whitepaper obiee maps

OBIEE and Maps Page 1 of 13

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Abstract .................................................................................... 2 When and Why the Map Views are Useful? ............................................ 3 Components for Building Maps .......................................................... 5 How to Render Maps on Dashboard ..................................................... 9 Business Benefits ......................................................................... 11 Conclusion ................................................................................. 12

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A U T H O R : A n k i t R G u p t a

Oracle Business Intelligence and Maps


Abstract

A picture is worth a thousand words. This is particularly true when trying to capture the complexity of interactions among people, resources, products, and business processes distributed over geographic space.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Map Viewer (or simply, Map Viewer) provides powerful geo-spatial data visualization and reporting services. Map Viewer is written purely in Java and run in a J2EE environment. It provides web application developers with a versatile means to integrate and visualize business data with maps.

As sales and performance data is often analyzed using parameters such as customer location, geography and sales territory, most business intelligence applications include these parameters.

OBIEE 11g integrates Map Viewer to show the bulk data onto maps to capture and simplify complex relationships, turning them into readily consumable, powerful packages of unambiguous information.

In this paper we will discuss about the services provided by Map Viewer, Map Builder tool and its features, getting data onto maps and getting maps onto dashboards, etc.


When and Why the Map Views are Useful?

Maps provide a powerful solution for assimilating the location of assets (people, customers, products, vehicles, etc.) and/or areas (zones, regions, etc.). Maps provide context that leads to better ways for prioritizing, planning and executing your objectives.

When you combine your maps with time trends and other charts on a dashboard, the result is much more intuitive and richer/thorough understanding of your information.

Maps are useful in following scenarios:

Visualizing data related to geographic locations from region continents drill down to country, states, city and streets

High density visualization of data in a relatively smaller area Spatial relationships and patterns are easier for the human brain to assimilate To drill down from a (map) overview to a detailed report, chart, or graph We will illustrate the application of Maps with two examples.

A freight forwarding and supply chain management services company can utilise maps to: Visualize the export and import volume at a higher level i.e. region or geographies

Provide granular details of cargo or container origin location (may be a street or warehouse) to the destination port

Monitor the port which sends maximum number of containers to a destination

Shares of revenue by services provided in a region can be shown in a map with pie chart on a location

Trade Lane visibility

Detection of geographic trends in volume/revenue growth


A retail chain store can derive the following benefits, by visualising Oracle maps in OBIEE interactive dashboards.

Visualize the sales performance of not just the entire store, but specifically the overall performance of individual products across different geographic locations

Provide high-level view of revenue generated during the festive offers, holidays and weekends across different countries, store locations, etc.

Monitor the revenue generated by store to analyse marketing performance by state, country and ZIP code

Analyse effectiveness of regional campaigns/promotions


Components for Building Maps

Map Viewer

Oracle Fusion Middleware Map Viewer is a toolkit for developers.It is a set of programmable Java components for rendering maps from geospatial application data that is stored and managed in Oracle database.

The key attributes of the Map Viewer are as follows:

Map Viewer includes a rendering engine Map Viewer can communicate with a client web browser or application using the HTTP

protocol

Map Viewer performs spatial data access (reading and writing Oracle spatial and Oracle locator data) through JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) calls to the database

Map Viewer can be deployed in a platform-independent manner and is designed to integrate with map-rendering applications

Hides the complexity of spatial data queries and the cartographic rendering process from application developers

Map Viewer can be accessed using the URL, http://[hostname]:9704/mapviewer A typical architecture of the Map Viewer is shown below:

+

Browser or Web Application

HTTP

Map Viewer

Rendering EngineMiddle Tier (Oracle Application Server)

JDBC

Mapping Metadata

Client

Database Spatial or Locator


The following is an overview on metadata required by Map Viewer and managed by Map Builder:

Styles Styles are the basic graphical attributes that are applied when Map Viewer renders a geometry shape or point

For example A Text ,Color, Line, Area, Marker, etc. represents a pattern on map.

Themes

A theme is a collection of geographic features that share similar attributes, plus the rendering and labeling rules that tell MapViewer what styles to use to render and label the features

Consider a Theme as Map layer where multiple themes are stacked one on top of other to compose a map. For example, a country boundaries themes may be the bottom layer with other themes such as state boundaries, lake, roads on top of it


Base Maps A base map is an ordered collection of themes to be used in rendering a map. If a base map is specified in a map request, the themes in the base map are rendered, one on top of each preceding one, in the order specified in the map definition

Map Tile Layers Map Tile layer is primarily used by the Oracle Maps JavaScript API that provides the JavaScript API with information about a draggable map tile layer, including its geographic boundary, coordinate system, number of discrete zoom levels and the size and format of individual map tiles at each zoom level in XML format


A typical output of the Map with all the components is shown below:

Map Builder Tool

Oracle provides a standalone utility program, called Map Builder, a part of the Map Viewer kit, which assists in creating and managing mapping metadata,

There are four types of metadata:- styles, themes, base maps and map tile layers; required by Map Viewer to define a desired look and feel for your map. Besides handling the metadata, the tool provides interfaces to preview the metadata and spatial information.

Oracle Spatial Data Oracle Spatial 11g, an option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition, provides advanced spatial capabilities to support geospatial applications, location-based services and enterprise spatial information system.

An Oracle database is required for storing the "layers" (e.g. country boundaries) that are to be rendered on top of your background maps. If you need to modify or transform any spatial data, you need to purchase Oracle Spatial licenses on the database that performs the operation.

Licenses for the Oracle database are not included with the OBIEE 11g suite, we have to purchase those licenses separately.

Image marker Style

Geometry Theme

Base Map


How to Render Maps on Dashboard

OBIEE & Map Viewer

Oracle Business Intelligence 11g has the ability to easily create dashboards that incorporate map views and display your key performance indicators (KPIs). In OBIEE 11g, maps are simply a new type of view just like tables and graphs.

Map Viewer is installed and configured onto Oracle WebLogic as part of the OBIEE 11g installation process. The only post-installation configuration required is to configure Map Viewer to point to the source(s) that contain your spatial data (Oracle Database) and provide you with background maps (Oracle Database, Oracle eLocation, Web Map Service Provider, Google Maps or Bing Maps).

High-Level Steps to View Business Data on a Map View The following tasks must be completed/accomplished to visualise a map with relevant data on a dashboard:

Configuration of Map Viewer to point to source data Import map tile layers, background maps, images Associate map layers to BI columns (Business data) to enable their display on maps Associate background maps with map layer along with order of display on zoom in and out Create a report with map view and include the column associated with map layer

OBIEE Association with Maps

Map with Data on Dashboard


The following picture depict the Map Layer and Background Map configuration with an OBIEE model.


Business Benefits

Reduced development time through tight integration with the ADF (Application Development Framework) environment

Increases the value of location data in the Oracle database by providing a tightly coupled tool to visualize these data

Simple configuration, no coding or technical know-how is required Can also be used as a powerful mash-up component to integrate standard-based and

commodity mapping services (e.g.: OGC Web Services, Google Maps, Virtual Earth, Map24, Where2GetIt, etc.) with application data stored in Oracle database and OBIEE sources

Improves applications summarizing complex business and geographic data and relationships in an easily understood, universally recognized map format

No extra licenses required for OBIEE customers to render maps


Conclusion

To survive and flourish in the business, appropriate decisions have to be made. Decisions cannot be made in a vacuum.

Effective decision-making requires gathering, collation, classification and organizing of quality data. Rendering such relevant data onto maps enable improved visualization and interpretation.

Further, capturing the geographic component(s) of any business unlocks its enterprise information on maps thus providng improved visibility and support.

Reference Material

Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gData Sheet August 2010

Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gFAQ

Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gWhite Paper August 2010

Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gTechnical White Paper Premiere August 2010

Introduction to Geospatial Visualization in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, 11gPresentation

Glossary of Terms Used

Acronym Description Comments

BI Business Intelligence

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol Protocol used to communicate between Map Viewer and Web Browser

JDBC Java Database Connectivity An API for the Java programming language that defines how a client may access a database

J2EE Java to Enterprise Edition

KPI Key Performance Indicators Industry jargon for a type of performance measurement

OBIEE Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

Oracle11g Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 11g

URL Universal Resource Locator


About the author

Ankit Gupta is a Business Intelligence Consultant at L&T Infotech, with experience working on diverse technologies & tools like in OBI, Endeca Information Discovery, Informatica, OWB, OLAP and several others.

About L&T Infotech

L&T Infotech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the USD 13.5 billion Larsen & Toubro (ranked 9th by Forbes among Worlds Most Innovative Companies in a 2012 study of global corporations) which has a presence in construction, engineering, manufacturing and financial services. One of the fastest growing IT Services companies, L&T Infotech is ranked by NASSCOM as the 9th largest software & services exporter from India and among the top 20 IT BPO employers. L&T Infotech provides end-to-end solutions and services in the following verticals: Banking & Financial Services; Insurance; Travel & Logistics, Media & Entertainment, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Energy & Process, Utilities, E&C , Hi-tech & Consumer Electronics, Product Engineering Services (PES), Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail & Pharmaceuticals, Auto & Aerospace, and Industrial Products.

L&T Infotech also delivers business solutions to its clients in the following horizontals/service lines: Testing, Mobility, Infrastructure Management System; Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft , Enterprise Integration and Manufacturing Execution Systems, in addition to an innovative CIO-thought partnership program that provides a value-driven edge to clients.

L&T Infotechs horizon is filled with the promise of new and cutting edge offerings in the technology space including an end-to-end cloud computing adoption toolkit and cloud advisory consulting services; enterprise mobility solutions covering a smart access platform; big data advisory services; and in-memory computing. L&T Infotech has developed intellectual properties (IPs) in all the vertical and horizontal service lines and leverages them to provide IP-led solutions.

L&T Infotech, headquartered in Mumbai, India, has a global presence across continents. The Company prides itself on a culture of training and mentoring. Coupled with a work ethos that encourages innovation, the Company lists high among the best companies to work for. L&T Infotech is differentiated by its unique Business-to-IT Connect which emerges out of its rich corporate heritage.

For more information, visit us at www.Lntinfotech.com or email us at [email protected]

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AbstractWhen and Why the Map Views are Useful?Components for Building MapsHow to Render Maps on DashboardBusiness BenefitsConclusionReference MaterialGlossary of Terms UsedAbout the authorAbout L&T Infotech

*All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission from L&T Inf...

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