OBIEE12c Release – All New Features introduced

The long waited OBIEE12c is now officially released at Oracle Open World. The key feature of this release is to improve the agility and enabling self-service for end users. Compare to previous OBIEE10g & OBIEE11g, this 12c release enhanced with clean look n feel features and introduced Visual Analyser (VA) that brings Tableau style reporting capability to BI users. This release also enables user to import spreadsheets (currently supported on this format) of their own and create analysis without having to modify the Oracle Repository metadata. Let’s go through the few new features introduced in OBIEE12c release.

New features introduced in Metadata Repository:-

 

Several command line utilities have been added like:

Upload Repository Command: to upload the repository to Oracle BI Server

Syntax: uploadrpd -I <RPDname> [-W <RPDpwd>] -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-SSL] [-H]

Download Repository Command: to download the repository used by the service instance.

Syntax: downloadrpd -O RPDname [-W RPDpwd] -SI service_instance -U cred_username [-P cred_password] [-S hostname] [-N port_number] [-SSL] [-H]

List Connection Pool Command: to create a list of connection pools in JSON format for a specific service instance: to upload a modified JSON file containing updated connection pool values to a specific server instance

Syntax: listConnectionpool -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-V <true/false>] [-O <outputFile.json>] [-SSL] [-H]

 

List Repository Variables Command: to create a list of repository variables in JSON format for a specific service instance

Syntax:listrpdvariables -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-V <comma or new line separated FILE containing selected variables names>] [-O <outputFile.json>] [-SSL] [-H]

Update Connection Pool Command:  to upload a modified JSON file containing updated connection pool values to a specific server instance

Syntax:updateConnectionpool -C <connectionpoolList.json> -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-SSL] [-H]

 

Update Repository Variables Command: to upload a JSON input file or a modified JSON file containing variable information to a specific server instance

Syntax:updaterpdvariables -C <rpdVariablesList.json> -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-SSL] [-H]

Rename Application Role Command: to rename application roles

Syntax:renameapproles -T <inputfile.json> [-L <plugin list>] -SI <service instance> -U <cred username> [-P <cred password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port number>] [-SSL] [-H]

 

Rename Users Command:  upload a JSON file containing a list of application roles that you want to delete from a specific server instance

Syntax:renameusers -T < usernames.json> [-L <plugin list>] -SI <service instance> -U <cred username> [-P <cred password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port number>] [-SSL] [-H]

Delete Application Role Command: to delete application roles

Syntax:deleteapproles -T <inputfile.json> [-L <plugin list>] -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-SSL] [-H]

Delete Users Command: to upload a JSON file containing a list of users that you want to delete from a specific server instance

Syntax:deleteusers -T <usernames.json> [-L <plugin list>] -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-SSL] [-H]

Logical Level Sequence Numbers for Time Dimensions: 

The Sequence Numbers tab has been added to the Logical Level dialog. The new tab allows you to add absolute or relative sequence numbers to time dimensions.

New features introduced in BI Presentation Server:- 

Graphs Enhancements:  Ability to sort, drill graph views by using a context menu (right-click).

Enhancements to Analysis: specify whether to multiply data by a 100 to display it as a percentage when setting the properties of a column a long overdue feature 

Views: Introduction of a new type of view (heat matrix), ability to sort graph, heat matrix, pivot table, table, tree map, and trellis views by using a context menu 

Enhancement to Scorecards: In this release, you can style and customize KPI Watchlists and every watchlist that appears in a scorecard. You can set custom styles for each watchlist and rename and change the order and visibility of the watchlist columns 

Enhancements to Dashboards: In this release, you can set advanced page properties to specify incoming navigation parameters you want to set on the current dashboard page. This enables you to control how parameters associated with the navigation actions are applied.

Security Feature Enhancements: 

User GUIDs Removed: to simplify user administration, GUIDs have been replaced with user names. 

Database Security Store: Security Store (Policy and Credential Stores) is configured in a relational database rather than in a file adding robustness; this file was prone to corruption. 

Easier SSL Configuration: End to end SSL configuration has been simplified. 

Migrating Catalog Groups to Application Roles: Introduction of a new process enables you to migrate Catalog groups to application roles. 

BISystemUser and BISystem Removed: No need to have BISystemUser in LDAP. The system user concept is now deemed “virtual” and is represented by the credential oracle.bi.system/system.user, for which the values are securely randomly generated by the Configuration Assistant.

New features in Administration: 

OBIEE12c Installation: Much faster and straight forward. And mostly, the configurations & folders directories are simple and clean. 

OPMN: All services including OBI System & Java services are managed by WebLogic, no more OPMN concepts in 12C. 

Migrating from OBIEE 11g to 12c: We can migrate the Oracle BI 11g metadata to 12c is a two step process, and is carried out by using the BI Migration Script (migration-tool.sh).