11-8 Metadata Repository Builders Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Typically, presentation columns are created automatically by dragging and dropping logical columns from the logical layer.
To edit the properties of a presentation column: 1.
In the Presentation layer, double-click a presentation column to display the Presentation Column dialog.
2.
In the General tab, to specify a name that is different from the Logical Column name, clear Use Logical Column Name, and then type a name for the column.
Note that aliases are created automatically whenever presentation objects are renamed, so that any queries using the original name do not break.
3. To set permissions for this presentation column, click Permissions. See
Setting Permissions for Presentation Layer Objects
for more information.
4. Select Custom display name or Custom description to dynamically display a
custom name or custom description based on a session variable, typically for localization purposes. See Localizing Oracle Business Intelligence in Oracle
Fusion Middleware System Administrators Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more information about localization.
5. The Logical Column field displays the name of the logical column for this
presentation column. Click Edit to make any changes to the logical column object. 6.
Use the Aliases tab to specify or delete aliases for this presentation column. See Creating Aliases Synonyms for Presentation Layer Objects
for more information about aliases.
To reorder a presentation column: 1.
In the Presentation layer, right-click a presentation table and select Properties. 2.
Click the Columns tab. 3.
Select the column you want to reorder.
4. Use drag-and-drop to reposition the column, or click the Up and Down buttons.
5. Click OK.
Working with Presentation Hierarchies and Levels
Presentation hierarchies and presentation levels provide an explicit way to expose the multidimensional model in Oracle BI Answers. When presentation hierarchies and
levels are defined in the Presentation layer, roll-up information is displayed in the Oracle BI Answers navigation pane, providing users with important contextual
information.
Caution: When you drag columns to presentation tables, make sure
that columns with the same name or an alias of the same name do not already exist.
Note: You can also use the Custom display name and Custom
description fields to propagate UI hints labels and tooltips from an
ADF data source to display in Oracle BI Answers. See Propagating
Labels and Tooltips from ADF Business Component Data Sources for
more information about how to set up ADF data source UI hints.
Creating and Maintaining the Presentation Layer 11-9
Be aware that members in a presentation hierarchy are not visible in the Presentation layer. Instead, you can see hierarchy members in Answers.
Most importantly, users can create hierarchy-based queries using these objects. Presentation hierarchies expose analytic functionality such as member selection,
custom member groups, and asymmetric queries.
As with other Presentation layer objects, you can also provide localization information and apply fine-grained access control to presentation hierarchies and levels.
If you have a repository from a previous release, note that presentation hierarchies do not appear in the Presentation layer automatically as part of the RPD upgrade process.
You must manually create these objects by dragging logical dimensions from the Business Model and Mapping layer to the appropriate presentation tables.
This section contains the following topics:
■
Creating and Managing Presentation Hierarchies
■
Creating and Managing Presentation Levels
Creating and Managing Presentation Hierarchies
To create a presentation hierarchy, you can drag a logical dimension hierarchy from the Business Model and Mapping layer to a table in the Presentation layer. The
presentation hierarchy object must be located within a presentation table, unlike in the Business Model and Mapping layer, where logical dimensions are peer objects of
tables. Presentation hierarchies are also displayed within their associated tables in Oracle BI Answers, providing a conceptually simpler model.
If a logical dimension spans multiple logical tables in the Business Model and Mapping layer, it is a best practice to model the separate logical tables as a single
presentation table in the Presentation layer.
There are several ways to create presentation hierarchies:
■
When you drag an entire business model to the Presentation layer, the presentation hierarchies and constituent levels appear automatically, along with
other presentation objects.
■
When you drag a logical dimension table to the Presentation layer, presentation hierarchies and levels based on those dimensions are created automatically.
■
You can also drag individual logical dimensions to the appropriate presentation tables to create corresponding presentation hierarchies within those tables.
■
As with most other objects in the Administration Tool, you can right-click a presentation table and select New Object Presentation Hierarchy to manually
define the object.
You can also drag an individual logical level from the Business Model and Mapping layer to a presentation table to create a presentation hierarchy that is a subset of the
logical dimension hierarchy.
For example, suppose a logical dimension has the levels All Markets, Total US, Region, District, Market, and Market Key. Dragging and dropping the entire logical dimension
to the corresponding presentation table appears as follows:
11-10 Metadata Repository Builders Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
However, dragging and dropping the Region level to the same presentation table appears as follows:
Modeling Dimensions with Multiple Hierarchies in the Presentation Layer
For logical dimensions that contain multiple logical hierarchies, multiple separate presentation hierarchies are created. For example, the following logical dimension
called Product contains the two hierarchies Category and Country:
In the Business Model and Mapping layer, this logical dimension is modeled as a single dimension object that contains multiple hierarchies. In contrast, the Presentation
layer models this dimension as two separate objects: one that displays the drill path through the Category level, and another that shows the drill path through the Country
level, as follows:
Creating and Maintaining the Presentation Layer 11-11
Editing Presentation Hierarchy Objects
You can edit presentation hierarchy properties, including setting permissions to apply role-based access control, setting a custom display name for localization purposes, and
changing the levels in a hierarchy.
To edit the properties of a presentation hierarchy: 1.
In the Presentation layer, double-click a presentation hierarchy to display the Presentation Hierarchy dialog.
2.
In the General tab, you can change the following:
■
Name. Note that aliases are created automatically whenever presentation
objects are renamed, so that any queries using the original name do not break.
■
Permissions. See
Setting Permissions for Presentation Layer Objects for
more information.
■
Custom display name and Custom description. Select Custom display name
or Custom description to dynamically display a custom name or custom description based on a session variable, typically for localization purposes. See
Localizing Oracle Business Intelligence in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrators Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more
information about localization.
■
Logical Dimension. This field displays the name of the logical dimension for
this presentation hierarchy. Click Browse to select a different logical dimension.
3.
The Levels tab lists the levels within the hierarchy and their order. This tab is not available for parent-child hierarchies. You can add, delete, or reorder levels. You
can also click the Edit button to edit properties for a particular level. See
Creating and Managing Presentation Levels
for information about level properties.
4.
The Display Columns tab is only available for parent-child hierarchies. Because parent-child hierarchies do not contain levels, display columns are defined for the
presentation hierarchy object as a whole. Use the Display Columns tab to define which columns should be used for display for this parent-child hierarchy.
You can add, delete, or reorder display columns. You can also click the Edit button to edit properties for a particular column.
5.
Use the Aliases tab to specify or delete aliases for this presentation hierarchy. See Creating Aliases Synonyms for Presentation Layer Objects
for more information about aliases.
Creating and Managing Presentation Levels
Presentation levels are displayed within hierarchical columns in Oracle BI Answers. Presentation levels are typically created automatically when presentation hierarchies
are created.
11-12 Metadata Repository Builders Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
To edit the properties of a presentation level: 1.
In the Presentation layer, double-click a presentation level to display the Presentation level dialog.
2.
In the General tab, you can change the following:
■
Name. Note that aliases are created automatically whenever presentation
objects are renamed, so that any queries using the original name do not break.
■
Permissions. See
Setting Permissions for Presentation Layer Objects for
more information.
■
Custom display name and Custom description. Select Custom display name
or Custom description to dynamically display a custom name or custom description based on a session variable, typically for localization purposes. See
Localizing Oracle Business Intelligence in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrators Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for more
information about localization.
■
Logical Level. This field displays the name of the logical level for this
presentation level. Click Browse to select a different logical level. 3.
The Drill To Levels and Drill From Levels tabs are reserved for a future release and are not currently used. An additional option called Generate Drill Graph,
available as a right-click option for any Presentation layer object, is also reserved for a future release.
4.
Use the Display Columns tab to define which columns should be used for display for that level on drill-down. For example, if two columns called Name and ID
exist at the same level, you can choose to display Name because it is the more user-friendly option.
You can add, delete, or reorder display columns. You can also click the Edit button to edit properties for a particular column.
As an alternative to defining display columns in this tab, you can drag a presentation column directly onto the presentation level in the Presentation layer
of the Administration Tool. Doing this automatically adds the column as a display column for the presentation level.
Note that the display columns that appear by default when a presentation level is created are based on which key columns for the corresponding logical level have
the Use for display option selected.
5.
Use the Aliases tab to specify or delete aliases for a presentation level. See Creating Aliases Synonyms for Presentation Layer Objects
for more information about aliases.
Setting Permissions for Presentation Layer Objects
You can apply access control to restrict which individual users or application roles groups can access particular presentation layer objects. For example, you can provide
read-only access to a set of presentation tables for a particular application role, read-write access for a second application role, and no access for a third application
role.
You can also use the Identity Manager to set up privileges and permissions. The Identity Manager is useful for setting permissions for individual application roles to
many objects at once, unlike permissions in the Presentation layer, which you can only set for one object at a time. See
Setting Up Object Permissions for information about
Creating and Maintaining the Presentation Layer 11-13
setting up object permissions in the Identity Manager. For a full description of data access security in Oracle Business Intelligence, see
Chapter 13 .
You can control what level of privilege is granted by default to users and application roles for repository objects without explicit permissions set. To do this, set the
DEFAULT_PRIVILEGES parameter in the NQSConfig.INI file. See Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrators Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
for more information.
To set permissions for presentation layer objects: 1.
In the Presentation layer, double-click a presentation object, such as a subject area, table, column, or hierarchy.
2. In the General tab, click Permissions.
