Creating an Image Prompt

An image prompt provides users with an image that contains sections or areas that they can click to select a specific prompt value. For example, an image prompt can be a map of the United States with sections that represent the North, South, East, West, and Central sales divisions. Users can then click the divisions that correspond to the sales information that they want to view in the dashboard or analysis.

You can apply image prompts to one or more dashboards, or embed them in analyses. Use the following procedure to create or edit an image prompt. For information about opening a prompt for editing, see "Editing Prompts."

To create an image prompt:

1. To create a named image prompt, use the following sub-procedure.

   1. Navigate to the Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Home page, locate the global header, hover the mouse pointer over the New menu to access the menu, and select Dashboard Prompt. The Select Subject Areas menu is displayed.

   2. From the Select Subject Area menu, select the subject area for which you want to create the prompt. The "Definition pane" is displayed.

2. To create an inline prompt, either create an analysis or access an existing analysis for which you want to create a prompt. In the "Analysis editor," click the Prompts tab. The "Definition pane" is displayed.

3. Click the New button in the Definition Pane. From the list, select Image Prompt.

   The "Image Map Prompt Properties dialog" is displayed.

4. Enter a caption for the image prompt in the Caption field. The caption is displayed as the prompt's field label.

5. In the Description field, enter a short description for the prompt. This description is displayed as tooltip text, which is shown when the user hovers the mouse pointer over the prompt's label in the dashboard or analysis.

   The descriptions are also displayed when administrators view the stored prompt object from the Catalog Manager.

6. Enter the location and name of the image in the Image URL field.

   The image file must reside on a web server. Oracle recommends that you put the image files in the directory that contains all web resource files (for example, app\res\region3.jpg). Placing the image files with the web resource files prevents a security warning message from displaying when the user accesses the image from the dashboard or analysis.

   However, if you are using a web server, such as WebLogic, where the resource files are located in the deploy directory, you must put the image file in the deploy directory and the directory that contains all web resource files.

7. Enter the appropriate HTML <map> tags and data in the HTML field. In the map tags, indicate the map region's shape, X and Y coordinates, and region name. For example:

   <MAP Name="mymap">
   <AREA Shape="poly" Coords="70,84,51,300,455"
      Href="http://www.map.com/region1.html">
   <AREA Shape="poly" Coords="25,180,125,280,485,668"
      Href="http://www.map.com/region2.html">
   <AREA Shape="poly" Coords="152,106,186,225,340,193"
      Href="http://www.map.com/region3.html">
   <AREA Shape="poly" Coords="675,763,929,286,10,908"
      Href="http://www.map.com/region43.html">
   </MAP>
   <IMG Src="../images/imagemap.gif" Width="500" Height="300"
      Alt="Image Map" Usemap="#mymap" Ismap>
   

8. To extract the image map information from the HTML, click Extract Image Map from HTML.

   The Image Map Prompt Properties dialog expands to show the area titles, shapes, and coordinates that were entered in the HTML field.

   • For each area, in the Column field, enter the name of the column to pass when a user clicks it, and the value to use.

     
     

     Note: The column must be a fully qualified column name in the format Folder.Column Name.

     
     

   • Place double quotes around any column names that contain spaces. For example:

     • "Country name"

     • "Units shipped"

9. Click OK. The prompt is displayed in the "Definition pane."

10. Save the prompt. Note the following options:

    • If you are creating a dashboard prompt, then click the Save button in the prompt's editor, specify the folder in which you want to save the prompt, and give the prompt a descriptive name. Note that dashboard prompts that are saved in personal folders are available only to you. Dashboard prompts that are saved in shared folders are available to other users that have permission to access the object.

    • If you are saving a dashboard prompt for use with an Oracle BI Publisher report that receives its data from a SQL query against the Oracle BI Server, Oracle Database, or other JDBC source, then the dashboard prompt's name must match the name of the report's parameter.

    • If you are creating an inline prompt, then save the analysis.

11. Use the arrow buttons in the Definition Pane to reorder the selected prompt. Reordering the prompts controls the order in which the choices are displayed to users at runtime, so ensure that the order is logical, especially if you are creating constrained prompts.

12. If you want to add a new row or column to the prompts page, then click the New Row button or New Column button in the Definition pane's toolbar. In the Definition table, click the check box corresponding to the prompt that you want to display in a new row or column.

13. To preview how the prompt is displayed on the dashboard, either use the "Display pane" to preview the prompt with sample data, or click the Preview button (if available) in the Definition Pane toolbar to view the prompt with actual prompt values.

    
    

    Note: If the Preview button is not available, then the administrator has suppressed its display.