Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) Snapshot RestAPI - Part 1: Create Confidential Application (IDCS)

Oracle will be making RestAPI available for OAC Snapshot Creation.  There is some setup that needs to be done for that all to work.  The following are the steps I followed with screen captures to get my environment setup.

When the RestAPI is publicly available I will share some of the PowerShell Scripts snippets I created from the curl commands that are included as samples.

So as the title of the post indicates you need to create a Confidential Application and collect 3 items that will be used to create a Bearer Token for secured communication via the Rest call.

Note: These steps are for clients who have not had IDCS migrated to Identity and Access Management (IAM).  I will be creating a post for creating a Confidential Application in IAM.

Also note there are 2 types of Authorization Grant Types for the Confidential Application.  Resource Owner and JWT Assertion (Federated User).  This post covers Resource Owner Grant Type.

Let's get started...

Log into Identity Cloud Service (IDCS)

Go to Applications

1. Click + Add
2. Click Confidential Application

Give the Application a name and click Next 

Below Authorization Select Resource Owner for Allowed Grant Types

Scroll down to Token Issuance Policy under Resources click Add Scope button

In Select Scope window

1. Find the ANALYTICSINST_<my_OAC_instance_ID> and place check 
2. Click Add

In the return screen copy Scope URL to a notepad for later.

 Click Next through remaining tabs.

Copy Client ID and Client Secret to notepad for later.

 

Click Activate to make the Application available.

Click OK to confirm

So you should now have following:

• Client ID
• Client Secret
• Scope URL
  

In a future post I will cover the steps to create the Bearer Token

Data Visualization in an EPM World - Part 3 - Calculated Fields

I this post I will discuss creating Calculations in Oracle Analytics on an EPM Data Source.  My previous posts related to Oracle Analytics with EPM Data can be found at the following links: 

• Connecting to EPM App
• Setting Filters and Creating a Template

In Part 2, I showed how to make 2 performance tiles using filters at the visualization level.

EPM and Essbase data sources treat the data to be displayed as an intersection of the dimensions.  A single Value.  

This causing difficulty in trying to display a dimension across two different measures.

Butterfly Charts and Scatter Plots are two types of visual displays that do not work when there is a single value.

So how does one create 2 values / measures?

It is quite easy.  On the left panel below the data source is an option to create calculations.

 

 

By using calculations we can shift parts of the POV / intersection to the definition of a value / measure.

This is done using the FILTER function.  It requires a Value and at least one dimension.

FILTER( value USING dimension = 'some member')

Below are 2 new measures I created so that I could create the Butterfly Chart and Scatter Plots shown above.

 

 

To make a compound calculation with the filter using more than one dimension simply add an AND statement within the USING portion.

 

One thing to note when using the FILTER function is to make sure the values in the USING portion match the dimension filter in the Filter Ribbon or that filter is disabled.

 

This 3 part series was meant to demystify the nuances of creating awesome visualizations off EPM data. 

 

I would love to hear your feedback and see what you create.

 

 

Data Visualization in an EPM World - Part 2 - Setting Filters and Creating a Template

In my first post in my series Data Visualization in an EPM World; I showed how to connect and explore the dimensions within DV.  This post will show some of the nuances of filters and setting up the canvas Point of View (POV)

When creating a DV Project from an EPM data source you need to bring all the dimensions to the filters and set some value or All for top member depending on the type of Visualization is being created.

First I will start with the Account Dimension.  I will use Account Default for the default alias and because it has all the members in the dimension and set the filter to 40000-Revenues.

Next, I will bring in the Cost Center Default

Notice that the values do not show up.  This is default setting for the filter to Limit what is shown based on other filters.  In a future release this default will be able to be changed.  In the meantime place cursor just the right of the filter name and a small downward triangle will appear, click on Limit Values By and select None.

  

 Now you will see values for Cost Center.  If no values are select the filter assumes All.

Set all the remaining dimensions to the filter bar and set values where needed.  For the purpose of my visual a Performance Tile the dimensions Years, Period, Currency, Scenario and Version each needs to be set to a specific member.

The tedious part of setting the Filter POV is changing the Limit Values By setting on each filter.  That is why I recommend setting up the POV and then saving the file as a template to save time on future projects and then when in a project duplicate the canvas.

One thing to note, each visualization has a filter, so a dimension can be removed from the global filter and used in the visualization filter.

  

The only limitation with the visualization filter is that you do not have same Limit Values By option.

So with a bit of work you can quickly get a base DV Project using EPM Data.

 

My next post will look at other visualization that work well with EPM data and I will explore some calculated fields that can help better tell the data story.