Rittman Mead Consulting

Transcription

1 Rittman Mead Consulting Borkur Steingrimsson OBIEE: Answers v. Publisher: Friends or Foes? UKOUG Scotland, Linlithgow, 2013 T : +44 (0) or (888) (USA) E : enquiries@rittmanmead.com W:

2 Introduction Börkur Steingrimsson Consulting Manager at Rittman Mead Consulting Based in Brussels, Belgium Blog 15 years of dabbling in Oracle technology Discoverer DW OWB / ODI OBIEE OGG

3 About Rittman Mead Oracle BI and DW specialized partner World leading specialist partner for technical excellence, solutions delivery and innovation in Oracle BI 80+ consultants all expert in Oracle BI and DW Global organisation, local delivery teams Offices in UK, US, Europe, India, Australia Skills in broad range of supporting Oracle tools: OBIEE OBIA ODI OWB Essbase, Oracle OLAP GoldenGate Exadata Exalytics T : +44 (0) or (888) (USA) E : enquiries@rittmanmead.com W:

4 Why Answers vs. Publisher? They started off quite different They seem somewhat similar today They have each their own strengths and weaknesses In comparison and on their own Home field advantage of Answers Answers is a part of OBIEE BIP, if standing on its own, misses out on the integration advantages it has when used within OBIEE And yes, I do know it s now called Analysis ;-)

5 Answers vs. Publisher History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

6 A little bit of Answers history NQuire first introduced Answers Siebel acquired NQuire in 2002 Oracle acquired Siebel in 2006 DHTML to ADF DVT Prompts Reports Web catalog Delivers and ibots Dashboards Integration with 3rd party (JRS-168) Sits on top of BI Presentation Server, expecting a business model / RPD

7 Answers vs. Publisher History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Arm Wrestling Competition - Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

8 A little bit of Publisher History XML Publisher was built by Oracle for reporting in EBS Integrated with OBIEE in 2007 and then named BI Publisher Full report and layout control Oracle Reports rival Data models and no real Metadata layer Reports against multitudes of data sources, including OBIEE All about rendering All XML under the hood Java application deployed in an Application Server (e.g. Weblogic) An application that can run stand-alone and does not require OBIEE Most of our comparison is based on this assumption, unfair as that may be

9 Answers vs. Publisher History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

10 What is Answers Known For? Lots of different types of graphs Tables with sub/grand totals Pivot Tables Hierarchical Columns Selection Steps Saved Customizations Maps and Map Viewer Master-Detail linking Conditional Formatting Drilling and Interaction Column and View Selectors Variables Separation of Query and Views

11 What is Answers Not So Known For? Printing reports Delivering reports to multiple channels Pixel Perfect design Reporting against any source PDF Output Reporting for P&L Barcodes Invoices Customer letters Anything else?

12 BI Answers - Formatting Formatting graphs and tables is very rich Fonts Backgrounds Images Conditional Formats Formatting plain text is somewhat limited but can be expanded by using HTML markup Each View in a report is pretty much fixed in layout Need to place on a Dashboard to control the layout and use empty sections to displace/fit to screen

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14 BI Answers - Prompts Dashboard Prompts pass user selection to one or more reports and dashboard pages The predicate is set on the Prompt and not the Report, allowing for clever reuse of reports for different effect Prompts are proper artifacts stored in the Web catalogue Prompt selections can be saved and shared with Customizations for a quick selection of preferred values

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16 BI Answers - Interactive Experience Along side with Dashboard Prompts, report interactions drive our analysis Drill to details Drill to another report Master-Detail linking Sliders, Page level items and zooming Legend based interaction Pivot table rearranged on the fly and saved as Customization Hierarchical columns Action Framework and Actionable Intelligence Maps integration etc

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18 BI Answers - Variables OBIEE variables equip the report developer with a programatic approach to some inventive solutions Passing user selections to report calculations Dynamically swap out physical table names or connection strings Report prompt links to choose which report to display, from a dropbox Complex repository calculations based on user selections Headings of titles Conditional formatting The communication blocks to pass values to BI Publisher prompts

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20 BI Answers - Dashboard Answers reports are mostly consumed on dashboards There they can be viewed next to other reports Get Prompt values to filter data Interactive response and Master-Detail linking Answers reports are largely intended to be on a Dashboard, but can of course work fine on their own But do you often do that? I d nearly go as far to say that Answers is almost useless without Dashboards

21 Show Me The Money History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

22 What is BIP Known For? Lots of different types of graphs Tables with sub/grand totals Pivot Tables Full control of layout Text Reporting Custom Forms and complicated layouts Pixel Perfect reporting Multiple report delivery channels PDF output Report against any JDBC data source Separation of Query and View

23 What is BIP Not So Known For? Interactive experience Master-Detail linking Dashboard integration Metadata layer that leverages a known business model (other than OBIEE RPD) and Simple data model Report reuse Data model now saved in the catalog and good for reuse List of Values to be re-created every time. List Selector components make that easier since

24 BI Publisher - Formatting BIP reports are highly customizable in look and feel as well as layout Complete control of positioning items on your report Full range of text controls for that pixel perfect craving Rich online template builder or MS Word RTF template builder for perfect control of layout Acrobat PDF builder to compose complex PDFs Pay slips Tax declaration forms etc

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26 BI Publisher - Prompts BIP uses LOVs in the report definition to pass values to Parameters Parameters are passed to the physical query Query defines the predicate Query must take care of IN lists and NULL values LOVs are not recyclable LOVs can be cascading, if their SQL is built with that in mind List Selector Components make life a bit easier, but... The values in the List Selector come from the XML data set of the report

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28 BI Publisher - Interactivity Components within the same report can be set to react to selections in other components. This makes for a kind of Master-Detail linking The Interactive View gives our users some limited analytical options The online analyzer, however, does extend that capability The new List Selector component also makes it quick and easy to change a report in to a Dashboard-like experience

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31 BI Publisher - Variables BIP sets variables to pass user selections to the underlying data model and query The underlying query must then be capable of handling the content of the variable and cater for NULLS and list values Select distinct cnms.cstname, cnms.cstid From (Select (cv.cust_last_name ' ' cv.cust_first_name ) cstname, cv.customer_id cstid from customers_view cv, orders_view ov where cv.customer_id = ov.customer_id and cv.state_province in (:p_state) and cv.city in (:p_city)) cnms order by cnms.cstname You need to know your SQL Complex Data Templates also use variables to calculate and store aggregates No manipulation of the data source connection via the use of variables Still need to code your own Data Template to do that

32 BI Publisher - Dashboards BIPublisher doesn t have its own Dashboard environment Can be placed on a regular BI Dashboard and there it really complements the OBIEE offering Access to reports fit for publishing Passing OBIEE Prompt values to BIP reports, using Presentation Variables But the BIP interactive controls and Event handling can make one report, with multiple components feel like a dashboard

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34 Let the Fight Begin History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

35 Pros and Cons - BI Answers Intended for Interactive data consumption Prompts Master-Detail linking Drilling Actionable Intelligence Based on a Business Model that provides reusable and standard calculations Rich graphing engine Query Once - Display many times Separation of query (Criteria) and Views

36 Pros and Cons - BI Answers BI Answers lacks more layout control But that s why BIP is integrated to work with OBIEE Probably not a strategic goal to enhance much in this direction Can only report against the Presentation Service and underlying RPD Sure, there are ways to get physical SQL access, but hardly recommended Requires OBIEE expertise to build the Star Schema -like business model before building any sort of report to access data Does not run on its own

37 Pros and Cons - BI Answers BI Answers lacks more layout control But that s why BIP is integrated to work with OBIEE Probably not a strategic goal to enhance much in this direction Can only report against the Presentation Service and underlying RPD Sure, there are ways to get physical SQL access, but hardly recommended Requires OBIEE expertise to build the Star Schema -like business model before building any sort of report to access data Does not run on its own It s a part of the OBIEE stack - duhh!

38 Pros and Cons - BI Publisher BI Publisher is very strong in what it s intended to do Flexible and fully formatted reports Multiple output formats Multiple Delivery channels Massive report throughput/bursting Reports against any JDBC data source Oracle DB DB2 / TeraData MSSQL/MySQL Oracle BI server/ Answers reports Now uses a 3 element report model to reuse templates and data models

39 Pros and Cons - BI Publisher BI Publisher isn t built for Data Analysis But it s moving in to that space with added interactive features Online Analyzer gives some capabilities for discovering your data Doesn t have a consistent Metadata Layer Requires some mad haxor SQL skillz Linking together multiple data sets can be complex Must construct an XML data set that makes sense New Data Model Editor makes this much easier in 11g though, but still not for the faint of heart Getting that Pixel Perfect report isn t always quite as easy as it says on the box True for most such tools Seems to be a bit of a black art, at times

40 Cat Fight on the Catwalk! History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Arm Wrestling Competition - Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

41 Visual Comparison

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47 The Votes Are In History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

48 Balancing The Scorecard Comparing Apples and Oranges will, at best, result in a Fruit Salad BI Answers wins a comparison like this, hands down, with the interactive capabilities But BI Answers loses a comparison like this on the lack of report layout control and pixel manipulation BI Answers isn t trying (very hard) to be that guy BI Publisher is supposed to fill that role BI Answers and BI Publisher use the same graphical components for web rendering and Interactive controls Look n Feel quite similar

49 Why Can t We All Just Get Along? History of Answers History of Publisher Feature Set of Answers Feature Set of Publisher Pros and Cons Visual Comparison Balancing the Score Card Conclusion

50 Conclusion BI Answers is fantastic for guided and ad-hoc analysis BI Publisher is fantastic for published reporting BI Publisher is growing in the direction of some of Answers strong points BI Answers relies on BI Publisher to provide the report publishing it s intended for Use BI Publisher for what it s meant for and use BI Answers for what it s made to do Friends or Foes? I d say Friends with some healthy rival tendencies, like brothers playing football at Thanksgiving... Let Google Sort Them Out

51 Rittman Mead Consulting Borkur Steingrimsson OBIEE: Answers v. Publisher: Friends or Foes? UKOUG Scotland, Linlithgow, 2013 T : +44 (0) or (888) (USA) E : enquiries@rittmanmead.com W: