Contact Details
Rockport Software Ltd,
126 Fairlie Road,
Slough,
SL1 4PY,
Berkshire,
U.K.
Tel: +44 (0)1753 577201
Fax: +44 (0)1753 577202
Email:
Click on the links below for information about these BI products
Oracle Express Server (OLAP Engine) Products
On this page you will find some background information relating to the Oracle Express Server products as well as notes if you are considering migrating away from Oracle Express or implementing alternative solutions.
Note: Oracle are no longer marketing Oracle Express products. Oracle's OLAP products are now based around the Oracle RDBMS OLAP Option or the Oracle Hyperion Essbase OLAP server
- Do you have one-off technical queries regarding Express products?
- Do you require longer term Express support and technical assistance?
- Do you want help with your Express product implementations?
- Do you have questions relating to Express products functionality?
- Do you have questions about Express products licensing and upgrade options?
- Do you wish to upgrade from older versions of Express products to their latest edition?
- Do you require Express product administration or end-user training?
If so, contact Rockport Software
Express products (including OFA and OSA 6.4) have Error Correction Support until 31 Dec 2009, and Extended Support only until 31 Dec 2010. OFA/OSA will be de-supported after these dates.
(Previous desupport notices for these products had specified the end of error correction support at 31 Dec 2007). Error correction support offers continued support in the form of bug fixes, back ports for fixes, certification with new platforms and telephone support. If you have any questions about the support of these products then please contact us.
- Are you considering a migration to Oracle Essbase and/or Oracle Hyperion Planning?
- Are you considering the move towards OBIEE?
Speak to us today to find out how we can help you with the decision and implementation process.
Oracle Express Server - The Future
With the introduction of Express Server technology into the Oracle RDBMS database (in version Oracle 9i) the development of Oracle Express Server as a standalone product has now been completed (Express Server version 6.3.4). Both of the analytic applications based on Express Server (Oracle Financial Analyzer and Oracle Sales Analyzer) have had final release versions (6.4.0) synchronised with the final Express Server release. All future development of analytic applications will be based on the Oracle RDBMS database OLAP Option rather than Express Server.
With the acquisition of Siebel in 2005 and Hyperion in 2007, Oracle now also have an integrated Business Intelligence OLAP offering in the form of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (the old Siebel Analytics product) and Oracle Essbase (the old Hyperion Essbase OLAP product).
Oracle therefore have several analytic applications based on the latest OLAP technology that customer can consider as replacements for OFA and OSA or as standalone Business Intelligence solutions.
- Oracle Hyperion Essbase
- Oracle Hyperion Planning
- Oracle RDBMS OLAP Option
- Oracle Discoverer for OLAP
- Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)
- Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition (OBISE)
- Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB)
If you are an existing customer of Express Server applications, Rockport Software can provide the following services.
- Support for old versions of Express Server applications
- Upgrade paths to the final versions of Express Server applications
- Advice and assistance for upgrading existing solutions to the next generation technology
- Implementations of Oracle OLAP business Intelligence applications (RDBMS, OBIEE, Essbase)
Existing customers still have time to consider the future direction of their existing Express Server Applications. Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA) and Oracle Sales Analyzer (OSA) 6.4 will continue to have Error Correction Support until 31 Dec 2009, and Extended Support until 31 Dec 2010 (as of October 2007).
Oracle Express Server
Oracle Express Server is a powerful, mature, robust, and flexible multidimensional OLAP database server. Express Server is optimized to support mathematical, financial, statistical, and time-series manipulations, as well as forecasting, modeling, and multi-user what-if scenarios. Express Server is optimized for the query and analysis of corporate data such as sales, marketing, financial, manufacturing,or human resources data — without requiring special programs or reports from Information Systems (IS) personnel.
Current Release
Oracle Express Server 6.3.4
Oracle Personal Express 6.3.4
Key Features
Express Server 6.3.4 is primarily a maintenance release. One significant change is that any SEGWIDTH specification that you have applied to a variable is now retained after export/import. This release is compatible with OFA 6.4.0, OSA 6.4.0 and Web Agent 6.3.4 and is available on NT, Sun Solaris and Windows 2000. An intermediate release, OES 6.3.2.1 was again a maintenance release, which should be used with OFA and OSA 6.3.2. Major improvements were:
- New non-additive AGGREGATE functions HAverage, HFirst, HLast, and HWAverage. These functions are documented under the RELATION command in Express Language Help.
- Ability to use a valueset to limit hierarchy dimensions, or to specify which values should be calculated on the fly or pre-calculated by AGGREGATE. See the RELATE command in Express Language Help.
- An increase to the maximum size of Express Server’s ‘‘ranspace’’ from 2GB per object to 4GB. One of the main uses of ranspace is to store BTREE information for composite dimensions. The higher maximum is intended to address the RSALLOC errors that sometimes occur when aggregating data dimensioned by very large composites.
Oracle Express Server Products
The previous release, OES 6.3.2 included new features such as Non-Additive aggregation methods using the AGGREGATE command, and a block fetch facility from Oracle using the SQL command. Express Server 6.3.0.1 included many significant improvements on earlier versions. These include:
- New Aggregate Management System - AGGREGATE
- 2 x Performance Improvement for a typical database
- Up to 5 x Performance Improvement for databases with many dimensions/sparse data
- Pre-calculate or on-the fly aggregates
- Significant MOLAP/HOLAP capacity increases
- Little SPL code required
- Enhanced Analytics
- New Statistical functions Categorize, Correlation, Percentage, Smooth, Rank and Mode
- All new Geneva forecasting module
- Express Instance Manager
- Java component replacing Session Manager, Service Manager and Configuration Manager
- Enterprise Manager compliant, look and feel consistent with Oracle Instance Manager
- The fastest and most scaleable OLAP Server in the world
- Express 6.3 has now delivered record-setting performance results using the industry standard Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Council APB-1 benchmark, which provides an objective measure by which to assess OLAP server performance. The industry's fastest OLAP server achieved leadership positions on both Intel and Sun server platforms.
- The results on both Intel NT and Sun Solaris were over three times faster than the previous AQM records, while Express Server 6.3 utilized slower processors, consumed half the memory, serviced more users and created a smaller database using the same basic input data. This proves Oracle Express is the most scalable, most efficient and fastest, enterprise-ready OLAP server available today.
The 6.x line of Express Server added a number of important new features including:
- Express Web Agent enabling OLAP over the Internet using a browser client
- Enhanced sparse data management
- 64-bit architecture
- Huge increases in theoretical size limits: The maximum number of cells per
- variable rises from 2 billion (OES 5.x) to 263 cells per array (variable), while the theoretical limit on the size of each Express database rises by a similar factor.
- Multi-threaded architecture to take full advantage of SMP platforms
- Server to Server XCA: Support for multiple instances of Express Server to communicate with one another as well as with Personal Express
Availability
The 6.2 release saw the availability of the Personal Express 6.2. Effectively a single user Express Server, Personal Express 6.2 supports all the new client tools and applications designed for Express Server 6.2 for Thick Client, PC/LAN based apps, or slices of data while disconnected from the server.
- Express Server 6.3.4 is available for Windows NT (Intel), Windows 2000 and Sun Solaris
- Express Server 6.3.2 is available for Windows NT (Intel) / Windows 2000 and Sun Solaris
- Express Server 6.3.1 is available for HP/UX, IBM AIX and Compaq TRU-64 Unix
- Express Server 6.2.0.1 is available for Alpha NT (NT has been discontinued on the Alpha platform)
- Personal Express Server 6.3.2 is available for Windows NT and Windows 95/98
Future Releases
Benchmarks
Express Server 6.3 Smashes APB-1 Benchmark
Oracle Express Server 6.3 has delivered record-setting performance results using the industry standard Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Council APB-1 benchmark, which provides an objective measure by which to assess OLAP server performance. The industry's fastest OLAP server achieved leadership positions on both Intel and Sun server platforms.
Oracle's record-setting performance on Windows NT ran on four 450 MHz Intel Pentium II Xeon CPUs and 4 GB of RAM. Oracle Express Server 6.3 delivered 3,006 analytical queries per minute (AQM) for 200 concurrent users running 500,000 no think-time queries. This is nearly 3 times faster on a small Dell NT server, with half the memory and much smaller client PCs than the previous benchmark. The resulting database is also about half the size.
Oracle's record-setting performance on Sun Solaris ran on four 300 MHz Sun UltraSparc II CPUs and 4 GB of RAM, where it delivered 3,487 analytical queries per minute for 300 concurrent users running 750,000 no think-time queries. These results further demonstrate Express Server's scalability as query time per user remained the same despite a 50 percent increase in the number of concurrent users. The results on Sun Solaris were over three times faster than the previous AQM record set by Hyperion Essbase on an IBM RS/6000. And, Express Server 6.3 utilized slower processors, consumed half the memory, serviced more users and created a smaller database using the same basic input data, proving Oracle Express is the most scalable, most efficient and fastest, enterprise-ready OLAP server available today.
Additionally, Express Server 6.3 set the bar for OLAP server performance on an eight-processor Sun Solaris machine. Oracle ran Express Server on a Sun E3500 with 8 GB of RAM and 8 400 MHz processors and serviced 1,200 concurrent users. Express Server 6.3 scored an incredible AQM of 13,209, 11.5 times better than Essbase. This was a qualified APB-1 run on a beta version of the Solaris operating system (v2.8). It was compliant, however, with all operational aspects of the APB-1 specification. In the query phase alone, Express Server 6.3 completed 3 million queries in less time than it took Hyperion Essbase to complete 500,000 queries against equivalently defined data sources. This included using slower clients, slower processors on the server and with no increase in RAM.
Collateral
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Oracle Express Objects & Analyzer
Express Objects is Oracle's object-oriented development environment for Express Server. It is a powerful tool that enables professional developers to create custom OLAP applications for client/server and the Web. Express Analyzer provides a powerful end-user environment leveraging the power of Express Objects while providing a more structured Analysis environment for end-users. The approach of Express Objects and Analyzer affords complete programmatic control over every object in the system for the developer while allowing the end user to leverage these benefits without requiring programming skills.
Current Release
Oracle Express Objects 6.3.2, Oracle Express Analyzer 6.3.2
Key Features
The 6.3 release of Express Objects and Analyzer adds to the functionality of the previous versions with improvements to increase productivity and ease development for the application developer. These include:
- Major Express Basic Editor & Debugging Enhancements
- Support for Multi-Project Applications including Associated Projects
- Application Deployment wizard and Replace Database wizard
- Project Compression and Backup utilities
- 40% Smaller Memory Footprint
These improve on the 2.2 release which added extra functionality including:
Ability to export data from Discoverer 3.1 to Express Objects and Express Analyzer 2.2, generating an Express database on the fly
Ability to hyper-drill from Express Objects and Express Analyzer 2.2 to detailed data in Discoverer 3.1
Availability
OEO & OEA Versions 6.3.2 are available for Windows95/98, Windows NT4/2000
Collateral
Express Objects Data Sheet
Express Analyzer Data Sheet
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Oracle Express Web Agent & Web Publisher
Express Web Agent brings the powerful analytical capabilities of Express Server to anyone with a web browser. It provides a scalable, high-performance interface to Oracle Express Server; working as either a Cartridge, plugging directly into the Oracle Applications Server platform for network application deployment; or via CGI (Common Gateway Interface), enabling Express to work with any Web server.
Express Web Publisher is an option to Express Analyzer and Express Objects. It is a powerful tool that makes it simple to build live, interactive, data-driven OLAP Web sites, powered (via the Express Web Agent) by Oracle Express Server. Web Publisher enables knowledge workers in an organization to become Web masters, creating entire sites in just a matter of minutes. No knowledge of HTML syntax or programming is required. Web Publisher makes it easy for end users to communicate critical business information.
Current Release
Oracle Express Web Agent & Express Web Publisher 6.3.4
Key Features
Features released in 6.3.4 include:
- Fit to page option for printing Java tables
- Export Java tables to Excel with format preservation
- Control appearance of grid lines and background in Graphs
- Improved control over Graph fonts attributes
- Support for Ranking reports
- Create custom buttons in Toolbar
- JAWS screen reader for non-sighted and low-vision users
The intermediate release of Web Agent, 6.3.3, is only for use with OFA and OSA 6.3.2. Features included:
- Automatic cell sizing in Java tables
- Saving selections
- Measure hierarchies
- Drag and drop sorting in the Selector list tool
- Multiline text support in the Java table
- Automatic sizing of applets within a page or frame
- Support for drill images and cell formatting in an HTML table
- Macintosh browser support and plug-ins
The major enhancements to version 6.3.2 of Web Agent (and therefore also Web Publisher) include: Data entry for Java tables.
- Cell-level color coding and data-driven formatting in Java tables
- Label sizing of rows/columns in Java tables
- Developer-specified page breaks for printing Java tables
- Pop-up dimension names
- Multi-line footnotes, titles and subtitles
- Graph printing
- Ability to move a graph legend
- New Object, Properties, and Programs
Version 6.3 of Web Agent included the following enhancements New Java table which has enhanced the earlier Java table to increase flexibility and enable printing.
Version 3.0 of Web Agent contained a large number of enhancements which include:
- Complete set of data selection tools
- Support for the Attribute, Exception, Family, Level, Match, Measure Exception, Range, Sort and Top/Bottom tools is now available on the View toolbar
- Faster start-up times for users
- Export all pages to spreadsheet
- Support for multiple OS machine configuration and installation
- Improved support for firewall software
Availability
Express Web Publisher 6.3.4 is available for Windows95/98 or Windows NT/2000, while Express Web Agent 6.3.4 is a free module of Express Server 6.3.4
Future Releases
Collateral
Express Web Agent Data Sheet
Express Web Publisher Analyzer News
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Oracle Express Administrator
Express Administrator is shipped with Express Server and Personal Express, and is an intuitive graphical tool which allows you to define, build, populate and maintain Express databases. It automatically creates the meta data required to enable all the Oracle OLAP client tools including Express Objects, Analyzer, Web Agent/Publisher and the free Spreadsheet Add-in. Its makes creating and maintaining Oracle Express Server databases easy for the novice, and provides advanced functionality for the expert user/Express DBA
Current Release
Oracle Express Administrator 6.3.4
Key Features
Key new features in 6.2 include:
- Database Wizard: A simplified, step-by-step method that guides users through the process ofautomatically creating Express databases.
- Rollup Wizard: A graphical interface that facilitates rolling up data to summarized levels within dimension hierarchies.
- Hierarchy Editor : Provides a drag-and-drop functionality that simplifies changing structure or values of dimension hierarchies.
- New powerful Express SPL Editor
- New Express Command Window
- New Task scheduler and monitor
- A new graphical interface that allows users to schedule batch jobs.
- Extra database search options
- New database browser options
- Support for the Selector
- Context-sensitive right-mouse menus
- Import files exported from Discoverer
Availability
Express Administrator 6.3.4 is available for Windows95/98 or Windows NT/2000 and is distributed with Express Server and Personal Express 6.3.4
Collateral
Express Administrator Data Sheet
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Oracle Sales Analyzer
Oracle Sales Analyzer is a complete application for business intelligence that gives users the tools they need to analyze sales, marketing and other corporate data. Sales Analyzer combines a central, integrated information source with powerful online analytical processing capabilities, enabling users to access, analyze, and distribute information from their enterprise data warehouse or data mart, without IS support.
Current Release
Oracle Sales Analyzer 11i, Release 6.4.0
Key Features
New Features in OSA 6.4 include the following:
- High fidelity export to Excel-2000/XP
- Row/Column level formatting on reports
- Ranking/exception report creation
- Fit-to-page option for printing
- Print multiple
- Control over the presentation of NA data in reports
- Multi-select of anchor in the selector family tool
- Multiple strings in the selector match tool
- Non-numeric measures in the exception tools and sort tool
- Apply custom aggregates, custom measures or saved selections to open document
- Publishing related objects with 'parent' objects
- Oracle Portal Integration
OSA 11i contains dramatic enhancements to the Web client, utilising the new features in Web Agent 6.3.4
- Document formatting
- Color coding / Stoplight reporting
- Enhancements to the web document tree, including modify, search, delete, rename and move
- Java Graph printing
- Single sign-on for better integration with other Oracle Application.
- An Enhanced Webcall API, which allows custom links which can identify and work with the selected cells on an open report.
- New Measure support; a new Selector tool: Selection by measure exception.
- Custom right-click actions
OSA 6.3 utilised the improvements in Express Server and Web Agent 6.3.0.1 including:
- Build times can be dramatically reduced by using the new Aggregate function within Express Server 6.3.
- Support for 10 dimensions in the data loader
- Workbook style export to Excel from the Windows client
- The enhanced Java table from Web Agent has been utilised in the Web Client to increase flexibility and enable printing.
OSA 6.2.1 provided a significant enhancements to the Web Client including :
- Selector Tools - OSA Web users will be able to take advantage of the intuitive tools and full data selection capabilities of the OSA Selector.
- Custom Measures and Aggregates - OSA Web users will be able to customize their analysis by creating their own calculated measures and aggregates through the browser interface.
- Forecast Wizard - OSA Web users will be able to utilize the Forecast Wizard to predict future measure values based on historical performance.
- Document Management and Sharing - OSA Web users will be able to manage document folders, and publish documents and document objects such as custom measures and custom aggregates to other OSA users through the browser interface.
OSA 6.2.1 also provides a number of improvements to the Web Analysis Library. First introduced in OSA 6.2, the Web Analysis Library is designed to help companies distribute key sales and marketing information to information consumers across the enterprise. The Web Analysis Library is comprised of a series of pre-defined, web-based analysis templates that give the user an instant picture of key sales and marketing performance indicators. The Web Analysis Library document templates focus the user’s attention on a number of analysis categories, including:
- Comparisons - What is the product mix in a particular region?
- Distribution - In which regions are sales increasing or declining?
- Exceptions - Which channels contributed more than x% of total sales?
- Growth - Which products are showing sales growth?
- Quota - How are your sales reps performing versus plan?
- Rankings - What are your best and worst-selling products?
- Reviews - What is the status of a particular customer account?
- Trends - How has your business performed over time?
The OSA 11i client is available for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT4/2000, while the server runs on all platforms supported by Express Server 6.3.2
Future Releases
Collateral
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Relational Access Manager/Administrator
Relational Access Manager is distributed free with Express and it broadens the data access options available within your business intelligence environment. RAM creates a dynamic link between the Express multidimensional calculation engine and a relational data warehouse or data mart. With RAM Express can be implemented as a ROLAP (Relational Only OLAP) or HOLAP (Hybrid OLAP) depending upon the information and analytical requirements and to provide the best on-line performance.
Current Release
RAM 6.3.2 / RAA 6.3.2
Key Features
Relational Access Manager 6.3 features significant performance improvements in the following areas:
- Build/Update time reduced by 25% for simple models, up 25 times for complex Express models and Warehouses
- Smaller Express databases
- Net change dimension member processing
- Run time performance improved by 10-20% for simple models, more with complex models
Relational Access Manager 6.2 featured a new database maintanance application for managing the Express database and build process. This allows the DBA to:
- Define multiple database build and update procedures for managing the periodic maintenance of the Express database.
- Define hybrid database population procedures.
- Schedule update and hybrid procedures to be run automatically onperiodic basis.
The Relational Access Manager Query Statistics model allows the DBA:
- Capture key RAM performance statistics.
- Capture SQL generated by RAM.
- Analyze RAM performance statistics.
In addition, the Relational Access Manager allows levels to be skipped in a hierarchy when using a star style dimension lookup table. Child dimension values may now have parents that are two or more levels higher in a hierarchy.
Availability
RAM 6.3.2 is certified for Express Server 6.3.2. RAA 6.3.2 is available for Windows NT/2000 and Windows 95/98.
Future Releases
Collateral
Relational Access Manager Data Sheet - Not Available
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Spreadsheet Add-in
The Express Spreadsheet Add-in is distributed free with Express Server and Personal Express, and provides live dynamic access to Express data direct from your spreadsheet.
Current Release
Oracle Express Spreadsheet Add-in 6.3.2
Key Features
The Express Spreadsheet add-in 6.3 increases the functionality of earlier versions by adding:
- Ability to display up to 10 dimensions on the page edge.
- Ability to copy all pages to separate worksheets for printing
- Ability to suppress NAs and zeroes in rows of a particular query
- Ability to specify, per each edge (page, across, and down) whether short or long labels are used
The Spreadsheet Add-in 2.3 version added new features, including:
- Ability to write data back to an Express database
- Right mouse popup menu for performing various functions on the query
- Enhanced data layout control
- VBA scripting support
- Support for Microsoft Excel 7.0 and Excel 97
Availability
The Express Spreadsheet Add-in 6.3.2 runs under Windows 95/98 and Windows NT/2000.
Collateral
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