What is Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer?

1-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Desktop Figure 1–1 Oracle Discoverer components Which Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer component you use will depend on what you want to do. For example: ■ if you want to create new worksheets and analyze data from both relational and multi-dimensional data sources across the Web, you will use Discoverer Plus Relational and OLAP ■ if you want to create new worksheets and analyze data from relational data sources using a Windows application on a PC, you will use Discoverer Desktop ■ if you want to analyze data in existing worksheets, you will use Discoverer Viewer or Discoverer portlets that have been added to an Oracle Portal page or Oracle WebCenter Spaces, using Discoverer Portlet Provider ■ if you want to obtain Discoverer connections, workbooks, worksheets, and execute queries in Oracle BI Publisher, or from a Java client application using the SOAP protocol, you will use Discoverer Web Services ■ if you want to display Discoverer worksheets as gauges in dashboard-style portals, you will use Discoverer Portlet Provider and Discoverer portlets ■ if you want to manage the end user view of relational data, you will use Discoverer Administrator The Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer components use definitions of Discoverer objects stored in the Discoverer End User Layer or the Discoverer Catalog. For more information about the Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer components, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrators Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer. Discoverer Desktop Overview 1-3

1.2 New Discoverer Desktop Features

No new features have been added to Discoverer Desktop in this release. Where necessary, changes to the product have been made for compatibility reasons for example, to integrate with new versions of other Oracle products.

1.3 How Discoverer Desktop Works

Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Desktop is a data access tool. You use it to view the information in your company’s databases. The whole purpose of Discoverer Desktop is to help you—the business professional—view the data you want from a database, analyze it to support your business decisions, and create reports to keep track of things. Figure 1–2 Oracle Discoverer Desktop Discoverer Desktop solves many of the problems normally associated with databases so that now you can easily: ■ Find data that you know is in the database. ■ See data displayed quickly without waiting for the computer to spend a long time searching through the entire database. ■ View data in a familiar format that is easy to read and understand. ■ Analyze data using a wide array of techniques including drilling up and down through the data’s details, finding data that meets certain conditions or that falls within ranges you specify, sorting data, comparing results from “what if” scenarios, and so on. ■ Prepare reports of your analytical results and findings. ■ Share data with others, and in other applications such as Excel. Discoverer Desktop uses a new, unique way of accessing data. Comparing Discoverer Desktop with previous data-access methods can help you understand the new concepts that you will use with the Discoverer Desktop. Note: Discoverer Desktop supports OLE automation. 1-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer Desktop The following two figures compare the old fashioned, data access methods with the new Discoverer Desktop methods. Figure 1–3 The Old-Fashioned Method of Data Access Figure 1–4 The Discoverer Method of Data Access