This week I'd like to highlight and address one of the major feature of BI 11g - Creating Interactive Maps. Starting with OBIEE 11g, Maps have been release as first class citizen object within the framework, that can be accessed within answers. However, for map views to be enabled requires a bit of setup. In this initial post, I would focus mainly on the configuration aspects of Map Viewer. In my subsequent post, I'll extend this scenario to creating maps and deploying them in 11g.

Let's get started. The first pre-requisite for map content to work is the spatial data. In 11g, this is available from NAVTEQ in the form of the file SampleApp_Navteq_dmp.zip (approx 127MB). This file contains an Oracle Database export file name obiee_navteq.dmp

We'll have to start with creating a navteq user in the Oracle Database and loading the dmp file.

Start a SQL*Plus session to the Oracle Database as a user with system or DBA privileges.
Run the script OBIEE_NAVTEQ_USER.SQL located in the unzipped folder. 
For example, SQL> @OBIEE_NAVTEQ_USER.SQL;
Once the script has executed, verify that you can successfully connect to the newly created user
obiee_navteq/obiee_navteq.

Note: The OBIEE_NAVTEQ user creation scripts defaults to the password 'obiee_navteq'. If this needs to be set to a different value then the script would need to be modified. I would recommend keeping the password as-is.

Now let's import the dmp file. The obiee_navteq.dmp needs to be imported into obiee_navteq schema using the user created above. The command line would be:

Drive:>imp obiee_navteq/obiee_navteq@connectString file=obiee_navteq.dmp FULL=Y

Once this process is complete, we would need to validate that the login to the schema is successful and schema tables are visible (and have data). Post successful creation of tables, some extra Spatial metadata would also need to be imported.

Start a SQL*Plus session to the Oracle Database and connect as user obiee_navteq
Drive:>sqlplus obiee_navteq/obiee_navteq@connectString
Run the OBIEE_NAVTEQ_INSERT.SQL file located in the unzipped folder.
SQL> @OBIEE_NAVTEQ_INSERT.SQL; 

Now we need to configure Map Viewer. OBIEE 11g delivers map content using Map Viewer. There are certain settings that need to be verified/configured for Map Viewer to function.
Note: Map Viewer would need to be installed on the server. OBIEE 11g installation includes this component.

1. Configure mapViewerConfig.xml
Open the Map Viewer console. It's available at http://[server]:9704/mapviewer. Click on Admin link. Login with the userid and password provided during the installation. Click on configuration. This will launch the mapViewerConfig.xml file. The following needs to be updated:

In the <security_config> property of the file, the following changes need to be made:
Change <proxy_enabled_hosts> property to hostname, IP address and port to correct values. [Note]. There are 4 entries here. 2 pointing to hostname and 2 pointing to ip address of BI server. Make sure all 4 entries point to the right server.

<proxy_enabled_hosts>
  http://www.neobytesllc.com:9704/mapviewer,http://www.neobytesllc.com:9704/,http://10.10.10.10:9704/,http://10.10.10.10:9704/mapviewer 

The following entries would also need to be updated/added:
<disable_direct_info_request> true
<disable_info_request> true
<disable_csf>true
<enforce_security_role> true

At the end of the file, in the section 'Predefined Data Sources' the following entry would need to be added:
<map_data_source name="OBIEE_NAVTEQ_Sample" <br="">                   jdbc_host="10.10.10.11"   (use your db ip)
                   jdbc_sid="orcl"       (use your db sid)
                   jdbc_port="1521"      (use your db port)
                   jdbc_user="obiee_navteq"                   
                   jdbc_password="!obiee_navteq"  (use your selected password if different from OOB)
                   jdbc_mode="thin"
                   number_of_mappers="3"
                   allow_jdbc_theme_based_foi="false"
   />

[Very Important]. Make sure that all xml tags have been properly closed. Any tags not closed will cause an error on the next restart.

Let's save and restart. One it is restarted, when we click on Data sources, we should be able to see OBIEE_NAVTEQ as a data source.

For maps to work, we would also need to create Map Tile Layers. These are the layers through which OBIEE enables the drilling functionality on the map. Different layers allow different levels of detail. Each Map Tile Layer could have a different co-ordinate/country/zoom factor.

Click on Manage Map Tile Layers Link, and Use the Create Link to create the following Map Tile Layers ONLY IF YOU DO NOT see the entries already under 'Existing map tile layers'. 
   
    OBIEE_WORLD_MAP
        Select type of map source : Choose Internal
        Name : OBIEE_WORLD_MAP
        Data Source : OBIEE_NAVTEQ_SAMPLE
        Base map : WORLD_MAP
        # Zoom Levels : 16
        Minimum Map Scale:9999
        Maximum Map Scale : 250000000
        Min X:-180.0
        Max X:180.0
        Min Y:-90.0
        Max Y:90.0  

Leave the other options as default and click on Submit. This will create a Map Tile Layer called OBIEE_WORLD_MAP. 
   
    OBIEE_WORLD_MAP_FAST
        Select type of map source : Choose Internal
        Name : OBIEE_WORLD_MAP_FAST
        Data Source : OBIEE_NAVTEQ_SAMPLE
        Base map : WORLD_MAP_FAST
        # Zoom Levels : 10
        Minimum Map Scale:9999
        Maximum Map Scale : 300000000
        Min X:-180.0
         Max X:180.0
         Min Y:-90.0
        Max Y:90.0

Leave the other options as default and click on Submit. This will create a Map Tile Layer called OBIEE_WORLD_MAP_FAST.

    OBIEE_SF_MAP1
        Select type of map source : Choose Internal
        Name : OBIEE_SF_MAP1
        Data Source : OBIEE_NAVTEQ_SAMPLE
        Base map : WORLD_MAP
        # Zoom Levels : 8
        Minimum Map Scale:1000
        Maximum Map Scale : 500000
        Min X:-123.0
         Max X:-122.0
         Min Y:37.0
        Max Y:38.0

Leave the other options as default and click on Submit. This will create a Map Tile Layer called OBIEE_SF_MAP1.

    OBIEE_SYDNEY_MAP 
        Select type of map source : Choose Internal
        Name : OBIEE_SYDNEY_MAP
        Data Source : OBIEE_NAVTEQ_SAMPLE
        Base map : WORLD_MAP
        # Zoom Levels : 8
        Minimum Map Scale:1000
        Maximum Map Scale : 250000
        Min X:150.937
         Max X:151.504
         Min Y:-34.13
        Max Y:-33.67
 
Leave the other options as default and click on Submit. This will create a Map Tile Layer called OBIEE_SYDNEY_MAP.

    OBIEE_LONDON_MAP
        Select type of map source : Choose Internal
        Name : OBIEE_LONDON_MAP
        Data Source : OBIEE_NAVTEQ_SAMPLE
        Base map : WORLD_MAP
        # Zoom Levels : 8
        Minimum Map Scale:1000
        Maximum Map Scale : 250000
        Min X:-0.33
         Max X:0.11
         Min Y:51.37
        Max Y:51.64 

Leave the other options as default and click on Submit. This will create a Map Tile Layer called OBIEE_LONDON_MAP.

To confirm that the Map Viewer configuration is working, we choose the Map Tile Layer called OBIEE_WORLD_MAP and click on 'View Map / Manage tiles' option. In the window that opens up, we click on the 'Show Map' button. This should display the world map.  We would need to repeat the steps for all the other layers as well.

Now we need to restart OBIEE services via OPMN (Oracle Process Manager) or EM (Enterprise Manager).

Post restart, let's login into Answers. Click Administration -> Manage Map Data. Click Layers tab. Click 'Add Layer' link.

The dropdown should have an entry 'OBIEE_NAVTEQ_Sample' at this point, meaning the configuration of datasource is successful. Clicking the OBIEE_NAVTEQ_Sample entry should populate the listbox with all map tile layers that we configured. We would also need to confirm that "OBIEE_NAVTEQ_Sample" entry is visible under "Layers", "Background Maps" & "Images" tab as well.

Configuration of Map Viewer for OBIEE is now complete.

Next post: Creating Maps through OBIEE 11G.