Oracle Business Intelligence ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration An Oracle White Paper November 2012
Oracle Business Intelligence ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration OVERVIEW Business users often want to consume information in a unified environment that facilitates information sharing across boundaries. This unified environment could be a custom application, a portal or business intelligence dashboard. Several times, there is need for custom visualizations fulfilling a particular use-case for specialized data representation and discovery. Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) is the leading BI suite supporting open standards for information delivery and consumption. This document outlines several examples illustrating custom visualizations and integration with Oracle BI. Oracle BI offers multiple methods for custom visualizations and integration for meeting specific functional need. INTRODUCTION Oracle BI provides a range of techniques to integrate with external applications. URL-based approaches are the most direct and easy approaches to integrate Oracle BI EE into custom applications and portal. Other approaches including SOAP APIs, RSS and BI ADF (Application Data Framework) component can be leveraged as integration points with Oracle BI. This whitepaper is not intended to provide the detailed mechanics of each. Please refer to Oracle BI documentation 1 to know more about these approaches. This whitepaper illustrates various examples and use-cases for the integration leveraging above approaches. Oracle BI also supports embedding of external content and custom visualizations into Oracle BI dashboards. This can be done via URL, iframe or ADF integration. Some of these approaches are captured in this white paper as examples. ORACLE BI ADF CUSTOM VISUALIZATIONS AND INTEGRATION - EXAMPLES These examples are not the complete list of all possible integration with Oracle BI. These are some representative samples and are intended for guidance only. You may need to modify to fit your use-case and technology. Oracle BI along with custom ADF visualization in an ADF application Oracle BI supports native integration with Application Data Framework (ADF). This allows easy drag and drop of BI content into an ADF application in JDeveloper. The detail of this approach is documented here. This integration can Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 2
be used for consuming OBI content along with non-obi ADF based rich visualization in an ADF application. OBI raw data can also be fetched in ADF View Object by making direct connection to BI Server. See product documentation here for detail. This approach is useful for visualizing BI data in ADF visualizations or in-line with other data coming from various data-sources. This allows consumption of BI data in ADF view along with other data elements. ADF Application ADF Visualization (e.g. Treemap/Merimekko chart) Oracle BI Content Oracle BI Content Oracle BI Content Example: Markimekko chart along with BI content in an ADF application Architecture: Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 3
Step 1. Create BI SQL View Object (JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.3 +) a. New > Applications >Fusion Web Application b. Right mouse click on Model c. Click on Business Intelligence, select View Object d. Click on + next to Connection to create a database connection Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 4
e. Enter a connection Name f. Choose Connection Type as Oracle(JDBC) g. Provide Host Name and SID h. Provide Username and Password i. Click on Test Connection to test the connection j. After successful database connection, Click OK in the dialog k. Click Next in the subsequent dialog Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 5
l. Click on + next to Connection to create a BI Server connection m. Enter a Connection Name n. Select BI (JDBC) as Connection Type o. Enter Host Name and Port for BI Server p. Click on Test Connection to test the connection q. After successful connection, click OK r. Click Next on subsequent dialog s. Enter logical SQL statement in the Logical SQL wizard e.g. SELECT "A - Sample Sales"."Products"."P4 Brand" Brand, "A - Sample Sales"."Products"."P1 Product" Product, "A - Sample Sales"."Base Facts"."1- Revenue" Revenue FROM "A - Sample Sales" Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 6
t. Keep clicking Next until Application Module wizard u. Check Application Module v. Click Next until finish w. Confirm that View Object is created under Data Controls > AppModuleDataControl Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 7
Step 2. Create Treemap using BI SQL View Object a. Under ViewController, right mouse click to bring up New menu b. Create a new JSF page c. Give a file name. Make sure to check the Create as XML Document (*.jspx) Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 8
d. Drag view object to the jspx page e. Pick Treemap from the pop-up menu f. Use Treemap dialog to configure the value, grouping and labels Step 3. Customize Treemap properties for Marimekko chart a. ADF Treemap can be customized to marimekko chart if the data contains layer or hierarchy. Hierarchy can be created using ADF ViewLink between BI Logical SQL View objects (e.g. Brand - >Product). b. Create two BI Logical SQL View objects (see step-1) : one for the parent and the other for the child in the hierarchy. Example: Parent Node SELECT "A - Sample Sales"."Products"."P4 Brand" Brand, "A - Sample Sales"."Base Facts"."1- Revenue" Revenue FROM "A - Sample Sales" Child Node SELECT "A - Sample Sales"."Products"."P4 Brand" Brand, "A - Sample Sales"."Products"."P1 Product" Product, "A - Sample Sales"."Base Facts"."1- Revenue" Revenue FROM "A - Sample Sales" Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 9
c. Right click on Model > New. d. Choose Business Tier > ADF Business Components > View Link e. Provide a name for the view link. Click Next Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 10
f. Select the source (parent node) and destination attribute (child node) for the hierarchy. g. Keep clicking Next until Application Module. Check Application Module. h. Click Finish. i. Use this View Link object for creating treemap (see step -2). Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 11
j. In treemap properties, check the parent and child node. Specify value, label and grouping rules for both nodes. k. Click OK Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 12
l. Go to Treemap Properties dialog. Change the Layout to SliceAndDice for marimekko chart Step 4. Embed Other BI Content in the jspx page a. Use Fusion BI View Component for embedding other BI Content (Analysis or Dashboard) in the same jspx page. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/e23943_01/bi.1111/e10545/embed ding_adf.htm#bgbgcfjg b. ADF contextual event can be used for wiring up ADF and BI Visualizations. Step 5. Deploy and Run the application a. Follow the fusion documentation for deployment http://docs.oracle.com/cd/e12839_01/web.1111/b31974/depl oyment_topics.htm#adffd1806 Note: Extend BIVO domain extension with WLS b. Run the jspx page that contains marimekko chart Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 13
ADF visualization embedded in Oracle BI Dashboard Oracle BI dashboard consolidates BI analyses and reports and allows interaction for further exploration. An external content including ADF visualization can be embedded as an URL or within an iframe on a BI dashboard. This will also support SSO if it is enabled between Oracle BI and ADF application. BI Dashboard ADF Visualization (e.g. Treemap/Merimekko chart) Oracle BI Content Oracle BI Content Oracle BI Content Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 14
Example: Marimekko chart embedded in BI Dashboard Architecture: Note: This approach will not allow passing the context and filter to ADF visualization on the dashboard. Step 1. Create BI SQL View Object (JDeveloper 11.1.1.6.3 +) Step 2. Create Treemap using BI SQL View Object Step 3. Customize Treemap properties for Marimekko chart Step 4. Deploy and Run the application Step 5. Embed the marimekko chart in BI Dashboard a. Add Embedded Content to the dashboard b. Provide the URL of the ADF application Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 15
Note: Configure SSO between OBI and ADF application to avoid login for ADF application in the BI dashboard. c. Save and run the dashboard. CONCLUSION Oracle BI offers multiple methods for integration and custom visualization to meet specific functional need. The approaches and examples mentioned above can be used for achieving use-cases which are not supported out of the box. REFERENCES 1. Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Documentation - http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e21764_01/bi.htm 2. Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Integrator s Guide - http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e14571_01/bi.1111/e16364/toc.htm 3. Oracle BI Enterprise Edition User s Guide - http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e14571_01/bi.1111/e10544/toc.htm Oracle BIEE - ADF Custom Visualizations and Integration Page 16
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Custom Visualizations and Integration December 2012 Author: Rashmi Raj Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Fax: +1.650.506.7200 oracle.com Copyright 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.