Discoverer aids business professionals to efficiently "discover" and analyze the exact data they need to make better business decisions. The Discoverer administrator defines the subsets of data that business professionals need to support their decision-making, and presents it to them in a logical and clearly understandable way.
Why Discoverer is Needed ?
Databases are designed by information systems professionals whose primary goal is often transaction efficiency, not ease of use by people who want to examine and analyze the data.
The database designer usually groups data elements into tables to optimize data capture, but rarely is that grouping the best for people who want to view and use the data.
Business analysts need a way to access a relatively small amount of data, and usually just a few specific records essential for their decision-making.
That's where Discoverer comes in.
Discoverer ?
Discoverer lets the business professional find the data he/she needs, analyze it easily, and get answers to support business decisions. Thus, Discoverer provides an efficient way to retrieve a few select records or small amount of specific data from the database.
Discoverer's Components
Discoverer operates in a client/server and web browser environment and has three main components:
* Discoverer Plus,Discoverer Plus & Discoverer Viewer
* Administration Edition
* End User Layer
Discoverer's Components
Discoverer Plus, Discoverer Plus and Discoverer Viewer
The component for end users comprises the Discoverer Plus (Windows), the Discoverer 4i Plus and Discoverer Viewer; these provide the interface that professionals in a company use on a day-to-day basis to access, view and analyze data.
Administration Edition
This component is for the Discoverer administrator; it is the tool you use to design and present the subsets of data called Business Areas
that end users access from the Discoverer Plus.
End User Layer
The metalayer that shields end users from the complexity of the database. Conceptually, the EUL resides between the database dictionary/table definitions and Discoverer. Physically, it comprises a number of database tables and views. The End User Layer (EUL) insulates end users from database complexity and constant change. It provides an intuitive, business-focused view of the database that can be tailored to suit each user or user group. As such, the EUL lets end users focus on business issues instead, not data access issues.
Administration Edition
Discoverer Administration Edition builds and maintains the End User Layer. Its design determines how users access and view data. This is where administrators define the business areas used by Discoverer Plus.
Discoverer Plus
Designed for business professionals who do not have a computer programming or database background, Discoverer Plus is an easy-to-use read-only data access tool. It provides logical and intuitive access to information from your organization's relational databases for ad hoc query, analysis, and reporting.
Discoverer Viewer
Discoverer Viewer is designed for viewing workbooks created by users of the Windows or Web releases of the Discoverer Plus. Using Oracle Discoverer's easy to use interface via a web browser, you can view database data.
What is End User Layer (EUL) ?
From an operating standpoint, the EUL generates SQL statements on the client and communicates with the database using SQL*Net.
When a user selects objects in the business area, the EUL generates the appropriate SQL statements that define the selections from a table, view, or column.
When a user executes a query, the EUL executes that SQL statement and sends it to the database, which in turn sends the results to the Discoverer Plus interface.
Thus, the end user does not have to understand any SQL to access and retrieve data. It is all handled by the EUL.
What is a Business Area?
A business area is a set of folders containing related information with a common business purpose.
* Meet the specific data needs of the users
* Usually contain data from several different tables or views
* Have tables or views and their associated columns mapped to "folders" and "items" respectively
* Can contain many simple folders and complex folders
* May contain folders from one or more physical databases
* Include conditions, joins, calculations, formatting, hierarchy structures, and other custom features
* May be accessible to one or many user IDs or roles; also, a user ID or role may be granted access to many business areas
* Let users access data, without having to understand the database structure
Business Area Terminology
Summary : Here we have seen a brief explanation about Discoverer , its components and EUL.
