tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-216062932024-03-18T23:10:13.404-05:00Learn Discoverer BlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-55750846533382252142018-10-25T00:49:00.001-05:002018-10-25T00:52:07.373-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are you interested in OBIEE?</span></h2>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">While browsing for OBIEE tutorials on YouTube we found this fantastic
video on OBIEE.</span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Click this link if you are interested in knowing more:</span><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">-</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajh_ePwlf88" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;" target="_blank">OBIEE Tutorial</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-86855605041082295342017-02-07T09:37:00.003-06:002018-10-25T00:55:59.604-05:00Profiles of the Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been thinking about the laws of the universe recently and came across a book written by the science fiction master Arthur C. Clarke called Profiles of the Future. Over the course of many years and several revisions he put forward the hypothesis that there are 3 laws for predicting the future.</span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Clarke's first law</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">, he is very probably wrong.</span></span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-size: 14px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Clarke's second law</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Clarke's third law</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;"><br />The third one has various alternative explanations such as:</span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it ,and</span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Any sufficiently ancient recovered wisdom or artifact is also indistinguishable from magic</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;">There's a couple of variations I like that are particularly related to the field of computing in which I work. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;">These are:</span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Software tests that inexplicably pass or fail are indistinguishable from voodoo</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;">Over the course of my career I've seen the truth of these last two. Many years ago I had the privilege of being invited to the demo of a new piece of software that was slated to be years ahead of its time. It was being shown to us by an executive of that company and what we saw really was a leap beyond anything any of us had seen before that is, until one of us spotted that what appeared to be buttons being clicked on a screen actually looked suspiciously like a PowerPoint presentation moving from one picture to another. The buttons were not depressing and the positioning of some of the buttons moved ever so slightly from one screen to another.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;">At one point a question was asked from the audience if we could go back to the previous screen to look and see what one of the other buttons could do. Of course this would have been impossible but the presenter was slick and had anticipated such a request when his reply was that we had so much to cover in a short period of time and would love to show that feature in a separate demo after the main presentation.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="color: #4c1130;">When the presentation was over, some of us went to ask about that feature to be told that the link back to the database at head office had gone down and therefore we would not be able to see a demo of that feature after all.</span></div>
</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-81749561294459479562016-04-13T04:52:00.001-05:002016-04-13T04:52:26.695-05:00Are you worried about what to do now that Discoverer is almost out of supportHello everyone<br />
Like me, if you are a big user of Discoverer, you would have been alarmed at the news a few years ago that Oracle was dropping the tool.<br />
<br />
Well, once I got over my alarm I started to think about how my clients could maximize their use of the at times millions of dollars of investment.<br />
<br />
Or<span style="text-indent: -24px;">acle Corporation’s statement of direction implies that they will not force you off of Discoverer and on to another tool. It is important for you to understand, however that like all software Discoverer will one day be phased out in order to make way for more modern BI solutions.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: -24px;">You currently have three options: Protect / Extend / Evolve</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -24px;">Protect your investment by staying with Discoverer, continuing to receive Oracle’s outstanding support until it runs out, after which you will be on your own</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -24px;">Extend you your investment by continuing to use Discoverer while integrating to other Oracle BI tools such as Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -24px;">Evolve your investment by formulating a strategy to fully migrate to another tool, perhaps one of Oracle's other BI tools such as OBIEE, or to a third party tool such as SplashBI owned by Eis Technilogies</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">I will address more on option 3 in upcoming posts.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-55453174527038630312016-04-13T04:26:00.001-05:002016-04-13T04:33:25.895-05:00Are you having trouble starting Weblogic from a Windows serviceAre you having trouble starting Weblogic on Windows and thus unable to start the WLS_DISCO service? If so, you can start Wenlogic from the command line.<br />
<br />
To start Weblogic from the command line, follow these steps:<br />
<ol>
<li>Open a CMD window</li>
<li>Navigate to the bin folder for Weblogic. Mine is located at C:\oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\ClassicDomain\bin</li>
<li>Run startweblogic.cmd</li>
<li>Provide a username - in my case weblogic</li>
<li>Provide the password</li>
<li>When started, leave the CMD window open</li>
</ol>
<br />
Next, I started the Node Manager manually as follows:<br />
<ol>
<li> Open a second CMD window</li>
<li>Navigate to the bin folder for Node Manager. Mine is located at C:\oracle\Middleware\wlserver_10.3\server\bin</li>
<li>Run startnodemanager.cmd</li>
<li>Provide a username - in my case weblogic</li>
<li>Provide the password</li>
<li>When started, leave the CMD window open</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<ol>
</ol>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-59632424178455851632015-07-30T23:33:00.001-05:002018-10-25T00:52:42.865-05:00Discoverer and Windows 10<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hi everyone</span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Further to a earlier posting of mine it would appear that Windows 10 and Discoverer are incompatible.</span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Michael</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-2866050878233330162015-03-19T14:40:00.002-05:002015-03-19T14:48:50.891-05:00Might need to use Tunneling with Discoverer 11g<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have noticed a few instances recently of Discoverer 11g Plus failing to open or taking an awful long time to open.
In both of the cases where this has been reported to me by my clients, changing the plus communication protocol from Default to Tunneling did the trick.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To enable tunneling for use with Discoverer Plus, use this workflow:</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Launch Enterprise Manager using something like: <i>http://server.domain.com:7002/em</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enter your <b>Username </b>and <b>Password</b>. Username is typically <i>Weblogic</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under <b>Farm</b>, on left-hand side, expand <b>Discoverer </b>and <b>Discoverer(11.1.1.x.0)</b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the <b>Components </b>window, highlight <b>Discoverer Plus</b> then click the <b>Configure </b>button</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the <b>Communication Protocols</b> window, click the <b>Tunneling</b> radio button (see below)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click the <b>Apply </b>button</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shut Down the Discoverer service from the top link by clicking on <i>Discoverer | Control | Shut Down</i> - confirm the action</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Restart the Discoverer service from the top link by clicking on <i>Discoverer | Control | Start Up</i> - confirm the action (sometimes you have to do this twice)</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-sFVAhs-wu0Ne3zgkUm7GsrxPiX1CbEv4FYGTxDX9XMq3gxw9D5iV_L47rjI2wrsv9WJabskNJ2dR9nTHKtYFlf1_KTgknnI8KnG8lXtW1CfbvYBqmSoT4oaoj-yrekrnFUv/s1600/Protocols.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-sFVAhs-wu0Ne3zgkUm7GsrxPiX1CbEv4FYGTxDX9XMq3gxw9D5iV_L47rjI2wrsv9WJabskNJ2dR9nTHKtYFlf1_KTgknnI8KnG8lXtW1CfbvYBqmSoT4oaoj-yrekrnFUv/s400/Protocols.jpg" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-62253648436393431932014-07-22T08:50:00.000-05:002014-07-22T08:50:00.174-05:00Still hereHi everyone<br />
I am still here. Just wanted to let you know that I am still in the business of working with Discoverer even though Oracle recently announced that it would be de-supported. If you need help just get in touch.<br />
<br />
Also, you may not be aware but we have updated our Discoverer Handbook with the latest 11g version. You can find it on AmazonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-24937596629702810742013-06-10T17:32:00.001-05:002013-06-10T17:32:09.371-05:00New OTN InterfaceIf you are a user of <a href="https://forums.oracle.com/community/developer/english" target="_blank">OTN (Oracle Technology Network)</a> you should have noticed that there is a new interface. I think its pretty cool. What do you think?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-8673304940190799672012-06-27T19:06:00.002-05:002012-06-27T19:07:05.264-05:00My Oracle Support Interface ChangeIf you are a use of <a href="https://support.oracle.com/CSP/ui/flash.html" target="_blank">My Oracle Support</a> you should have received notification regarding a change to the user interface. As of July 13, 2012 Oracle will be retiring their Flash-based interface and replacing it with an improved HTML interface that has added functionality.<br />
<br />
There is a <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/dm/76544-wwsu11104830mpp001-oem-1635893.html" target="_blank">CALL TO ACTION</a> regarding this change. If you follow the link you will be directed to a page that will describe the changes in detail and advise what you have to do in order to take advantage of the new user interface.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-65998029086630110922012-06-14T13:10:00.001-05:002012-06-14T13:17:07.161-05:00Warning concerning Java 7 and E-Business Suite<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
This notification is being posted at the request of Oracle Corporation<br /><br />All E-Business Suite desktop administrators must disable the JRE
Auto-Update for their end users immediately to stop it updating to Java 1.7.<br /><br />URGENT BULLETIN:
Disable JRE Auto-Update for All E-Business Suite End-Users.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
The following link from my fellow blogger Steve Chan explains more:</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<a href="https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/bulletin_disable_jre_auto_update">https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/bulletin_disable_jre_auto_update</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
So why is this required?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
If you have Auto-Update enabled, your JRE 1.6 version
will be updated to JRE 7. This may
happen as early as July 3, 2012. This
will definitely happen after Sept. 7, 2012, after the release of 1.6.0_35
(6u35).<br /><br />Oracle Forms is not compatible with JRE 7 yet. JRE 7 has not been certified with Oracle
E-Business Suite yet. Oracle E-Business
Suite functionality based on Forms -- e.g. Financials -- will stop working if
you upgrade to JRE 7.<br /><br />There is also a known issue with WebLogic 10.3.6 and JDK 1.7 and you must use JDK 1.6 for that. I will be posting shortly on this issue.</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<o:p>Seems to me therefore that until further notice, even for Discoverer, but definitely for E-Business Suite that you must stay on Java 1.6 </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-42786077210951137542012-06-14T01:29:00.000-05:002012-06-14T01:29:23.868-05:00Been a whileHello everyone, I know it has been a little while since my last posting but I am here, alive and kicking and gearing up to get back into blogging.<br />
In case you are not aware, I am in the process of updating my Discoverer Handbook to the latest 11g version of the product. Watch for more postings very soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-58448186295737415512011-05-18T01:15:00.000-05:002018-10-25T00:45:05.481-05:00CP10 for Discoverer 10.1.2.3Just wanted to let you know that on April 18, 2011, Oracle has released CP10 for 10.1.2.3. You will find it on MetaLink as patch number <strong><span style="color: blue;">11674847</span></strong>. When compared to CP9, 10 bugs have been fixed.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Note: when you download the readme from MyOracle, from CP9 Oracle has placed the new bug fixes at the top of the list.<br /><br /><br /><br />So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following platforms:<br /><br /><ul><li>Linux x86</li><br /><li>Microsoft Windows 32-bit</li><br /><li>Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)</li><br /></ul>If you are upgrading to CP10 from any patch level prior to CP4 then JDBC patch patch p4398431_10105_GENERIC.zip for bug 4398431(release 10.1.0.5) needs to be installed before you apply CP5.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-21621231317632517892011-05-16T16:56:00.000-05:002011-05-16T16:56:28.225-05:00CP10 for Discoverer 10.1.2.3Just wanted to let you know that on April 18, 2011, Oracle has released CP10 for 10.1.2.3. You will find it on MetaLink as patch number <strong><span style="color: blue;">11674847</span></strong>. When compared to CP9, 10 bugs have been fixed.<br />
<br />
<br />
Note: when you download the readme from MyOracle, from CP9 Oracle has placed the new bug fixes at the top of the list.<br />
<br />
So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following platforms:<br />
<ul><li>IBM AIX on POWER systems (64-bit)</li>
<li>Linux x86</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows 32-bit</li>
<li>Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)</li>
</ul>If you are upgrading to CP10 from any patch level prior to CP4 then JDBC patch patch p4398431_10105_GENERIC.zip for bug 4398431(release 10.1.0.5) needs to be installed before you apply CP5.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Note: please take a look at the comments posted below and if anyone has any experience of CP10, good or bad, please let me know.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-41839299232508325562011-05-12T14:28:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:24:15.387-05:00CP9 for Discoverer 10.1.2.3Just wanted to let you know that on January 11, 2011, Oracle has released CP8 for 10.1.2.3. You will find it on MetaLink as patch number <span style="color: blue;"><strong>10233659</strong></span>. When compared to CP8, 6 bugs have been fixed.<br />
<br />
<br />
Note: when you download the readme from MyOracle, from this release Oracle has started to place the new bug fixes at the top of the list.<br />
<br />
So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following platforms:<br />
<ul><li>HP-UX Itanium</li>
<li>HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)</li>
<li>IBM AIX on Power Systems (64-bit)</li>
<li>Linux x86</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows 32-bit</li>
<li>Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)</li>
</ul>If you are upgrading to CP9 from any patch level prior to CP4 then JDBC patch patch p4398431_10105_GENERIC.zip for bug 4398431(release 10.1.0.5) needs to be installed before you apply CP5.<br />
This patch needs to be applied to all Oracle Homes, i.e. Infrastructure home as well as all related midtier homes.<br />
Bug 4398431 - HANG WHEN RETRIEVING A CONNECTION FROM THE IMPLICIT CONNECTION CACHEUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-55076913875909090032011-05-12T14:16:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:24:15.432-05:00CP2 for Discoverer 11g releasedJust wanted to let you know that on January 11, 2011, Oracle released CP2 for Discoverer 11.1.1.2.0. This is applicable for both Discoverer Plus and Viewer. You will find it on My Oracle Support (formerly MetaLink) as patch number <span style="color: blue;"><strong>10409451</strong></span>. There are 5 bugs fixed in this cumulative patch.<br />
<br />
So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following 5 platforms:<br />
<ul><li>Linus x86</li>
<li>Linux x86-64 bit</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows (32-bit)</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit)</li>
<li>Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-52501434692084466662011-05-12T13:20:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:24:15.525-05:00Configuring Discoverer Plus to pre-populate login credentialsHave you ever noticed how Discoverer does not remember your user name, database and EUL whenever you log out and wished there was a way to make it do so?<br />
<br />
Well, there is a way but you need to add some parameters to your URL to make it do so.<br />
<br />
Let's assume the following:<br />
<ul><li>User Name is michael</li>
<li>Database is prod</li>
<li>EUL is eul5_us</li>
</ul>All you need to do is to add switches to your URL and then save it in your favorites. The switches you need are:<br />
<ul><li>For User Name use <strong><span style="color: #990000;">us=</span></strong></li>
<li>For Database use <strong><span style="color: #990000;">database=</span></strong></li>
<li>For EUL use<strong><span style="color: #990000;"> eul=</span></strong></li>
</ul>Putting this altogether I can use: <a href="http://myserver.com:7779/discoverer/plus?us=michael&database=prod&eul=eul5_us">http://myserver.com:7779/discoverer/plus?us=michael&database=prod&eul=eul5_us</a><br />
<br />
If you are using E-Business Suite you can also pre-populate this setting too by adding: <strong><span style="color: #990000;">lm=applications</span></strong>, like this:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://myserver.com:7779/discoverer/plus?lm=applications&us=michael&database=prod&eul=eul5_us">http://myserver.com:7779/discoverer/plus?lm=applications&us=michael&database=prod&eul=eul5_us</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-53967416927758931152011-05-12T13:15:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:24:15.493-05:00Running Plus in IE8If you are experiencing issues running Discoverer Plus inside Microsoft IE8 the following comments may help.<br />
<br />
So far, I have noticed that under no circumstances with Discoverer run in IE8 when it is configured to use JInitiator. If your company has enabled Discoverer to run primarily using JInitiator try adding the following parameter to your URL: <span style="color: #990000;"> _jvm_name =sun</span><br />
<br />
Your URL should look something like this: <a href="http://myserver.com:7778/discoverer/plus?_jvm_name=sun">http://myserver.com:7778/discoverer/plus?_jvm_name=sun</a><br />
<br />
Now all this assumes that your Discoverer administrator has enabled a more recent Sun Java than Discoverer comes installed with, namely 1.4.0_06<br />
<br />
Should you find that you have this version installed please upgrade the server Java and try again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-3074399072499977832010-10-26T03:35:00.000-05:002010-10-26T03:35:01.544-05:00CP8 for 10.1.2.3 releasedJust wanted to let you know that on October 5, 2010, Oracle has released CP8 for 10.1.2.3. You will find it on MetaLink as patch number 9694503. When compared to CP7, 10 bugs have been fixed.<br />
<br />
So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following platforms:<br />
<ul><li>IBM AIX on Power Systems (64-bit)</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows 32-bit</li>
<li>Linux x86 (works for both 32 bit and 64 bit)</li>
<li>Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)</li>
<li>Oracle Solaris on x86 (32-bit)</li>
</ul>If you are upgrading to CP8 from any patch level prior to CP4 then JDBC patch patch p4398431_10105_GENERIC.zip for bug 4398431(release 10.1.0.5) needs to be installed before you apply CP5.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: 85%;">This patch needs to be applied to all Oracle Homes, i.e. Infrastructure home as well as all related midtier homes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: 85%;">Bug 4398431 - HANG WHEN RETRIEVING A CONNECTION FROM THE IMPLICIT CONNECTION CACHE</span><br />
<br />
The following posting has been updated:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://learndiscoverer.blogspot.com/2008/04/most-useful-patch-numbers.html">Useful Patch Numbers</a></li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-7684294094220939342010-07-26T00:34:00.001-05:002010-07-26T00:55:38.605-05:00CP7 for 10.1.2.3 releasedJust wanted to let you know that on June 4, 2010, Oracle has released CP7 for 10.1.2.3. You will find it on MetaLink as patch number 9112482. When compared to CP6, 9 bugs have been fixed.<br />
<br />
So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following platforms:<br />
<ul><li>HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows 32-bit</li>
<li>Linux x86 (works for both 32 bit and 64 bit)</li>
<li>Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)</li>
</ul>If you are upgrading to CP6 from any patch level prior to CP4 then JDBC patch patch p4398431_10105_GENERIC.zip for bug 4398431(release 10.1.0.5) needs to be installed before you apply CP5.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: 85%;">This patch needs to be applied to all Oracle Homes, i.e. Infrastructure home as well as all related midtier homes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: 85%;">Bug 4398431 - HANG WHEN RETRIEVING A CONNECTION FROM THE IMPLICIT CONNECTION CACHE</span><br />
<br />
The following posting has been updated:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://learndiscoverer.blogspot.com/2008/04/most-useful-patch-numbers.html">Useful Patch Numbers</a></li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-11736393001817805762010-07-26T00:31:00.001-05:002010-07-26T00:40:06.264-05:00CP6 for 10.1.2.3 releasedJust wanted to let you know that on November 18, 2009, Oracle has released CP6 for 10.1.2.3. You will find it on MetaLink as patch number 8746296:. When compared to CP5, 19 enhancements or bugs have been fixed.<br />
<br />
So far this cumulative patch has been released for the following platforms:<br />
<ul><li>HP-UX Itanium</li>
<li>HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)</li>
<li>IBM AIX on POWER Systems (64-bit)</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows 32-bit</li>
<li>Linux x86 (works for both 32 bit and 64 bit)</li>
<li>Sun Solaris SPARC (32-bit)</li>
</ul>If you are upgrading to CP6 from any patch level prior to CP4 then JDBC patch patch p4398431_10105_GENERIC.zip for bug 4398431(release 10.1.0.5) needs to be installed before you apply CP5.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: 85%;">This patch needs to be applied to all Oracle Homes, i.e. Infrastructure home as well as all related midtier homes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: 85%;">Bug 4398431 - HANG WHEN RETRIEVING A CONNECTION FROM THE IMPLICIT CONNECTION CACHE</span><br />
<br />
The following posting has been updated:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://learndiscoverer.blogspot.com/2008/04/most-useful-patch-numbers.html">Useful Patch Numbers</a></li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-62775904494498908862010-06-21T00:11:00.000-05:002010-06-21T00:11:48.072-05:00Be inspired todayThis<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/liverpool/hi/front_page/newsid_8454000/8454445.stm"> truly inspirational clip</a> makes me proud to hail from Liverpool. I hope you enjoy it and if you do please pass it on and make someones's day.<br />
<br />
Be inspired and go on and inspire someone else.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-7511007292724815302010-06-18T11:59:00.000-05:002010-06-18T11:59:58.687-05:00Support for DiscovererAs you probably know, if you are using Discoverer 3 or Discoverer 4 Oracle no longer provides support for these. I've seen a lot of folks recently who are still on these older versions and who are now out of support.<br />
<br />
I wanted to let you know that I am able to offer remote support using gotomeeting for troubleshooting issues. I can connect to your system and help diagnose problems. In most cases we can get issues resolved within an hour.<br />
<br />
Obviously there is a fee for this service but if you are really stuck and need help who you going to turn to?<br />
<br />
Sending me an email is probably the simplest method of getting started. <a href="mailto:michael@ascbi.com">Click here to send an email</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-70555555799335282010-05-28T12:43:00.000-05:002010-05-28T12:43:06.928-05:00Corporate DashboardsDuring a recent consulting engagement I was asked about dashboards and where one should begin when the boss comes in and says I want a dashboard. I decided what I needed to do was step back and look at the dashboard concept, then explain my understanding in simple terms. I share those thoughts here and invite your comments. <br />
<br />
<br />
Dashboards are unique to an organization and what works in one place will not be suitable in another. But of course, it all depends on your definition of a dashboard. The one that I like and the one that keeps me out of mischief is this one: <br />
<br />
A dashboard or dash board is a panel located under the windscreen containing indicators and dials such as the tachometer / speedometer and odometer. I bet you never thought it was so easy. <br />
<br />
Seriously, look again at this definition and you will see the foundations of business dashboards. It is not the dials such as the tachometer, odometer and fuel gauge that are important. It is not the numbers either. <br />
<br />
What is really important is the meaning or significance (aka the KPI) that is applied to the numbers. Thus, depending upon the situation, a speed of 100 mph might be considered excessive, particularly if being chased by an irate police officer down a busy city street. Do the same thing on a race track and you might be considered a menace for going too slow. But do 100 mph on an autobahn in Germany and no-one will bat an eyelid because it is perfectly acceptable. You can see that the gauge, in this case the speedometer and the 100 mph reading, is by itself meaningless as a KPI. It is only when you apply the criteria which states that 100 mph must be highlighted in red because it is excessive that a real KPI is born. <br />
<br />
The concepts of dashboards in automobiles and in business are the same - they give us a snapshot of critical information at a moment in time. If you happen to be running out of fuel the dashboard will bring this fact to your attention. It does this by turning on a light or sounding a bell when a certain low point in the fuel tank is reached. <br />
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The vehicle dashboard needs to provide enough pertinent information so that informed decisions can be made as to how the vehicle is functioning. <br />
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Business dashboards need to provide enough pertinent information to the manager or executive so that they can make informed decisions as to how the department or company is functioning. Just like with a vehicle, a corporate dashboard needs to provide all of the critical information that is needed to run the organization's daily operations. <br />
<br />
Most corporate dashboards are a snapshot in time, typically midnight, that tell an organization if it is spending cash too fast; or whether the percentage of patients who needed a repeat visit is higher than 5%; or whether the number of requests for service this week exceeded the number from last week by more than 10%. The common factor here is that a rule is being applied to the data to indicate that something needs to be brought to someone's attention. <br />
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In a business, you can imagine that every employee has a steering wheel and an accelerator pedal. However, it is not necessary that everyone gets the same dashboard. Since the user roles are different not everyone needs the same level and kind of information. The worker bees need to work, the managers need to manage, and the executives need to improve their golf handicap. Typically, higher executives want to manage by exception and will only become really interested when something out of the ordinary happens. <br />
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If an organization is truly managing by exception then it should have a goal to move routine work from the manager to the employee, thus leaving the manager more time to manage. By creating a dashboard that displays the KPIs that the manager is interested in, a quick glance to see that all is green is all that is needed. Good KPIs, and thus good dashboards, reduce micromanagement which is good for everyone involved. <br />
<br />
Now that reminds me, golf anyone!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-81390783376895738562010-05-21T23:04:00.002-05:002010-05-21T23:14:26.862-05:00Traditional vs OLAPI have been following a very interesting thread on LinkedIn in the group called Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence Architects. The thread is discussing the pros and cons of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_analytical_processing">OLAP</a> as compared to more traditional methods of modeling. Personally I love these discussions. Here's what I recently said:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">For me, probably an oldie in terms of these discussions, I have been working with modeling and data warehouses coming up on 25 years. I find it very, very strange that for some reason the term OLAP gets pushed around as if it is the answer to everything. This is probably being unfair to the technique because it's actually been around in one form or another a lot longer than most people realise.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Long before the term was invented or, more to the point shall we say, the technique was discovered, documented and given a formal name, we have been able to model enormous data warehouses with enormous amounts of data. Databases with terabytes of data are not new.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">If I'm following the thread correctly I see two schools of thought, one pushing OLAP as the <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:bee's_knees">bees' knees</a> and one pushing relational modeling. As someone who entered this field not too many years after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_F._Codd">Dr. Edgar Codd</a> was first touting his ideas to IBM I can tell you that if a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_model">relational model</a> is done correct with the right partitions, indexes and joins I can design a data warehouse using traditional methods for far less money than most folks would have you believe it should cost.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">I'm somewhat of a historian and I actually have in my possession a set of Dr. Codd's early drafts. It makes for fascinating reading. So to anyone who is not sown on the idea yet I would urge you to read one of the many good books on the subject. You can do no worse than start with one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Kimball">Ralph Kimball's</a> books but you might also want to look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Inmon">Bill Inmon</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Personally, I don't adhere strictly to any of the father's of data warehousing. I have read them all and I mix and match as the situation arises replete with a little tangential leap from time to time, sometimes of faith but mostly based on experience. Oh yes, and occasionally I mix them all, you know, just for fun because, after all, this is a beautiful world and we are in a beautiful profession and we have beautiful problems to solve. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">So, what do you think? Are you a purist, a traditionalist or a modernist, somewhere in between or an amalgum of all three?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21606293.post-36528253405007061892010-05-18T20:08:00.000-05:002010-05-18T20:08:43.246-05:00New Discoverer BooksI thought I would let you know that McGraw-Hill may well be interested in doing 2 extra versions of our best selling Discoverer book. As you know, the current book is on version 10g and incorporates both end user and administration. We are going to separate these out into a brand new Oracle Discoverer 11g Administration Handbook and a smaller one for end users as a sort of tutorial for getting to know the tool. There is still demand for material on Discoverer and now, following the release of 11g, I believe would be a good time to bring our current book up to date.<br />
<br />
<br />
The end user book will basically take our end user training, extend it and convert it into book format. The bulk of this material already exists so is almost written.<br />
<br />
The main book that I will be working on the 11g Administration Handbook and I wanted to get your thoughts.<br />
<br />
As a launch point I will be taking the original book and stripping out everything to do with end users leaving just the administration chapters. Then I am going to add brand new material. The topics I definitely want to include are:<br />
<ul><li>Managing PL/SQL functions – nothing on this in original book</li>
<li>Java command line – again nothing on this in the original book</li>
<li>Interfacing Discoverer with BI Publisher</li>
<li>Application Server Management using Weblogic – one, maybe two chapters on this</li>
<li>Interfacing with Oracle E-Business Suite</li>
</ul>I’m also thinking about adding a chapter on what’s next for Discoverer with a discussion about upgrading to OBI EE and perhaps even covering the Discoverer to OBI EE migration mechanism in some detail.<br />
<br />
I'd like to get your input. From the administrators point of view, what would you like to see covered in such a book? Do you have any thoughts as to new material that should be covered?<br />
<br />
If so, please <a href="mailto:michael@ascbi.com">contact me via email</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0