BI Publisher Overview

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher is a reporting and publishing application that
enables you to extract data from multiple data sources, create a template to lay out the
data in a report, and publish the report to numerous output formats. BI Publisher also
enables you to schedule reports and deliver the reports to any delivery channel
required by your business.

Administering BI Publisher requires setting up and maintaining the following system
components:
• BI Publisher security
• Data source connections
• Integrations with other Oracle products
• Report delivery options
• Runtime configuration settings
• BI Publisher Scheduler configurations
• System maintenance options

Integration

Oracle BI Publisher enables you to integrate with the following products:

• Oracle BI Presentation Services - This integration enables you to use Oracle BI Answers requests as data sources for your reports.

• Oracle BI Discoverer - This integration enables you to use Oracle BI Discoverer Worksheets as data sources for your reports.

• Hyperion Workspace and Shared Services - This integration enables you to access BI Publisher from within the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Workspace.

• Oracle Smart Space Client - This integration enables you to set up a link to the Oracle Smart Space download page. This will enable all BI Publisher users to easily access the Oracle Smart Space client download page from their BI Publisher session.

• Oracle E-Business Suite – This integration can be done by uploading a DBC file to recognize your Oracle E-Business Suite users.

• Oracle BI Server – This can be integrated by setting up the BI Publisher roles in your BI Server Administration tool then configure BI Publisher to integrate with it.

Technorati Tags: Oracle E-Business Suite,BI Publisher

Integrating with Oracle E-Business Suite

1. In the Oracle E-Business Suite, log in as a System Administrator and create the
following responsibilities to correspond to the BI Publisher functional roles:
• XMLP_ADMIN – this is the administrator role for the BI Publisher server.
• XMLP_DEVELOPER – allows users to build reports in the system.

• XMLP_SCHEDULER – allows users to schedule reports.
• XMLP_ANALYZER_EXCEL – allows users to use the Excel analysis feature.
• XMLP_ANALYZER_ONLINE – allows users to use the online analysis feature.
• XMLP_TEMPLATE_DESIGNER - allows users to connect to the BI Publisher
server from the Template Builder and to upload and download templates.
2. Add the new BI Publisher responsibilities to the appropriate Users.

3. Log in to BI Publisher Enterprise. From the Admin tab, select Security Configuration.
4. In the Security Model section of the page, select Oracle E-Business Suite from the list.
5. Load your dbc file from the E-Business Suite instance. This is typically located
under the $FND_SECURE directory. If you do not have access to this file, contact
your E-Business Suite system administrator. This file specifies how BI Publisher
should access the E-Business Suite instance.
6. It is recommended that you create a local super user for the system to allow you to
access the Administrator pages once the changes take effect. Select the Enable Local
Superuser check box and enter a username and password for the user under the
Local Superuser section of the Security Configuration tab.
7. Restart the BI Publisher server for the security changes to take effect.
Once you restart the system, all your E-Business Suite responsibilities will be visible as
roles in the BI Publisher security center. Add folders to the E-Business Suite roles.

Integrating with Oracle BI Server Security

This is done by defining BI Publisher functional roles within the Oracle BI Server
Administration tool, assign users to these groups, and then specify Oracle BI Security as
your security model in the BI Publisher Admin interface.

1. In the BI Server Administration tool, create the following groups to correspond to
the BI Publisher functional roles:
• XMLP_ADMIN – this is the administrator role for the BI Publisher server.
• XMLP_DEVELOPER – allows users to build reports in the system.
• XMLP_SCHEDULER – allows users to schedule reports.
• XMLP_ANALYZER_EXCEL – allows users to use the Excel analysis feature.
• XMLP_ANALYZER_ONLINE – allows users to use the online analysis feature.
• XMLP_TEMPLATE_DESIGNER - allows users to connect to the BI Publisher
server from the Template Builder and to upload and download templates.
2. Add the appropriate users to the BI Publisher groups in the BI Server Administration tool.
3. In the BI Publisher Enterprise application, log in with Administration privileges. From the Admin tab select Security Configuration.
4. In the Security Model section of the page, select Oracle BI Server from the list. Provide the following connection information for the BI Server:
• JDBC Connection String - example: jdbc:oraclebi://host:port/

• Administrator Username and Administrator Password
• Database Driver Class - example: oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcDriver
5. It is recommended that you create a local super user for the system to allow you to
access the Administrator pages once the changes take effect. Select the Enable Local
Superuser check box and enter a username and password for the user under the
Local Superuser section of the Security Configuration tab.
6. Restart the BI Publisher server for the security changes to take effect.

Logging into Business Intelligence Publisher

1. Navigate to the URL provided by your system administrator. The URL is of the format http://hostname:port/xmlpserver/
2. Select the language you prefer for the user interface.
3. Enter your credentials to log in to BI Publisher.
4. Select Accessibility Mode if you wish to render the Reports home page in an
accessible tree structure.
5. Select Sign In.