Create,Configure & Schedule iBots or Agents in OBIEE with Example & Screenshots

iBot is Intelligent Bursting and Output Tool

iBot is an utility available in OBIEE which is used for reports scheduling as well as Alerts sent to the required recipients on different web accessible / communication devices.

IBot (10g) or Agents (11g) deliver targeted analytics to users based on a combination of schedule & trigger event. Delivery can be by a variety of routes, for example to Dashboard Alerts or to e-mail.

Accessing Delivers

For creating an iBot,first step is to access delivers.

To access Oracle BI Delivers, select More Products >Delivers

 

Delivers Start Page

From the Delivers window, you can create a new iBot, edit your account, review shared iBots, and so on.

Follow the steps 1 & 2 to create an iBot from Delivers Start Page

   1. Click Create a New iBot.

 

The Overview tab appears as the default.

   2. Click the General link on the Overview tab.

Steps to Configure an iBot

1.       Configure the General tab.

2.       Configure the Conditional Request tab (optional).

3.       Configure the Schedule tab.

4.       Configure the Recipients tab.

5.       Configure the Delivery Content tab.

6.       Configure the Destinations tab.

7.       Configure the Advanced tab (if necessary).

8.       Save the iBot.

We will discuss in detail about configuring each tab below…..

Configure the General Tab

This is the place where we can specify the priority of the iBot and how to send the delivery content.

1)You can set the priority to low, normal, or high. The priority works with the delivery profile for a user to determine the destination for alerts of different priorities.

2)Select the data visibility from the Data Visibility drop-down list.

In this we have three options.

• Personalized (individual data visibility)
• Not personalized (use the Run As user’s data visibility)
• Not personalized (use iBot owner’s data visibility)

Personalized (individual data visibility)

• This option uses the data visibility of each recipient to customize iBot delivery content for each recipient.
• This setting does not use the Run As field.

Not personalized (use the Run As user’s data visibility)

• This option sends the iBot’s delivery content to the specified recipients. All users receive the same content as if they were the user specified in the Run As field.
• This option is available only to users defined as Oracle BI Web administrators with at least one of the following privileges set in Oracle BI Web Administration:

o   Publish iBots for subscription.

o   Deliver iBots to specific or dynamically determined users.

 Not personalized (use iBot owner’s data visibility)

• This option sends the iBot’s delivery content to the specified recipients using the data visibility of the user who created the iBot. All users receive the same content as if they were the iBot owner.
• This option is available to users that have at least one of the privileges listed previously, but does not require you to be defined as a Oracle BI Web administrator.

Configure the Conditional Request Tab

Conditional Request tab is uded to select a request to trigger the iBot. You can further refine the request by re-opening it in Oracle BI Answers and using subqueries.

The results of the request determine whether the iBot sends its delivery content and initiates any subsequent actions:

• If the request does not return any rows, the iBot is not triggered.
• If the request returns at least one row, the iBot sends its delivery content and initiates any subsequent actions.

Requests can be chained together to create complex conditional logic.

Configure the Schedule Tab

Schedule tab is used to determine when the iBot runs, how often it runs, and when to discontinue running it.

iBots can execute based on a specified schedule. You can define a starting date and time for the iBot, a recurrence schedule, and an ending date.

To create an iBot with no schedule:

• Click the Set schedule option to remove the check mark.

To start the iBot now:

1. Click the Set schedule option to show the check mark.
2. Click the Start Immediately radio button.
3. Click the Save this iBot button.

To start the iBot at a specified date and time:

1. Enter the date in the Start Date box (or click the calendar icon to select a date).
2. (Optional) Enter a starting time.
3. (Optional) Select the time zone to determine when the iBot starts.

To execute the iBot one time only:

• Click the Once option Run once (or on one day if repeating). 

If the iBot has already run, this option enables you to specify that the iBot will only run once more on the specified time or day.

To execute the iBot on a daily schedule:

• Click the Daily option and specify the daily interval, such as every 2 days.

To execute the iBot on a weekly schedule:

1. Click the Weekly option and specify the weekly interval, such as every 1 week.
2. Select the days of the week when the iBot should run, such as Monday through Friday.

To execute the iBot on a monthly schedule:

1. Click the Monthly option and specify either the day of the month or the day occurrence, such as the first Tuesday.
2. Select the desired months.

To execute the iBot multiple times within a day:

1. Click the Repeat every check box.
2. Enter the interval between executions (in minutes), and the time to stop the repetition.
3. In the Recurrence section, click the Daily radio button, and specify Every 1 day(s).

To select an ending date

• Click the End by option and enter a date, or select a date from the calendar.

Configure the Recipients Tab

Recipients tab is used to select the users and groups to receive the delivery content of the iBot.

To send the delivery content to the creator of the iBot:

• Click the Me option.

To send the delivery content to multiple users:

1. Click the A specific list of recipients option.
2. Click the Choose recipients button to open the Select Recipients dialog box and specify the eligible users and groups.

To allow users to subscribe to the iBot:

1. Click the following option:Publish for subscription. 

When you select the Publish for subscription option, the Allow subscribers to customize iBot option is enabled.This option allow subscribers to customize iBot and also enables subscribers to supply filter values for prompted filters for columns in an iBot.

2. Click the Select button to open the Select Subscribers dialog box and specify the eligible users and groups.
3. Click the Save this iBot button to save this shared iBot.

To allow the recipients to be determined dynamically from the results of a conditional request:

1. Click the following option:Determine recipients from conditional request
2. To identify the column that contains the desired recipients, make a selection from the Column Containing Recipients drop-down list.You can also specify a second column from the request.
3. To send a subset of the data in the delivery content, click the following option:Show relevant rows only

For example, if a request runs, and only a subset of rows in the result pertains to a single user, only those rows are delivered.

NOTE: You must be an Oracle BI administrator to see this option.

To disallow users from subscribing to the iBot:

• Click the following option to remove the check mark: 

Publish for subscription.

To unsubscribe users to the iBot:

1. Click the Modify button in the Current Subscribers area.
2. Select the users to unsubscribe, click the delete button, and then click OK.

Configure the Delivery Content Tab

 

Delivery Content tab is used to specify the type of content to deliver with the iBot, such as a dashboard page or a saved request. You can also specify the delivery format for the content, such as HTML, PDF, XLS, CSV, or text.

To add a headline to appear as the iBot subject line:

• Type a short, descriptive headline into the Headline text box.

To select the delivery content for the iBot:

1. Click the Select Content button.
2. At the Choose Delivery Content dialog box, select the delivery content and click OK.
3. Choose a format for the delivery content from the Send content as drop-down list.

If we want to add a text message to provide the context for the ibot attachment

we can choose the option If sent as attachment, include this text.

To remove the delivery content for the iBot:

• Click the Clear Content button.

To specify a text message to deliver to recipients when there is no iBot content to deliver to them:

1. Click the following option:Deliver this message when no records are returned
2. Type the text into the text box.

We can add variables in any one of the text areas provided above.

the syntax is shown in the following table:

Variable Type	Syntax
Repository	@{Variable_Name}
Session	@{NQ_SESSION.Variable_Name}
Presentation	@{Variable_Name}

 

Configure the Destinations Tab

Destinations tab is used to specify a range of desired devices and destinations for iBots.

To select the user Destinations:

• User destinations can be the Interactive Dashboards or the Active Delivery

profile of specific users who have configured Oracle Delivers.

To select the specific Devices:

• We can choose the devices using the check boxes provided.

To select the system services:

This section describes the system services available for administrators on the Destinations page.

1. Oracle BI Server Cache: This is used for seeding cache.(choose the Personalized option for data visibility at the General tab)
2. Disconnected Application Cache:This setting is for organizations that have licensed Disconnected Analytics or a disconnected application such as Oracle’s Siebel Pharma Mobile Analytics.(Nonpersonalized data is not used for Disconnected Analytics users.)

Configure the Advanced Tab

Advanced tab is used to specify one or more actions to execute when the iBot completes. Actions will be executed on behalf of each user who is a recipient of the iBot. You can change the default  behavior for each iBot action. Actions include the execution of other iBots, custom  scripts, custom Java programs or Workflows defined using the Oracle’s Siebel Workflow Version 7.7 (or higher) application. You can also specify actions to execute either when iBot conditions are satisfied, or when no records are returned.We can choose these actions when iBot conditions are satisfied and also when iBot conditions are not satisfied.