OBIEE 11G Creating a Narrative View

You create a Narrative view to provide information such as context, explanatory text, or extended descriptions along with column values for an analysis. You can include values from attribute, hierarchical, and measure columns. If you want to include hierarchy levels in a Narrative view, use selection steps to display the levels. The Narrative view is a combination of text and query column values.
To add a Narrative view, perform the following steps:

1 .	To create a meaningful Narrative view, begin by creating a new analysis that includes a calculated item. a. Create an analysis as you did above, including the following columns: Folder Columns Customers C50 Region Customers C0 Customer Number Customers C1 Customer Name Base Facts 4-Paid Amount Base Facts 3-Discount Amount b. Change the properties of 4 - Paid Amount and 3 - Discount Amount to include dollar signs, commas, and two decimal places. The properties should look like this: c. Add a filter to C50 Region and select only the Americas region and save the filter as AMERICAS only.
2 .	a. Add 3 - Discount Amount to the Criteria tabbed page a second time. The Selected Columns within the Criteria tabbed page should look like this: b. Edit the Column Properties for the duplicate 3 - Discount Amount column. Click More Options for this duplicate column and select Column Properties. c. Select the Column Format tabbed page, and select the check box for Custom Headings. Enter Discnt Pct to Paid Amt in the Column Heading text box. d. Using the Data Format tabbed page, format the data for this column as a percentage with two decimal places and then click OK. The Selected Columns should look like this:
3 .	a. Click More Options for Discnt Pct to Paid Amt and select Edit Formula. The Edit Column Formula dialog box appears: b. Enter the following formula in the Column Formula text box. ("Base Facts"."3- Discount Amount"/"Base Facts"."4- Paid Amount")*100 Hint: You can copy the line of code and paste it in the Column Formula text box. The Edit Column Formula dialog box should look like this: c. Click OK.
4 .	a. Select the Results tabbed page and remove the Title view from the Compound Layout. b. Click the Edit View icon to open the Table editor. c. Click the More Options icon for C50 Region and select Hidden to hide the column. d. Click Done to review your results. The Table view should look like this: e. Save the analysis as Customer Discounts by Region.
5 .	To add the Narrative view perform the following steps: a. Click the New View icon on the toolbar and select Other Views > Narrative. b. Drag the Narrative view above the Table view. c. Click the Edit View icon for the Narrative view.
6 .	The Narrative editor appears. You use the Prefix text box to enter the header for the narrative. This text is displayed at the beginning of the narrative. You use the Narrative text box to enter the narrative text that will appear for each row in the results. You can include both text and column values. Include a line-break code at the end of this field to force each line of text and values onto its own line. To include values, use the at sign (@) by itself to indicate the first column. If you include multiple signs, then the first occurrence of the sign corresponds to the first column, the second occurrence corresponds to the second column, and so on. You use the @ sign to include the results from the designated column in the narrative. You use the "Row separator" text box to enter a row separator for each line from the Narrative field that contains values. For example you might enter a string of plus signs (+) between each line. You use the "Rows to display" text box to enter the number of rows from the column to return. For example, enter 5 to display values from the first 5 rows of the column. For a hierarchical column, you can use selection steps to display hierarchy levels with the hierarchical column. A hierarchy level is considered a row. You use the Postfix text box to enter the footer text to appear at the bottom of the narrative. To display the footer information on a separate line from the actual narrative text, include markup tags in the Postfix field. Ensure that the narrative ends in a line break, or that the footer begins with a line break. The toolbar allows you to use HTML code and markup to enhance the narrative. b. In the Prefix text box, enter This analysis shows the discount percentage for each customer within the , ensuring that you leave a single space following the last word. c. In the Narrative text box, enter @1, where the number "1" represents the first column in the analysis (C50 Region). Then, select the @1 that you entered and click the bold icon. d. In the Postfix text box, enter region., ensuring that you include a space before region and a period after region. e. Enter 1 in the "Rows to display" text box. Notice that a preview is provided at the bottom of the editor.
7 .	Click Done and save your analysis. The Compound Layout should look like this: This concludes the topic of creating a narrative view.