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Abstract .................................................................................... 2
When and Why the Map Views are Useful? ............................................ 3
Components for Building Maps .......................................................... 5
How to Render Maps on Dashboard ..................................................... 9
Business Benefits ......................................................................... 11
Conclusion ................................................................................. 12



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A UT H OR : A n k i t R G u p t a

Oracle Business Intelligence and Maps





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Abstract
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is particularly true when trying to capture the
complexity of interactions among people, resources, products, and business processes
distributed over geographic space.
Oracle Fusion Middleware Map Viewer (or simply, Map Viewer) provides powerful geo-spatial
data visualization and reporting services. Map Viewer is written purely in Java and run in a
J2EE environment. It provides web application developers with a versatile means to integrate
and visualize business data with maps.
As sales and performance data is often analyzed using parameters such as customer location,
geography and sales territory, most business intelligence applications include these
parameters.
OBIEE 11g integrates Map Viewer to show the bulk data onto maps to capture and simplify
complex relationships, turning them into readily consumable, powerful packages of
unambiguous information.
In this paper we will discuss about the services provided by Map Viewer, Map Builder tool and
its features, getting data onto maps and getting maps onto dashboards, etc.






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When and Why the Map Views are Useful?
Maps provide a powerful solution for assimilating the location of assets (people, customers,
products, vehicles, etc.) and/or areas (zones, regions, etc.). Maps provide context that leads
to better ways for prioritizing, planning and executing your objectives.
When you combine your maps with time trends and other charts on a dashboard, the result is
much more intuitive and richer/thorough understanding of your information.
Maps are useful in following scenarios:
Visualizing data related to geographic locations from region continents drill down to
country, states, city and streets
High density visualization of data in a relatively smaller area
Spatial relationships and patterns are easier for the human brain to assimilate
To drill down from a (map) overview to a detailed report, chart, or graph
We will illustrate the application of Maps with two examples.
A freight forwarding and supply chain management services company can utilise maps to:
Visualize the export and import volume at a higher level i.e. region or geographies
Provide granular details of cargo or container origin location (may be a street or
warehouse) to the destination port
Monitor the port which sends maximum number of containers to a destination
Shares of revenue by services provided in a region can be shown in a map with pie
chart on a location
Trade Lane visibility
Detection of geographic trends in volume/revenue growth





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A retail chain store can derive the following benefits, by visualising Oracle maps in OBIEE
interactive dashboards.
Visualize the sales performance of not just the entire store, but specifically the overall
performance of individual products across different geographic locations
Provide high-level view of revenue generated during the festive offers, holidays and
weekends across different countries, store locations, etc.
Monitor the revenue generated by store to analyse marketing performance by state,
country and ZIP code
Analyse effectiveness of regional campaigns/promotions





OBIEE and Maps Page 5 of 13

Components for Building Maps
Map Viewer
Oracle Fusion Middleware Map Viewer is a toolkit for developers.It is a set of programmable
Java components for rendering maps from geospatial application data that is stored and
managed in Oracle database.
The key attributes of the Map Viewer are as follows:
Map Viewer includes a rendering engine
Map Viewer can communicate with a client web browser or application using the HTTP
protocol
Map Viewer performs spatial data access (reading and writing Oracle spatial and Oracle
locator data) through JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) calls to the database
Map Viewer can be deployed in a platform-independent manner and is designed to
integrate with map-rendering applications
Hides the complexity of spatial data queries and the cartographic rendering process from
application developers
Map Viewer can be accessed using the URL, http://[hostname]:9704/mapviewer
A typical architecture of the Map Viewer is shown below:
+


Browser or Web Application
HTTP
Map Viewer
Rendering Engine
Middle Tier (Oracle
Application Server)
JDBC
Mapping
Metadata
Client
Database
Spatial or
Locator



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The following is an overview on metadata required by Map Viewer and managed by Map
Builder:
Styles
Styles are the basic graphical attributes that are applied when Map Viewer renders a
geometry shape or point
For example A Text ,Color, Line, Area, Marker, etc. represents a pattern on map.

Themes
A theme is a collection of geographic features that share similar attributes, plus the
rendering and labeling rules that tell MapViewer what styles to use to render and label
the features
Consider a Theme as Map layer where multiple themes are stacked one on top of other
to compose a map. For example, a country boundaries themes may be the bottom
layer with other themes such as state boundaries, lake, roads on top of it






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Base Maps
A base map is an ordered collection of themes to be used in rendering a map. If a base
map is specified in a map request, the themes in the base map are rendered, one on top
of each preceding one, in the order specified in the map definition

Map Tile Layers
Map Tile layer is primarily used by the Oracle Maps JavaScript API that provides the
JavaScript API with information about a draggable map tile layer, including its geographic
boundary, coordinate system, number of discrete zoom levels and the size and format of
individual map tiles at each zoom level in XML format






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A typical output of the Map with all the components is shown below:


Map Builder Tool
Oracle provides a standalone utility program, called Map Builder, a part of the Map Viewer
kit, which assists in creating and managing mapping metadata,
There are four types of metadata:- styles, themes, base maps and map tile layers; required
by Map Viewer to define a desired look and feel for your map. Besides handling the metadata,
the tool provides interfaces to preview the metadata and spatial information.
Oracle Spatial Data
Oracle Spatial 11g, an option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition, provides advanced
spatial capabilities to support geospatial applications, location-based services and enterprise
spatial information system.
An Oracle database is required for storing the "layers" (e.g. country boundaries) that are to be
rendered on top of your background maps. If you need to modify or transform any spatial
data, you need to purchase Oracle Spatial licenses on the database that performs the
operation.
Licenses for the Oracle database are not included with the OBIEE 11g suite, we have to
purchase those licenses separately.

Image
marker
Style
Geometry
Theme
Base Map



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How to Render Maps on Dashboard
OBIEE & Map Viewer
Oracle Business Intelligence 11g has the ability to easily create dashboards that incorporate
map views and display your key performance indicators (KPIs). In OBIEE 11g, maps are simply
a new type of view just like tables and graphs.
Map Viewer is installed and configured onto Oracle WebLogic as part of the OBIEE 11g
installation process. The only post-installation configuration required is to configure Map
Viewer to point to the source(s) that contain your spatial data (Oracle Database) and provide
you with background maps (Oracle Database, Oracle eLocation, Web Map Service Provider,
Google Maps or Bing Maps).

High-Level Steps to View Business Data on a Map View
The following tasks must be completed/accomplished to visualise a map with relevant data on
a dashboard:
Configuration of Map Viewer to point to source data
Import map tile layers, background maps, images
Associate map layers to BI columns (Business data) to enable their display on maps
Associate background maps with map layer along with order of display on zoom in and out
Create a report with map view and include the column associated with map layer
OBIEE Association with
Maps
Map with Data on
Dashboard



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The following picture depict the Map Layer and Background Map configuration with an OBIEE
model.








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Business Benefits
Reduced development time through tight integration with the ADF (Application
Development Framework) environment
Increases the value of location data in the Oracle database by providing a tightly coupled
tool to visualize these data
Simple configuration, no coding or technical know-how is required
Can also be used as a powerful mash-up component to integrate standard-based and
commodity mapping services (e.g.: OGC Web Services, Google Maps, Virtual Earth, Map24,
Where2GetIt, etc.) with application data stored in Oracle database and OBIEE sources
Improves applications summarizing complex business and geographic data and
relationships in an easily understood, universally recognized map format
No extra licenses required for OBIEE customers to render maps




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Conclusion
To survive and flourish in the business, appropriate decisions have to be made. Decisions
cannot be made in a vacuum.
Effective decision-making requires gathering, collation, classification and organizing of
quality data. Rendering such relevant data onto maps enable improved visualization and
interpretation.
Further, capturing the geographic component(s) of any business unlocks its enterprise
information on maps thus providng improved visibility and support.
Reference Material
Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gData Sheet August 2010
Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gFAQ
Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gWhite Paper August 2010
Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11gTechnical White Paper Premiere August 2010
Introduction to Geospatial Visualization in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition,
11gPresentation
Glossary of Terms Used
Acronym Description Comments
BI Business Intelligence
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
Protocol used to communicate between Map
Viewer and Web Browser
JDBC Java Database Connectivity
An API for the Java programming language that
defines how a client may access a database
J2EE Java to Enterprise Edition
KPI Key Performance Indicators
Industry jargon for a type of performance
measurement
OBIEE
Oracle Business Intelligence
Enterprise Edition

Oracle11g
Oracle Database Enterprise
Edition 11g

URL Universal Resource Locator





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About the author
Ankit Gupta is a Business Intelligence Consultant at L&T Infotech, with experience working on
diverse technologies & tools like in OBI, Endeca Information Discovery, Informatica, OWB,
OLAP and several others.
About L&T Infotech
L&T Infotech is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the USD 13.5 billion Larsen & Toubro (ranked 9th
by Forbes among Worlds Most Innovative Companies in a 2012 study of global corporations)
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L&T Infotech also delivers business solutions to its clients in the following horizontals/service
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