Setting or Creating an Implicit Fact Column in OBIEE

To set an implicit fact column follow the steps and screenshot

• Create a Dummy Fact column in a Physical Layer called Implicit Fact Column and map that column to any number of your choice

Creating Implicit Fact Column

• Join all Dimensions to this Fact column in BMM Layer
• In presentation layer, double click the presentation catalog/ go to properties of presentation catalog.
• In the general tab, find the Implicit Fact Column section.

Selecting Implicit Fact Column from Presentation Catalog

• Click on Set button, this will open the browse window
• Select a fact column from the fact tables available in the presentation catalog.
• Click OK.
• Ensure that the selected Implicit Fact Column is displayed in the Implicit Fact Column section in the general properties of Presentation Catalog.
• Click OK.
• Save your changes in the repository.

Benefits or Use of Implicit Fact Column in OBIEE

Setting an Implicit Fact Column has two benefits,

1. An implicit fact column help BI Server choose the join path when multiple join paths are available between facts and dimensions.
2. When a report is generated only from dimension tables, it will result in an error as an Analyses should always consist of at least one fact or measure.To overcome this error we define an implicit fact column. This ensures that a fact is always included in the SQL generated by BI Server.