Introduction to Noetix Generator for Oracle Business Intelligence 24.4
This chapter introduces you to Noetix Generator for Oracle Business Intelligence (Noetix Generator), and provides information about the concepts associated with the Noetix Generator and Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI).
Introduction
The Noetix Generator generates Magnitude NoetixViews (NoetixViews) and Noetix Analytics for Oracle E-Business Suite (Noetix Analytics) metadata into the Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) repository. The generation can be done through either the graphical user interface (GUI) or a command prompt interface. The GUI supports attended regeneration and the command prompt supports unattended regeneration. The Noetix Generator helps automate the manual process of creating an Oracle BI repository, and updating an existing repository after changes are made to the NoetixViews data.
Noetix Generator also populates the Presentation Catalog with NoetixAnswers, which are prebuilt report and dashboard templates based on NoetixViews. These report and dashboard templates allow business users to begin reporting on their Oracle Applications data right out of the box.
Key Functions
The Noetix Generator performs the following key functions:
Generates NoetixViews and Noetix Analytics metadata into Oracle BI
Helps regenerate NoetixViews and Noetix Analytics metadata whenever the information needs to be updated
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For NoetixViews:
Creates dimension objects and logical dimension tables for the key flexfields, which provide automatic drilling capability in Oracle BI Answers
Creates a logical fact table for each view that includes measures and creates a logical column in that logical fact table for each fact column found in the view
Automatically links list of value views to the associated view columns, improving the performance of parameter prompts in Oracle BI Answers
Creates prebuilt report and dashboard templates against the generated repository to make accessing data in Oracle Applications easier
Creates security groups in the repository to facilitate securing the generated presentation tables, catalogs, report and dashboard templates
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For Noetix Analytics:
Creates physical tables based on each table and alias in the Operational Data Store (ODS) and data marts
Creates logical star schemas in the business layer for each relationship set defined in the Operational Data Store and data marts
Creates presentation catalogs and tables based on the user friendly object names defined in the Metadata Manager component of Noetix Analytics
Creates security groups in the repository to facilitate securing the generated presentation tables and catalogs.
The Noetix Generator generates security roles into the Oracle WebLogic Server to facilitate granting access to the generated subject areas and report templates. These roles are linked to the security groups generated into the Oracle BI repository to provide object level access.
Allows administrators to add custom objects to the Noetix-generated physical schemas, business models and presentation catalogs
Supporting Concepts
The supporting concepts that are used in this guide are defined in the following sections.
Business Area
Business areas are specific to Noetix Analytics. A business area is the combination of a module, such as Accounts Payable (AP) or General Ledger (GL) and a Noetix Analytics data source, either the Operational Data Store (ODS) or data marts.
Business Model
In Oracle BI, the Business Model and Mapping layer of the repository defines the business model of the NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics data and specifies the mapping between the business model and the physical layer schemas.
Connection Pool
In Oracle BI, the connection pool is an object in the Physical layer that contains information about the connection between the Oracle BI Server and a data source. Connection pools allow multiple concurrent data source requests to a single database connection.
Calculated Fields
Calculated fields are logical fields that can be added to the relationship sets in a Noetix Analytics data warehouse. They are typically based on the numeric columns pertaining to one or more NOETIXODS or NOETIXDM tables used in a relationship set and can include expressions specific to Oracle BI.
Data Mart
Data marts are specific to Noetix Analytics. A data mart is an analytical data store designed for a specific business function and audience.
Data Source
A data source is an object that stores information about how to connect to a relational database, a flat-file database, or a text file. In Noetix Generator, the data source identifies how to connect to the NoetixViews schema.
Dimension
A dimension represents a hierarchical organization of logical columns (attributes) that belong to a single logical dimension table. Dimensions are present in the Business Model and Mapping (logical) layer and are not visible to users.
In each dimension, attributes are organized into hierarchical levels that represent the organizational rules and reporting needs of your business.
Display Folder
Display folders can be created in the physical or logical layers and are used to organize physical and logical objects. Placing an object in a display folder will create a shortcut to the object. Administrators can then manage objects through these shortcuts instead of managing them from the consolidated list.
Logical Dimension Table
A business uses facts to measure performance by dimensions, for example, quantity, customer, and service. Every dimension has a set of descriptive attributes. Dimension tables contain attributes that describe business entities, for example, Customer Name, Address, Country, and so on.
Logical Fact Table
A logical fact table is a table with measures. Measures are typically calculated data such as dollar value or quantity sold, and they can be specified in terms of dimensions. For example, you might want to calculate the price for a product in a market over a time period.
In Oracle BI, a table is considered to be a logical fact table if it is at the “Many” end of all one-to-many logical joins that connect it to other logical tables.
Logical Join
In Oracle BI, logical joins define the relationship between the logical tables. A key property of a logical join is cardinality, which expresses how rows are related in the joined tables. A one-to-many cardinality means that for every row in the first logical dimension table there are zero, one, or many rows in the second logical table.
Specifying the logical table joins is required so that the Oracle BI Server can have the metadata to translate a logical request to a business model into SQL queries to the physical data sources.
Metadata
The information about data is known as metadata. The information can be about the system objects, such as virtual tables, users, and roles. Metadata defines the users of the application and the security access for the users. Noetix Generator generates NoetixViews metadata into Oracle BI so that a user can view this metadata using the Oracle BI Answers.
NoetixAnswers
NoetixAnswers is a library of pre-built report and dashboard templates that are automatically generated against NoetixViews. These report and dashboard templates are generated as Oracle BI answers and dashboards that reference presentation tables that were previously generated into an Oracle BI repository.
Noetix Analytics
Noetix Analytics is a packaged analytics solution designed to provide business users with strategic reporting for trending and analysis based on information from multiple data sources. Noetix Analytics provides users with an Operational Data Store (ODS) and data marts that can be used to create robust analytical reports and dashboards.
NoetixViews
Views enable you to retrieve and review data stored in a database in a very efficient manner. They are a composite picture of data obtained from base tables and do not contain data that can be manipulated. NoetixViews provides a set of business views that defines the Oracle E-Business Suite or PeopleSoft Enterprise data. These views help you easily query the data with your query tool and present the results in meaningful business terms helping speed the flow of information.
Operational Data Store
The Operational Data Store (ODS) is a component of Noetix Analytics. It is a minimally transformed copy of the transaction systems configured for use with Noetix Analytics and is typically refreshed more frequently than the Noetix Analytics data marts. The data marts use the ODS as the source for their extract, transform and load (ETL) processes.
Physical Layer
In Oracle BI, the physical layer of the repository is the place into which Noetix Generator imports the NoetixViews schema definition. This layer also defines the data sources that the Oracle BI Server queries and the relationships between physical databases and other data sources.
Physical Table
In Oracle BI, a physical table is an object in the Physical layer of the Administration Tool that corresponds to a table or view in a database. Physical tables are typically imported from a database or data source and provide the metadata necessary for the Oracle BI Server to access the tables.
Presentation Catalog
In Oracle BI, in the Presentation layer, Presentation Catalogs or Subject Areas enable different views of a business model to be presented to different sets of users. The Presentation Catalog stores the content that users create in Oracle BI Answers. This content includes items such as folders, links, and objects.
Presentation Layer
In Oracle BI, the Presentation layer helps present customized views of a business model to different users. Presentation Catalogs in the presentation layer are visible as business models to users of Oracle BI Presentation Services.
Presentation Table
Presentation tables let you organize columns into categories that help users. Presentation tables typically contain columns from one or more logical tables but may have names and object properties that are different from those of the logical tables.
Report Template
For information about report template, see “NoetixAnswers”.
Repository
A repository is a collection of resources from which you can retrieve information. In Oracle BI, the Oracle BI Server stores its metadata in repositories. The repositories in Oracle BI have three layers: Physical layer, Business Model and Mapping layer, and Presentation layer.
Roles
NoetixViews uses roles to control access to data. A role is a collection of privileges that the database administrator can grant to a database user. Roles are used as a security feature to limit and control access to data and to reduce the amount of data that a user can view. NoetixViews roles are predefined but your database administrator can modify them.
To reduce complexity, NoetixViews roles show you only those views that you are entitled to view. Each Oracle Application within each set of books and organization has a separate role. In Noetix Generator, you, as an administrator, can select the roles for which you want to generate the NoetixViews metadata into Oracle BI.
Subject Area
Subject areas are functional groups of NoetixViews Global Extension roles, such as NoetixViews for Oracle Financials. NoetixViews subject areas are generated into Oracle BI Presentation Services subject areas.
Top-Level Name
Top-Level Name is a unique name that an administrator provides. This name helps Noetix Generator to group NoetixViews objects in the Oracle BI repository and also helps separate different instances of NoetixViews within an Oracle BI repository.
Transaction View
The NoetixViews Global Extension provides report authors with two primary types of views: key flexfield views and transaction views. Transaction views provide report authors access to data related to the various topics covered by NoetixViews. For example, the GLG0_Budgets transaction view provides report authors will access to general ledger budget information. Transaction views can be joined to key flexfield views to gain insight into the context of the transactional information with respect to the available key flexfields.
UDML File
The Universal Database Markup Language (UDML) files contain the definition of the repository in Oracle BI. The two utilities, nQUDMLGen.exe and nQUDMLExec.exe help generate the contents of the repository into UDML files. The nQUDMLGen.exe utility is used to generate UDML files from an existing repository and the nQUDMLExec.exe utility is used to import existing UDML files into a repository. Noetix Generator for Oracle BI creates the UDML files to generate NoetixViews data into the Oracle BI repository.
Z$ Column
“Z$” is a NoetixViews naming convention used for indicating relationships between views. To allow views to be joined safely, most views in NoetixViews have special “Join To” columns. These columns are identified by a prefix of Z$. These Z$ columns can only be used to join to other views which have the same column name.
How the Generation Process Works
The Noetix Generator uses the two utilities of Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI), nQUDMLExec.exe and nqUDMLGen.exe, to generate the NoetixViews and Noetix Analytics metadata.
The generation process is as follows:
Noetix Generator connects to a NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata schema residing in the Oracle database using SQL*Net.
Noetix Generator fetches the data pertaining to the NoetixViews roles or Noetix Analytics relationship sets associated with the schema.
Depending on the roles or relationship sets that you select, Noetix Generator creates UDML files for the physical, business, and presentation layers in the Oracle BI repository. These files contain the definition of NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata. Noetix Generator also creates files for creating security objects and to delete objects that are no longer necessary during the start of a regeneration.
Noetix Generator creates roles in the Oracle WebLogic Server to enable administrators to grant access to the generated subject areas.
Once the Oracle BI service has been configured to use the generated repository, Noetix Generator uses the Oracle BI Presentation Services Application Programming Interface (API) to generate report and dashboard templates into the Presentation Catalog.
(Optional). The save option available on the Noetix Generator interface lets you save the script into an XML file, which can be used to regenerate the NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata into the Oracle BI repository and the NoetixAnswers metadata into the Oracle Presentation Catalog whenever the views are updated in the database.
Workflow of Noetix Generator
The following illustration demonstrates the workflow of the Noetix Generator: