Oracle® Business Intelligence Tools

3.1 Certification Information

For the latest certification information, which supersedes that in the Oracle Business Intelligence Tools documentation, refer to OracleMetalink at the following location:

http://metalink.oracle.com

3.2 Availability of HWOnline Files

Previous versions of Oracle Discoverer shipped with the files HWOnline.htm and Memo.doc, which were used to demonstrate "drill out" functionality. To reduce disk space requirements and installation time, these files and instructions for their use will be made available from Oracle Technology Network:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/samplecode/products/discoverer/index.html

3.3 Obtaining Fix for GUID-Generation Issue

If you installed OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In or OracleBI Beans as part of Oracle Business Intelligence Tools, then you must obtain and install the standalone version of OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In or OracleBI Beans from Oracle Technology Network. By installing the standalone version, you ensure that your installation contains an important fix for a Globally Unique ID (GUID) generation issue.

3.4 Clarification of Version Numbers

Oracle Business Intelligence Tools documentation (e.g. Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide) has the version number 10.1.2.1, which covers the following installations:

• Oracle Business Intelligence Tools installed as part of Developer Suite 10g Release 2 (10.1.2.0.2).

• Oracle Business Intelligence Tools 10g Release 2 (10.1.2.0.2).

The Oracle Business Intelligence Tools components (e.g. OracleBI Discoverer Administrator) and their documentation (e.g. Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide) that are part of Oracle Business Intelligence Tools 10.1.2.0.2 have a version number of 10.1.2.1 to indicate that they are changed from 10.1.2.0.0.

3.5 Compatibility Issues with Required Support Files

The Oracle Database and other Oracle database client software (e.g. SQL*Plus, the database export utility) use Oracle Required Support Files (RSF).

Oracle Business Intelligence Tools also uses Oracle Required Support Files (RSF), specifically RSF version 10.1.0.4. This version of the Oracle Required Support Files is installed during Oracle Business Intelligence Tools installation.

Note that the Required Support Files version 10.1.0.4 is incompatible with earlier versions of Oracle Database 10g. So if the machine on which you install Oracle Business Intelligence Tools already has a version of Oracle Database 10g or database client software that is earlier than 10.1.0.4, there will be compatibility issues. For example, if you install Oracle Business Intelligence Tools and attempt to run a version of SQL*Plus earlier than 10.1.0.4, then the following error is displayed:

ORA-12557 TNS: protocol adapter not loadable

To avoid the compatibility issues, upgrade Oracle Database 10g or database client software on the machine to the same version (i.e. 10.1.0.4) as the version of the Required Support Files that were installed with Oracle Business Intelligence Tools.

This issue does not exist for Oracle9i Database Server.

3.6 Issues with Turkish Regional Settings

Because of Sun JRE 1.4 bug 4688797, you might encounter issues when connecting to a database schema while your computer has Turkish regional settings. You will encounter the issue when you attempt to connect to a database schema with a user name that contains certain letters, such as the letter 'I' or 'i', for example, in "bibdemo". See the Sun JRE bug for information on the letters that are affected.

To work around this issue, either do not use Turkish regional settings or use a user name that does not contain the affected letters.

3.7 Changes to Oracle Business Intelligence Tools Installation Guide

This section identifies changes to the Oracle Business Intelligence Tools Installation Guide.

• The following changes are needed in Chapter 1, "General Business Intelligence Tools Requirements":

  • Section 1.5 describes the database requirements for Oracle Business Intelligence Tools. The section should read as follows:

    Oracle Business Intelligence Tools 10.1.2.1 supports the following versions for the database that contains the data on which you want to report:

    • Oracle9i Release 2 Database (9.2.0.6 and higher)

    • Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1.0.4 and higher)

    • Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.1 and higher); certification is planned

    Note the following:

    • When performing relational analysis, you can use Oracle Database Standard Edition or Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. You must use Oracle Database Enterprise Edition if you want to take advantage of materialized views, analytic functions, and the Advanced Security Option (ASO) and Transparent Application Failover (TAF) database features.

    • When performing multidimensional analysis, you must use Oracle Database Enterprise Edition with the OLAP Option.

    The latest information on supported versions is on the Certify application on http://metalink.oracle.com.

  • In Section 1.6.1, the Oracle JDeveloper 10g version should be clarified to read: Oracle JDeveloper 10g (Version 10.1.2.1, build 1913).

  • In Section 1.8.4.3.1, the Oracle JDeveloper 10g version should be clarified to read: Oracle JDeveloper 10g (Version 10.1.2.1, build 1913).

• The following change is needed in Chapter 2, "Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Tools":

  • In Section 2.4.3 on BI Beans post-installation tasks, delete the final bullet, which reads like so:

    The preparation steps in JDeveloper affect the entire JDeveloper environment, including the embedded OC4J instance.

• The following changes are needed in Appendix B, "Migrating Existing BI Beans Projects":

  • Section B.2.1 "Additional Step for Migration to Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 2" contains Step 1b that should be changed to read: "Extract the bibcoreb.pls file from bidatasvr.jar to a local directory. The jar has packing scope and will be extracted into the oracle\dss\persistence\storagemanager\bi\scripts directory."

  • In Section B.4, Step c under Step 6 should read as follows:

    Redeploy the application from the design-time Catalog to the runtime Catalog.

  • One manual migration step is missing for both JSP and UIX applications. That step is described in Section 3.7.1, "Updating the members Attribute of the DimensionMemberList Tag" and should be added as Sections B.4.1.6 and B.4.2.7.

  • The opening sentence for Section B.5.2 should read like so:

    Starting with the OracleBI Beans 10.1.2 release, hierarchy and level information are stored for each dimension member reference within each query and its associated calculations and saved selections in the Catalog.

4.1 General Issues and Workarounds with OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In

This section provides general issues and workarounds for OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In. It contains the following topics:

• Section 4.1.1, "Sharing Saved Selections and Calculations Across Queries"

• Section 4.1.2, "Displaying Date Measures"

• Section 4.1.3, "Launching Another Instance of Excel"

• Section 4.1.4, "Renaming Sheets when OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In is not Running"

• Section 4.1.5, "Specifying when Formatting is Applied"

• Section 4.1.6, "Canceling the Closing of Microsoft Excel"

• Section 4.1.7, "Issue with Hidden Rows and Queries Without Data"

• Section 4.1.8, "Performance Improvements for Large Queries"

4.2 Documentation Corrections

This section provides information about corrections to the OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In Help. The following list summarizes the corrections required:

• The Help topic for the Default Options Dialog Box: General tab contains the following errors:

  • The topic indicates that the first component on the tab is labeled Defer initialization. The component is actually labeled Start OracleBI Add-In when Excel Starts. Note that the meaning of a check mark when the label reads Start OracleBI Add-In when Excel Starts is the opposite of the meaning of a check mark when the label reads Defer initialization.

  • The description for the Show disabled pop-up menu items box states that the option is turned on by default, which is incorrect. The option is turned off by default.

• The following Help topics related to calculations are incorrect:

  • In the "Variance Calculation" topic, the formula for the calculation is incorrect. The correct formula is "Base-Target".

  • In the "Percent Variance calculation" topic, the formula for the calculation is incorrect. The correct formula is "(Base-Target)/Target".

  • In the "Percent Markup calculation" topic, the formula for the calculation is incorrect. The correct formula is "(From - Markup)/Markup".

5.1 Naming a Project with Spaces

You might notice intermittent problems with OracleBI Beans projects that are created in JDeveloper. These problems are often caused by the fact that the project's J2EE root context contains blank spaces, which in turn is caused by the fact that the project's name contains spaces.

To work around these problems, simply avoid including spaces in the project name. If you really prefer to include spaces in a project name, then modify the default J2EE context root that JDeveloper generates for the project by accessing the Project Settings dialog.

5.2 executecommand Method of Connection Object

You might encounter a problem with the executeCommand method of the Connection object if the input OLAP DML string or the output log information is too long. If this happens, then use the DBMS_AW PL/SQL package through JDBC.

5.3 Family Step Followed by KEEP on Asymmetric Saved Selection

If you have a Family step that is followed by a KEEP action on an asymmetric saved selection, then you might see duplicate results when connecting to an Oracle9i (Release 2) database, version 9.2.0.6. This issue has no workaround.

5.4 Presentations

The following issues exist for presentations in OracleBI Beans:

• Section 5.4.1, "Issue with Graphs with Circular Components"

• Section 5.4.2, "Numbers Printing as Pound Signs"

• Section 5.4.3, "Issue with Start Align Button"

5.5 HTML-Client Applications

The following issues exist for HTML-client applications in OracleBI Beans:

• Section 5.5.1, "Custom Text for Tooltips in Thin Graphs"

• Section 5.5.2, "Popup Windows and Third-Party Toolbar or Popup Blockers"

• Section 5.5.3, "Issue with Partial Page Rendering"

• Section 5.5.4, "Circular Reference in the FolderList Tag"

<orabi:FolderList id="A" targetFolderListIds="B"/>
<orabi:FolderList id="B" targetFolderListIds="C"/>
<orabi:FolderList id="C" targetFolderListIds="A"/>

FolderList A updates FolderList B
FolderList B updates FolderList C
FolderList C updates FolderList A

5.6 Accessibility Limitations for OracleBI Beans

The following accessibility limitations exist for OracleBI Beans:

• The current version of the JAWS screen reader does not correctly identify and read tables in Java applications. This problem occurs in the JDeveloper Help system, which incorporates the OracleBI Beans Help system.

• JAWS does not read the description for some of the panels in the OLAP Connection wizard.

5.7 Documentation Corrections

The following Help topics related to calculations are incorrect:

• In the "Variance Calculation" topic, the formula for the calculation is incorrect. The correct formula is "Base-Target".

• In the "Percent Variance calculation" topic, the formula for the calculation is incorrect. The correct formula is "(Base-Target)/Target".

• In the "Percent Markup calculation" topic, the formula for the calculation is incorrect. The correct formula is "(From - Markup)/Markup".

6.1 Issue with Installation of Video Stores Tutorial

Before installing the video stores tutorial in Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 2 (version 10.2.0.1 and higher), you must manually create the VIDEO5 user. If you attempt to install the video stores tutorial in Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 2, then the installation will fail if the VIDEO5 user does not already exist. To work around this issue:

1. Create the VIDEO5 user manually by completing these steps:

   1. Access Oracle Database 10g with SQL*Plus, Enterprise Manager, or any SQL command line tool.

   2. Create the VIDEO5 user.

   3. Grant CONNECT and RESOURCE privileges to the VIDEO5 user.

   See the Oracle Database SQL Reference or your DBA for more information about creating users and granting privileges.

2. Connect to Discoverer Administrator as the EUL owner and install the tutorial. You must enter the VIDEO5 user password during installation.

   See the Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide for information on installing the video stores tutorial.

6.2 OracleBI Discoverer EUL Trigger Information

The OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Help contains errors in two sections of the OracleBI Discoverer EUL trigger information appendix, as follows:

• "How to register a PL/SQL function that can be executed by an OracleBI Discoverer EUL trigger"

  This section fails to mention that a PL/SQL function must be registered with exactly the same name as the OracleBI Discoverer EUL trigger.

  A paragraph should be added after the first paragraph to read:

  Note: A PL/SQL function must be registered with exactly the same name as the OracleBI Discoverer EUL trigger. If it is not, then the OracleBI Discoverer EUL trigger will not find the function nor execute it. Therefore, the name in the Display Name field of the PL/SQL function must be set to the PL/SQL function name (e.g. eul_trigger$post_save_document).

• "Example of how to use a PL/SQL trigger to extract SQL from a worksheet when it is saved"

  Step 5 incorrectly refers to the name of the EUL trigger as eul$triggerpost_save_document. The name of the EUL trigger should be changed to eul_trigger$post_save_document.

6.3 Oracle Applications Users Can Use the Script batchusr_app.sql to Store the Results of Scheduled Workbooks

The Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide and the OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Help contain errors in the following topics:

• "Where to store the results of scheduled workbooks" (in the chapter 'Scheduling workbooks')

  This topic includes a table that contains a note referring to where Oracle Applications users store scheduled workbook results sets. The note that begins with the text "Oracle Applications users must use..." should be disregarded.

• "How to set scheduled workbook limits" (in the chapter 'Controlling access to information')

  The Note in step 6 should read as follows:

  Note: Oracle Applications users can store scheduled workbook results in either of the following:

  • (recommended) the Oracle Applications user that is created with the script batchuser_app.sql (for more information, see "How to specify the owner of the tables containing scheduled workbook results")

  • the Oracle Applications APPS schema

• "How to specify the owner of the tables containing scheduled workbooks results" (in the chapter 'Scheduling workbooks')

  The following errors exist under the section heading that begins "Use a script to specify a scheduled workbook results schema..." :

  • The first Note should read as follows:

    Note: Oracle Applications users must not use the script batchusr.sql, but instead use the script batchusr_app.sql.

  • A third Note should be created (before the task steps) to read as follows:

    Note: If you are running the script batchusr_app.sql, you must know the Oracle Applications Foundation Name FNDNAM. If you do not know the FNDNAM, ask your database administrator.

  • An additional step should be created after step 2, to read as follows:

    (if running the script batchusr_app.sql) Enter the Oracle Applications Foundation Name (FNDNAM).

    If you do not know the FNDNAM, ask your database administrator.

  • Occurrences of the script name batchusr.sql in steps 3, 6, 9, 10, and in the Notes section at the end of the section should be replaced by the text 'batchusr.sql or batchusr_app.sql as appropriate'.

• "List of SQL files supplied with Discoverer" (in the chapter 'Using SQL files and trace files')

  The following entry should exist in the table for the script batchusr_app.sql:

  File name	Description
  batchusr_app.sql	Sets up a scheduled workbook results schema for Oracle Applications users (for more information, see "How to specify the owner of the tables containing scheduled workbooks results").

  
  

6.4 OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Privilege Should Also Mention OracleBI Discoverer Viewer

The Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide and the OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Help contain errors in the following topics:

• "How to specify the tasks a user or role (responsibility) can perform"

  A paragraph should be added after step 6 to read:

  Note: The Desktop and Plus privilege also applies to OracleBI Discoverer Viewer.

• "Privileges dialog: Privileges tab"

  In the Description column in the table that follows the 'Desktop and Plus privilege types available:' bullet, the text should be changed to read as follows:

  Granting this privilege enables the user or role to log in to OracleBI Discoverer Desktop, OracleBI Discoverer Plus, and OracleBI Discoverer Viewer. To enable the user to access the features in OracleBI Discoverer Desktop, OracleBI Discoverer Plus, and OracleBI Discoverer Viewer, you must select individual features (privileges) listed below this privilege.

• "Privileges dialog: Privileges tab"

  The first sentence that follows the 'Desktop and Plus Privilege' heading should be changed to read as follows:

  Use this check box to grant or revoke the ability of the currently selected user or role to use OracleBI Discoverer Desktop, OracleBI Discoverer Plus, and OracleBI Discoverer Viewer.

• "Privileges dialog: Privileges tab"

  The last sentence in the second bullet following the 'Desktop and Plus Privilege' heading should be changed to read as follows:

  These privileges apply to OracleBI Discoverer Desktop, OracleBI Discoverer Plus, and OracleBI Discoverer Viewer.

6.5 Clarification of Discoverer Support for Oracle Rdb

The topic "Discoverer Support for non-Oracle databases and Oracle Rdb" in the Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide and the OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Help incorrectly suggests that OracleBI Discoverer provides support for using direct connections to Oracle Rdb databases. In fact, this functionality is not available in the current release of OracleBI Discoverer. Therefore, please ignore the topic "About Discoverer support for Oracle Rdb".

In the following three topics, the text does not clearly state that you can connect to Oracle Rdb databases using generic connectivity or the Transparent Gateway:

• "What are Heterogenous Services?"

• "About using generic connectivity to connect to non-Oracle databases?"

• "About using the Transparent Gateway to connect to non-Oracle databases?"

Therefore, append the text 'and Oracle Rdb' to all references to 'non-Oracle databases', in the above topics.

6.6 Documentation Corrections for Storing Workbooks in File Systems

Topics in the Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide and the OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Help incorrectly imply that OracleBI Discoverer Plus provides functionality to save workbooks to the file system. In fact, this functionality is not available in the current release of OracleBI Discoverer Plus. The following topics contain errors:

• The last sentence in the first paragraph of the topic "Introducing workbooks and worksheets" incorrectly reads as follows:

  A workbook can be stored on the file system or in the database.

  This sentence should be reworded as follows:

  A workbook can be stored on the file system (in OracleBI Discoverer Desktop only) or in the database.

• The topic "What are the steps to a successful Discoverer implementation with a relational data source?" contains an error. The error occurs in the table cell in which the "User requirement" row that is labeled "Save workbooks to the file system" intersects with the column that is labeled "Plus" and contains the word "Yes." In fact, this cell should display the word "No," because you cannot save workbooks to the file system in OracleBI Discoverer Plus.

• In the topic "What are workbooks and scheduled workbooks", the following sentence in the first paragraph incorrectly reads as follows:

  In Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Desktop, users can also store workbooks on their own PC or on a network file server.

  This sentence should be reworded as follows:

  In OracleBI Discoverer Desktop, users can also store workbooks on a network file server or on their own PCs.

• In the "Privileges dialog: Privileges tab" topic, the description for the "Save Workbooks to Database" privilege in the "Desktop and Plus privilege types available" table needs an additional sentence as follows:

  Note: You cannot save OracleBI Discoverer Plus workbooks to a file system. You can save them only to the database.

• In the Glossary, the definition for a workbook incorrectly reads as follows:

  Workbook: A collection of worksheets in Discoverer Plus. Workbooks are essentially documents containing query definitions, which can be stored in database tables, network file server and shared with other Discoverer Plus users over a network. They can also be stored on your PC.

  This glossary definition should be reworded as follows:

  Workbook: A collection of worksheets created in OracleBI Discoverer Plus or OracleBI Discoverer Desktop. Workbooks are essentially documents that contain query definitions, which can be stored in database tables and shared with other OracleBI Discoverer users over a network. OracleBI Discoverer Desktop also enables you to store workbooks on a network file server and on your PC.

6.7 Documentation Corrections about Discoverer not Exporting Associated Workbook Definitions when Exporting Selected Business Areas or Folders

Topics in the Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Administration Guide and the OracleBI Discoverer Administrator Help incorrectly imply that OracleBI Discoverer Administrator will export associated workbook definitions when exporting selected business areas or folders. The following topic steps each displays a note that should be disregarded:

• step 7 of the topic 'How to export selected business areas using the Export Wizard'

• step 8 of the topic 'How to export selected EUL objects using the Export Wizard'

The following note should be disregarded in the previous topic steps:

• Note: The export file (*.EEX) is always in XML format but workbooks by default are saved inside it as a binary to save space and time. Select this check box to save the workbook definitions additionally as XML inside the export file.

8.1 Issue with Exported Non-ASCII Data

When you export multibyte or Eastern European data (such as the names of items and business areas in Japanese or Russian characters) from OracleBI Discoverer EUL Command Line for Java on a platform other than Windows, the exported data is corrupted.

To work around this issue, edit the discwb.sh file that is located in the ORACLE_HOME/discoverer directory before exporting. Change the character set value in the NLS_LANG variable to UTF8.

For example, if the original setting of the variable is:

NLS_LANG="GERMAN_GERMANY.WE8ISO8859P1"

then change the setting to read like so:

NLS_LANG="GERMAN_GERMANY.UTF8"

9.1 General Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and their workarounds for Oracle Reports. It includes the following topics:

• Section 9.1.1, "Enabling Backward Compatibility with 9.0.4"

• Section 9.1.2, "Using the New Auto Save Feature in Reports Builder"

• Section 9.1.3, "OracleAS Reports Services Demos Do Not Work If JServ Is Configured"

• Section 9.1.4, "Error While Editing Batch Registered Report in OracleAS Portal"

• Section 9.1.5, "Limitation on Linked Queries for DelimitedData Output"

• Section 9.1.6, "Summary Column Not Aligned for JSP-Based Web Reports with Group Above and Matrix Style"

• Section 9.1.7, "Images in HTML Output of Oracle Reports Not Displayed When Viewed from Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g"

• Section 9.1.8, "Misalignment in Large Multibyte Reports When Using the Enhanced Font Subsetting Feature with Acrobat Reader 7.0"

• Section 9.1.9, "Incorrect Color for Multiline Text in Paper Design View When Inline HTML Tags Are Used"

• Section 9.1.10, "PL/SQL Compilation Failure When Using SQL Constructs"

Reports.auto_save = [YES|NO]
DEFAULT: NO

<Target TYPE="oracle_repserv" …..>
......
<Property NAME="Servlet" VALUE="https://xyz.mycompany.com:443/reports/rwservlet"/>
......
</Target>

9.2 Vendor-Specific Issues and Workarounds

This section describes vendor-specific issues and their workarounds for Oracle Reports. It includes the following topics:

• Section 9.2.1, "Underlines Do Not Display in HTMLCSS Output in Browser"

• Section 9.2.2, "JSP-Based Web Report with Large Number of Columns Generates JSP Compilation Error"

• Section 9.2.3, "Java AWT Windows Hangs with Specific Graphics Cards"

.ReportLevel {text-decoration:underline;color:blue; background-color:yellow}

500 Internal Server Error
OracleJSP: oracle.jsp.provider.JspCompileException: 
Errors 
... 
6764 code too large for try statement catch( Throwable e)
{18 code too large public void _jspService(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws java.io.IOException, ServletException}

rwserver SERVER=test JVMOPTIONS="-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true"

9.3 Globalization Support Issues and Workarounds

This section describes Globalization Support issues and their workarounds for Oracle Reports. It includes the following topics:

• Section 9.3.1, "Images Do Not Display Correctly in Turkish Environments"

• Section 9.3.2, "MS Mincho Font in PostScript Font Mapping Does Not Work When NLS_LANG is JA16EUC"

• Section 9.3.3, "Multibyte Reports Containing Oracle Object Types Hang Reports Builder"

• Section 9.3.4, "Reports Server's Job Status Messages in Application Server Control Contain Invalid Characters"

• Section 9.3.5, "ENVID Ignored While Detecting Duplicate Job"

• Section 9.3.6, "Reports Engine Fails When NLS_LANG is Specified As JA16SJISTILDE or JA16EUCTILDE"

"<MS Mincho in JP>".....
"<MS PMincho in JP>".....

ORACLE_HOME/bin/rwrun.sh report=test.rdf destype=file desformat=pdf desname=test.pdf

Error: Couldn't find the display information