Hi,

I have a question regarding how to start development using WebFOCUS product suite.

We currently have Oracle Business Intelligence EE. It will be replaced by WebFOCUS.

In OBI EE, we create metadata (which among other things) maps business terms to sources of data (for example, 'Sales Date' is mapped to a column of an 'alias' created based on a database table 'DIM_DATE', 'Ship Date' is mapped to a column of another 'alias' created based on the same database table 'DIM_DATE', etc.). This is done using a tool in OBI EE.

Once the required mapping is done, the metadata is exposed to the users (business and IT) so that they can create adhoc reports (there is a different tool for pixel perfect reports) and dashboards. Seems to be simple (because, I am used to it and also this is a pretty straight-forward example).

I have been (lightly) reading WebFOCUS manuals. It looks like AppStudio allows one to create the metadata and also to build reports and dashboards. There are some other products too, like, InfoAssist (does InfoAssist +, also exist and what is InfoApps?), BI Portal, etc. and it looks like the products overlap as far as their usage / functionality is concerned (I guess though that the BI Portal won't allow to create the metadata). There is another product called as WebFOCUS Designer.

I am bit confused now.

If I were to start developing a WebFOCUS based reporting solution which product should I start using first? Our requirement is simple.

- We have a star schema (though we wish to expose some OLTP tables too for querying in future)
- We want to expose the star schema so that IT can build some pre-canned reports (adhoc as well as not pixel perfect), users can build their reports and publish on shared dashboards.
- There may be scheduled execution of the reports the output of which can be sent to internal users via email.

Which WebFOCUS products should we go for? And how can we start building the solution?

Could you please share your thoughts?

Kind regards,

Manoj.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FP Mod Chuck,

You should better contact your local IBI rep
This person will be able to explain, give you info and suggest training.

Some of the "tools" that you've mentioned depend on the bought licence so, may not be available.
Others are specific tools to perform a specific action that sometime, may be perform with another one.

Contact you local IBI rep. It's your best option since trying to explain in this forum will takes pages and pages

This won't substitute for actual training but it's a good start. Go to https://kb.informationbuilders.com/search?reporting

and pick Content Type: Video. There are 100's of 3 or so min videos you can watch. They cover Meta Data, content and Portal creation. Then switch to documentation in the same place and review Developing Applications with WebFOCUS.

Usually, the folks who install the product also create the metadata for your star schema and put in place WebFOCUS objects that take care of the joins necessary for your reporting. Once the metadata is created and you've been granted access to them, you can start creating reports and charts. The easiest way to start is with InfoAssit which is a browser based tool that allows you to create content.

quote:

Originally posted by MartinY:
You should better contact your local IBI rep
This person will be able to explain, give you info and suggest training.

Some of the "tools" that you've mentioned depend on the bought licence so, may not be available.
Others are specific tools to perform a specific action that sometime, may be perform with another one.

Contact you local IBI rep. It's your best option since trying to explain in this forum will takes pages and pages

I agree with Martin.

I can let you know the direction we went in. We use Webfocus for mainly dashboards, but wanted to start using more of the inbuilt features. Master files are a good starting point.

Master files use drivers to connect to different data sources and environments. These will need to be configured before you continue. You IBI rep can help with that.

There you can create synonyms, where you can define alias, descriptions and organize columns into folders so the business users (and developers) can easily build reports. You can also choose which fields are available for the business users. It's pretty powerful.

Once you develop the master file (the base), then you can work on building out the remaining things (reports/subscriptions etc.)

Goodluck!

Webfocus 8202.

Hi Manoj,

You say that you do not have access to the product suite yet.

May I ask when you are likely to be installing it / getting access?

If you can let us know, the UK PS team can contact you and discuss how we may be able to assist you in your preparations etc.

Regards

Anthony

Thanks MartinY, BabakNYC, Berny and Tony A.

Currently OBI EE based reporting application is embedded in an OLTP application. The vendors have latest version where they've replaced OBI EE by WebFOCUS product suite. We don't have much control over which reporting suite they choose.

I don't know much about licences, etc. and certainly we are informed that any issues we may face will be first looked into by them and not IB. I can't share any more details as either I don't have or it may be sensitive information.

On personal front, I have been working on OBI EE for a long. I have shared wealth of my knowledge, best practices etc with my colleagues who now are better in understanding concepts like star schema, dashboards, etc. compared to year or so, ago.

The vendors will provide a two day training (where I guess metadata will not be covered and they probably would not want us to modify the metadata, anyway).

I myself need to remain competitive as there will be competition to me. Looks like the company will not provide further training.

Happy to spend 1200USD on metadata self-study myself. But it looks like the course contents remain valid for 10 days only. IB, unlike Oracle, do not allow software to be downloaded for learning purpose. I have desire to learn but there are constraints (and competition).

I am hoping for good days (and valuable responses from the FocalPoint community).

Kind regards,

Manoj.