One of the common questions that generally come up with regard to BI EE and BI Publisher is “how does one pass parameters to BI Publisher reports in Dashboards?”. Well, there are two methods for achieving this.
1. Create a BI Publisher Report using BI Answers report as the data source wherein the BI Answers report would have one of the column’s filter clause as “is prompted”.
2. Create a BI Publisher Report using BI Answers/Database as data source. Create a parameter for the BI Publisher report and then match this parameter name while assigning the presentation variable for the dashboard prompt.
Method1 is straight forward. All we need to do is to create a report in BI Answers first and then assign filter to one of the columns using is prompted clause. In our case we would be creating a simple sales report across multiple regions. And Region is the column which would have the filter.
Now go to BI Publisher and use this BI Answers report as a data source. Create a simple template for this report. Check whether this simple report works.
Once this is done lets create a dashboard prompt in answers which would basically refer to the Region Column. In this method, there is no need for setting any presentation variables.
Lets create a new Dashboard page and add the prompt and the BI Publisher report. The BI Publisher report would change based on the Region that you select in the dashboard prompt.
Method2:
This method is generally the most used since most of the BI Publisher reports would have database as the data source. In order to test this, lets create a simple BI Publisher report with the data coming in from SH schema of the database. We will be creating a report with the same columns as above to keep it simple. Also create a simple template and check whether the BI Publisher report is working.
Now add a parameter to the report. In our case, we will have Region_Prompt as the parameter name. And test the report.
Then go to the BI Answers and create a dashboard prompt on the same Region column. In this prompt we must set a Presentation Variable, Report_Prompt. Just note the name of the presentation variable. It must exactly match that of BI Publisher parameter name. Include this dashboard prompt and the BI Publisher report into the dashboards. And test it out.
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