Utilizing BI 11g Reporting To Get The Most Out of P6

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Utilizing BI 11g Reporting To Get The Most Out of P6

Mike Domzalski Principal Technical Engineer Oracle, Oracle Software Support April 15, 2015

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Overview

Brief History of Reporting

Creating Reports

Layouts and Formatting

Troubleshooting and Documentation

Demo Advanced Reports in P6

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5



Brief History of Reporting It has to start somewhere…



Where It All Started

• Primavera P6 6.x

– First conception of reporting as a separate functionality • ETL – create non de-normalized data for easy reporting

– 20+ scripts to be run individually

• Primavera P6 8.0 – Integrated with Oracle Business Intelligence

– Scripts down to 2; Full transfer and Incremental

• Primavera P6 8.1

– Introduced Px Schema

– Zero scripts



Where We Are Now

• Primavera P6 8.2 and Later

– Px Schema provides near real-time reporting on granular data

– Creates 131 P6 views (Synonyms)

–Manual or Scheduled Process

– Baseline availability



Getting Started with Creating a Report in BIP 11G



What Do I Need to Build a Report?

• Report Requirements

– This eliminates the need for double work

– Use Provided DMD file or Px Field Lists

• Access to Oracle BIP/OBIEE and P6 – Local BI Superuser or P6 User appropriate BI Role

• Who should have access to this data

– All user level security is obeyed

• Optional (but recommended)

–Oracle SQL Developer

–Oracle BI Desktop Tool



Building the Report – High Level

• BI Report is broken down into two main areas

– Data Model

– Layout

• Always start with the Data Model

– Determines data that is used by a report

• Create the Layout

– Defines how the data is presented in the report

• Scalability

– Reports should be built with filters (parameters) designed to limit or scale output



Inside the Data Model

• Defines data that is used by a report

• Only need to focus on 3 components

– Data Sets

– Parameters

– List Of Values

• Each component can contain multiple values

• Save sample data for later



Inside the Data Model – Data Sets

• Data Sets

– Defines how data fields are structured in relation to each other

– Usually written in SQL

– Has a Data Model Editor, a graphical user interface for building data models



Inside the Data Model – Parameters

• Parameters

– Enables users to filter the data when they submit or view reports

– Using P6 supported parameters will allow you to provide a user interface to enter the values for parameters

– Supports cascading



Inside the Data Model – List of Values

• List of Values

– Defined set of values that a report consumer can select from to pass a parameter value

– P6 only supports one value being returned the query



Data Model Interaction


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Data Model is done now what should I do…..


Build the Layout/Template

• Two ways to build

– BI Publisher Layout Editor • Design tool that provides a WYSIWIG, drag and drop interface

– Built directly in BI Publisher

– Use this for simple reports or reports that require minimal formatting

– BI Desktop Word Add-In • Template Builder is an extension to MS Word (2003 or later) that simplifies RTF template creation for

Oracle BI Publisher reports.

– Desktop application that requires Microsoft Word be installed

– Use this for complex reports that require detailed formatting



Layout Builder Options

BI Publisher Layout Editor BI Desktop Word Add-In



How the Data Model and Layout interact

• 2 pieces working as one unit

– Data Model feeds the Layout the data

– Layout receives and formats

• Scalable Reports – By creating multiple layouts per Data Model it can increase the effectiveness of a

reports.

• Output Formats

–Multiple output formats can be selected for each layout



Additional Settings and Formatting



P6 Admin Settings – Cache Timeout

• In the Cache Timeout field, enter how long cached report definitions should appear.

• The default is 1d.

• Optimally, this should be set to 1m to ensure reports definitions are updated at near real time in p6



P6 Admin Settings – Personal Folders

• In the Personal Folders field, select the option (true) to enable personal folders per user

• The default is FALSE.

• The objects that are stored in personal folders can only be accessed by the user who created and saved the content into the folder.



Px Data Formatting

• Data Model

– Start and Finish Dates • TO_CHAR(DATEFIELD, 'mm/yyyy')

• Layout

– Units, Cost, Variance values can show past 2 decimal places • <?format-number:fieldname;’999G999D99’?>

• Word option > Right click on field > Change number format

– Indicator UDFs • Colors show as words i.e. Green, Red etc


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Great, something is not working…..


Things to Check in P6 • Are my Global Scheduled Services are Running SUCCESSFULLY?

• Has the project(s) been recently published SUCCESSFULLY?

• Are any other users having an issue?

• Is Services enabled and the settings are correct

• Getting Errors

– Refer to the P6WebAccess logs for more details

• Some technical items

– Is the project arbiter stuck?

– Is the BI environment configured correctly in the P6 Administrator?

– Any local issues occurring?



Things to Check in BIP

• Does the report run in only BI?

• Does only the Data Model return data

• Can the queries for each component be run directly on the Database?

• Any local BIP Issues going on?



Documentation Resources

• P6 OTN

– Px DMD • Open in Oracle Data Model Developer or SQL Developer

– Schema Field Maps • Field by field comparison for PMDB vs Px

• BIP OTN

– Documentation > Reports Designers Guide

– Learn More


http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-publisher/documentation/index.html

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.1111/e22254/toc.htm

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.1111/e22254/toc.htm


Knowledgebase Resources

• Knowledgebase Documents

– Information Center: Troubleshooting Primavera P6 EPPM And P6 PPM (Doc ID 1358141.2) • Troubleshooting > BI Publisher

• Training Videos

– How To Create a Report in P6 Using BI Publisher 11g [VIDEO] (Doc ID 1458888.1)

• Oracle University Training – Primavera P6 Reporting with BI Publisher 11g



Knowledgebase Resources Cont.

• Knowledgebase Documents

– P6 Extended Schema: White Paper and Common Knowledge Base Documents (Doc ID 1612907.1)



Demo
