How to use CPM Intelligences

OBIEE Answers to build and

deliver Highly Formatted Reports
with Oracle Business Intelligence
Publisher Templates
An Oracle White Paper
November 2007

How to use CPM Intelligences OBIEE

Answers to build and deliver Highly
Formatted Reports with Oracle Business
Intelligence Publisher Templates
Table of Contents:
Introduction.....................................................................................3
Business Reasons............................................................................4
High Level Steps.............................................................................5
Pre-requisites..................................................................................6
About Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition....................6
About Oracle Corporate Performance Management Intelligence.....6
About Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher..................................7
About Business Intelligence Publisher Desktop...............................7
OBIEE and BI Publisher Integration...............................................8
Establishing connection between OBIEE and BI Publisher.............8
Installing BI Publisher Desktop to create Templates........................9
Creation of OBIEE Answers in the FEM_ANALYTICS.rpd............10
Assigning Suitable Extended Account Type Attributes for Natural
Account Dimension.........................................................................10
Answer Creation for BI Publisher Reports.....................................10
Creation and Publishing of Templates using the Oracle BI
Publisher MS Word utility.............................................................12
Generation of Reports using BI Publisher or OBIEE Dashboards 15
Conclusion.....................................................................................16

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 2

Introduction
This white paper explains how to use Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Intelligences
Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) Answers to build and deliver Highly Formatted Reports
with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Templates. Once the pre-requisites mentioned in this
document are met, Oracle BI Publisher will allow the business user to build Crystal Clear Analysis
and Financial reports which are consumed by various end users in different formats: PDF, Word
Document, Excel, HTML or even XML.
BI Publisher can accept and format any well-formed XML data, as well as generate the data. It can
therefore be integrated with any database, application, or process that can generate XML, to
format output and deliver interactive and dynamic reports to every type of user.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 3

Business Reasons
CPM Intelligence provides user-friendly OBIEE Dashboard Answers built upon the Enterprise
Performance Foundation Dimension, Hierarchy and Fact Data. These dashboard outputs are
usually consumed by Internal Customers for On Screen Display needs. There is a need for these
reports to be formatted and printed to different specifications by internal and external users.
Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher is the tool to transform the OBIEE Answers into highly
formatted reports. This document describes the various aspects of this report building process
using OBIEE Answers.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 4

High Level Steps

The following steps explain how to use BI Publisher to publish
Financial Statements and Custom Reports with the help of OBIEE
Answers.

Pre-requisites

OBIEE and BI Publisher Integration

Creation of OBIEE Answers with the help of

FEM_ANALYTICS.rpd

Creation and Publishing of Templates using the Oracle BI

Publisher MS Word utility

Generation of Reports using BI Publisher or OBIEE

Dashboards

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 5

Pre-requisites
In order to use Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher to build highly formatted reports off of
Corporate Performance Management Intelligence, the following pre-requisites must be met.

Install Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise

Edition (OBIEE), version 10.1.3.2 or higher
Install Oracle Corporate Performance
Management Intelligence
Install Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher,
version 10.1.3.2 or higher
Install Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher
Desktop, version 10.1.3.2 or higher

About Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Suite (OBIEE) offers an integrated,
comprehensive, standards-based BI platform that provides the best foundation for
building enterprise wide BI solutions. It leverages Oracle's existing data warehousing and
business intelligence tools, with a new stack of products:
Oracle BI Server
Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards
Oracle BI Answers
Oracle BI Delivers
Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics
Oracle BI Publisher
To understand in detail the individual features of the above mentioned products please
visit http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/obe_bi/bipub/bip_biee/bip_biee.htm since
the detailed discussion of these products are not in the scope of this white paper.
Fast Facts
Download from:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/htdocs/101320bi.html
(minimum supported version is 10.1.3.2)

Installation Steps:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/obe_bi/bi_ee_1013/install/installoraclebee.htm

About Oracle Corporate Performance Management Intelligence

Oracle Corporate Performance Management Intelligence offers a comprehensive set of
financial and administrative reports built on the Enterprise Performance Foundation

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 6

(EPF) tablespaces. It leverages Oracle's existing data warehousing and business

intelligence tools, with a new stack of products:
Oracle BI Server
Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards
Oracle BI Answers
To understand in detail the individual features of the above mentioned products please
visit http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/obe_bi/bipub/bip_biee/bip_biee.htm since
the detailed discussion of these products are not in the scope of this white paper.
Fast Facts
Download from:
Installation Steps:

Please refer to Technical Notes: 471377.1 Corporate Performance Management

Intelligence Overview and 471374.1 Setting Up Corporate Performance
Management Intelligence on Metalink for more details.
Refer to the Corporate Performance Management Intelligence Installation Technical
Note.

About Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher

Oracle BI Publisher is an install option of the OBIEE suite. Oracle BI Publisher enables
the creation of formatted report templates that are created and published via common
personal productivity applications, such as MS Word, and can be delivered directly to
end users or through Interactive Dashboards.
Fast Facts
Download from:

Oracle BI Publisher gets installed along with OBIEE Suite mentioned above.
(minimum supported version is 10.1.3.2)

Installation Steps:

Not Applicable

About Business Intelligence Publisher Desktop

BI Publisher Desktop allows users to develop and test templates on Microsoft Windows.
Use BI Publisher Desktop to access the tools required to build Custom XML templates
using MS word. BI Publisher Desktop contains the following components:

BI Publisher Template Builder for MS Word

BI Template Viewer
Documentation: Users Guide and Online Help
Samples

Fast Facts
Download from:

http://bipublisher/?tab=release&header=xdorel&side=enterprise10#_Toc110329353
(minimum supported version is 10.1.3.2)

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 7

Installation Steps:

Refer to the above download link.

OBIEE and BI Publisher Integration

After the pre-requisites mentioned above are met, the OBIEE to BI Publisher integration allows the
business user to create highly formatted reports in Oracle BI Publisher by using Oracle BI Answers
and Oracle BI Server metadata.
In order to perform the OBIEE to BI Publisher integration, the following steps must be completed:
1. Establishing connection between OBIEE and BI
Publisher
2. Installing BI Publisher Desktop to create
Templates.

Establishing connection between OBIEE and BI Publisher

Integration between OBIEE and BI Publisher is mandatory for effectively formatting and
publishing financial statements. If BI Publisher Enterprise was included when Oracle BI
Enterprise Edition was installed, Oracle BI installer will set up the integration with the
Presentation Services, by setting host name, port, and URL values. However, you need to
set the Administrator password from the BI Administration tool as follows:
1. Select All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > BI
Administration.
2. Select Open > Online (Provide Username as Administrator
and password field blank to open FEM_ANALYTICS.rpd
online).
3. Select Manage > Security > Users > Administrator, and select
the Administrator user.
4. In Properties, set the password for the Administrator user and
click OK.
If the integration with Presentation Services was not set up at the time of OBIEE
installation, then setup this integration from BI Publisher as follows:
1. From the Admin page, under Integration, select Oracle BI
Presentation Services.
2. Enter the following information about your BI Presentation
Services server:
Server Protocol Select http or https
Server Version Select v4
Server Enter the server host name (for example,
server01.mycompany.com)
Port for the server The default port is 9704.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 8

 Administrator Username and Password

URL Suffix The default value is analytics/saw.dll.

Installing BI Publisher Desktop to create Templates

The next step required to create and publish reports is to install the BI Publisher Desktop
add-in for MS Word. This can be installed by clicking on the Template Builder link
under the Reports tab of the BI Publisher Login.
The BI Publisher menu in MS Word is added when BI Publisher Desktop is installed.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 9

Creation of OBIEE Answers in the FEM_ANALYTICS.rpd

Assigning Suitable Extended Account Type Attributes for Natural Account Dimension
Use the following steps to assign Extended Account Type for Natural
Accounts.
1. Various Extended Account Types have been added to
increase granularity and clarity of Financial Reporting and
are intended for grouping of Natural Accounts.
2. Migrating Natural Account Dimension Members to
Enterprise Performance Foundation from any Financials
Application will properly assign the Extended Account
Type attributes.
3. Updating the Extended Account Type attributes of Natural
Account can be performed by logging into Oracle
Applications with Enterprise Performance Foundation
responsibility. Select Configuration Rules - Members, and
then select the Dimension Natural Account. Select a
Natural Account and click Update. This will open the
attributes of the Natural Account where the Extended
Account Type attribute can be modified.
4. If Natural Accounts are migrated through Web ADI or
through Dimension Loader Interface Tables, the desired
Extended Account Types can be set for all the Natural
Accounts. This step is necessary so that Financial
Statements are shown with proper groups.
Note: Please see Extended_Account_Types.XLS as reference for the available
Extended Account Types and their Basic Account Types.
Answer Creation for BI Publisher Reports
Use the following steps to create an Answer in BI Publisher Reports.
1. Create the following Request under the Corporate
Performance Management Intelligence subject area of the
FEM_ANALYTICS.rpd.
2. Select the following Dimensions, Attributes, and Fact Data
for the Income Statement and Balance Sheet templates
supplied in this package.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 10

Column Folders
Dimensions
Dimensions
Dimensions
Dimensions
Dimensions
Dimensions Attributes
Fact - Balances
Fact - Balances

Columns Nodes
Ledgers
Datasets
Calendar Periods
Calendar Periods
Calendar Periods - Prior
Natural Account Attributes
Balances (Current Calendar Period)
Balances (Prior Calendar Period)

Actual Columns to be selected

Ledger Name
Dataset Name
Calendar Period Name
Enabled Flag
Prior Calendar Period Name
Extended Account Type (Display Code)
XTD Functional Balance
Prior XTD Functional Balance

Create the Formula item below:

Formula for Variance %

(("- Balances (Current Calendar Period)"."XTD Functional Balance"-"Balances (Prior Calendar Period)"."Prior XTD Functional Balance")/"Balances (Prior Calendar Period)"."Prior XTD Functional Balance")*100
3. Step 2 can be omitted when creating an Answer by
replacing the XML code (use the OBIEEAnswers.xml
included in this package). Select Request XML under
the Advanced Tab of Answer Creation, and press the Set
XML button.
4. Save the request to My Folders.
5. Click the Log Out link and close your browser.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 11

Creation and Publishing of Templates using the Oracle BI Publisher

MS Word utility
The following section discusses how to convert OBIEE Answers to BI Publisher reports
using custom built templates.
Note: For understanding in depth the procedure involved in creating custom built templates using BI
Publisher please refer: http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/obe_bi/bipub/bip_biee/bip_biee.htm#t3s2 Creating an RTF Template in MS Word by logging in to BI Publisher.

For our discussion and example we will utilize the following:

RTF Templates: Income_Statement1.rtf and

Balance_Sheet1.rtf, included in this package

Answer created in the section Answer Creation for BI

Publisher Reports by using the BI Presentation Services of the
OBIEE Suite.
The templates are designed to give a simple and formatted Financial Statement for
any type of Organization. Specific requirements can be achieved by creating custom
templates.
Use the following steps to publish a set of Answers from MS Word.
1. Ensure that the OBI Presentation Server and OBI Server
services are started and running.
2. Copy the above-mentioned RTF Templates to the machine
where Oracle BI Publisher Desktop has been installed
(ORACLE_HOME\xmlp\XMLP\Reports).
3. Start Oracle BI Publisher.
4. From Oracle BI Publisher menu, select Log On.
5. Enter Administrator as the username and password. Enter
the Report Server URL (http://<Host name of the OBIEE
Server>: 9704/xmlpserver) and click Login.
6. Select Open Template and select Oracle BI from the
Workspace drop-down list.

Tip for Readers: After switching the Workspace from BI Publisher to Oracle BI,
usually there will be 2 folders, which will be displayed. They are users and
shared which are basically flowing from the OBIEE Presentation Service.
The OBIEE initialization variables are pre-configured by default so that they are
compatible with Oracle E-Business Suite of Applications and not for stand-alone

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 12

purpose. So initially, the 2 folders users and shared will not be visible once you
switch to the Oracle BI workspace. The solution to fix this issue is as follows:

Login to Oracle BI Administration Tool.

Go to Manage > Variables Variable Manager.

Expand the node Session.

After expanding and focusing on Initialization Blocks node

you can view the Initialization strings on the right hand side
section of the Variable Manager UI.

Select all the pre-existing Initialization Blocks under the

Session node and delete them.

After successful deletion, restart the BI Server, Presentation

Server and the Java host.

Now login to the BI Publisher Desktop through MS word and

switch to Oracle BI workspace. The 2 folders users and
shared will be listed.

7. Navigate to the folder where the OBIEE answers were

created in.
8. Select the Answers file and double-click it. This will open
a window called Save as Oracle BI Publisher Report.
9. Select a folder in BI Publisher and Save.
10. View the Output by clicking the option Preview Template
in PDF in the Oracle BI Publisher Menu of the Word
document.
Perform the following steps to publish the template created from MS Word, and then
view data for the report in OBIEE Dashboard using this template.
11. In MS Word, select the Oracle BI Publisher > Publish
Template As option.
Note: If you have not saved the template in RTF format, it may prompt you to save
the template in RTF format first before publishing.
12. The Upload as new dialog box appears. Enter a template
name, and click OK.
13. After the template is uploaded, it displays a confirmation
message that the Template has been added to the Report.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 13

Note: View this report either by logging into BI Publisher services or through OBIEE- Dashboards as
mentioned below:

14. Log in to Oracle BI Presentation Services as

Administrator (password Administrator).
15. The Default Dashboard page is displayed.
16. From the Page Options drop-down list, select Edit
Dashboard.
17. The Dashboard Editor page is displayed. Click the Add
Dashboard Page icon to add a page to the dashboard.
18. This displays the Add Dashboard Page screen. Enter a
Page Name (Description is optional) and Click OK.
19. Drag the BI Publisher Report from the Dashboard
Objects list to the section on the new page created in the
previous step.
20. Click the Properties link on the object after the BI
Publisher Report object has been added to the dashboard.
21. The BI Publisher Report Properties screen is displayed.
Click Browse to browse and specify the path for BI
Publisher Report.
22. Select the report that we have created earlier, from the path
My Folders and click OK.
23. This brings you back to the BI Publisher Report
Properties screen.
In the Display Mode section of the report properties, select
View the Latest Version option, accept defaults for other
options, and then click OK.
24. This will take you back to the Dashboard Editor page;
click Save to save the changes you made to the dashboard.
25. Click the new Page tab (created in step#18) to view the
report that you published on this page.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 14

Generation of Reports using BI Publisher or OBIEE Dashboards

The following section describes how to generate BI Publisher reports
or use OBIEE to create reports for Dashboards.
Pre-Requisite:
The Answers should have already been saved in the BI
Publisher Workspace after logging into the BI Publisher
Desktop Template builder.
The Template for the Financial Statement should have been
published from the BI Publisher Desktop login.
Steps for viewing the BI Publisher Report:
1. Login to the BI Publisher Web UI: Start > Programs >
Oracle Business Intelligence > BI Publisher
("Administrator" for the username and password).
2. Navigate to the "Reports" Tab.
3. All the Report Folders will be displayed here in this Tab
including the "My Folders" folder.
4. Navigate to "My Folders" and search for the "Report" name
that was used to save and publish report.
5. Clicking on the Report will navigate to the View mode of the
Report, the default view is html.
6. Select a Template from the dropdown for the desired view.
7. The report can also be exported as HTML, PDF, RTF, Excel,
and also as XML data.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 15

Conclusion
This white paper detailed the necessary pre-requisites and integration steps needed to add the
flexibility of Oracle BI Publisher to OBIEE. Oracle BI Publisher allows users to transform the
Corporate Performance Management Intelligence suite of reports into the layouts and formats that
best suit their business needs.
Users are also able to use the XML features of BI Publisher to integrate with other databases and
applications to build the best reports for every situation.

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher - Publishing Financial Statements and

Custom Reports
Page 16

How to use CPM Intelligences OBIEE Answers to build and deliver Highly Formatted Reports with Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Templates
November 2007
Author: Shanmugaraj Prabhakaran
Contributing Authors: Murali Kupalla and Scott Date
Oracle Corporation
World Headquarters
500 Oracle Parkway
Redwood Shores, CA 94065
U.S.A.
Worldwide Inquiries:
Phone: +1.650.506.7000
Fax: +1.650.506.7200
www.oracle.com
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. Various
product and service names referenced herein may be trademarks
of Oracle Corporation. All other product and service names
mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright 2007 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.