Lesson 3: Creating a Ranking Report and Publishing the Workbook

This lesson teaches you how to use Discoverer Plus OLAP to create a report that identifies products that are performing poorly or well. You will learn how to create ranking conditions that enable Top / Bottom analysis.

Also, you learn how to publish the Workbook that you have developed in Lessons 1 - 3 to a shared folder in the Discoverer Catalog. When a Discoverer Plus OLAP Workbook is made public in this fashion, other authenticated Discoverer Catalog users can access the Workbook by using Discoverer Viewer or Discoverer Plus OLAP.

Overview Topics

Overview
Prerequisites

Topics

Create a New Worksheet

Specify Layout, Dimension Selections, and Ranking Conditions

Create a % Share Calculation
Add a Stoplight Format and Use the Ranking Conditions
Publish the Workbook for Public Access
Summary

45 minutes

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Overview

Executive users want to be able to identify products that are performing poorly or well. The primary indicator for determining product performance is a comparison that shows the change in product sales this year, compared to last year.

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Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, you will create a third worksheet that contains a crosstab which enables clear identification of product performance. Unlike the previous two lessons, this report created in this worksheet will display only a crosstab.

The goal for this crosstab is to have as much product ranking information available as is possible. This will help determine if any of the poorly performing products should be discontinued. It will also show how much the best and worst performing products are contributing to sales.

The primary questions that executives want to answer using this report are:

What are my top ten and bottom ten performing products based on sales from last year?
How are these products performing for each sales channel?
How are these products performing across different geographic regions?
As a percent share, how much does each product contribute to total product sales?

Data Model

For information on the data model used in the Discoverer Plus OLAP OBE lessons, please see the Data Model page.

High Level Objectives

The general business requirements of the Discoverer Plus OLAP OBE lessons are described in the Business Requirements page.

 

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In order for this lesson to work successfully, you will need to have performed the following:

1.

Complete the first lesson in this Focus Area: Creating a Product Category Analysis Report - Lesson 1.

 

2. Complete the second lesson in this Focus Area: Creating a Trend Analysis Report - Lesson 2.

 

Create a New Worksheet

In this topic, you will add a new worksheet to the Corporate Profitability workbook that you created in the first lesson.

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Follow these steps to create the new worksheet:

1.

Open the workbook you created in the previous lesson by selecting File > Open. In the Open dialog box, select the Corporate Profitability workbook that you created in Lesson1, as shown below.

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Click OK. The Workbook is opened.

 

2.

From the main menu, select Edit > Add Worksheet.

In the Worksheet Wizard, select the Title and Page Items options. Choose the Crosstab radio button and deselect the Text Area option.

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Click Next to continue.

 

3.

In the Available list, select Sales Revenue from the Electronics – KPIs folder and the Sales % Change Year Ago calculation from the /Users/SCOTT folder.

Remove the Promotion dimension from the Selected list.

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Do not close the wizard. Click Next to continue and go to the next topic in this lesson.

Specify Layout, Dimension Selections, and Ranking Conditions

In this topic, you will use the Worksheet wizard to:

1. Create the layout for the crosstab.
2. Specify the member selections for the Channel, Geography, and Time dimensions.
3. Create two ranking conditions for the Product dimension.

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In the previous two lessons, you have used the OLAP Navigator and the Edit > Worksheet menu option to specify the layout and dimension member selections for your reports. Now, you will use the Worksheet Wizard to specify the layout and dimension selections for the crosstab.

The Worksheet wizard incorporates the same interface that is accessible from the OLAP Navigator and the Edit > Worksheet menu option.

To specify the layout, dimension selections, and ranking conditions for the query, follow these steps:

1.

To complete this topic, you must first perform the steps in the previous topic, Create a New Worksheet.

In Step 3 of the Worksheet Wizard, change the layout of the crosstab so that:

Product members appear as rows on the left of the report.
The measures appear as column titles.
Geography, Channel, and Time are Page Items.

The crosstab layout is shown here:

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Click Next to continue.

 

2.

In Steps 4 and 5 of the Wizard, specify the selections for the following dimensions:

Dimension:

 

Selection:
Channel

Use the Members tab to select: Channel total, Direct, Indirect, Others. Then, click Add Selected Items (">"). Click Next.

 

Geography

Use the Saved Selections tab. Open the Users/SCOTT folder and and select My Geographic Regions. Then, click Add Selected Items (">"). The Wizard should look like the image shown below:

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Click Next.

 

3.

In Step 6 of the wizard, you will create two ranking conditions for the Product dimension. The first will return the Top 10 products based on Sales % Change Year Ago, and the other will return the Bottom 10 products based on Sales % Change Year Ago. You will save each of these conditions as a saved selection.

To create these Product ranking conditions, follow these steps:

A. Select the Conditions tab and open the Top/Bottom folder.
B. Select the Top 10 based on X condition template.
C. Then click the Edit Step icon (pencil ) that appears to the right of the text.

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D.

The Edit Step dialog is displayed. Change the step so that it specifies a Top 10 based on % Change Sales Year Ago, as shown in the screenshot below.

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Notes:

An OLAP ranking condition returns the appropriate dimension members for the condition by using a specific combination of values for the remaining, or qualifying, dimensions in the query. The values for these dimensions are displayed in the For box.

For example, as shown in the Edit Step dialog above, our ranking condition would return the top 10 products for World total, Promotion total, 1998, and Channel total.

In an OLAP ranking condition, you can use the Qualify button to select a different dimension member for each of the qualifying dimensions in the query.

Even more, you can specify that the ranking condition should be re-executed each time you select a new member from a qualifying dimension that is in the Page Items region of the crosstab. To specify this kind of dynamic qualification, go to the next step in these instructions.

 

E.

In the Edit Step dialog, choose Qualify to display the Qualify Measure dialog. For this Product ranking condition, qualify the dimensions as follows:

Geography: Each Geography
Promotion: Promotion Total
Time: 2001
Channel: Each Channel

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These selections enable re-execution of the Product ranking condition when you select a new Geography or Channel dimension member in the crosstab.

Click OK in the Qualify Measure dialog box to save the qualifications.

 

F.

Then, click OK in the Edit Step dialog box to complete the ranking condition step.

G. Add this completed condition to the Selected Steps tab by clicking the Add Selected Items button (">").

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4.

Still in Step 6 of the Worksheet Wizard, create the first Saved Selection.

Click Save at the bottom of the Selected region.

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In the Save As dialog box, enter Top 10 Products based on Sales % Change as the name.

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Click OK to store the Saved Selection in the SCOTT folder.

 

5.

Still in Step 6 of the Worksheet Wizard, create the second Saved Selection.

Click the selected condition in the Steps tab. Then, click on the Top hyperlink in the condition step and change it to Bottom.

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Once again, click Save and name this saved selection Bottom 10 Products based on Sales % Change.

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Click OK to store the Saved Selection.

 

6.

Finally, while still in Step 6 of the Worksheet Wizard, use the "Top 10" Saved Selection as default ranking condition to apply to the query.

First, click the Remove All button ("<<") to remove the condition step from the Selected region.

Then, choose the Saved Selections tab in the Available region. Open the Users/SCOTT folder and choose the Top 10 Products based on Sales % Change selection.

Click the Add Selected Items button (">").

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Click Next to continue in the Worksheet Wizard.

 

7.

In Step 7 of the wizard, select the Time dimension member 2001 from the Members tab of the Available list. Click the Add Selected Items button (">").

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Click Finish to execute the query and exit the Worksheet Wizard. The Crosstab should look like this:

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Create a % Share Calculation

In this topic, you will create a calculation object named % Share that is based on Product and shows each product’s contribution as a proportion of total Product Sales.

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Perform the following to create the calculation:

1.

In the main menu, select Tools > Calculations. The Calculation wizard is lauched.

 

2.

In Step 1 of the wizard, name the calculation % Share. For Calculation type, open the Advanced Arithmetic folder and select Share.

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Click Next to continue.

 

3.

In Step 2 of the wizard, complete the Share template exactly as specified on the screenshot below.

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Hint: Ensure that you specify the number format as Percent with 2 decimal places.

Click Next to continue.

 

4.

In Step 3 of the wizard, click Finish to save the new Calculation to the <root>/Users/SCOTT folder.

The Calculation is also added to the Crosstab, as shown here:

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Add a Stoplight Format and Use the Ranking Conditions

To complete the worksheet, you will format the measure headings, and then add a stoplight format to the % Share measure.

In addition, you will use the saved Product ranking conditions to perform some analysis.

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Perform the following to complete the worksheet:

1.

Format the Measure headings so that the measure title text wraps in the crosstab. To do this, click the bar next to the Measure headings as shown here:

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Then, right-click on a measure and select Format Header from the pop-up menu. In the Header Format dialog, click the Font tab, and then select the Wrap Words in Cell option, as shown here:

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Click OK to apply the formatting. Then, resize the columns to resemble the following:

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2.

Create a stoplight format for the % Share measure.

A.

Click the New Stoplight Format tool on the toolbar.

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B.

In the New Stoplight Format dialog box, select the options and enter the values as are displayed in the following screenshot:

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Note: The Unacceptable threshold is 0.005 (.50 %), and the Desirable threshold is 0.02 (2.0 %)

Click OK to apply the format.

 

C.

The stoplight Format is applied to the % Share measure, and is automatically updated when new dimension members are selected.

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3.

Double-click the title area of the worksheet. Change the text for the title to Product Performance Compared to Last Year. You may also want to modify the title font, alignment, size, and color. When you are done formatting the title, click OK.

 

4.

Right-click the worksheet tab that contains the worksheet name and choose Rename Worksheet. Change the name to Product Indicators.

 

5.

From the File menu, choose Save.

The worksheet should look like the one that is shown in the following screenshot:

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6.

In the two Product ranking conditions, you qualifiied the Geography and Channel dimensions to any value. Therefore, when you select a new Geography or Channel dimension member from the Page Item tile, the product ranking list will be reevaluated, and the data -- including the % Share stoplight format -- will be updated.

For example, if you select Americas from the Geography tile, the crosstab will update as shown here (this query may take a moment to run):

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Experiment with other Geography and Channel dimension members.

 

7.

Now, use the "Bottom 10" selection you created earlier.

In the OLAP Navigator, select Product from the Dimension list. Then, click the Saved Selections tab and open the /Users/SCOTT folder.

Right-click the Bottom 10 Products based on Sales % Change saved selection, and choose Replace from the menu.

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The new ranking query is executed.

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The crosstab updates with a new product list and the associated data.

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8.

You can experiment with other nonranking Product dimension saved selections that were created for the Product dimension as part of the OracleBI Discoverer Plus OLAP Workbook Sample installation.

Note: The other two Product ranking conditions ("Top 5 .." .and "Bottom 5...") were created for a different worksheet that is stored in the Discoverer Plus OLAP Sample workbook named Scott's Sales Briefing. That worksheet is defined with different measures, and therefore, those two ranking conditions should not be used in this worksheet.

When you are done experimenting with this ranking report, replace the last Product selection with your Top 10 Products based on Sales % Change saved selection, and then save the Worksheet.

 

9.

Close the Corporate Profitability workbook by selecting File > Close from the Discoverer main menu.

 

Publish the Workbook for Public Access

As first discussed in the Prerequisites section of Lesson 1, the Discoverer Catalog is the repository for Discoverer Plus OLAP Workbooks, and the analytic objects that are referenced by those Workbooks.

In this suite of Discoverer Plus OLAP OBE lessons, you have created three worksheets that contain crosstabs and graphs. As you have developed these worksheets, you have created a number of analytic objects, including Calculations and Saved Selections, that support these worksheets. All of these objects are part of the Corporate Profitability Workbook, and they are stored in the <root>/Users/SCOTT folder in the Discoverer Catalog.

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Complete these subtopics to publish the Corporate Profitability Workbook and its supporting analytic objects so that other Discoverer users can access the Workbook.

Examine the Discoverer Catalog Folder Structure
Publish the Workbook to a Shared Folder
Test Access to the Shared Workbook


Examine the Discoverer Catalog Folder Structure

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The Discoverer Catalog contains two main branches of subfolders: Users and Shared.

Users. All Discoverer Catalog users have a private folder that is added to the <root>/Users/ branch of the Catalog. This private folder is designed as a storage location for the objects that a particular Discoverer user creates. By default, when an object is stored in a private folder, only the user who created the object can see it.

This branch of the Discoverer Catalog has the following structure:

<root>/Users/USERNAME

where USERNAME is the name of a particular Discoverer user.

Note: The folder <root>/Users/SCOTT is the location where all of the objects that you have created in these lessons are stored.

 

Shared. All Discoverer Catalog users also have a public folder that is added to the <root>/Shared/ branch of the Catalog. A public folder is designed as a storage location for worbooks and other analytic objects that are made accessible to other Discoverer Catalog users.

Discoverer users can access shared workbooks by using Discoverer Viewer or Discoverer Plus OLAP.

A folder added to this branch of the Discoverer Catalog has the following structure:

<root>/Shared/USERNAME

where USERNAME is the name of a particular Discoverer user.

 

Publish the Workbook to a Shared Folder

In this subtopic, you will perform the following tasks to publish the Corporate Profitability workbook for public access:

Delete an old Workbook and supporting analytic objects in the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder.
Copy the updated Workbook objects from the <root>/Users/SCOTT folder to the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder.

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Use the following steps to publish the Workbook and its supporting objects:

1.

In the main menu, select Tools > Manage Catalog. The Manage Catalog window is opened, and the contents of the <root>/Users/SCOTT folder are displayed.

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2.

Now, navigate to the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder.

Notice that there is a workbook and seven analytic objects already in this folder. These Catalog objects were installed in the Discoverer Catalog as part of the OracleBI Discoverer Plus OLAP Workbook Sample installation. They are copies of the workbook and analytic objects that you have created in these three Discoverer Plus OLAP OBE lessons.

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You will update this Shared folder with the workbook and analytic objects that you have created. First, delete the older objects in the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder. Then, you will copy the objects from your private folder into the shared folder.

Select all of the objects in the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder, and then click Delete. The folder is now empty.

 

3.

Navigate back to the <root>/Users/SCOTT folder.

In the Manage Catalog window, select the following objects:

% Margin
% Share
Bottom 10 Products based on Sales % Change
Corporate Profitability
My Geographic Regions
Profit
Sales % Change Year Ago
Top 10 Products based on Sales % Change

Then, click Copy.

In the Copy To dialog box, navigate to the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder.

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Click OK to copy the selected objects to the shared folder.

 

4.

In the Manage Catalog window, navigate to the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder to view the copied objects.

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5.

Click the Up One Level tool to navigate back to the <root>/Shared folder.

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6.

Right-click on the SCOTT folder and select Properties from the menu. The SCOTT Properties dialog box is displayed. Here, you can set the type of access privileges to objects that are stored in the folder.

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7.

Open the Privileges tab. Then, click the Privileges drop-down list for the D4OPUB Role, as shown here:

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Notes:

Every user that is added to the Discoverer Catalog is assigned the D4OPUB role. This role provides general access to the Catalog.

By default, the D4OPUB role has "List" rights to Shared folders, which means that all Discoverer Catatog users can see the objects that are stored in Shared folders, but they cannot open and use those objects.

The D4OPUB role was changed to "Read" privileges on this folder so that other Disocoverer users can see and open objects that are stored in this folder.

Folder privilages include the following (each subesquent privilege includes the previous rights):

List User can see folder objects, but cannot open them.
Read User can open and use folder objects.
Add Folder User can add folders under this folder.
Write User can open, modify, save, and delete objects in the folder.
Full Control All privileges including rights to delete the folder.

Note that SCOTT, the owner of this folder, has "Full Control" privileges to this folder. The Catalog schema owner, D4OSYS, also has Full Control privilages.

You can use the Add and Remove buttons to add and remove specified users to, or from, the folder. When a user is directly added to a folder, then you can select the kind of access rights that you want for that particular user.

With the current privileges established for the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder, all Discoverer Catalog users can open and use the workbooks and objects stored in this folder, but they cannot save any objects back to this folder. (They could, however, save objects to a folder for which they have Write privileges, such as their own private folder.)

 

8.

Click Cancel to close the Scott Properties dialog box.

Then, click Close to close the Manage Catalog window.

 

Test Access to the Shared Workbook

Now, you will disconnect, and reconnect as another user. Then you will open the Shared workbook that you have just published.

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Follow these steps to test access to the shared workbook:

1.

From the main File menu, choose Disconnect. Then, select File > Connect.

In the Connect dialog box, use the following Username and Password combination: bi_user / bi_user, and then click Connect.

 

2. In the Workbook Wizard, click Cancel.
3.

From the main menu, select File > Open.

In the Open dialog box, navigate to the <root>/Shared/SCOTT folder and select the Corporate Profitabiilty workbook.

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Click OK to open the workbook.

All of the functionality of the workbook is the same as the private workbook created by scott.

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4.

In the main menu, select File > Close.

 

5.

To exit Discoverer, select File > Exit.

 

 

Summary

In this lesson, you created a third worksheet in the Corporate Profitability workbook that enables product ranking analysis using Sales, Sales % Change Year Ago, and % Share measures.

While creating this report, you learned how to:

Use the Worksheet wizard to specify the layout and dimensions selections for a report.
Create qualified ranking conditions for the Product dimension.
Use multiple saved selections to facilitate more sophisticated analysis of the data.
Add a stoplight format to the measure data to enhance analytic clarity.

In addition, you learned how to the publish the Workbook that you have developed in Lessons 1 - 3 to a shared folder in the Discoverer Catalog.

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