Page 1 Business Intelligence: Deriving and Sharing Business Intelligence Metadata

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TECHNOLOGY: Business Intelligence
Deriving and Sharing Business Intelligence
Metadata
By Mark Rittman
Integrate Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 information with Oracle Business
Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
If youve developed a repository for use with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, youve been creating the repository by using the Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Administration tool. With the release of Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2, however, you now have
the option of creating and maintaining a repository from within your Oracle Warehouse Builder project, giving you the ability to develop your business
intelligence (BI) repository alongside your data warehouse, sharing the same metadata, business definitions, data lineage, and development
environment.
In this column, you will see how you can use Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 to create a repository for use with Oracle Business
Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10g Release 3. The Oracle Warehouse Builder project for the column contains an Oracle Database module from
which I will automatically derive BI metadata into a corresponding Oracle Business Intelligence modulecomplete with dimensions, facts, and
hierarchiesready for deployment in the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition environment.
The examples in this article require the following software to be installed in your environment:
Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2, either embedded in an Oracle Database 11g Release 2 instance or installed standalone
Oracle9i Database, Oracle Database 10g, or Oracle Database 11g
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10g Release 3
To execute the steps in this column, also download the Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 metadata export file, which contains a file called
obiee_intgr.mdl.
Feature Overview
Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 can derive or manually create BI metadata for a wide range of datasources, but the example in this
column is based on an Oracle Database module that contains dimensional metadata (dimensions, cubes, and hierarchies) that Oracle Warehouse
Builder will automatically translate into the dimensional metadata that Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition uses in its metadata layer.
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition stores its metadata in a repository file comprising three layers:
A physical layer, which contains metadata on physical sources, including table definitions, primary and foreign keys, and database types
A business model and mapping layer, which holds the logical dimensional model used by tools such as Oracle Business Intelligence Answers,
together with calculations and other derived data
A presentation layer, which contains subsets of the business model and the mapping layer
When Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 creates BI metadata for use with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, it can take the
dimensions and cubes defined within an Oracle Database module and translate these into the dimensional metadata used by the Oracle Business
Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository, in a process called derivation . Once your BI metadata has been derived, you can add to or enhance it with
more calculations or logical structures to meet the needs of your end users.
Alternatively, if you do not have dimensions or cubes defined within your Oracle Warehouse Builder project, you can create the Oracle Business
Intelligence module metadata you require manually, mapping this metadata to the relational structures in your Oracle Warehouse Builder project.
This is a more complex process and is outside the scope of this article, but if you are interested in reading more about it, you can find detailed
information on manual BI metadata creation in Oracle Warehouse Builder Sources and Targets Guide 11g Release 2 .
Creating an Oracle Business Intelligence Module
Before you can start creating metadata for use with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, you must create an Oracle Business Intelligence
module within your Oracle Warehouse Builder project.
Log in to the Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 Design Center, connect as a workspace owner, and locate the Projects Navigator. From the
Application menu, select File -> Import -> Oracle Warehouse Builder Metadata . When the Import dialog box is displayed, use the Browse button to
select the obiee_intgr.mdl metadata export file contained in the zip file you downloaded earlier, and then click Import to load the project metadata into
your workspace.
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From within the Projects Navigator, open the OBIEE_INTGRproject you have just imported. Within the project, locate the Business Intelligence
entry, expand it, and then right-click the Oracle Business Intelligence entry. Select New Oracle Business Intelligence , and the Create Module dialog
box will appear.
In the Create Module dialog box, name the module OBIEE_DEMO . Click Next to proceed to the Connection Information page in the wizard, and then
enter obiee_demo.udml as the filename, together with the connection details for either a file, FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS location. This location is
where Oracle Warehouse Builder will deploy the obiee_demo.udml metadata exchange file that will be used to create your Oracle Business
Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository and typically either points to a directory on the same server on which Oracle Warehouse Builder is running
or to a location that is accessible to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. Click Test Connection to check whether the location is valid, and
then click OK , Next , and Finish to create the module.
In the Projects Navigator, expand the new OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business Intelligence module you just created, and note that it has three
subfolders:
Logical Tables , which contains the logical fact and dimension table metadata that will populate the business model and mapping layer in your Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository
Dimension Drill Paths , which contains the dimensions that will also go into the business model and mapping layer
Catalog Folders , which holds the metadata that will be used for the presentation layer in your Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
repository
Right-click the Catalog Folders subfolder within your Oracle Business Intelligence module, and select the New Catalog Folder option. Name the new
folder DW , and click Next , Next , and Finish to create it.
Deriving Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Metadata
Now that you have a suitable Oracle Business Intelligence module, you can create metadata for it.
In the Projects Navigator within the Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 Design Center, locate the DW Oracle Database module that contains
the data warehouse metadata on which you want to base the BI metadata, right-click it, and select Derive . The PerformDerivation wizard will
appear.
In the wizard, ensure that all of the dimensions, the relational tables, and the cube are selected for derivation, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Selecting Oracle Warehouse Builder database objects for derivation

Click Next , and then select the DW catalog folder within the OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business Intelligence module as the derivation target.

Click Next on the next four pages of the wizard, accepting the default values, and then click Finish . When the wizard steps are complete, Oracle
Warehouse Builder will derive the corresponding Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition metadata objects for the objects in this database
module.
Navigating to the Business Intelligence -> Oracle Business Intelligence entry in the Projects Explorer, expand all the entries in the OBIEE_DEMO
module you created earlier. You will see logical tables, dimension drill paths, and catalog folder tables corresponding to the dimensions, tables, and
cube you selected for derivation in the previous steps, as shown in Figure 2.

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Next Steps
READmore about
Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise
Edition
DOWNLOAD the metadata export file for this
column
Figure 2: Derived business intelligence metadata objects in the Projects Explorer
Figure 2 shows BI metadata objects at the table and dimension levels. To see the individual columns, levels, and hierarchies contained within them,
you can double-click themto open themfor viewing and editing.
Double-click the SALES_FACT logical table within the OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business Intelligence module, and click the Items tab to see the
logical columns contained within it. This list contains two columns, AMOUNT and DISCOUNT , that you can use to create an additional derived
logical column within this logical table. With the SALES_FACT table open for editing and with the Items tab active, navigate to the end of the list of
logical columns and enter as the name of a new logical column at the end of the column list.
Then, with this new column selected, locate the PropertiesInspector dialog box (typically on the right-hand side of the Oracle Warehouse Builder
user interface) and find the Expression Text property. Click the ellipsis button next to the Property text field, and then use the Expression Builder
dialog box to enter the expression AMOUNT - DISCOUNT.
Click Validate to check that the expression is valid, and then click OK to save the logical column expression.
Finally, from the Oracle Warehouse Builder Application menu, select File -> Save All to save your project changes.
Deploying the Model to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Deploying your Oracle Business Intelligence module is a two-stage process: first you deploy the module to create a metadata definition file, and then
you use an Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition utility to turn the file into a new repository file. The repository file can then be used on its
own or merged into an existing repositor
To deploy your module and create the new repository, do the following:
Within the Projects Navigator, locate the OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business Intelligence module you
created previously, right-click it, and select Deploy .
In the Log, check that no errors were reported in the deployment. If there are errors, correct them
and then redeploy the module. Next, locate the obiee_demo.udml file that was generated as part
of the module deployment, and if necessary, copy or transfer it to the location where Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition is installed.
In the location where Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition is installed and where the
obiee_demo.udml metadata definition file is now located, run the following command from the
command line, using {ORACLE_BI} for the location where your Oracle Business Intelligence
Server client tools are installed:
nqudmlexec -I c:\obiee_demo.udml -O OBIEE_DEMO.rpd
The third step will generate a new Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository that you can open and view, using the Oracle Business
Intelligence Enterprise Edition Administration tool. Figure 3 shows the new repository.

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Figure 3: Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository in the Oracle Business
Intelligence Enterprise Edition Administration tool
You can now use this repository on its own or use the File -> Merge feature within the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Administration
tool to merge it into another repository, merging metadata from your Oracle Warehouse Builder data warehouse into an existing semantic model.
Summary
Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 delivers tight integration between your data warehouse design and the metadata model used by Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. Creating BI metadata within Oracle Warehouse Builder means that you have to define data warehouse
facts, dimensions, and calculations only once, and any changes you make to your data warehouse project can be quickly and easily reflected in the
BI metadata model your reports use.
Mark Rittman is an Oracle ACE director and cofounder of Rittman Mead Consulting, a U.K.-based Oracle partner providing specialized business
intelligence, data warehousing, and performance management solutions.
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