[OBIEE11g] - New Features with OBIEE 11.1.1.6

Here is a quick list of the many new features available with Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.6!

Note: mosts of this list is simply a collection of the relevant bits from the various "New Features" sections that exist across the entire Oracle BI 11g documentation library, some items though have been obtained directly from Oracle.

Installation

The installer for the Oracle BI client tools now also installs Catalog Manager.

Ability to Limit and Offset Rows Returned

You can use the FETCH and OFFSET clauses to constrain the number of rows returned by the SELECT statement and to offset the returned rows by a given number. Both clauses are optional and can be used together, or independently.

Identify Query Candidates with Oracle BI Summary Advisor

If you are running Oracle Business Intelligence on the Oracle Exalytics Machine, you can use the Oracle BI Summary Advisor feature to identify which aggregates will increase query performance. Summary Advisor intelligently recommends an optimal list of aggregate tables based on query patterns that will achieve maximum query performance gain while meeting specific resource constraints.

Integrate the Administration Tool with a Third-Party Source Control Management System

As an alternative to using a MUD environment, you can choose to save your repository in MDS XML format and integrate the Administration Tool with a third-party source control management system.

Presentation Layer/Subject Area Foldering

It is now possible to have more than one level of sub-foldering within a Subject Area!    You can achieve this using the BI Admin Tool by designating "child presentation tables" to presentation tables, and you can have multiple levels of child tables.

Streamlined MUD Merge Process

Repository developers using a multiuser development (MUD) environment can now merge and publish changes in a single step, rather than merging local changes and then publishing changes as two separate steps. They can also perform subset refreshes to perform incremental local merges with the master repository.

Automated Repository Patching Process

You can now use an option in the patchrpd command-line utility to enable automated patching without prompting for user input. In addition, new patching-specific rules are applied during patch merges.

Support for Aggregate Persistence in a Cluster 

You can now use the aggregate persistence feature in a clustered environment.

FIRST_PERIOD and LAST_PERIOD Time Series Functions

You can now use the FIRST_PERIOD and LAST_PERIOD functions to compute the first and last value of an expression using the chronological key rather than the primary level key.

Ability to Print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams

You can now use Print Preview and Print to view and print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams in the Administration Tool.

New Configuration Elements for Prompts and Custom Links

You can use new configuration elements to affect the following:
- How users work with prompts on dashboard pages
- How you add custom links for users

Changes in the Interface for Fusion Middleware Control

Various changes were made in the user interface for Fusion Middleware Control:
- View System Component Availability
- Identify Single Points of Failure
- Configure Primary and Secondary Instances
- View Log Information, Error Messages, and Alerts
- Log File Rotation Policy and Specifying Log Levels

Enhancements to Full-Text Search

The way that you configure for users to perform a full-text search has been enhanced.

Configuration Settings for Analyses and Dashboards

New configuration settings are available for working with analyses and dashboards.

Configuration Settings in NQSConfig.INI

The NQSConfig.INI file for the Oracle BI Server now includes the settings that are described in the following sections. Some of these sections have enhanced documentation from the previous release:
- "MAX_EXPANDED_SUBQUERY_PREDICATES"
- "FMW_UPDATE_ROLE_AND_USER_REF_GUIDS"
- "SUMMARY_STATISTICS_LOGGING"
- "SUMMARY_ADVISOR_TABLE_NAME"

New Catalog and Home and Header Privileges

These privileges determine which users can search the catalog, what functionality displays in the Oracle BI EE global header, who can access the Home Page and Catalog page, and who can see custom links in the global header and Getting Started area of the Home Page.

Auto-Complete Functionality for Prompts

This release contains auto-complete functionality for prompts. When enabled by the administrator, auto-complete suggests and highlights matching prompt values as the user types in the prompt selection field. Auto-complete can be excluded or included on dashboards, and users can turn auto-complete off for their accounts.

Optional Apply and Reset Buttons for Prompts

You can show or hide a prompt’s apply and reset buttons. If the designer chooses to hide the apply button, then the specified prompt value is immediately applied to the dashboard or analysis.

Miscellaneous Prompts Enhancements

The following prompts enhancements were added:
- The prompt Reset button now provides three reset options: Reset to last applied values, Reset to default values, andClear All.
- In the "Dashboard builder", the dashboard designer can add the Edit and Copy links to the dashboard’s prompts. These links will display at run time, and users
with the proper privileges can click them to edit the prompt or copy the prompt’s link.
- The row-based layout prompt option was added to the prompt editor’s "Definition pane". As a result, you can now specify a row-based or column-based layout for your prompts.

Favorites

This release introduces Favorites, which allows you to bookmark as favorites the catalog objects that you view regularly or want to view again at another time. You can use the "Manage Favorites dialog" to organize your favorites into categories, and you can view your favorites list and open your favorite objects from the global header’s Favorites menu.

Customizable Global Header and Get Started .... Section of the Home Page

The order of the links on the global header can now be customized, and links to external locations can be added to the global header. The Get Started... section of the home page can also be customized to meet the informational needs of the users. The Administrator implements these customizations and when users log into Oracle BI EE, they will see these customizations.

Oracle BI Client Installer Option Added to the Home Page

A link to the Oracle BI Client Installer has been added to the Download BI Desktop Tools option, which is located in the Getting Started... section of the Home Page. User’s with the proper privilege can click this option to download and install the Business Intelligence Administration Tool and the Oracle Business Intelligence JobManager.

Integrated Full-Text Search Capabilities 

This release provides a fully integrated full-text search. This search is available after the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search. This method of searching allows the user to find objects by searching on their attributes such as author and column name.

Ability to Set Accessibility Mode in the Sign In Page

In this release, the "Sign In page" has been enhanced to include the Accessibility Mode box, which allows you to specify whether you want content for Oracle BI EE to be rendered in a browser in a way that facilitates the use of a screen reader.

Enhancement to Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management

This release includes the addition of a contribution wheel diagram to a strategy tree, which allows you to view an objective and its supporting child objectives and KPIs hierarchically in a circular diagram.

Enhancements to Map Views

In this release, map views have been enhanced in various ways:
- You can include non-BI layers on a map view
- You can use the marquee zoom feature to zoom into a specific area of the map View

Enhancements to Selections

The release includes the following enhancement to selections:
- The ability to include selected members in hierarchy selections steps that are based on family relationships.
- The addition of Siblings of and Leaves of options in family relationships.
- If the content designer adds a selection step that includes a condition with a qualified data reference (QDR), the QDR now displays in the Selection Steps pane.
- The "All X values where Y = values" condition type was added. This condition type is available for attribute columns and hierarchical columns. The Column field was added to the New Condition Step dialog for this condition type.

Enhancements to Views

This release includes the following enhancements to views:
- The ability to rename views and compound layouts.
- The Selection Steps view was added. This view when added to an analysis, displays the selection steps in effect for the analysis.

Enhancements to Tables and Pivot Tables

In this release, tables and pivot tables have been enhanced to allow you to:
- Select the measure on which to sort a column in a pivot table.
- Specify how columns that are added to an analysis from the "Analysis editor: Criteria tab" after displaying the analysis results are handled.
- Additional interactions on the right-click menu, for example, Include column, Show Running Sum, interactions for selection steps, and so on.
- The ability to specify which interactions (for example, Drill) are available when you right-click in an analysis or a dashboard at run time.

BI Mobile

- Balanced Scorecards now truly render on the mobile device (using HTML5 visualisations).
- Mobile support for iOS5

BI Publisher

- "Schedule Triggers" to conditionally execute scheduled jobs.
- Enhanced parameters and list of values (check boxes, radio buttons, "Search" for long list of values, option to hide the "Apply" button)
- Display HTML formatted data in your report
- Configure different servers for authentication/authorization

Security

- New "SQL Group Lookup Authenticator" to enable authentication against LDAP combined with authorization from a database
- Simplified SSL/SSO setup

Platform/Database Support

- New support for Informix 11.5, Sybase ASE 15, and Netezza 6 data sources
- Support for both WebLogic 10.3.5 and 10.3.6
- Support for new browsers: IE9, Chrome 12, and Firefox 6
- Support for Solaris 11