both the reports’ data and the large image across the network.

• Any images should not exceed 200KB in size.

Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Folders

• A “Folder” object allows the user to browse and open Catalog

contents directly from within the Dashboard Page.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Column Properties

• On the top-right of a Column you can find its “Properties”

menu:
• Settings for Column height, width, border, background
color, etc.

Delete
Column
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Section Properties (1/2)

• Moving the mouse over the top-right of a Section will

expose its “Properties” menu.
Specify a Condition Delete
to determine if the Sectio
Section should be n
displayed
Configure
Section
height,
width, Align
borders, contents
background horizontal
colour, etc. ly or
“Drill in Place” vertically
so that drill-
downs are
performed in Enable/disable
situ, rather the
than opening “Collapsible”
up a new page button for the
Section on the
Dashboard
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Section Properties (2/2)

• The “Show Section Header / Title” options will add a header bar
with title to the Section.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Report Properties

• Moving the mouse over the top-right of an Analysis will expose

its “Properties” menu.

By default, Delete from

the Section
Compound
Layout will
be displayed
but you can
choose a
different view
instead Go to edit the
Analysis
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Save and Run

• When you have completed building your Dashboard Page, you

have to save it before running it or creating a new Page.

First save the

dashboard page
and then run it
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Add Page

• You can add a new Page by clicking on the button.

Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Moving Between Pages

• Within the Dashboard Editor, you can move between Pages by

clicking on the tabs at the top-left.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Dashboard Properties (1/3)

• The “Dashboard Properties” menu option allows you to:

You can apply

your own • Rename Page
custom “Style” • Default Values
e.g. colouring, for Prompts
logos, fonts • Set
Permissions
• Delete Page
• Customization
Privileges

Re-order
Hide Pages
Page
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Dashboard Properties (2/3)

• An option exists for specifying which links should appear

underneath all the Analyses across the Dashboard.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboards – Building Dashboards – Dashboard Properties (3/3)

• An option exists for specifying default filters and variables:

Specify a list of Dashboard

Prompts that contain default
values.
The default values will then be
used on this Dashboard.
The Dashboard Prompts listed
here will not be visible on the
Dashboard.
Working with Dashboards

Prompting to Filter Analysis

Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts

• Dashboard Prompts are naturally a very important feature -

they allow a user to change the filter criteria being used across
the Dashboard Pages.

• Keep the dashboard prompts as small as possible – too many

drop-down lists can be confusing and make the dashboard
cluttered.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Is Prompted Filters

• It is important to appreciate that Dashboard Prompts will only

apply a filter to an Analysis if:

• The relevant columns are already filtered on the

Analysis OR
• The columns have “Is Prompted” filters on the
Analysis.

A Dashboard Prompt can

“Is Prompted” means that override this filter on the
filter parameters can be “Year” column as long as
passed in by Dashboard “Protect Filter” is not enabled.
Prompts at run-time
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Types of Prompts (1/6)
Choice Text Check
List Field Boxes

List Radio
Box Buttons
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Types of Prompts (2/6)

Choice List

A “Choice List” provides a drop-

down list
enabling the user to select one or
more values

A search utility is available if the

user does not want to scroll through
the list

There is also an option to allow

users to manually type in the values
required
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Types of Prompts (3/6)

Text
Field

A “Text Field” simply allows

the user to type in a custom
string of text.

You can make it mandatory

for the user to enter a value.
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Types of Prompts (4/6)

Check Boxes

“Check Boxes” allow

users to
select one or more values
from a list
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Types of Prompts (5/6)

List
Box

A “List Box” is simply a box

containing a list of values.

It is possible to enable/disable
the selections of multiple
values
Working with Dashboards
Dashboard Prompts – Types of Prompts (6/6)

Radio Buttons

“Check Boxes” allow

users to select one or
more values from a list.
Working with Dashboards

Creating Dashboard Prompts

Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 1) Choose Subject Area

• You can create a Dashboard Prompt via the “New” menu.

• The first thing you’ll need to do is choose a Subject Area.

• NOTE: A Dashboard Prompt can be used for Analyses

coming from other Subject Areas as long as the columns
present in the Dashboard Prompt have the exact same name
across the Subject Areas.
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 2) Add Prompt

• Click the button to add a new Prompt, you have 3 choices:

• Column Prompt - Obtain list of values from a Subject Area column.

• Variable Prompt - Provide a custom list of values to populate a
variable.
• Image Prompt - Allow the user to select values using an “HTML
image map”.
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 3) Choose Column

• Assuming you chose a “Column Prompt”, you will then need to

choose a Subject Area column.
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 4) Standard Settings

• Now that you have chosen the column, you then need to
specify the following:

• Label - Label to display to user.

• Operator - “is equal to / is in”, “begins with”, “is greater
than”, etc.
• User Input - Choose from the various types of Prompt available.
 Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 5) Options

• Depending on the type of prompt, you will then be able to set

various other options. For example:
Limit the values
Display all displayed based on the
column values, other prompt selections
or just a already chosen e.g. if
selected few the user has already
chosen Year = 2007,
Enable/disable then only show the
multiple value Quarters for the Year
selection 2007
Relevant values are
shown to users as they
type in the prompt
Force the
Specify a default value user to select
e.g. CURRENT_YEAR”. a value
You can specify a value,
Assign the value(s) selected
variable, SQL expression
to a Session or Presentation
or Logical SQL
Variable (Presentation
Variables are covered later
in the training)
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 6) Add Further Prompts

• Add as many prompts as you need:

Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 7) New Column

• The Prompts will, by default, be listed vertically. If you wish

them to appear side-by-side then check the “New Column”
option:
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 8) Save and Preview
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 9) Add To Dashboard

• You can now add your Dashboard Prompt to the

Dashboard Page.
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – 10) Set Dashboard Prompt Scope

• By default, the “scope” of the Dashboard Prompt will

be set to “Dashboard”, meaning that the selections
made in this prompt will be applied in other Pages of
the Dashboard.

• However, by setting the scope to “Page”, your selections

will not be remembered as you move from one Dashboard
Page to another.
Working with Dashboards
Creating Dashboard Prompts – Further Notes – Go Less Prompts

• Within the Dashboard Prompt properties screen you can

disable the “Apply” and “Reset” buttons.

• The result is that the dashboard queries are executed

automatically as soon as you make a selection in a dashboard
prompt.

NOTE: It is advisable only to enable this option if your dashboard queries

return data very quickly.
Action Links and Conditions

Action Links
Action Links and Conditions
Action Links – Dashboard Pages (1/3)

• Dashboard Pages can consist of “Action Links” and “Action Link

Menus”:
Action Links and Conditions
Action Links – Dashboard Pages (2/3)

• You show Action Links individually:

Action Links and Conditions
Action Links – Dashboard Pages (3/3)

• Action Links Menus allow you to display a menu of multiple Action

Links:
Action Links and Conditions

Conditions
Action Links and Conditions
Conditions

• Conditions are objects that return a single Boolean value based

on the evaluation of an Analysis or a KPI. We will focus on
Conditions based on Analysis.

• A condition based on an Analysis evaluates the row count of

the analysis. For example, a condition might evaluate whether
the results of an Analysis return a number of rows greater than
0:
 If the analysis returns at least one row, then the condition evaluates
to True.
 If the analysis does not return any rows, then the condition
evaluates to False.

• You use conditions to determine whether:

 Agents deliver their content and execute their actions.
 Actions links (which when clicked run actions) are displayed
in dashboard pages.
 Sections and their content are displayed in dashboard
Action Links and Conditions
Conditions – Creating Conditions

• Conditions can be created as re-usable objects:

• Or you can create Conditions that you only want to use once:
directly within a Dashboard Page or Agent. These Conditions
are not re-usable.
Action Links and Conditions
Conditions – Creating a Condition: Step 1

• Create a Condition by using the “New > Condition” menu

option:
Action Links and Conditions
Conditions – Creating a Condition: Step 2

• Choose an existing Analysis to base the Condition on:

Action Links and Conditions
Conditions – Creating a Condition: Step 3

Specify the criteria that must be met for a “True” Condition:

• In this case we are stating that the Analysis must return 1
or more records
Action Links and Conditions
Conditions – Creating a Condition: Step 4

• Test and save the Condition.

Action Links and Conditions
Conditions – Example: Dashboard Section Condition

• On a Dashboard Page, you can determine whether or not a

Dashboard Section displays based on the result of a Condition:
Dashboards Customizations

Saved Customizations
Dashboard Customizations
Saved Customizations

• “Saved Customizations” is a useful Dashboard feature that

allows users to save not only their filter selections but also
the selections made in Column/View Selectors.

• They can also assign a Saved Customization as a default, so

those selections are used whenever they visit the Dashboard
Page.
Options available
to Apply, Save and
Edit
“Customizations”

The “Clear” option

will return the
Dashboard to its
default filter and
Column/View
Selector settings
Dashboard Customizations
Saved Customizations – Example (1/3)

• On a Dashboard you can make some “customizations”. For

example:
In the Prompt we can
filter by “Organization
Name”, “Year”, etc.

In the View
Selector we can
make a selection
Dashboard Customizations
Saved Customizations – Example (2/3)

• We can now save the selections made using the “Save Current
Customization” menu option:
 You just need to specify a name for the Customization.
 You can also set the Customization as default for this Dashboard
Page.
Dashboard Customizations
Saved Customizations – Example (3/3)

• The user can revert to this Saved Customization at any time

using the “Apply Saved Customization” option.
Dashboards Customizations

Prompted Links
Dashboard Customizations
Prompted Links

• “Prompted Links”: from the URL generated will only take into
account the filter selections made on the Dashboard Page.
• Column/View Selectors are not taken into account.