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Overview
Oracle Business Intelligence Delivers (Delivers) is the interface
used to create alerts based on Oracle Business Intelligence Answers (Answers)
results. Answers is an extremely powerful, ad hoc data query tool that enables
you to perform multidimensional analysis in a pure Web architecture.You can
use Delivers to detect specific results and notify the appropriate person or
group through Web, wireless, mobile, and other voice communication channels.
Delivers works in tandem with Oracle Business Intelligence
Scheduler (Scheduler). iBots deliver reports and alerts to end users. iBots
are configured and submitted for execution using Delivers. Scheduler is an extensible
application and server that manages and schedules jobs. Oracle BI Scheduler
supports two kinds of jobs:
Scripted Jobs: Scripted
jobs are set up and submitted, using the Job Manager feature of the Oracle
Business Intelligence Server Administration Tool. For example, a scripted
job can periodically load Oracle BI Server usage statistics into a back-end
database. For scripted jobs, Oracle BI Scheduler communicates with Oracle
BI Server.
Unscripted Jobs: Unscripted jobs
are called iBots. iBots deliver reports and alerts
to end users. iBots are configured and submitted for execution, using
Oracle Business Intelligence Delivers. Oracle BI Scheduler communicates
with Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services for unscripted
jobs and must be installed and configured to deliver iBots.
This tutorial covers how to use Delivers and Scheduler to
create iBots based on Answers results and build alerts that can be sent to user's
dashboards or other delivery devices. You learn how to configure delivery devices,
add delivery profiles, add alerts, create iBots, and configure Scheduler.
The dashboard you build in this tutorial charts sales
for the last 12 months by channel, country region, and product category and
provides trend analysis data as well as narrative highlights of categories that
have declined in sales in the last month.
This tutorial is only for the Windows environment. In order
for this lesson to work successfully, you should:
1.
Complete the tutorial, Creating
Interactive Dashboards and Using Oracle Business Intelligence Answers.
2.
Complete the tutorial, Creating the Metadata
for BI Answers Using Oracle Business Intelligence Administrator.
3.
Have the correct privileges to configure and install
a mail server on your machine. This OBE uses a simple mail server, ArGoSoft
Mail Server Freeware, for demonstration purposes only. If you do not
have a mail server, follow these steps:
A. You can download this freeware mail server here.
B. Select the Mail Server Freeware agsmail.exe link.
C. Click Save to download the module onto your local
machine.
D. Click Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools >
Services and stop the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Service
(SMTP). Close Services.
E. Navigate to the directory where you stored the downloaded freeware
module and double-click the agsmail.exe icon. Follow
the vendor instructions for installation. This should not take much
longer than one minute as it is a very light install.
F. Start the ArGoSoft Mail Server service by double-clicking the ArGOSoft
Mail Server Freeware icon stored on your desktop.
G. Click Tools > Users on the menu bar. When the
User Setup window appears, click the New User icon.
H. The Add New User window appears.
1) Enter user in the User Name
text box.
2) Enter Delivers User in the Real Name text box.
3) Enter user in the Password and Confirm Password
text boxes.
4) Enter user@<yourmachine> in the
Return Address text box, where <yourmachine> is the
name of your machine domain configuration.
5) Click OK.
6) Click Close.
I. Click Tools > Option on the
menu bar. The Options window appears.
1) On the General tab, enter <yourmachine>
in the Local Host text box.
2) On the Local Domains tab, enter <yourmachine>
in the available text box and click Add.
3) On the Ports tab, ensure that SMTP is set to 25 and POP3 is set
to 110, both defaults.
4) Click OK.
J. Launch your email client. This OBE uses MS Outlook
Express. Ensure that all user properties correspond to the information
annotated above. To do so, perform the following steps:
1) Select Tools > Accounts on
the menu bar. The Internet Accounts window appears.
2) Click Add > Mail and enter user
into the Display Name text box.
3) Click Next.
4) Enter the same email address that you used above, user@<yourmachine>,
and click Next.
5) Enter the email server names, <yourmachine>,
for both Incoming and Outgoing servers, POP3 and SMTP respectively.
click Next.
6) Enter user into both Account Name and Password
text boxes and click Next.
7) Click Finish. Your account is setup.
8) To check the properties for user, click Tools
> Accounts, select user and click Properties.
The General and Servers tabs should look like the image below:
Note: Screen captures for this tutorial
were taken in a Windows XP environment, therefore Start Menu options may
vary slightly.
The following is a list of hardware and software requirements:
Supported Browsers include:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0
- Firefox 1.5.x
- Firefox 2.0
- Mozilla 1.7.x
- Netscape 7.2.x
Client Operating Systems:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 3 or above
- Microsoft Windows 2003 Professional with Service Pack 1 or above (32-bit
only)
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 or above
Server Operating Systems:
- For Oracle BI Server: Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4/2003 Server
In this topic you create the Scheduler tables. To
deliver iBots, the Scheduler must be configured and four tables must be created
and populated with information from the Scheduler jobs. These tables store
information about a job instance, parameters, and the schedule. These tables
are S_NQ_ERR_MSG, S_NQ_INSTANCE, S_NQ_JOB, and S_NQ_JOB_PARAM.
To configure Scheduler tables, perform the following
steps:
1.
To enable the Oracle BI Scheduler, certain
tables need to exist to store information. The Scheduler, in turn, monitors
these tables and performs any necessary actions. These tables store
information about a job instance, parameters, and schedule. For a stand-alone
environment, you run SQL scripts to create the tables.
Click Start > All Programs > Oracle-OraDB102
> Application Development > SQL Plus.
Log on using the following credentials, and click
OK:
User Name:
sh
Password:
sh
Host String:
orcl
2.
In Oracle SQL*Plus, enter the following string
at the SQL > prompt to run the batch sql file:
Now that you have created the tables for storing
information about Scheduler jobs in the SH database, you need to configure
Scheduler. You set Scheduler configuration options in the Job Manager Configuration
dialog box, a feature of the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool
(Administration Tool). Note: You can access the Job Manager
tool directly from the Oracle Business Intelligence start menu or through
the Administration Tool.
To configure Scheduler, perform the following steps:
1.
Click Start > All Programs > Oracle
Business Intelligence > Job Manager.
Job Manager appears.
2.
Select File > Configuration Options.
The Scheduler Configuration dialog appears.
3.
Enter the appropriate information as follows:
A. Select the Scheduler tab.
The Database sub-tab shows connection pool information
and database table names. Enter the following values in the appropriate
text boxes:
Database Type:
Oracle 10g R2
Call Interface:
OCI 10g R1/R2 (
Note: The machine running Oracle BI Server
must use the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) to
connect to the database.)
Data Source Name:
orcl
Username:
sh
Password:
sh
Confirm Password:
sh
Verify that your values are the same as those
that appear in the screenshot.
B.Click the General sub-tab and
enter Administrator in the Administrator
Name, Administrator Password, and Administrator
Password Confirmation text boxes.
4.
Next you configure your local mail server. It is critical that you
specify the SMTP server that delivers your mail.
Note: As this is a standalone installation for demonstration
purposes, for this iteration only the Microsoft SMTP service is stopped
to ensure that the ArGoSoft Mail service works properly.
Click the Mail tab and verify that all text boxes correspond to those
in the screenshot below replacing the domain name with yours as required.
Click OK to close the Scheduler Configuration window.
Exit the Job Manager and the Oracle BI Administration Tool.
5.
Click Start > All Programs >
Administrative Tools > Services and start (or restart) Oracle
BI Scheduler.
Oracle BI Delivers uses intelligence agents or Web robots,
called iBots. iBots are software-based agents driven by schedule
or events (chained iBots) that can access, filter, and perform analytics on
data based upon defined criteria. iBots provide proactive delivery of real-time,
personalized, and actionable intelligence throughout the business network.
iBots also provide intelligence from data spanning operational and analytical
sources. Upon detection of a problem or opportunity, iBots can determine the
appropriate individuals to notify and deliver information to them through
a wide range of devices (such as email, pager, PDA, mobile phones, and so
on).
When a user creates and schedules an iBot in Oracle
BI Delivers, the Oracle BI Presentation Server gathers information about the
iBot such as its priority, the intended recipients, and the devices to which
content should be delivered. The Oracle BI Presentation Server packages this
information and other characteristics into a job, and then informs Oracle
BI Scheduler when to execute the job.
This sub-topic shows you how to create a request in
Answers and an iBot that delivers an alert to your Interactive Dashboard.
Additionally, you learn how to chain iBots together so that the results of
one iBot request trigger the delivery of another.
Creating a Request and Adding
it to Your Interactive Dashboard
1.
Before you create an iBot and schedule the
iBot for delivery, you need to ensure that you are able to create a
request and publish the request to a dashboard.
If Oracle Business Intelligence is not currently
open, click Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence
> Presentation Services, enter Administrator
in both the User ID and Password text
boxes, and click Log In.
The Oracle Interactive Dashboard appears.
Click the Answers link.
The Answers window appears. Select the SH subject
area from the panel on the right.
2.
The Catalog folders on the left are replaced
by SH Subject Area columns. Create a new request by expanding a sub-folder
from the left panel and selecting (single-clicking) each column. The
column will be added to the Workspace area on the right panel.
Click the following columns on the left panel: Channel Class,
Calendar Year, Calendar Month Name,
Calendar Month Number, Country Region,
Amount Sold, Gross Profit, Margin
%, and Product Category.
3.
To make your request more meaningful, you
sort the criteria and add a filter to remove the Middle East region
as no data exists for this particular region.
A.In this specific order, click the Sort
button for Calendar Month Number, Channel
Class, and Country Region.
B.Next, click the Filter buttonfor Country Region.
The Create/Edit Filter dialog appears.
C.Click the All Choices link and
select Middle East. The Value text box populates
automatically. Click the Operator drop-down list
and select is not equal to / is not in.
D.Click OK to add the filter to
your request. Your request criteria should look like the screenshot
below.
4.
Add conditional formatting to the request
to accentuate the best and worst performing regions by Year, Product
Category, and Channel.
A.Click the Column Properties
button for Amount Sold andselect
the Conditional Format tab.
B. Click Add Condition.
C. Select Amount Sold.
D. The Create/Edit Filterdialog appears. Select
is less than from the Operator drop-down
list. Enter 5000 (five thousand) in the Value
text box.
E. Click Add > Variable > Presentation. Click
OK.
F. The Edit Format dialog appears. Click the Background Color
button, select any red color, and click OK > OK.
G. The Column Properties dialog appears once again. Click Add
Condition once again, but this time set the Amount Sold condition
to display a green color when the value exceeds 100000 (one hundred
thousand).
H. The Column Properties dialog should look like the screenshot below.
I. Once you have finished adding the second condition, click OK
in the Column Properties dialog to return to the Criteria tab.
5.
Next you set up a pivot table that will ultimately
appear on your dashboard.
A. Click the Pivot Table button .
Your pivot table work area should like the screenshot below.
Hint: Channel Class, Calendar Year, Calendar Month
Name, Calendar Month Number, Country Region, and Prod Category columns
should appear under the Rows label. Amount Sold,
Gross Profit, and Margin % should appear under the Measures
label.
Calendar Month Number was added to the request to enable sorting.
For display purposes however, this column is not necessary. Click
the More Options button
and hide this column.
B. Next, you need to set up the appropriate layout. Drag Calendar
Year and Prod Category to the Pages area,
Calendar Month Name to the Sections area, and Country
Region to the Columns area (drag this below the Measure Labels).
C. Click the More Options button
for Prod Category and select Start New Page
Drop Down.
Your request appears below the Display Results link.
This request shows how well each Product Category is performing across
all Regions (except the Middle East), by Channel. By setting up Calendar
Year and Prod Category as separate page items, you are able to manage
the display. The conditional formatting signals outstanding performance
and highlights where improvements should be made.
6.
A. Click Save Request .
B. Click Shared Folders and then click Create
Folder.
C. In the Caption text box, enter All Managers
and click OK.
D. In the Name text box, give your request a meaningful
name and then click OK.
7.
Now you need to prepare the request for display
on your dashboard.>
A. Click the Manage Display button .
The Compound Layout view appears.
B. Click the X in the upper-right corner for the
Table display. This will remove the table view from
your request.
Your request should look like the screenshot below.
C. Save your request.
8.
Now you verify that you can add a request
to a dashboard.
A. Click the Dashboards link.
A blank My Dashboard appears.
B. Click the Page Options drop-down list and select
Edit Dashboard.
The Dashboard Editor window appears. Drag the request you created
in Step #7 above from the pane on the left, to the gray workspace
area on the right. This gray area is actually a "Section"
placeholder.
The Dashboard Editor window should look like this:
C. Click Save. My Dashboard appears with your request.
In the simplest format, an Oracle BI Delivers iBot
automatically performs a specified Presentation Catalog request (created with
Oracle BI Answers) based on a defined schedule, and examines the results for
a specific problem or opportunity. If the specific problem or opportunity
is detected in the results, an alert is generated and passed to people who
are subscribed to the iBot, using the delivery options specified for each
person. The content of the iBot can be tailored for an associated delivery
device. For example, content sent to a pager might include only a telephone
number, and content sent to a Blackberry device might include an email with
more detailed information such as a chart.
When Oracle BI Delivers is enabled, an Alerts section
is automatically added to the first page of My Dashboard if one is not manually
placed there. In this lesson, you create an iBot that delivers an alert to
your Interactive Dashboard and email account.
1.
If Oracle Business Intelligence is not currently
open, click Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence
> Presentation Services, enter Administrator
in both the User ID and Password text
boxes, and click Log In.
To open Oracle BI Delivers, click the More
Products link and select Delivers from the drop-down
menu.
The Delivers page appears.
2.
In this step, you setup the device profile
for the iBot.
A. Click Edit My Account.
The My Account page appears. On this page,
you specify devices to receive the content.
B. Click the Add Email Device
link.
In the Device dialog box, enter Email
as the Device, select HTML eMail as
the Device Type, and enter user@ <yourmachine>
for the Address.
C. Click Finished.
The email device appears.
3.
Now setup the delivery profile for the iBot.
A.Click the Add Delivery Profile
link.
B. In the DeliveryProfile dialog
box, enter Dashboard as the profile Name
and select Normal as the Content Priority.
C. Click Finished. The profile is complete.
D. Click Finished again.
4.
Now you create the iBot that delivers the
request to your dashboard based on a specified schedule.
Click Create New iBot.
The Overview page appears.
Click the General tab (or the General link).
5.
You use the General tab to specify the priority
of the iBot and how to send the delivery content. You can set the priority
to low, normal, or high. The priority works with the delivery profile
for a user to determine the destination for alerts of different priorities.
Select Normal from the Priority
drop-down list, Personalized (individual data visibility) from
the Data Visibility drop-down-list, and leave Run
As blank.
Click the Schedule tab.
6.
You use the Schedule tab to determine when the
iBot runs, how often it runs, and when to discontinue running it. iBots
can execute based on a specified schedule. You can define a starting
date and time for the iBot, a recurrence schedule, and an ending date.
You can also create a nonscheduled iBot. This is useful when you want
to create an iBot that runs only as part of an iBot chain, or an iBot
that is initiated by an external process.
Select the Set Schedule check box. Additionally,
select Start Immediately and Recurrence - Once
radio buttons.
lick the Recipients tab.
7.
You use the Recipients tab to select the users
and groups to receive the delivery content of the iBot.
Select the Me check box.
Click the Delivery Content tab.
8.
You use the Delivery Content tab to specify
the type of content to deliver with the iBot, such as a dashboard page
or a saved request. You can also specify the delivery format for the
content, such as HTML, PDF, XLS, CSV, or text.
You can include a short, descriptive headline with the content. The
headline appears as the subject when the iBot is delivered. You can
add a text message to provide context for an iBot attachment. You can
personalize this headline or text message by using a repository variable,
a session variable, or a presentation variable. If the delivery content
is blank (no records are returned), you can add an explanation for this
condition (only applies for conditional requests).
A. Enter My Request in the Headline
text box and then click Select Content.
B. The Choose Delivery Content window appears. Select the request
that you saved above and click OK.
The Delivery Content window reappears with your request specified.
C. Click the Destinations tab.
9.
You use the Destinations tab to specify a range
of desired devices and destinations for iBots. There are two User Destinations:
Interactive Dashboard and Active Delivery Profile.
If you choose Interactive Dashboard, the active iBots will appear in
a Dashboard Alerts! section as well as on the Alerts! page.
A link to this summary appears together with the application navigation
links when new iBots are delivered.
If you choose Active Delivery Profile, iBots will be sent to specified
devices in the active delivery profile. The active delivery profile
is configured through the My Account page. The available devices include:
email, pager, digital phone, handheld device, and other devices.
Click both Interactive Dashboard and Active
Delivery Profile check boxes.
10.
Finally, you need to save the iBot and verify
that the request has been delivered to your dashboard and to your email
account.
Click the Save button and name
your iBot, My Request iBot.
11.
Click the Dashboards link.
Your request appears in in the Alerts! area of
the Interactive Dashboard and an Alerts link appears in the My Dashboard
banner.
Click the My Request link to view your report from
the dashboard. Your request appears.
Alternatively, you can click the Alerts! link in the
My Dashboard banner to view the request, open the iBot, or clear the
alert.
12.
Click Start > All Programs > Outlook
Express.
Your request appears in your Inbox. If you do
not see your request, click Send/Recv. (Note:
In this screenshot Preview Mode is enabled for Outlook Express, allowing
you to view the request without opening the email.)
You use the Conditional Request tab to select
a request to trigger an iBot. In this sub-topic you create an iBot that is
triggered based upon a database condition rather than a time condition as
in the sub-topic above.
1.
If Oracle Business Intelligence is not currently
open, click Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence
> Presentation Services, enter Administrator
in both the User ID and Password text
boxes, and click Log In.
A. Using the knowledge and skills that you
learned in the sub-topic, Creating a Request and Adding it to Your
Interactive Dashboard, create the following request:
B. Only select the most current year (Calendar Year = 2001).
C. Add a condition to the measure, % Chg Amount Sold MAgo,
that will display the value in red when the "change percent for
last month" is less than or equal to 3. This
database condition will trigger a request that displays Product Categories
with sluggish growth.
Your request should look like this screenshot:
D. Save your request as % Change
in Sales from Last Month in the shared folder named All
Managers.
2.
Open Oracle BI Delivers by clicking the
More Products link and selecting Delivers
from the drop-down menu.
The Delivers page appears.
3.
As you created a delivery profile for the iBot in
the prior sub-topic, you can now simply click Create New iBot.
The Overview page appears. Click the Conditional Request
tab (or the Conditional Request link).
The Conditional Request page appears.
4.
You use the Conditional Request tab to select
a request to trigger the iBot. If you have filters from originating
iBots applied to subsequent iBots, filter values are generated by the
conditional request specified on this tab.
A. Click Select Condition.
B. The Choose Request window appears. Select the request that you
created in Step #1 and click OK.
The Conditional Request window reappears with your specified request.
C. Click the Schedule tab.
5.
Verify that the Set Schedule check box is selected,
and choose the Start Immediately radio button. As this
is a monthly evaluation of Product Category Performance, set the recurrence
as it appears below.
Click the Recipients tab.
6.
Typically, managers and key staff responsible for monitoring Product
Category sales would receive this request. For this practice, you will
select only yourself. Ensure that you are the recipient by selecting
the Me check box.
Note that if you wanted to allow others to subscribe to the request,
you would select Publish for subscription.
Click the Delivery Content tab.
7.
Enter % Sales Dropped Below 3% in the Headline
text box and then click Select Content. When the Choose
Delivery Content window appears, locate your conditional request in
the All Managers folder and click OK.
In the screenshot below, an optional text message is distributed if
the request is sent as an attachment (in this case a PDF).
Click the Destinations tab.
8.
Accept the default User Destinations.
9.
Finally, you need to save the iBot and verify
that the request has been delivered to your Interactive Dashboard.
Click the Save button and name
your iBot, Prod Category Monthly % and click OK.
10.
Click the Dashboard link. Your
request appears on the dashboard.
Just as you used the Conditional Request tab to create
a conditional iBot, you can further refine the request to trigger another
query based on the results of the first request. The results of the
request determine whether the iBot sends its delivery content and initiates
any subsequent actions as follows in the table below:
If the request does not return any rows, the iBot is not triggered.
If the request returns at least one row, the iBot sends its delivery content and initiates any
subsequent actions.
This sub-topic shows you how to chain an iBot based
on the results of a request.
1.
If Oracle Business Intelligence is not currently
open, click Start > All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence
> Presentation Services, enter Administrator
in both the User ID and Password text
boxes, and click Log In.
Open Oracle BI Delivers by clicking the
More Products link and selecting Delivers
from the drop-down menu.
The Delivers page appears.
2.
Click Create New iBot.
The Overview page appears. Click the Schedule tab
(or the Schedule link).
The Schedule page appears.
3.
Verify that the Set Schedule check box is selected,
and choose the Set Schedule check box and Start
Immediately radio button.
Click the Recipients tab.
4.
> Ensure that you are the recipient by selecting the Me
check box.
Click the Delivery Content tab.
5.
A. Enter My Chained iBot in the Headline
text box.
B. Click Select Content. When the Choose Delivery
Content window appears, select Sales by Calendar Year and
Prod Category from the All Managers folder and then
click OK.
Ensure that the Send content as drop-down list is
set to Device Default.
C. Click the Destinations tab.
6.
Ensure that the Interactive Dashboard and Active
Delivery Profile check boxes are selected.
Click the Advanced tab.
7.
You use the Advanced tab to specify one or more actions to execute
when an iBot completes. Actions are executed on behalf of each user
who is a recipient of the iBot. You can change the default behavior
for each iBot action. Actions include the execution of other iBots,
custom scripts, and so forth. You can also specify actions to execute
either when iBot conditions are satisfied, or when no records are returned.
A. Click Add Action from the "Execute these
actions when iBot conditions are satisfied" area and select iBot
from the menu.
B. In the iBot Properties window, click Browse.
C. Locate and select the Prod Category Monthly % iBot
and click OK.
D. Select of current iBot from the Execute
for Recipients drop-down list and click OK.
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