Step by step process for Creating Prompts in OBIEE

To simplify filtering, Oracle BI Answers provides two types of prompts:

1.Dashboard Prompts

2.Criteria Prompts

Dashboard Prompts:

A dashboard prompt is a special kind of filter that filters requests embedded in a dashboard. A dashboard prompt filters embedded requests that contain the same columns as the filter. It can filter all embedded requests in a dashboard, or embedded requests on the same dashboard page.

Multiple columns in a dashboard prompt can be used to constrain users' choices for subsequent selections. For example, if one column filters on a region, and the next column filters on districts, the district column can be constrained to show only districts in the region the user selects. A dashboard prompt can also be populated dynamically so that it can be programmatically customized for each user.

To create a Dashboard prompt, Go to answers tab, you can see the following icons in the left top corner..

Now select the below icon to create a new Dashboard Prompt...

Now you will get into the below screen..

Here we can select the scope of the prompt.

If the scope is Dashboard the prompt will affect the whole Dashboard.

If the scope is Page the prompt will affect only that particular page.

After that you need to choose the column(from the required subject area) on which we are going to create the prompt. For example it looks as follows:

1. Column : the specific column we have choosen for prompt.
2. Operator: We can choose any one of the existing operations.

     3.  Control: We can choose how the prompt should appear.

 

     4.  Show: What values must be shown in prompt list. We can use SQL queries also to  display the list.

      5.  Default Value: What can be the Default Value.

      6.  Set Variable: Here We can Set the variable to two types. Presentation Variable and Request Variable. Other wise we can set it to None if no variable required.

Presentation Variables:

The Presentation Variable is the only variable offered by the Presentation service. It will take the datatype of the presentation column on which the prompt is created.

Syntax: @{variables.<variableName>}{<default>}[format]

variables: Optional

variableName: It refers to the variable which should be different from the existed variable names.

Default: The default value of the variable.

Format: It represents the format in which the variable values need to be displayed.

Request Variables:

A common way to set up a Request variable in order to set a session varibale is to create a prompt.

There are two type of session variables

1.System session Variables: System session variables are session variables that the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Services use for specific purposes. System session variables have reserved names, that cannot be used for other kinds of variables.

2.Non System session Variables:A common use for nonsystem session variables is setting user filters.

When you use these variables for Oracle BI Presentation Services, preface their names with NQ_SESSION. For example, to filter a column on the value of the variable LOGLEVEL set the filter to the Variable NQ_SESSION.LOGLEVEL.

We can create session variables from Administration tool menu bar...

Goto Manage->variables

Variable Manager window opens then goto Action->New->session->Variable

         The main difference between Presentation variables and Request variables is request variable once created cannot be changed, it remains same for all the users. But the presentation variable can change for different users.

     7)   Label: It represents the display name of the prompt.

Criteria Prompts:

A criteria prompt guides users in making selections for individual requests. There are two kinds of criteria prompts,

1. Column Filter Prompts
2. Image Prompts
   
   
   
   Column Filter Prompts: A column filter prompt provides general filtering of a column within a request. A column filter prompt can present all choices for a column, or, like a dashboard prompt, it can present constrained choices for a column. For example, if a request contains a Region=East filter, constraining choices for the City column restricts the selections to cities in the East region only. This eliminates the selection of a mutually exclusive filter that could result in no data.

Creating Column Prompt....

click the Prompts tab ->Create Prompt ->Column Filter Prompt.

Now you can see the window as shown below.

You should enter the details as follows...

1)Type a caption for the column filter prompt in the Caption box. The caption will appear to the user.

2)Type a description in the Description box. Descriptions are displayed when Oracle BI administrators use the Catalog Manager.

3)From the Filter on Column drop-down list, select the column in the request that you want to filter,and then, from the Operator drop-down list, select the operator to use.

4)Specify how the user should choose values by clicking the appropriate option. Users can select values from a drop-down list, or browse through choices and type them into a text box.

5)”What values should be shown to the user” helps you choose different ways of displaying the choices.

6)”Other Options” are used for choosing other specific choices we need on the prompt.

To modify the properties of a column filter prompt in Oracle BI Answers..

1. Click the Properties link to open the Column Filter Prompt Properties dialog box.

2. Make your changes, and then click OK.

To delete a column filter prompt in Oracle BI Answers..

Click the Delete link.

  

 Image Prompts: An image prompt provides an image that users click to select their request criteria. For example, from an image that shows products, users can click a product. The selected product is then used to filter the underlying request. To create an image prompt, you need to know how to use the HTML <map> tag to create an image map definition.

Image prompts appear on the Prompts tab in Oracle BI Answers. When you have multiple image prompts constructed for a request, they are executed in the order they are listed, from top to bottom.

Creating Image Prompt..

Click the Prompts tab ->Create Prompt -> Image Prompt.

Now you can see the screen as follows..

We need to enter the details as follows..

1)Type a caption for the image prompt in the Caption box. The caption will appear to the user. You can include HTML markup tags in the caption, such as <b>, <font>, and <table>.

2)Type a description in the Description box.Descriptions are displayed when Oracle BI administrators use the Catalog Manager.

3)Type the location and name of the image in the Image URL box.

4)Type the appropriate HTML <map> tags and data in the HTML box.

5)To extract the image map information from the HTML, click the link Extract Image Map from HTML. The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog box expands to show the area titles, shapes, and coordinates entered in the HTML box.

• For each area, in the Column box, type the name of the column to pass when a user clicks it, and the value to use.

NOTE:The column needs to be a fully qualified column name, in the format Table.Column Name.

• Place double quotes around any column names containing spaces. These are examples:
  • "Country name"
  • "Units shipped"

6)When you are finished, click OK.

To modify the properties of an image prompt in Oracle BI Answers

Click the Properties link to open the Image Map Prompt Properties dialog box.

To delete an image prompt in Oracle BI Answers

Click the Delete link.