Using R to Unlock the Value of Big Data, by Mark Hornick

Using R to Unlock the Value of Big Data, by Tom Plunkett, Mark Hornick

This is a brief (approximately 80 pages) introduction targeted at users with an intermediate-level exposure of R and who want to get a quick look at working with R with Oracle's products. Strictly speaking, this is not an introduction to R, nor is this an R tutorial. It is, very specifically, an introduction to R as it integrates with and relates to the Oracle Database, the Oracle R Distribution, and the Oracle R Connector for Hadoop. The main chapters are "Using Oracle R Enterprise" and "Oracle R Connector for Hadoop", which have sixteen and seventeen examples, respectively, to help you get started.

Lying with Charts - Global Warming Graph

Global warming is a serious yet controversial enough topic without bringing in bad data visualizations practices into it. The Wonkblog on the Washington Post has an article titled, "You can’t deny global warming after seeing this graph". The post reproduces a chart prepared by the World Meteorological Association that plots global temperatures by decade. While the data shows that the last decade, 2001-2010, was the hottest on record, the graph uses a broken Y-axis that begins at 13.4°C instead of starting at zero. The chart does not hide this fact, and you can see that the chart's Y-axis starts at 13.4°C, but the most visually prominent piece in the graph is, well, the graph! And it screams the message that global temperatures are going off the charts - it's time to panic. There is no denying that we as a world need to get serious about investing in alternative and renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, and even nuclear, but this graph is just plain bad.

Smart View Version to use with OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1

Users who have downloaded the latest version of Oracle Business Intelligence 11g - 11.1.1.7.1, and wish to use the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office add-in to connect to Oracle BI, need to use the latest version of Smart View - 11.1.2.3 - that is available for download on OTN here.
After downloading this version of Smart View, if you want this version of Smart View to be available as a link from the Home Page of Oracle BI EE (the "Download BI Desktop Tools" dropdown under the "Get Started..." section), you need to follow the instructions (also see Installing and Deinstalling Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools)
You can find more information in the BI documentation library (Business Intelligence Documentation for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g (11.1.1.7)) or in the Oracle Essbase Documentation Library, Release 11.1.2.2.200

Happy Monday!
Abhinav,
Bangalore, July 08, 2013

BI Mobile HD Universal App Released

A new version (11.1.1.7.0.1879) of the Oracle BI Mobile HD App was released to the Apple iTunes App Store on Wednesday. This release has several new features of note. This updated version also fixes some issues that were reported in the update that went out late last week on the 28th of June.

• All users are recommended to upgrade to this version of the BI Mobile HD app. There were login issues with the iPad version of the earlier app and orientation issues with the iPhone app. Both issues were noticed almost immediately after the app went live on the App Store and development traced these to a problem with the configuration of the app uploaded to the App Store. 
• Users will notice that this is app now supports the iPhone (and iPod) device also. Therefore users will see this app on their iPhone when they search for it on the App Store. 

OBIEE 11.1.1.6.11 Bundle Patch Now Available

Last week saw the release of the OBIEE Bundle Patch 11.1.1.7.1 and on Friday bundle patch 11.1.1.6.11 for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition became available on the Oracle My Support Portal.

The tracking ids for the respective bundle patch components are:

• Oracle Business Intelligence Installer (BIINST): ID: 16747681
• Oracle Real Time Decisions (RTD): ID: 16747684
• Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BIP): ID: 16747692
• Oracle Business Intelligence ADF Components (BIADFCOMPS): ID:  16747699
• Enterprise Performance Management Components Installed from BI Installer 11.1.1.6.x (BIFNDNEPM): ID:  16747703
• Oracle Business Intelligence: (OBIEE): ID: 16717325
• Oracle Business Intelligence Platform Client Installers and MapViewer: ID: 16747708

Happy Monday to all!

Abhinav

Bangalore

OBIEE Bundle Patch 11.1.1.7.1 Now Available

Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Bundle Patch 11.1.1.7.1 is now available for download. The bundle patch id is 16556157 and can be downloaded from the My Oracle Support portal for Microsoft Windows x64 and Linux x86-64 platforms.

The ReadMe states "This Suite Bundle Patch is available for all customers who are using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.7.0."

OBIEE 11.1.1.7.0 Certified with Database 12c

Couple of updates in the world of Oracle, both related. The first is that the Oracle Database 12c is now generally available and can be downloaded from the Oracle Technology Network here (subject to the OTN Developer License Terms). Three platforms are supported - Linux x86-64, Solaris Sparc64, and  Solaris (x86-64).

You may want to take a look at the Plug into the Cloud with Oracle Database 12c White Paper. Coincident with the release, there is a series of events being organized. You can find one in your city or near it at Oracle Database 12c | Oracle Technology Day page.
The first place to begin to learn about this new release is of course the documentation library. Specifically, you should have the 2 Day DBA, 2 Day + Security Guide, the New Features Guide, and the Concepts guide bookmarked. I have, and my summer plan (monsoon plan here in India) is to go over these books.

The documentation library is also dedicated to the memory of Mark Townsend, who passed away unexpectedly in April 2012.

Contributor: The Oracle Database 12c documentation is dedicated to Mark Townsend, who was an inspiration to all who worked on this release.

The second update is that the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page has an updated System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 11gR1 matrix for 11.1.1.7.0, which now includes Oracle Database 12c as a supported database. Specifically, Oracle Database version 12.1.0.1 and above are now supported with Oracle BI EE 11.1.1.7.0 only. This certification does not extend to older releases of Oracle BI.

Oracle BI Apps 11.1.1.7.1 Available

The latest version of Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, version 11.1.1.7.1, became available for download on the Oracle Technology Network.

You can download the software here.
The documentation library can be accessed here.

Some of the highlights of this release of Oracle BI Apps are:

• New applications, including Student Information Analytics, that provides an integrated view of admissions and recruiting, student records and student financials. It is certified with PeopleSoft Campus Solutions 9.0 (Bundle # 25),  and Indirect Spend Planning, that enables procurement teams to forecast indirect spend, and use packaged what-if modeling tools to reduce spend.
• Content enhancements to Financials, HR, Projects, CRM, Procurement and Spend Planning, and Supply Chain & Order Management Applications.
• New TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) tools, including a GUI based configuration and a functional setup tool.
• This version of BI Apps is based on the technology infrastructure of the Oracle BI EE 11.1.1.7.0 release.
• As an optional feature to this release, an enhanced ETL architecture using Oracle Golden Gate is now available.
• These BI Applications are now available with the next-generational ELT architecture of ODI (Oracle Data Integrator)

A busy season for analytics releases.

Abhinav,

8th May 2013, Bangalore

BI Mobile Security Toolkit for 11.1.1.7.0

The Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile Security Toolkit 11.1.1.7 for Apple iPad (iOS 5 & 6) is now available for download at http://goo.gl/Mq6rI

The Oracle BI Mobile Security Toolkit "provides the ability to generate a signed version of the Oracle BI Mobile HD application. The toolkit includes the instructions and necessary content to build this application making use of Apple’s Xcode and the IOS SDKs."

Please see my previous post, Oracle BI Mobile Security Toolkit, for more details.

Weekend, it's fast approaching.
Abhinav, 3 May 2013
Bangalore

11.1.1.6.10 Bundle Patch for OBIEE Now Available

Earlier in the week the latest bundle patch for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition - 11.1.1.6.10 - became available to Oracle customers on the My Oracle Support portal. "This patchset is available for all customers who are using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.1, 11.1.1.6.2, 11.1.1.6.2 BP1, 11.1.1.6.4, 11.1.1.6.5, 11.1.1.6.6, 11.1.1.6.7, 11.1.1.6.8, and 11.1.1.6.9."

1. Oracle Business Intelligence Installer: Tracking Bug 16504136
2. Oracle Real Time Decisions: Tracking Bug 16504143
3. Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher: Tracking Bug 16504148
4. Oracle Business Intelligence ADF Components: Tracking Bug 16504154
5. EPM Components Installed from BI Installer 11.1.1.6.x: Tracking Bug 16504156
6. Oracle Business Intelligence: Tracking Bug: 16427939
7. Oracle Business Intelligence Platform Client Installers and MapViewer: Tracking Bug 16504161

You can search for this patchset on the My Oracle Support portal by using the "Recommended Patch Advisor" and selecting "Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition" from the "Product" dropdown and "11.1.1.6.0" from the "Release" dropdown. 

This will lead to the search results page listing all the available patches available.

Why are bundle patches recommended? They are recommended because these are a collection of critical bug fixes for a product or specific products. These patches can sometimes also contain minor enhancements as well as security updates. These patches undergo a rigorous set of tests before they are released for consumption by customers. Furthermore, these bundle patches are cumulative in nature, which means a bundle patch contains the contents of previous bundle patches that have been released. 

As always, you should carefully go over the documentation accompanying the bundle patch and come to a considered decision on applying the patch.

Thank you,

Abhinav, 3 May 2013

Bangalore.

Upcoming Oracle BI Applications Book

Oracle BI Apps book
(Image credit: Mc-Graw Hill)

I cam to know of this book, Oracle Business Intelligence Applications: Deliver Value Through Rapid Implementations, written by veteran Oracle BI experts, Simon Miller and Will Hutchinson, published by Mc-Graw Hill, and expected to release in July 2013 (as per the publisher's site).

The authors, Simon Miller and Will Hutchinson have between them over 40 years of experience in the area of business intelligence, and are eminently qualified to write this book. I have worked with Simon for over seven years, and can speak to his knowledge in Oracle BI.

I look forward to the release of this book, and hope that practitioners of Oracle Business Intelligence Applications find this book to be a valuable aid in their work.

Table of Contents (from the publisher's web site):

1. Crash Course in Data Warehouse Survival
2. Don't Reinvent Any Wheels
3. Exalytics, Run, Don't Walk
4. Finance Analytics
5. Management Analytics
6. Manufacturing Analytics
7. Procurement and Spend Analytics
8. HR Analytics
9. EAM Analytics
10. Project Analytics
11. Sales Analytics
12. Service Analytics
13. Making It Your Own Without Ruining the Foundation 
14. Conclusions

ISBN: 9780071804141
Division: Professional
Pub Date: JUL-13
Pages: 432
Edition: 01
Format: Paperback

Happy prospective reading!

Abhinav

Bangalore, April 22, 2013

Mc-Graw Hill page

Buying (pre-order) links: Amazon US, Kindle US, Amazon Canada, Kindle Canada, Amazon UK, Kindle UK

Oracle BI 11.1.1.7.0 and Endeca Certification

This is a very short post, and meant to clarify a point of potential confusion.

The recently released Oracle BI EE 11.1.1.7.0 release features integration with Oracle Endeca Information Discovery, both for use as a search engine and as a data source in BI Publisher.

However, this integration is for version 2.4 of Endeca Information Discovery (doc, download). Support for the recently released version 3.0 (doc, download) is planned and not yet available. 

I will post an update as and when I have more information to share.

Thank you folks,

Abhinav

Bangalore, 16 April 2013

BI Mobile HD App for 11.1.1.7.0 Available

An updated version of the Oracle BI Mobile HD app went live on the Apple iTunes App Store. This is an upgrade over the existing Oracle BI Mobile HD app, so users who have this app installed on their Apple iPad devices should see an update notification in their App Store app.

This update makes the app available for the recently released Oracle BI 11g 11.1.1.7.0 release - which means you can connect this app to an Oracle BI server running the latest version.

Happy analyzing.
Abhinav,
Bangalore, April 9, 2013

OBIEE 11.1.1.7.0 Available

The latest release of Oracle Business Intelligence, 11g (11.1.1.7.0) is now available for download from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). This is a significant release of Oracle BI and has enhancements across the stack.

A few of the more than 200 enhancements are:

• New visualizations, including the Performance Tile, Waterfall graph, 100 Percent Stacked Bar graph
• A new Visualizations Suggestion Engine
• Breadcrumbs for contextual awareness and navigation.
• Templates support for printing Dashboards
• Ability to freeze headers when navigating long tables or pivots
• Hadoop integration in the BI Server, which can now connect to Apache Hadoop data sources, fire off Hive QL queries across federated data sources.
• Use a new, faceted user interface to search for your web catalog content. Directly launch content with the search criteria passed through as filters/prompts from the search results.
• A model checker to flag off possible errors or warnings in your model. Can also be invoked via the command line, which makes it easy to automate.
• Improved document genration performance in BI Publisher
• A new report wizard in BI Publisher
• Layout editor enhancements and extensions in BI Publisher
• Support for local CSV and XML data sources in BI Publisher
• Create private JDBC connections in BI Publisher
• A new Smart View add-in with support for the BI Presentation catalog
• Embed dashboards, with support for dashboard prompts, and analyses using the Smart View add-in
• Create new analyses using Smart View and save them in your Excel workbook or back to the Presentation Catalog
• Use BI Publisher to directly report against Presentation Catalog subject areas without having to create data models beforehand
• Export dashboards to BI Publisher - the data models, layout, (supported) views and formats are carried over.
• Performance improvements in the Scorecard and Strategy product.
• Improved dashboard prompt support for Scorecards
• And much much more...

A few links are in order now.

• Download the software (after accepting the OTN License Agreement). The software is available for the following platforms:
  Windows x86 32 and 64-bits
  Linux x86 32 and 64-bits
  Sun Solaris x86-64 (64-bit)
  AIX (64-Bit)
  HPUX Itanium
• Documentation library
• SRSP (System Requirements and Supported Platforms) for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 11gR1 (11.1.1.7.0) 
• Get the "Oracle Business Intelligence Developer Client Tools Installer"
• Release Notes
• The Repository Creation Utility is also available from the download page.

Over the coming days and weeks there will be a ton of information put out on this release on the Oracle.com site, and disseminated via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other channels.

Happy downloading and thank you.

Abhinav

Bangalore, April 2, 2013

BI Mobile App Update

An update to the Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile HD app went live on the Apple iTunes App Store. This is the 11.1.1.6.9.1526 version of the app, and if you already have the Oracle BI Mobile HD app installed on your iPad device, you would have been notified via the App Store app (kind of redundant isn't it - calling it the "app" store "app"?) of the available upgrade.

As far as updates go, this version basically brings in bug and stability fixes, along with two minor enhancements. First, you can now change between landscape and portrait orientation when viewing content, and second, you can now send content as PDF attachments via email.

A new option on the "Settings" screen - "Display" - has been added to let users control how attachments should be displayed when sending them via email - "as Links", "as Attachments", or "as Inline". The "as Links" option basically means no attachment is included with the email, and only links to the content are included in the body of the email. The "as Attachments" option, when selected, adds a sub-option to the "Settings" screen, named "Format", which lets you select whether format of the attachments should be "PDF" or "HTML". The third option - "as Inline" - embeds the content inside the body of the email as rich HTML.

That's all folks.
Abhinav
Bangalore, Mar 26, 2013