OracleBI Discoverer Sample Workbooks Overview

OracleBI Discoverer provides sample workbooks to help you learn how to use the product. These sample workbooks illustrate key features that you will find useful when analyzing and reporting business data. Key features include richly formatted reports and charts, advanced calculations, conditional queries, and muchmore.

The following sections are covered in this overview:

Before you begin

Before you can use the sample workbook, your Discoverer manager must load the sample data set into the database and install the workbooks. For instructions, see Installing the OracleBI Sample.

Displaying the Discoverer Connections page

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You will connect to the sample workbook through the Discoverer Connections page. You can access this Connections page by entering the following URL in a browser:

For Discoverer Plus:

http://your-server:port-number/discoverer/plus

For Discoverer Viewer:

http://your-server:port-number/discoverer/viewer

Connecting to the sample workbook

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You can connect to an OLAP or a Relational data source.

Note: For the production version, you can create and save the connections you create.

OLAP data source

  1. Display the Discoverer Connections page.
  2. Enter the following information:

    You should use the SCOTT user. The database details will depend on your current configuration. Contact your Discoverer manager for details.

  3. Click Go to connect.

Example Discoverer Connections page

Relational data source

  1. Display the Discoverer Connections page.
  2. Enter the following information :

    You should use the bi_user user. The database details will depend on your current configuration. Contact your Discoverer manager for details.

  3. Click Go to connect.

Example Discoverer Connections page

Opening the sample workbook for the OLAP data source

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After connecting to Discoverer Plus OLAP, you see the first page of the Workbook Wizard. This wizard allows you to open the sample workbook, which is called Scott's Sales Briefing, and to begin the process of analyzing data.

To open the sample workbook:

  1. Select Open an existing workbook.
  2. Choose Scott's Sales Briefing from the Recently Used list, and click Finish.

The following figure shows the wizard page with which you open the workbook.

Create/Open Workbook page of wizard

Opening the sample workbook for the Relational data source

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After connecting to Discoverer Plus Relational, you see the first page of the Workbook Wizard. This wizard allows you to open the sample workbooks. There are three sample workbooks available for you to open:

To open a sample workbook:

  1. Select Open an existing workbook and click the Browse button.
  2. Choose Profits & Sales By Time & Geography from the Workbooks list, and click Open.

The following figure shows the wizard page with which you open the workbook.

Create/Open Workbook page of wizard

The figure below shows you the Open Workbook dialog to select the workbook to open.

Open Workbook page

Learning about product features in the OLAP sample workbook

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The worksheets in the Scott's Sales Briefing workbook highlight different product features. The text area in each worksheet provides a description of the key features that were leveraged, as shown in the following figure.

Workbook text areas describe key features being highlighted by the sample

Various saved selections and calculations are available through the sample workbook. You can use the Available Items Pane to easily apply these saved selections and calculations to your report. For example, to view the values from the High Margin Products saved selection, simply click the saved selection and drag it onto the worksheet.

Using saved selections

Learning about product features in the Relational sample workbook

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The worksheets in the Sales Analysis workbook highlight different product features.

Worksheet in Discoverer Plus

Various calculations, totals, parameters, and conditions are available in the sheet. You can use the Available Items Pane and the Selected Items Pane to easily remove or edit these items to your worksheet, as shown in the figure below.

Worksheet in Discoverer Plus

Opening the sample workbooks in Discoverer Viewer

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Follow the instructions listed in the "Connecting to the sample workbook" to connect to either a Relational or an OLAP data source. The step-by-step instructions below guide you in opening a workbook in Discoverer Viewer that was created against a Relational data source. The same instructions apply to an OLAP data source.

After connecting to Discoverer Viewer, you see a workbook navigator that you use to select the worksheet you want to open. There are three sample workbooks available for you to open:

To open a sample workbook:

  1. Click the icon next to the workbook Profits & Sales by Time & Geography to view the list of worksheets in that workbook.
  2. To run the Regional Sales & Profits by Year worksheet from the list click the worksheet's name.

The following figure shows the worksheet list page from where you select the worksheet to open.

Worksheet list page in Discoverer Viewer

Learning about product features in Discoverer Viewer

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The toolbars enable you to analyze and format your data in an intuitive and easy manner. For example, to define traffic-light based formats on your data, you use the Stoplight toolbar to set the data values for the unacceptable, acceptable and desirable value ranges for the key performance measures you are interested in tracking. Using the graph toolbar you can change the graph type as well as change the visual aspects of your graph.

Worksheet in Discoverer Viewer

The Actions pane on the left of the screen allows you to perform a variety of actions. You can also share your analysis results by emailing your worksheet in a format of your choice like Microsoft Excel™, Adobe Acrobat™ PDF, XML, etc.. You can also print out your worksheet with high fidelity output, or save the results of your analysis.

Actions pane in Discoverer Viewer           Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) export.

 

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