Autumn Update – Explor­ing the Septem­ber 2023 Oracle Ana­lyt­ics Cloud (OAC) Release

Wel­come to our blog post, where today we´ll run through the latest Septem­ber 2023 update. In this art­icle, we’ll walk you through the most sig­ni­fic­ant new fea­tures that Oracle Ana­lyt­ics Cloud has to offer, and whether you’re a seasoned user or just curi­ous about the world of ana­lyt­ics, this update has a lot in store for you! Let’s jump right in and see what’s new.

Enforce the Para­met­ers List of Val­ues and Val­id­a­tion in Oracle Analytics

In this blog post, we´ll explore three key enhance­ments that have been incor­por­ated into the para­meter cre­ation and edit­ing exper­i­ence in Oracle Analytics.

Val­id­ate SQL State­ments for Para­meter Values

Amongst the standout fea­tures of this pro­cess is the cap­ab­il­ity to define avail­able val­ues through logical SQL quer­ies. This empowers you to dynam­ic­ally retrieve data based on spe­cific cri­teria, elim­in­at­ing the need to manu­ally enter a pre­defined list.

Let´s see how it works by adding a para­meter to a work­book: when you define your avail­able val­ues using a logical SQL query, you can click on the Val­id­ate but­ton to check if your query is cor­rectly format­ted and will retrieve the expec­ted data. This real-time val­id­a­tion helps to elim­in­ate poten­tial errors, sav­ing you time with troubleshoot­ing later on in the ana­lyt­ical process.

In this case, we built a para­meter based on the Depart­ment column, and the mes­sage that appears when we click on the Val­id­ate but­ton indic­ates that the SQL is correct.

Select A Data Column for Para­meter Values

Oracle has intro­duced an innov­at­ive fea­ture, Columns, to define avail­able val­ues within para­met­ers: instead of preselect­ing val­ues from a fixed list, users are presen­ted with a data tree ele­ment that reveals all the columns within the data­set or sub­ject area they are work­ing with.

Let’s look at this func­tion­al­ity by access­ing the Para­meter tab, then select­ing Column as an avail­able value, allow­ing us to choose from all the columns in the access­ible data set:

We have again chosen Depart­ment as the para­meter value. Next, we add this para­meter as a fil­ter con­trol on our dash­board, from which we will receive a list of Depart­ment val­ues, as we can see in this image:

Con­trol Val­id­a­tion of Para­meter Val­ues in Workbooks

The Enforce Val­id­a­tion fea­ture ensures that the ini­tial value provided for a para­meter is val­id­ated against the list of avail­able val­ues, and that incom­ing val­ues are val­id­ated at runtime. If a value does not match one of the avail­able options, it is ignored.

To con­tinue with our example, we´ll add a para­meter called Product Type. By enter­ing Spain as an ini­tial value for this para­meter, the tool imme­di­ately val­id­ates it against the list of avail­able val­ues and dis­cov­ers that Spain is not among the avail­able product types:

The Enforce Val­id­a­tion fea­ture is also act­ive at runtime when the para­meter is executed. If a user inter­acts with the para­meter con­trol on a dash­board and enters a value that does not match those avail­able, it will be ignored.

Adding Descrip­tions to Tile Visualisations

Oracle has added a Descrip­tion fea­ture for Tile visu­al­isa­tions with its latest release. This fea­ture allows the report developers to provide addi­tional inform­a­tion about the data point the Tile shows, thus mak­ing the report or dash­board more inform­at­ive for end users.

You can add a descrip­tion to the Tile from the Tile Properties:

By default, this sec­tion is set to Auto, but you can eas­ily switch it to Cus­tom and craft the descrip­tion that best suits your Tile:

Moreover, you can cus­tom­ise the size, font, and col­our of your description.

Whether you’re build­ing dash­boards for your team or present­ing insights to stake­hold­ers, these descrip­tions ensure that your audi­ence under­stands the sig­ni­fic­ance of each Tile. This simple yet power­ful addi­tion can turn data into action­able insights, mak­ing it easier for users to inter­pret and act upon the inform­a­tion presented.

Cre­at­ing Data Actions from Tiles

Oracle has added a fea­ture that allows you to link the Data Actions dir­ectly to the Tile visu­al­isa­tions to make the dash­boards and reports more inter­act­ive for end users, enhan­cing the inform­ativ­ity and read­ab­il­ity of the report as well as mak­ing it easier to get to other pages. This is how to do it.

Let’s assume that you have the Tile that shows the total sales amount on the main page of the work­book, and the second page of the work­book con­tains detailed sales inform­a­tion. To con­nect the Tile with the other page, you must cre­ate a new Data Action using the pop-up window:

When cre­at­ing the Data Action and spe­cify­ing its name, type, and the Can­vas link, remem­ber to anchor it to the column that is used for your Tile:

The Data Action is cre­ated by click­ing on OK, and you can access it by right-click­ing on the Sales Tile:

This Data Action will not be seen in other visu­al­isa­tions as it is anchored to the Sales column.

This enhance­ment not only provides con­text but also enables users to take imme­di­ate actions based on the insights they’ve gained.

Fil­ter­ing Work­books using Combo Boxes

Another new visu­al­isa­tion fea­ture is the List Box fil­ter type. Users have vari­ous options when apply­ing fil­ters, includ­ing tog­gling between list and top-bot­tom end, set­ting lim­its by includ­ing nulls, or exclud­ing spe­cific selec­tions from the column val­ues. How­ever, in most cases, the user just wants a simple exper­i­ence, show­ing the list of val­ues in the column that is used as a fil­ter. OAC has added this new fil­ter type to do just that.

The fil­ter type is eas­ily changed in the work­book edit mode, in the fil­ter visu­al­isa­tion set­tings in the Fil­ter Con­trols tab. The prop­erty is named Fil­ter Type and it is set to List by default:

Simply change it to List Box in the drop-down menu:

As a res­ult, we can see a very simple view of the column val­ues, as well as the null val­ues and the no selec­tion options:

Show Geo­met­ric Details on Maps

Maps are power­ful tools for visu­al­ising data geo­spa­tially, and they become even more insight­ful when labels are added. OAC now offers a fea­ture that allows you to do this.

Map labels can dis­play cru­cial details such as state names, cat­egory labels, loc­a­tion inform­a­tion, col­our codes, and tool­tips. These labels serve as inform­a­tional sign­posts, point­ing those view­ing the map towards what´s significant.

Let´s explore the pro­cess of adding key inform­a­tion to maps. In the image below we have cre­ated a map visu­al­isa­tion with sales details, and in order to con­fig­ure them cor­rectly, we have to go to the map visu­al­isa­tion prop­er­ties and select one of the Data Label Pos­i­tion options:

You can choose the ideal pos­i­tion for your labels in OAC: you can opt for a centred place­ment, or dis­able labels alto­gether, based on your visu­al­isa­tion goals. Fur­ther­more, OAC lets you dis­play mul­tiple labels by select­ing mul­tiple columns from your map defin­i­tion, mak­ing it easy to con­vey vari­ous pieces of inform­a­tion sim­ul­tan­eously. In our case, we will dis­play coun­try, state, and city.

The Multi Line set­ting is a valu­able tool to enhance read­ab­il­ity. When activ­ated, it divides mul­tiple labels into sep­ar­ate lines, ensur­ing that your map remains read­able and uncluttered. What´s more, you can con­trol the label over­lap to keep everything clear. The Allow Over­lap set­ting intel­li­gently man­ages label place­ment, tak­ing spa­cing and read­ab­il­ity into account – check out the dif­fer­ence between the fol­low­ing images with Allow Over­lap on, then off:

And with the cus­tom­isa­tion options, you can adjust the font size and col­our to make your labels visu­ally appeal­ing and dis­tinct­ive, align­ing them with your over­all visu­al­isa­tion aesthetics.

Share Work­book Links with Options Includ­ing QR Codes

This latest OAC update also makes shar­ing work­books a whole lot easier. Now, users can effort­lessly share their work with col­leagues or stake­hold­ers with easy-to-use shar­ing options.

In the top-right corner just click on the Export but­ton and you will see the pop-up menu with shar­ing and export­ing options:

Now the QR code for shar­ing is auto­mat­ic­ally gen­er­ated and displayed:

Amongst the options like copy­ing the link or choos­ing which work­book page will be shared, the integ­ra­tion of QR codes really stands out: users can gen­er­ate QR codes linked to their work­books, mak­ing shar­ing as easy as scan­ning a code with a mobile device. This tech­no­logy sim­pli­fies col­lab­or­a­tion and stream­lines access to vital insights.

Tile Deprec­ated

The clas­sic tile, known as Tile Deprec­ated in the work­book editor, will con­tinue to func­tion in exist­ing work­books but will no longer be access­ible for new work­books. To add one or more met­rics to a visu­al­isa­tion, opt for Tile instead. The two screen­shots below offer a com­par­ison between the old and the new:

Con­clu­sion

The latest Oracle Ana­lyt­ics Cloud release con­tin­ues to push the bound­ar­ies of what’s pos­sible in data ana­lyt­ics. With its new fea­tures, OAC provides not only a tool for data visu­al­isa­tion but also a tool that provides con­text and pro­poses actions.

For organ­isa­tions that need to make data-driven decisions quickly, these fea­tures are game-changers. No mat­ter if you are a data analyst, BI pro­fes­sional, or a decision-maker, OAC ensures that you have the tools to trans­form data into action­able insights.

If you´d like to see what Oracle can do for your busi­ness or organ­isa­tion, just get in touch with our expert Oracle team here at synvert and we´ll be happy to help you!