Data visualization for Oracle business intelligence 11g : create highly visual presentations of BI data

353 Pages·2015·24.839 MB·English

by  Vlamis, Dan, Vlamis, Tim

®
Data Visualization for
Oracle Business
Intelligence 11g
About the Authors
Dan Vlamis has been developing business intelligence and OLAP applications since
1986 when he graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor’s degree in
Computer Science. After graduating, he joined Information Resources Inc. (IRI)
where he led the back-end team that wrote Oracle Sales Analyzer in Express. In
1992 he left IRI and moved to the Kansas City area where he founded Vlamis
Software Solutions Inc., an Oracle Gold Partner, which has led more than 200 BI
and OLAP implementations with some of the world’s leading corporations and
organizations.
Dan has been a popular speaker at major Oracle conferences such as Oracle
OpenWorld, Collaborate, and ODTUG Kscope for two decades and is known for
his live demos of Oracle software . As an Oracle Business Intelligence Warehousing
and Analytics SIG (BIWA) board member of the IOUG, he chaired BIWA Summit
2014 and BIWA Summit 2015.
Recognized by Oracle as an Oracle ACE Director and on the editorial board of
Oracle Magazine, he consults with Oracle Product Management regularly. Dan
covers Oracle BI and related products through his popular blog at www.vlamis.com
/blog. Dan was a co-author on the Oracle Press book Oracle Essbase and Oracle
OLAP: The Guide to Oracle’s Multidimensional Solution.
Tim Vlamis is an expert in the visualization of data and the design of business
intelligence dashboards. Tim combines a strong background in the application of
business intelligence (BI), analytics, and data mining with extensive experience
in business modeling and valuation analysis, new product forecasting, and new
business development scenario analyses. Tim is an instructor for Oracle University’s
Oracle Data Mining and Oracle R Enterprise courses and teaches in Benedictine
College’s Traditional and Executive MBA programs as an Adjunct Professor of
Business.
Tim earned his Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) designation from the
American Marketing Association and is an active speaker on BI and data
visualization topics as well as marketing and business development. In addition to
his life-long study of business processes, systems, and theories, Tim is a passionate
student of complexity theory, the history of mathematics, and the principles of
design. Tim earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of
Management and a BA in Economics from Yale University.
®
Data Visualization for
Oracle Business
Intelligence 11g
Dan Vlamis
Tim Vlamis
New York Chicago San Francisco
Athens London Madrid Mexico City
Milan New Delhi Singapore Sydney Toronto
Copyright © 2015 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of
this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not
be reproduced for publication.
ISBN: 978-0-07-183727-9
MHID: 0-07-183727-2
The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-183726-2,
MHID: 0-07-183726-4.
eBook conversion by codeMantra
Version 1.0
All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we
use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such
designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.
McGraw-Hill Education eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in corporate training
programs. To contact a representative, please visit the Contact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners, and
McGraw-Hill Education makes no claim of ownership by the mention of products that contain these marks.
Screen displays of copyrighted Oracle software programs have been reproduced herein with the permission of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Information has been obtained by Publisher from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by
our sources, Publisher, or others, Publisher does not guarantee to the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information included in this work and
is not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from the use of such information.
Oracle Corporation does not make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information contained in this
Work, and is not responsible for any errors or omissions.
TERMS OF USE
This is a copyrighted work and McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms.
Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble,
reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any
part of it without McGraw-Hill Education’s prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the
work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.
THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL EDUCATION AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS
TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY
INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY
WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will
meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill Education nor its licensors shall be liable to you
or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill Education
has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education and/or its
licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work,
even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether
such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.
CCoonntteennttss aatt aa GGllaannccee
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4 Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5 Advanced Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6 BI Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7 Dashboard Design and Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
8 Dashboard Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
9 Scorecard and Strategy Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
10 Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11 Other Visualization Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
12 General Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
v
This page intentionally left blank
CCoonntteennttss
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About Oracle Business Intelligence 11g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Business Intelligence System Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Humans Evolved to Sense the World, Not to “Do Numbers” . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Basic Principles of BI Dashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
BI Systems Need Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Dashboard Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Motion Demands Attention and Cannot Be Ignored . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Color Is Powerful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Alignment and Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Little Bit about Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Background Thoughts on Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Data Visualization Graph Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Map Views Communicate Effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Dashboard Design Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Oracle’s OBIEE SampleApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Sample Dashboard Is a Good Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Improving a Dashboard from SampleApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Where the World of Business Intelligence Data Visualization Is Headed . . . 16
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
vii
viii Data Visualization for Oracle Business Intelligence 11g
2 Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Understanding Table Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Table Views vs. Pivot Table Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Stating a “Need” Sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Table Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Criteria Tab Sets the Basic Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Column Properties Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Table Views—Results Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Editing Table Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Pivot Table Views—Results Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Organizing Dimensions in Pivot Table Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Conditional Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Table and Pivot Table Right-Click Interaction Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Performance Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3 Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Types of Graphs and When to Use Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Line Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Time Series Line Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Bar Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Line-Bar Combo Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Waterfall Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Pie Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Area Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Scatter Plot Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Bubble Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Radar Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Pareto Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4 Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Justification for Maps and When to Use Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Maps, Layers, and Spatial Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Geocoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
MapViewer Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
MapViewer and OBIEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
MapViewer Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 00
Using Maps with OBIEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 01
Creating Choropleth Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 01
Interacting with Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 04
Map Color Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 06
Bubbles and Variable Shapes on Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 08
Contents ix
Placing Graphs on Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 13
Placing Lines on Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 15
Combining Data Sets on Maps and Using Map Feature Layers . . . . . .1 17
Custom Integration of Maps in OBIEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 21
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 21
5 Advanced Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 23
Trellis Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 25
Simple Trellis Charts (Type 1 Trellis Charts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 28
Advanced Trellis Charts (Type 2 Trellis Charts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Gauges and Dials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Extending Native OBIEE Data Visualization Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 36
Showing Data Distributions Using Tricks with OBIEE
Stacked Bar Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Oracle ADF Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 41
Using R Visualizations in OBIEE Dashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Using the Third-Party Visualization Engine D3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 47
JQuery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 52
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 56
6 BI Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
The Power of Pixel Perfect Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
BI Publisher Contrasted with OBIEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 58
BI Publisher Report Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 60
Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 60
Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 61
Layout Editor Is the Major Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 61
Interacting with BI Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 62
BI Publisher Dual-Y Graph Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 69
Bursting Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 74
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 76
7 Dashboard Design and Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 77
Roles of Dashboard Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 80
Common Roles in Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Importance of Dashboards Depends on Roles and Usage . . . . . . . . .1 84
Dashboard Content Can Vary by User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 84
Dashboard Standards and Style Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 85
Important OBIEE Dashboard Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 86
Basic Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 86
Include Contextual Information on Dashboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 88
Dashboard Format and Placement of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 89
Form Follows Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 91
Alignment, Grids, and Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 91