Dashboard Reporting: Design Tips and Tricks

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Dashboard Reporting Design Tips and Tricks

• Melinda Rojo
• Kathy Kimball

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Session Overview

• OBIEE offers a rich array of widgets for use in
  designing and developing dashboards, from
  dashboard prompts to view selectors to column
  selectors. This session will share the tips and
  tricks weve discovered on how best to use the
  powerful capabilities.

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Session Topics

• Overall Design Tips Tricks
• Dashboard Tips Tricks
• Answers Tips Tricks
• Dashboard Terminology
• Usage Tracking
• Resources

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Overall Design Tips Tricks

• Develop and implement standards for both
  dashboards and requests
• Summarize and then drill to detail
• Make prototypes
• Make use of visual indicators where appropriate
  and useful
• Reuse! Reuse! Reuse!
• Prompts
• Requests
• Filters
• Document requests and filters to facilitate reuse
  and maintenance

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Dashboard Tips Tricks

• Prompts
• Section Properties
• Request Properties
• Saved Selections
• Branding
• Download Options
• Printing

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Dashboard Prompts

• Use prompts to filter results on either an entire
  Dashboard or the current Dashboard page

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Dashboard Prompts

• Tips Tricks
• Select from many operators available
• Use SQL Results to set choices shown
• Use Server Variables to set defaults
• Set Presentation Variables
• Use constrain
• Use multiple prompts
• Example
• Only show departments and funds that a user is
  interested in. But still allow them to search on
  any.

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Dashboard Prompts
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Dashboard Section Properties

• Guided Navigation
• Can guide users to a related set of results
  either by static or conditional links
• Drill in Place
• Shows the new results directly in the dashboard
  rather than replacing the entiredashboard page
• Arrange Horizontally
• Displays all requests in this sectionhorizontally

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Dashboard Report Properties

• Show View
• Option shows available viewsof a report
• Default is Compound Layout
• Report Links
• Option controls links displayedunder reports

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Dashboard Saved Selections

• Use saved selections to allow users to view
  dashboard pages with the their most frequently
  used choices
• Applies to many aspects of a dashboard page
• Filters
• Prompts
• View selections
• Stored on BI Server Web Catalog in
  /root/users/username/_selections

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Dashboard Saved Selections

• Tips Tricks
• Add a button to all dashboard pages allowing
  users to clear their selections

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Dashboard Branding

• OBIEE can be customized to your institution using
  styles, skins, and custom images
• Tips Tricks
• Name your dashboard (bg_banner.jpg)http//obiee10
  1.blogspot.com/2008/09/obiee-portal-customization-
  part-1.html
• Change Powered by Oracle on page footer
  (siebelbug.gif)http//obiee101.blogspot.com/2008/
  10/obiee-replacing-siebelbuggif-powered-by.html

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Dashboard Download Options

• Download to Excel and Download to Excel 2000
  behave a little differently depending on the
  platform and browser used
• We recommend Mac users use the Firefox browser
  and the Excel 2000 link
• Excel and Excel 2000 file format is really .mht
  mhtml though the extension is .xls
• Youll want to save the file as a Microsoft Excel
  Workbook before editing the file

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Download to Excel or Excel 2000

• Formulas are not downloaded.  The value in a cell
  is downloaded as that value, not as a formula. 
• Monetary columns download as numbers.  Values
  with commas are formatted as numbers and retain
  formatting that was displayed on the Dashboard,
  i.e., if two decimal places are shown then those
  appear in Excel.
• Monetary columns without a comma are formatted as
  general, which is a number but with no specific
  number format.  The value does not change but
  decimal places are suppressed if zeros appear to
  the right of the decimal place.
• Columns that are numeric and contain values with
  leading zeros lose the leading zeros when
  downloaded to Excel.

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Conditional Formatting Indicators

• Weve had inconsistent results using conditional
  formatting indicators such as a flag or bubble
  and the image may move when the rows are sorted
• Conditional formatting indicators appear as a
  broken images when Download to Excel 2000 is used
  in both Firefox and IE 7 on Windows/PC
• No testing has been done on Macs yet

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Download to Data

• Download to Data creates a CSV (Comma Separated
  Values) file, which includes all of the columns
  included in the Answers request (not just the
  view displayed on the screen) 
• Formatting from the screen will not be carried
  over to the file
• Additional download results have been documented
  on our website http//polydata.calpoly.edu/dashbo
  ards/faqs.html

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Dashboard Printing

• PDF or HTML of displayed view
• Headers or Footers appear in PDF if added to the
  Compound Layout

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Headers and Footers

• Cal Poly footer includes
• Saved Name (name of the request)
• Print Date
• Page Number
• Author Name (person running the dashboard request)

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Answers Tips Tricks

• Column Selector View
• View Selector View
• Narrative View
• Compound Layout
• Saved Filters
• Saved Data Formats
• Value Interaction (Navigation)

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Column Selector View

• Use column selectors view to allow users to
  dynamically change which columns appear in a
  request

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Column Selector View

• Tips Tricks
• Standardize on label text such as Show Column
• Color code column selector to make visible to end
  users
• Standardize on common columns and sort in same
  order on all requests
• Used Advanced Tab to edit XML and copy/paste
• Include all members of hierarchies in column
  selectors so they can jump to level
• Add column selector to a hidden field on a Pivot
  to sort results (otherwise only available on
  table view)
• Uncheck automatically refresh when a new column
  is selected so users have GO button

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View Selectors View

• Use view selector view to select a specific view
  of the results from among the saved views

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View Selectors

• Tips Tricks
• Standardize on label text such as Select a
  View
• Create view to display filters
• Create view with instructions before displaying
  data
• Create view to easily download data

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Narrative View

• Use narrative view to combine text with the
  results of a request
• Useful for referencing variables

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Compound Layout View

• Use compound layout view to assemble different
  views for display on a dashboard
• Tips Tricks
• Remove the Title view
• Know your boundaries (upper, lower, left, right)
• View Boundaries
• Report Boundaries
• Use multiple compound layouts for requests with
  multiple layouts but the same criteria

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Compound Layout
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Saved Filters

• Use saved filters so they may be shared with
  multiple requests
• Document shared filters in a flow chart to show
  dependencies on specific saved filters

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Saved Filters
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Saved Filters

• Tips Tricks
• Create to match all columns in a dashboard page
  prompt
• Create to match all columns in the criteria
• Create to match all columns in standard column
  selectors
• Create to use for development while building
  new requests
• Order of filters matters!

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Saved Data Formats

• Use saved data formats to apply, save, and re-use
  column properties on Value Format tab, Column
  Format tab, and Conditional Format tabs
• Scope of save can vary
• For a specific column
• As a system-wide default for this column
• As a system-wide default for this data type
• Stored in an XML file in the Web Catalog in the
  /root/system/metadata folder

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Saved Data Formats

• Tips Tricks
• Save the email address field to display
  system-wide using mail-to format
• Will display on all requests using that column

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Value Interaction

• Use value interaction to specify what should
  happen when a user clicks on a column heading or
  column value
• Allows users to navigate to multiple requests or
  dashboards
• If multiple navigation paths, pop-up window
  displays caption
• Provides drill-to-detail capability

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Value Interaction

• Source Request
• Set Interaction Type to Navigate
• Add Navigation Target to an Answers request
• Add caption (if multiple targets)

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Value Interaction

• Target Request
• Use filter with operator of Is Prompted
• Include all possible columns
• Columns in Pivot Axis
• Columns in Prompts
• Column Selectors
• Column names must match source request EXACTLY

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Dashboard Elements
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Dashboard Terminology

• Dashboard content separated by Functional Areas
• Dashboard Pages one or more related requests
• Dashboard Page Prompt controls requests on
  dashboard page
• Narrative text allows static and variable text
• Request query
• Hyperlinks - hierarchical drills, drill to detail
  options, and links to related information
• Filter selection criteria for request
• Column Selector view different columns of data
• View Selector select different reports within
  the same request
• Conditional formatting using green, yellow, red
  symbols
• Presentation Catalog Folder list of content
  related requests

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Usage Tracking

• OBIEE provides a usage tracking system with the
  standard installation
• Usage Tracking includes
• SQL statements to create tracking user and
  tables/views
• RPD containing Usage Tracking models
• Web Catalog for Usage Tracking dashboard

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Usage Tracking

• Installing the Usage Tracking components
  includes
• Creating a database user to host the Usage
  Tracking objects
• Creating the Usage Tracking database objects
• Merging master RPD with Usage Tracking RPD
• Altering NQSConfig.ini to enable
• Importing Usage Tracking web catalog components
• Reference Blog for step-by-step
  instructionshttp//obiee101.blogspot.com/2008/08/
  obiee-setting-up-usage-tracking.html

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Usage Tracking
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Usage Tracking
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Resources

• Oracle Metalink 3.0http//metalink3.oracle.com
• Oracle Business Intelligence obiee-101http//obie
  e101.blogspot.com
• Business Intelligence Oraclehttp//oraclebizint
  .wordpress.com
• FAQs for PolyData Dashboardshttp//polydata.calpo
  ly.edu/dashboards/faqs.html

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Questions?
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Contact

• OBIEE Technical Conferencehttp//polydata.calpol
  y.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/index.html
• Email polydata_at_calpoly.edu