Configuring Links to Dashboard Pages

Configuring and Managing Analyses and Dashboards 18-17

18.6 Specifying View Defaults for Analyses and Dashboards

You can control certain aspects of the initial state of new views that are added to an analysis and of new objects that are added to a dashboard page. For example, you can add a default footer to new analyses and set defaults for dashboard sections. You control these aspects by customizing the appropriate XML message files to override the default values that are specified during installation.

18.6.1 XML Message Files for View Defaults

This section describes the XML message files to customize to override the view defaults distributed with Oracle BI Presentation Services. For analyses, the file answerstemplates.xml includes a message named kuiCriteriaDefaultViewElementsWrapper from within kuiAnswersReportPageEditorHead. This message includes two additional messages, kuiCriteriaDefaultViewElements, in which you can define default values, and kuiCriteriaDefaultViewElementsMask, in which masks are defined. The mask XML message is protected and you cannot modify its contents. The wrapper message adds the combined XML into a JavaScript variable, kuiDefaultViewElementsXML, that is used to apply the new default values. For dashboards, the file dashboardtemplates.xml includes a message named kuiDashboardDefaultElementsWrapper that adds XML into a JavaScript variable named kuiDefaultDashboardElementsXML for use within the dashboard editor.

18.6.2 Examples of Customizing Default Values for Analyses and Dashboards

The following sections provide examples of customizing default values: CriteriaValidator.dependentColumnExists sCheckTable, sCheckColumn, sDependentTable, sDependentColumn Checks to ensure that the dependentColumn exists if the checkColumn is present. It returns True if either the checkColumn is not present, or the checkColumn and the dependent column are present. If checkColumn and dependentColumn are null, then the folders are validated. If any column from checkTable is present, then a column from dependentTable must be present. CriteriaValidator.filterExistssFilterTable, sFilterColumn Returns True if a filter exists on the specified column, and False if no filter is present. CriteriaValidator.dependentFilterExistssC heckTable, sCheckColumn, sFilterTable, sFilterColumn Checks to ensure that the dependentFilter exists if the checkColumn is present in the projection list. It returns True if either the checkColumn is not present, or the checkColumn and the dependent filter are present. CriteriaValidator.filterCountsFilterTable, sFilterColumn Returns the number of filter values that are specified for the given logical column. If the filter value is equals, null, notNull, or in, then it returns the number of values chosen. If the column is not used in a filter, then it returns zero. If the column is prompted with no default, then it returns -1. For all other filter operators such as greater than, begins with, and so on it returns 999, because the number of values cannot be determined. Table 18–4 Cont. Validation Helper Functions Validation Helper Function Description 18-18 System Administrators Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition ■ Section 18.6.2.1, Adding a Default Header or Footer to New Analyses ■ Section 18.6.2.2, Preventing Auto-Previewing of Results ■ Section 18.6.2.3, Setting Defaults for Analyses in the Compound Layout ■ Section 18.6.2.4, Changing Dashboards Section Defaults ■ Section 18.6.2.5, Specifying Dashboard Page Defaults Including Headers and Footers To cause these customizations to take effect, either stop and restart the server for Oracle BI Presentation Services, or click the Reload Files and Metadata link on the Administration page.

18.6.2.1 Adding a Default Header or Footer to New Analyses

You can specify that default headers and footers are displayed on all new analyses. For example, footers can contain messages such as a confidentiality notice, the companys name, and so on. You can specify a default header or footer by creating an XML message that specifies the text and formatting to apply. The following XML code example creates a footer that contains the text Acme Confidential in bold, red letters. ?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8? WebMessageTables xmlns:sawm=com.siebel.analytics.web.messageSystem WebMessageTable system=Answers table=ViewDefaults WebMessage name=kuiCriteriaDefaultViewElements translate=noHTML view signature=compoundView pageProps pageSize=a4 pageFooter showOnDashboard=true show=true zone type=topcaption[b]Acme Confidential[b]caption displayFormat fontColor=FF0000zone pageFooter pageProps view HTML WebMessage WebMessageTable WebMessageTables

18.6.2.2 Preventing Auto-Previewing of Results

The results of an analysis are displayed when editing views of data. If you prefer that the content designer explicitly asks to view the results, then you can create an XML message that specifies that auto-preview should be disabled when new views are created. The content designer can still click the Display Results link to view the results when editing a view. The following XML code example disallows the auto-previewing of results when working with a view in Answers. ?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8? WebMessageTables xmlns:sawm=com.siebel.analytics.web.messageSystem WebMessageTable system=Answers table=ViewDefaults WebMessage name=kuiCriteriaDefaultViewElements translate=noHTML view signature=tableView showToolBar=true showHeading=true view signature=pivotTableView autoPreview=false view signature=titleView autoPreview=false view signature=viewSelector autoPreview=false view signature=htmlviewnarrativeView autoPreview=false view signature=tickerview autoPreview=false