Advanced Discoverer

Techniques

Contact: Ben Lamb

Phone: (03) 9879 4060

Email: ben.lamb@navigo.com.au

Document Date: 15 February 2008

Table of Contents

1 Creating new folders in Discoverer Administrator................................................. 4

1.1 Creating a new Business Area ................................................................................ 4
1.2 New folder on an existing database table................................................................ 4
1.3 New Folder from a SQL Query ................................................................................ 6
2 Linking Worksheets ................................................................................................. 8
2.1 Create the worksheets to link .................................................................................. 8
2.2 Employee List ......................................................................................................... 8
2.2.1 Employee Details ............................................................................................. 9
2.3 Create the Link ....................................................................................................... 9
3 Creating Custom Joins in Administrator .............................................................. 13
3.1 Inner Joins ............................................................................................................ 13
3.2 Outer Joins ........................................................................................................... 14
3.2.1 Create Outer Joins in Administrator ............................................................... 14
4 Using PL/SQL functions for complex logic .......................................................... 16
4.1 Creating functions via Administrator ...................................................................... 16
4.1.1 Create the Function ....................................................................................... 16
4.1.2 Create Custom Folder from a SQL Query ...................................................... 17
4.2 Calling functions via Discoverer ............................................................................ 18
4.2.1 Create the Database Package ....................................................................... 18
4.2.2 Register the PL/SQL Function ....................................................................... 19
4.2.3 Create the calculation .................................................................................... 20

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

2
Introduction
Discoverer users are often unaware of advanced features Discoverer is capable of. Once
you’ve been using Discoverer for a while, you may want to extend beyond the basics to add
more complex logic, access additional information from your database or have more detailed
reports.

This whitepaper outlines some steps on how to configure Discoverer to perform more
complicated tasks.

Specifically, this paper will describe:

• Creating new Folders and joins in Administrator

• Registering PL/SQL functions in Administrator to be used as calculations in Discoverer
• Including PL/SQL packages to perform complex logic from your Discoverer report
• Creating smart workbooks to link worksheets

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

3
1 Creating new folders in Discoverer Administrator
A folder can be either a link to an existing database table or a SQL query. They are usually
created to produce a folder based from an existing database table that does not already
exist in the EUL or to combine a number of database tables into a single folder.

Note: When creating new folders against a vendor supplied EUL, create a new Business
Area for your new folders so that if the EUL changes because of an upgrade, your work will
not be affected.

1.1 Creating a new Business Area

To create a new Business Area log into Administrator and click on Insert->Business Area-
>New. You can change the name of the Business Area to suit what kind of folders it will
contain or who will have access to it. In this example I will call it Navigo Custom.

1.2 New folder on an existing database table

To create a new folder as an exact copy of an existing database table, click on the Business
Area you want to add the folder to, click on Insert->Folder->From Database. From here you
can find an existing database table and add it to your Business Area.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

4
They are some options you can choose to do:

• Automatically create joins to other table

• Create date hierarchies
• Create a list of values (LOV)

You can also clean the column names up by choosing to replace underscores with spaces,
remove column prefixes and capitalise the first character of the columns or all words. You
can also sort the folder and items if you like.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

5
And then the folder is created

1.3 New Folder from a SQL Query

Frequent users of Discoverer will want to link the same folders together over and over. To
save time, folders can be created that join the tables together in the background so users will
be able to just choose a single folder that contains their data.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

6
Example

If users only ever want to get details for employees whose job is based in Melbourne, a
folder can be made that will only contain this information.

Employee Job Melbourne_emps

Turn employee#
name
employee#
start_date
Into employee#
name
address location address
start_date
location

To create the folder, click on the Business Area you want to add the folder to and click
Insert->Folder->Custom. This will bring up an area where you can enter the SQL for the
custom folder.

To check the SQL query click Validate SQL and then OK and the folder is now created

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

2 Linking Worksheets
It is useful to be able to be able to link from one worksheet to another and pass parameters
to the new worksheets from the original. This allows groups of reports to be used together
without having to remember and type in parameters each time you load a new worksheet.

This can be done both between different worksheets in the same workbook or between
worksheets in different workbooks.

2.1 Create the worksheets to link

Two workbooks will be created

• Employee List – This will contain a list of employees showing their employee id, first
name and last name
• Employee Details – this will contain employee information like email, phone number,
salary, manager and department

2.2 Employee List

Create a report with the following fields

• Employee id
• First Name
• Last Name

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

8
2.2.1 Employee Details
Create a report with the following fields

• Employee id
• First Name
• Last Name
• Email
• Phone Number
• Salary
• Manager Id
• Department Id
Create a parameter for employee Id

2.3 Create the Link

Open the report Employee List and click anywhere in the Employee id field then click

Tools -> Manage Links

Click New Link and fill in the link name, where you want to link to, destination workbook and
destination worksheet

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

9
Click on Parameters to pass a value to the parameter in the destination worksheet

Now the link is created

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

10
You’ll notice that the field Employee Id has little triangles next to each employee Id

By linking on the triangle a list of all links associated will appear

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

11
By clicking this link it will open up the linked workbook passing through the Employee Id as
the parameter

You can have as many links as you need attached to any field in your report creating a quick
and easy way to look at details from multiple sheets without having to open workbooks
manually and enter parameters.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

12
3 Creating Custom Joins in Administrator
There are two types of joins used in Administrator:

• Inner Join
• Outer Join

The following two tables will be used as our sample data.

Employees Positions

employee# employee#
name position#
address

Which contain the data

Employees Positions
Employee# Name Address Employee# Position#

1234 John Blogg 1 Bond St 1234 123

1357 Jane Smith 4 Devon St 1122 144
1122 Matt Jones 7 Grand St 154
1313 Pete Mulder 2 Sunny St 1313 121

3.1 Inner Joins

These are the most commonly used type of joins. They join a record in one folder to a
record in another folder. If the record does not exist in one of the folders it will not be shown.
Using the above folders an inner join would return the following results.

Inner Join
Employee# Name Address Position#

1234 John Blogg 1 Bond St 123

1122 Matt Jones 7 Grand St 144
1313 Pete Mulder 2 Sunny St 121

If there isn't a matching record in both tables the record will not be shown

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

3.2 Outer Joins
Outer joins are not used as often but are very useful. If a record exists in one folder but not
in the other folder they will still be shown. Using the above folders, an outer join would
return the following results.

Outer Join
Employee# Name Address Position#

1234 John Blogg 1 Nelson St 123

1357 Jane Smith 4 Devon St
1122 Matt Jones 7 Grand St 144
154
1313 Pete Mulder 2 Sunny St 121

3.2.1 Create Outer Joins in Administrator

Using employee and positions (defined above), an outer join can be created by clicking on
the Positions folder and then clicking Insert->Join and choosing positions.employee# and
employees.employee#

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

Click next and then click the radio button Outer join on detail then click finish

Once done, the joins can be seen when the folders are expanded

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

15
4 Using PL/SQL functions for complex logic
Hard to create complex logic in Discoverer, you can use PL/SQL functions to overcome this
limitation.

PL/SQL function can be called either from a SQL folder in Administrator or from a calculation
in Discoverer.

• A SQL folder in Administrator would be used when all the PL/SQL needs to run can be
found in the folders it links to.
• A calculation via Discoverer would be used when the PL/SQL needs data from
Discoverer like user parameters.

4.1 Creating functions via Administrator

Example

If employees have multiple jobs over the course of their career and you want to find their
maximum base salary at any point in their career, this can be found through PL/SQL
referenced through a SQL custom folder.

4.1.1 Create the Function

PL/SQL called custom_packages.get_max_base_salary must be created, which will take two
parameters, employee_number and job_number. The PL/SQL will look through all
occupancies and find the highest base salary the employee has ever received.

function get_max_base_salary
( pi_employee# in varchar2,
pi_job# in varchar2 )
return number is

v_max_base_salary number;

cursor c_get_max_base_salary is
select max(o.base_salary)
from occupancy o
where o.employee# = pi_employee#
and o.job# = pi_job#;

begin
open c_get_max_base_salary;
fetch c_get_max_base_salary into v_max_base_salary;
close c_get_max_base_salary;

return v_max_base_salary;
end;

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

16
4.1.2 Create Custom Folder from a SQL Query
SQL queries have the ability to call the PL/SQL, so create a custom SQL folder that will get
any information you need and also call the database package. Assuming there is a folder
called OCCUPANCY that has the following fields, employee_number, job_number and
base_salary we can create the following:

Click on the business area you want to add the new folder to and click insert->folder-
>custom. This will bring up an area to create a custom folder. Next, type the following SQL

Once you click OK you will have a new folder that will return the maximum base salary for

each employee.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

17
4.2 Calling functions via Discoverer
Functions that are linked to Administrator will work well in most situations, however
parameters cannot be passed to the function from Discoverer. It can be useful to pass
parameters from Discoverer if you need to base your results on a user defined parameter.

Example

If you want to find employees base salary based on a particular date, this may prove difficult
if an employee has one occupancy but their salary, which is based of their
award/classification, changes often throughout the occupancy. Discoverer can allow a
calculation to be called that will reference the function passing it parameters.

4.2.1 Create the Database Package

Create the package called custom_package.get_base_salary_at_date which will take three
parameters, award, classification and as_at_date. The database package will look up the
employees salary based on the award/classification at the date you pass to it.

function get_max_base_salary_at_date
( pi_award in varchar2,
pi_classification in varchar2,
pi_as_at_date in date )
return number is

v_max_base_salary number;

cursor c_get_max_base_salary_at_date is
select max(a.salary)
from award_class a
where a.award = pi_award
and a.classification = pi_classification
and a.start_date = ( select max(a1.start_date)
from award_class a1
where a1.award = a.award
and a1.classification = a.classification
and a1.start_date <= pi_as_at_date
and a1.end_date >= pi_as_at_date );

begin
open c_get_max_base_salary_at_date;
fetch c_get_max_base_salary_at_date into v_max_base_salary;
close c_get_max_base_salary_at_date;

return v_max_base_salary;
end;

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

18
4.2.2 Register the PL/SQL Function
The PL/SQL must be registered through Administrator in order for it to be called from
Discoverer. To do this go to Tools->Register PL/SQL Functions. From here we can import

the created PL/SQL by clicking the import button and finding the created PL/SQL.

Click Validate to make sure the PL/SQL is valid and then click OK. Now you will be able to
reference the PL/SQL from Discoverer.

Note: You must reconnect to any existing Discoverer connections to be able to use the
package.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

19
4.2.3 Create the calculation
Next create a calculation through Discoverer that will call the PL/SQL. The calculation will
have the following in it:

(:as_at_date in this example is a user defined parameter)

This will allow reports to be made through Discoverer that use complicated calculations
based on parameters that could not be done solely through Discoverer.

Advanced Discoverer Techniques

20