April 2-6, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV USA #C17LV BI Publisher SIG Front of Room/Podium EBS JDE PeopleSoft Other Enterprise, OBIEE, etc… Seating Chart! Since this is a Special Interest Group, we all have BI Publisher in common. Sit with others that are using BIP with the same application to give yourself the opportunity to network. Introduce yourself to your neighbor, ask them how they are using BIP before we get started.
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Very powerful–full database access within a "report"Modular
• re-use logic in building blocks
• override delivered logic
SQR
Part of the Oracle familyBuilt-in support for debuggingProgrammer-centric
– quick to build and run– requires a technical resource
Lots of knowledge in the PeopleSoft community
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Empowers business users• Solve their own problems• Explore data
Built-in features• Query Access Server (instant
web service)• Translate tables• Embedded URLs• Output to Excel
Outsource processing criteria/logic to Query and business users
Query
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Microsoft Excel based• That’s why accountants love it• MS Excel v 2007 or higher – ‘unlimited’ rows
Very powerful with full database access within a spreadsheet• Security assigned at the report / layout level• Row-level security applies to running reports and drill-down
Optimized for Financial Reporting• Uses Ledger table• Enables drill-down into sub-ledger and transaction tables
Represents Hierarchical Relationships• Excellent use of rollup trees for display• Provides ‘nPlosion’ (Excel Grouping)
Layouts Designed and Stored within Database• Users can schedule reports or run ad-hoc without additional run-control pages
nVision
IntroducingPeopleTools BIPublisher
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Reporting tool introduced as “XML Publisher” in PeopleTools 8.48
Renamed to “BI Publisher” in PeopleTools 8.52• “BI” as in “Business Intelligence”, aka “Reporting and Analytics”
Positioned as a reporting tool that:• Replaces Crystal (completely by Tools 8.55)• Alternative to SQR• Better integrated with PeopleSoft• Architected for better maintenance and extensibility
BI Publisher
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
In broad strokes, a lot like Crystal• A PS Query runs on the application server
• Prompts filled in at run time• BI Publisher runtime applies Report Template to the data to build a PDF
• "Data Source" column in Query Report Viewer is the name of the Query
Report Template• RTF file containing formatting, data placeholders, and special syntax• Created in Microsoft Word with the help of an Oracle-created Add-In
Report Definition• Allows running reports via Scheduled Query or Ad-Hoc
• If Ad-Hoc, must build custom run-control page• Data Source
• This is how it knows about the Query (but XML will ultimately be the data source, so this is the ‘source of the source’)
• Category• Defines the report’s security (see Reporting Tools > BI Publisher > Setup> Report
Microsoft Word is the BI Publisher design-time environment• Only MS Word version of BI Publisher is delivered with the PeopleSoft application• For BI Publisher Templates for Excel or PowerPoint, must purchase Enterprise
Edition of BI Publisher• Instead of having Crystal installed on your machine, you need
• Microsoft Word (2007 or higher)• Java Runtime• Oracle’s BI Publisher Template Builder Add-In for Microsoft Word
o Aka “Design Helper”• Windows only (no Mac support)
Installing Template Builder• Download directly from within PeopleSoft• Must install Java seperately
Introducing Template Builder
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Import XML file containing sample data• Template Builder needs to know the structure of the data source
• E.g. What fields will be available to put on report?• Sample data useful for quick & dirty testing during report development• Crystal handles this through special "PeopleSoft PeopleTools" ODBC driver that
exposes metadata of PS Query definitions• BI Publisher handles this by parsing a sample XML file imported via the Template
Builder’s Sample XML tool• Most BI Publisher ribbon tools are grayed out until sample data imported• Once imported, fields can be added to report with Template Builder tools• Once imported, developers do not need to be connected to PeopleSoft – they just
continue to use the sample XML until another sample is needed or the report is complete!
Working in Template Builder
Introducing Template Builder
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Test Template using Preview tool• Template Builder Add-In includes the BI Publisher runtime engine!• Click the desired output format and report is generated and displayed
• Combines XML and RTF into output file• Runs on locally installed Java runtime
• Allows for iterative, trial-and-error report development (and again, no need to stay connected)
Connected Query gives you a way to “join” PS Queries that have a logical parent-child relationshipAllows you to create XML with hierarchical dataCan be used as a BI Publisher Data SourceIntroduced in PeopleTools 8.50Reporting Tools > Connected Query > Connected Query Manager
Connected Query and BI Publisher
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Creating1. Create PS Queries that will be part of Connected Query2. Reporting Tools > Connected Query > Connected Query Manager > Add a New
Value3. Name it4. Add Top-Level “Parent Query” to new Connected Query definition5. Add descendent Queries
• Click name of a Query to display tool icons• Use Child and Sibling icons
6. Use Select Related Fields tool to map fields on each child Query to parent 7. Set Status to “Active”8. Use Preview to test
Connected Query and BI Publisher
April2-6,2017inLasVegas,NVUSA#C17LV
Query Prompts• Supported for all Queries in a Connected Query• User prompted at run/schedule time• Recommendation: When possible, only use with top-level Query• Queries with In-Tree prompt cannot be used in Connected Query
Advantages• Leverage existing Queries (Query reuse)• Easier to develop and maintain
• Multiple bite size Queries instead of one, big, complex one• Alternative to outer joins
• Very different data sets can be included in same report
Disadvantages• Performance not good with large amounts of data