New Features in OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0

This post includes the new features added in Oracle BI Adminstration tool and Presentation Services.


1. New metadata repository features
2. New Presentation Services features


1. New metadata repository features in Oracle BIEE 11g (11.1.1.6) include:

• Ability to Limit and Offset Rows Returned
  
• Identify Query Candidates with Oracle BI Summary Advisor
  
• Integrate the Administration Tool with a Third-Party Source Control Management System
  
• Streamlined MUD Merge Process
  
• Automated Repository Patching Process
  
• Support for Aggregate Persistence in a Cluster
  
• Ability to Print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams

Ability to Limit and Offset Rows Returned

You can use the FETCH and OFFSET clauses to constrain the number of rows returned by the SELECT statement and to offset the returned rows by a given number. Both clauses are optional and can be used together, or independently. 

Identify Query Candidates with Oracle BI Summary Advisor:

If you are running Oracle Business Intelligence on the Oracle Exalytics Machine, you can use the Oracle BI Summary Advisor feature to identify which aggregates will increase query performance. Summary Advisor intelligently recommends an optimal list of aggregate tables based on query patterns that will achieve maximum query performance gain while meeting specific resource constraints.

Integrate the Administration Tool with a Third-Party Source Control Management System:

As an alternative to using a MUD environment, you can choose to save your repository in MDS XML format and integrate the Administration Tool with a third-party source control management system. .

Streamlined MUD Merge Process:

Repository developers using a multiuser development (MUD) environment can now merge and publish changes in a single step, rather than merging local changes and then publishing changes as two separate steps. They can also perform subset refreshes to perform incremental local merges with the master repository.

Automated Repository Patching Process:

You can now use an option in the patchrpd command-line utility to enable automated patching without prompting for user input. In addition, new patching-specific rules are applied during patch merges. 

Support for Aggregate Persistence in a Cluster:

You can now use the aggregate persistence feature in a clustered environment. 

Ability to Print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams:

You can now use Print Preview and Print to view and print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams in the Administration Tool.

2. New Presentation Services features in Oracle BIEE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.6) include:

• "Auto-Complete Functionality for Prompts"
  
• "Optional Apply and Reset Buttons for Prompts"
  
• "Miscellaneous Prompts Enhancements"
  
• "Favorites"
  
• "Customizable Global Header and Get Started .... Section of the Home Page"
  
• "Oracle BI Client Installer Option Added to the Home Page"
  
• "Integrated Full-Text Search Capabilities"
  
• "Ability to Set Accessibility Mode in the Sign In Page"
  
• "Enhancement to Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management"
  
• "Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile"
  
• "Enhancements to Tables and Pivot Tables"
  
• "Enhancements to Map Views"
  
• "Enhancements to Selections"
  
• "Enhancements to Views"
  
• "BI Composer Enhancements"
  

Auto-Complete Functionality for Prompts:

This release contains auto-complete functionality for prompts. When enabled by the administrator, auto-complete suggests and highlights matching prompt values as the user types in the prompt selection field. Auto-complete can be excluded or included on dashboards, and users can turn auto-complete off for their accounts. 

Optional Apply and Reset Buttons for Prompts

You can show or hide a prompt's apply and reset buttons. If the designer chooses to hide the apply button, then the specified prompt value is immediately applied to the dashboard or analysis.

Miscellaneous Prompts Enhancements:

The following prompts enhancements were added:

• The prompt Reset button now provides three reset options: Reset to last applied values, Reset to default values, and Clear All. For information about these options,
  
• In the "Dashboard builder", the dashboard designer can add the Edit and Copy links to the dashboard's prompts. These links will display at run time, and users with the proper privileges can click them to edit the prompt or copy the prompt's link.
  
• The row-based layout prompt option was added to the prompt editor's "Definition pane". As a result, you can now specify a row-based or column-based layout for your prompts.
  

Favorites:

This release introduces Favorites, which allows you to bookmark as favorites the catalog objects that you view regularly or want to view again at another time. You can use the "Manage Favorites dialog" to organize your favorites into categories, and you can view your favorites list and open your favorite objects from the global header's Favorites menu. 

Customizable Global Header and Get Started .... Section of the Home Page:

The order of the links on the global header can now be customized, and links to external locations can be added to the global header. The Get Started... section of the home page can also be customized to meet the informational needs of the users. The Administrator implements these customizations and when users log into Oracle BI EE, they will see these customizations. 

Oracle BI Client Installer Option Added to the Home Page:

A link to the Oracle BI Client Installer has been added to the Download BI Desktop Tools option, which is located in the Getting Started... section of the Home Page. User's with the proper privilege can click this option to download and install the the Business Intelligence Administration Tool and the Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager.

Integrated Full-Text Search Capabilities:

This release provides a fully integrated full-text search. This search is available after the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search. This method of searching allows the user to find objects by searching on their attributes such as author and column name.

Ability to Set Accessibility Mode in the Sign In Page:

In this release, the "Sign In page" has been enhanced to include the Accessibility Mode box, which allows you to specify whether you want content for Oracle BI EE to be rendered in a browser in a way that facilitates the use of a screen reader. 

Enhancement to Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management:

This release includes the addition of a contribution wheel diagram to a strategy tree, which allows you to view an objective and its supporting child objectives and KPIs hierarchically in a circular diagram

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile:

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile is now documented in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile.

Enhancements to Map Views:

In this release, map views have been enhanced in various ways:

• You can include non-BI layers on a map view, as described in "Editing Map Views".
  
• You can use the marquee zoom feature to zoom into a specific area of the map view, as described in "Zooming in Map Views".
  

Enhancements to Selections:

The release includes the following enhancement to selections:

• The ability to include selected members in hierarchy selections steps that are based on family relationships. 
  
  
  
• The addition of Siblings of and Leaves of options in family relationships. 
  
  
  
• If the content designer adds a selection step that includes a condition with a qualified data reference (QDR), the QDR now displays in the Selection Steps pane. 
  
  
  
• The "All X values where Y = values" condition type was added. This condition type is available for attribute columns and hierarchical columns. The Column field was added to the New Condition Step dialog for this condition type.
  

Enhancements to Views:

This release includes the following enhancements to views:

• The ability to rename views and compound layouts. 
  
• The Selection Steps view was added. This view when added to an analysis, displays the selection steps in effect for the analysis.
  

Enhancements to Tables and Pivot Tables:

In this release, tables and pivot tables have been enhanced to allow you to:

• Select the measure on which to sort a column in a pivot table.
  
  
  
• Specify how columns that are added to an analysis from the "Analysis editor: Criteria tab" after displaying the analysis results are handled. 
  
  
  
• Additional interactions on the right-click menu, for example, Include column, Show Running Sum, interactions for selection steps, and so on.
  
  
  
• The ability to specify which interactions (for example, Drill) are available when you right-click in an analysis or a dashboard at run time. 
  

BI Composer Enhancements:

This release includes the following enhancements to BI Composer:

• The ability to use BI Composer in regular mode as well accessibility mode. (In the previous release, BI Composer was available only in accessibility mode. 
  
  
  
• The ability to perform the following tasks when creating an analysis using BI Composer:
  
  • Add or remove subject areas from which to select columns
    
  • Specify column interactions, such as drill
    
  • Specify whether columns are hidden
    
  • Rename columns
    
  • Specify column formulas