To open an OLAP workbook by using Discoverer Viewer, you must connect to an OLAP data source. To connect to an OLAP data source, select OracleBI Discoverer for OLAP from the Connect To drop-down list on the Connect to OracleAS Discoverer page.

The examples in this tutorial are based on the Corporate Profitability workbook in the SCOTT shared schema. Enter scott as the username, the appropriate password, and the appropriate database connect string. Click Go. The Worksheet List page appears.

Click the icon beside Shared.

Click beside SCOTT.

Open the Corporate Profitability workbook by clicking the icon beside it.

The worksheets that are contained in the Corporate Profitability workbook are displayed.

Click the Product Category Performance worksheet to open it.

The Product Category Performance worksheet is displayed. The worksheet has a graph displayed above a crosstab.

Scroll down to see the data. The worksheet shows Sales Revenues and Margins in comparison with that in the previous year, for each product category.

Discoverer Viewer displays an OLAP worksheet the same way it displays a relational workbook. Most of the operations that you perform on a relational workbook, such as changing layout, sorting, formatting, stoplighting, and drilling can also be performed on an OLAP workbook.

Apart from the features mentioned above, there are some features that are exclusive to OLAP workbooks, including the use of Saved Selections, which is covered in the next topic.

Click Saved Selections, under Tools.

The saved selections toolbar options appear.

Use the toolbar options to apply a saved selection that has been defined for any dimension in the OLAP query.

For example, the following graphic shows the Time dimension selected in the Dimension drop-down list. The Action drop-down list shows how you can apply the chosen saved selection, and the Saved Selection drop-down list displays the saved selections that are defined for the Time dimension.

Select Time from the Dimension drop-down list, Add from the Action list, and Quarters in 2000 from the Saved Selection list. Then, click Go.

In addition to the previous Time dimension values, the worksheet now displays data for all the quarters in 2000.

In addition to adding dimension members, you can use a saved selection to replace the current dimension selection, or even remove dimension members from the query.

For example, to remove the Quarters in 2000 from the query, choose Time from the Dimension list, select Remove from the Action list, and select Quarters in 2000 from the Saved Selection list. Then, click Go.

The worksheet data now displays data only for the year 2000.

Similarly, when you select a different dimension item, the saved selections list shows the corresponding saved selections. For example, select Geography from the Dimension drop-down list. The list of saved selections that can be applied to this dimension is displayed.

In the current worksheet if you change the layout of either the graph or the worksheet, the other view gets affected. On the crosstab toolbar, click Layout.

Rotate the Geography and Product dimensions. In the Layout tool, select the following options:

Swap > Geography > With Product (Electronics,...)

Then, click Go.

Observe that the crosstab, as well as the graph, reflects the layout changes.

To unlink the layout, select Unlink layout under Actions.

Now the layouts of the two different views — the crosstab and the graph — are not linked. Any layout changes that you make in the crosstab will not be reflected in the graph and vice versa.

Change the layout of the crosstab so that the positions of Product and Geography are swapped. (On the layout toolbar, select Swap > Product > With Geography (World total,...), and then click Go.)

Observe that the crosstab has changed, but the graph remains the same.

On the crosstab, change the value for the Channel page item from Channel Total to Direct.

The crosstab data now displays data only for the Direct channel. Observe that this change is reflected in the graph too.

Change the layout of the graph to match that of the crosstab. (Select Layout. Then, select Swap > Product (Electronics,...) > With Geography.

Once unlinked, the layouts can be linked together again. To link the layouts of the crosstab and the graphs, click Link Layout under Actions.

Now any layout changes made to one view will be reflected in the other.

To save a copy of the workbook, select Save as under Actions.

The Save As page appears.

Enter an appropriate name for the workbook. To specify where to save the workbook, click Folder.

The Save As: Select Folder page appears. This page displays all the objects (Calculations, Saved Selections, and Workbooks) that are saved in the shared folder for SCOTT.

Click Shared.

The shared folders for which your User ID has privileges are displayed.

Click SCOTT.

Click Apply. The workbook is saved as "Corporate Profitability1."

Your new workbook, Corporate Profitability1, contains copies of all worksheets that were defined in the Corporate Profitability workbook. Now, open the second worksheet from the Corporate Profitability1 workbook.

Scroll to the top of the worksheet window, and then click Sales and Margin in the Worksheets list.

The Sales and Margin worksheet contains a crosstab and a graph that enable analysis of monthly sales and margin data.

The stoplight formatting in the crosstab highlights Margin results that fall in specified ranges.

Trends in the Sales and Margin data are also easily identifiable in the graph.

Modify the stoplight format on the crosstab to specify a new target range for acceptable margins.

On the crosstab Toolbar, click the Stoplight tool. Then, specify the following values for the Stoplight options:

Click Go to apply the new stoplight formatting thresholds.

Select Hardware from the Product dimension list. Asia shows an unacceptable margin for December 2001.

Select Electronics from the Product dimension list. The new stoplight formatting is updated to display appropriate data.

As demonstrated in a previous topic, you can apply saved selections to change the dimension member selections in an OLAP worksheet.

For example, use the Saved Selection tool to Replace the current Product dimension selection with the saved selection named Electronic Products.

After you are finished experimenting with this worksheet, close the workbook without saving the changes.