Step 1 - Analyzing your Business Model

Step 2 - Creating the Physical Schema, Business Model and Presentation Layers

The Oracle BI server stores metadata in repositories. The repository consists of three layers:

• The Physical Layer (Schema)
  
• The Business Model and Mapping Layer
  
• The Presentation Layer

Creating the Physical Layer:

1. Create physical joins between the Dimension and Fact Tables.
2. Change the names in the physical layer (if necessary)

The Physical Layer contains information about the physical data sources. The most common way to create the schema in the Physical layer is by importing metadata from databases and other data sources. This layer supports Federated Query - i.e. the database operation (query) involving data sets from 2 different data sources can be performed in OBIEE. This can be as disparate as querying an excel sheet along with a table from the oracle database.

Creating the Business Model and Mapping Layer:

3. Promote to Business Layer
4. Define the dimensions and hierarchies - Create the levels of hierarchy
5. Map tables to dimensional hierarchies - Assign fields to the hierarchy
6. Create joins in the Business layer - Joins in the business model are complex joins
7. Change names in the business layer (if necessary)
8. Enable the Business Model to query

The Business Model and Mapping layer organizes information by business model. Each business model contains logical tables. Logical tables map to the source data in the Physical layer. The mapping can include complex transformations and formulas. The business model and mapping layer defines the meaning and content of each physical source in business model terms.

Creating the Presentation Layer:

9. Promote to Presentation layer
10. Change names in the Presentation layer (if necessary)

Detailed presentation catalogs should include measures from one fact table only, i.e. you should construct a subject area that consists of a single table. You first create a logical dimensional model, and then present it as a single table schema. The Logical dimensional model will setup the necessary metadata for the BI Server to navigate to the proper physical tables.