Power Packed Oracle Analytics Cloud features released in 2023
Avinash Krishnaram
Director of Product Management, Oracle Analytics Cloud | Analytics & BI | Platform | Data apps & products
Several crucial and important new features & enhancements added to Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) in 2023 to help with content curation, discovering insights and interacting with data. Our investment in AI/ML, augmented analytics, and advanced analytics expanded, alongside the continued development of core experiences and data visualization, catering to a range of industry-specific use cases. With over 100 new features added, OAC users are empowered to derive insights, find it easier to interact with and understand data. This article highlights the important features integrated into the product in 2023.
?1.???? Parameters
2.???? New Web based Semantic Modeler
3.???? New Present Workspace
4.???? End user personalization of Filters values in public preview
5.???? Data flow sharing
6.???? Role based filters
7.???? Data flow scheduling
8.???? Semantic knowledge enrichments in Workbooks
9.???? Fine grain permissions
10.? Create datasets in Microsoft Power BI
11.? Connect to Vertica, MySQL Heatwave, Snowflake, Google V4
12.? Watchlist for authors & consumer users
13.? Advanced Analytics - AI/ML
14.? Add Synonyms to datasets
15.? Spark charts
16.? Several Visualization Enhancements
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Parameters
Parameters are reusable, user-defined, workbook scope variables allowing the author to design advanced dashboard experiences to dynamically manipulate data at run time. Parameters can be
- exposed as filter controls for the end user interaction
- bound to all filter types?
- used in expression filters & calculations, thus opening a wide range of use cases for dynamic data manipulation at run time
Blog: https://blogs.oracle.com/analytics/post/build-delightful-dashboard-experience-using-parameters
Videos:
- Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HYoKRe2LWo?
- Column Selector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqSrXvFhOmE
- Dynamic Top N filters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtheWvsEN6g
- What-if analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnm8RJp407M
- Pass parameter values with Data Actions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBcjhKXgg2M
- Bind Parameters to filters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0RacJu4Skc
- Pin dashboard filters using parameters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lSaK7mHUgc
- Constrain filter values using parameters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bZ5RRyEhA
- Enable parameters for embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQQewy9SB2c
Web based Semantic Modeler
A new web-based, modern interface for data modeling with a streamlined user experience to create governed semantic models. It has a tight integration with Git to provide a seamless multi-user development experience. Developers create the models using the Semantic Modeler UI, or they can create the models using the Semantic Model Markup Language (SMML).?
The offering also introduces a new Semantic Model Markup Language (SMML), a modeling language based on the popular JSON format familiar among developers to add business semantics to data. SMML provides a grammar, syntax, and structure for defining semantic models. A semantic model is a collection of SMML files that can be version controlled with the Git integration.
Video:
- Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrV_5PK9Rrw
- Collaborative development: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuvaXmBxu8g
?New Present experience ?
A new experience in OAC for authors to curate a compelling data story telling experience. The new streamlined Present workspace empowers authors to curare tailored experiences on the Workbooks providing full control for the author from defining the interaction experience on the workbook to customizing the content and visual appearance of the workbook for your end users. Some key features to highlight:
- Header bar customization
- Show (read-only or edit) / Hide workbook filter bar
- Show / Hide visualization toolbar menu
- Turn on / off interaction controls on visualization
- Show / Hide Zoom controls
- Set presentation layout
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End User Personalization
Filter selections are most popular interaction patterns on Workbook end users interact with the dashboards to visualize data as per their needs. Often, users want to resume with where they left off on the workbook. Oracle Analytics new feature allows end users to persist the filter selections on the workbook. The feature has been in public preview with the OAC September 2023 update and will be generally available with the OAC Jan 2024 update.
Spark charts
Add spark charts to Tile visualization with rich formatting & layout options to optimally present your primary & secondary KPIs. Furthermore add description and configure data actions on Tile.
Video:
- Spark charts for Tile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYOMTElpNPU
- Description & Data Action on Tile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Z1l48JiqA
Visualization Enhancements
- Conditional annotation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O57hvUwmC1Y
- Maps point size: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFBFVP1_Sws
- Show data labels on Maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZbQ1xfgWgU
- Maps point, region and line styles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5fnFGNqLew
- Map background layers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLH3odQBudg
- Conditional formatting for Maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0mQRmn83EE
- Scatter point size & options: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwwORtvFPFE
- Line patterns & formatting options: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzR_0bDVxu4
- Number scale formatting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzR_0bDVxu4
- Data labels for Treemap and Heatmap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzR_0bDVxu4
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Changing Aggregation Rules in visualizations
Change aggregation rules of a measure or treat an attribute as a measure easily with a single click when exploring data.
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Sharing Data Flows
Data flows allow users to perform lightweight ETL processing in the Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) environment. Sharing these data flows presents several advantages – Collaboration, Reusability, Training & Onboarding, Transparency and Governance explained in detailed in the blog.
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Role based filters
This feature allows content authors to filter data based on user-defined application roles and Oracle Analytics. Role-based filters work by creating filters on application roles in Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC).? You can use either predefined application roles or you can ask your administrator to create user-defined roles that might be required for more complex use cases.
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Schedule Data Flows
Share data flows with other users or application roles for collaboration. Manage the schedules for data flows, including shared data flows.
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Semantic knowledge enrichments in Workbooks
This feature extends the prebuilt System Knowledge by allowing you to add your own reference knowledge and enrichments.? This extension enables the automatic discovery of custom semantic types and the generation of enrichment recommendations based on semantic type discovery.
Fine grain permissions
A critical capability to assign permissions to use specific functionality at a finer grain than the existing predefined application roles. Administrators are no longer forced to choose between granting their users excessive power, or totally disabling access to the Data Visualization tool.
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Create datasets in Microsoft Power BI
Integrate?Oracle Analytics Cloud?with Microsoft Power BI to leverage the visualization and publishing capabilities offered by Microsoft Power BI Desktop combined with the enterprise modelling capabilities of Oracle Analytics to create powerful insights into your data.
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Connect to Vertica, MySQL Heatwave, Snowflake, Google V4
Allow users to create connections to Vertica, MySQL Heatwave, Snowflake databases and Google Analytics V4 to create datasets and power workbook content.
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Watchlist for authors amp; consumer users
Group useful visualizations together to display in the?Featured Watchlists?area on your?Home page. A watchlist enables you to quickly view the visualizations that matter, without having to search through multiple workbooks to locate those visualizations. Each watchlist displays visualization cards that represent data in a workbook visualization, and you can open a visualization directly from the watchlist.
Videos:
Watchlist for Authors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE-I4BRtDW8
Watchlist for Consumer user: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRYxW_nVM1M
Advanced Analytics - AI/ML
Explain & Segmentation: Try the improved user experience and enhanced algorithm supporting the Segmentation tab in Explain. Easily configure input for segmentation and export identified segments to use them directly on canvases.
Integrate machine learning models from OCI data science: Add machine learning capabilities to your visualizations by consuming OCI Data Science models in your data flows.
Invoking AI models using OCI Language: Add artificial intelligence capabilities to your visualizations by consuming OCI Language models in your data flows.
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Auto ML mode in dataflows: Users can kick off AutoML from a Data Flow node and design best model for classification/regression predictions. The Data Flow will invoke OML (Oracle Machine Learning) AutoML engine behind the scenes, generate best ML model in Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) and register it in OAC, ready for consumption.
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Invoking OCI Language sentiment AI: Consume sentiment analysis from OCI Language AI within Oracle Analytics Data flows and how to visualize its rich outputs
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Invoking OCI Document understand service:? Invoke predefined OCI Document Understanding models in data flows to perform document classification and key value extraction.
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AI Language PII identification: Users can now register and leverage the AI Language PII identification model in OAC
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Synonyms
Make analytics content easier to search from the Home page by specifying synonyms for data columns in your datasets.
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Schedule Workbooks to email with bursting
Use scheduled emails to share data visualizations from a workbook and keep recipients up to date with the latest data. This feature is currently in public preview (administrators can enable this feature in the Console system settings).? The Bursting feature allows the user to deliver workbook data visualizations to recipients if the data visualizations contain confidential data that is accessed by specific application roles and user groups configured in?Oracle Analytics. Each recipient receives a customized data visualization based on their data access configuration instead of the data access configuration of the administrator user who creates the schedule. Here is a link to the user guide with detailed steps:
Senior Director, Product Strategy, Analytics at Oracle | OCI, AI, Analytics, Data Intelligence, Data Visualization
1 å¹´Excellent year for Oracle Analytics!
Senior Manager at Deloitte Australia
1 å¹´Thanks for sharing Avinash Krishnaram, it's definitely been a massive year for OAC. Looking forward to seeing further enhancements in 2024!