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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keep this one within arms reach, March 17, 2006
This review is from: Oracle Discoverer 10g Handbook (Oracle (McGraw-Hill)) (Paperback)
I have been reading this book since I got it a few days ago non-stop. Both at home (with glares from the Mrs.), and at the office (office door shut, of course) I am gleefully plowing thru this read. Now that I have just completed the book, I keep it within arms reach, as I will undoubtedly refer to it often, as Discoverer Administrator at my job.
I have been using Discoverer now for about 5 years, but I have learned so much in the last few days with this book. "Chapter 20 - Configuring Discoverer" was, for me, the most insightful. It's Discoverer from a DBA's point of view (using OEM, setting the preferences, etc.) and knowing the settings and options that I don't get to see on a daily basis helps me better understand what is in the realm of possibility that I might not have known to ask.
Also key for me was the simple and conversational tone of the book. I, like many Discoverer users I would surmise, do not have an IT background, as Discoverer itself is so simple to use that it hides that complexity and lets you focus on the desired end result. This book is consistent with that spirit of Discoverer in that it's not a lot of technical jargon, and it's got lots of screen shots, so a person with little or no Discoverer experience can pick this up and use it immediately.
"Chapter 16 - Introducing Discoverer OLAP" was a great chapter as well, as it explains in detail the advantages of using the OLAP (as opposed to relational) feature of 10g. Even though I don't presently have plans for implementing it, it's so informative, I know what to expect if and when the need ever arises.
Finally, as an experienced Discoverer user, my favorite chapters were the appendices, specifically Appendix A and B. Appendix A are dozens of questions regarding the use of Discoverer, as well as scripts you can implement to make life easier (my favorite is the detail of the calculations to count business days between 2 dates). Appendix B is a comprehensive listing of Functions with examples, and I'm expecting that will be the part of the book I'll revisit most.
I highly recommend this book; it covers all aspects of Discoverer from report writing to administration, to portlet publication. Well-written and well worth the price.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Resource!, May 5, 2006
This review is from: Oracle Discoverer 10g Handbook (Oracle (McGraw-Hill)) (Paperback)
I am a neophyte to Discoverer, having just accepted a position where the primary assignment is to learn discoverer and develop a library.
I think the true measure of this type of book is how well it takes someone who has little knowledge and walks them through the process of learning. Often times, this type of book slides into language or discourse that seems aimed at higher-end users or impressing people with the depth of knowledge, jargon and acronymns.
In particular, because Discoverer is a tool aimed at the end-user, who may or may not have a great deal of background with Oracle databases themselves (mine is limited), this book faces the challenge of addressing the needs of both the end-user without high-end technical savvy as well as the administrator who knows Oracle backward and forward.
I'm happy to say that I am rapidly gaining knowledge working through this book, as if I were sitting in a training class.
The progression of this book is as follows:
A. Getting Started with Discoverer
1. An Overview of Discoverer.
2. Users and Databases.
3. Getting Started in Discoverer.
4. The Workbook Wizard: The Essential Steps
5. The Workbook Wizard: The Optional Steps
B. Editing the Query
6. Formatting the Output in Discoverer Desktop and Plus
7. Using Graphs to Present Data
8. Turning a Discoverer Query into a Report
9. Using Discoverer to Analyze Data
10. Business Intelligence Discoverer Viewer 10g Release 2 (10.1.2)
C. Advanced Discoverer Techniques
11. Refining Items, Drilling, and Hyper-Drilling
12. Building Effective Conditions
13. Refining Parameters, Calculations, Sorting, and Percentages
14. Query Management
15. User Preferences, the Toolbar, and the Discoverer Administrator
16. Introducing Discoverer OLAP
D. Using the Discoverer Administration Edition
17. Getting Started in the Administration Edition
18. Editing the Business Area
19. Interacting with the End User
20. Configuring Discoverer
21. Setting Up Portal for Use with Discoverer
22. Summary Management
The appendicies are targeted and helpful.
All in all, I can't say enough good about this book. It filled the need exactly and efficiently.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and thorough book, May 3, 2006
This review is from: Oracle Discoverer 10g Handbook (Oracle (McGraw-Hill)) (Paperback)
The Oracle Discoverer 10g handbook is the only book I have seen that covers all aspects of Discoverer so thoroughly in one place. It now covers both the User and Administration Editions, and most importantly, the installation and set up of the product set (an area which is usually forgotten, but which can have a large impact on performance.) This book can be regarded as the bible of Discoverer 10g.
The book is thoughtfully organized, and written in a conversational style that makes it both readable and understable -- not using the acronyms and mysterious marketing words that some people seem to want to use to hide their lack of knowledge.
I am especially impressed with the section on "Configuring Discoverer". This covers some of the less obvious, manual, file changes that may be needed after installation. I am very pleased to see that it also includes registry settings that the Discoverer development team set up. (When the various Discoverer releases were near to production the user interface would be frozen for documentation. If the development team wanted to add some new functionality after this point, they did it by adding registry settings. The intent would be to expose these in the user interface in the next release, but not all of them made it!).
Michael's obvious experience and deep-seated knowledge of Discoverer comes through in Appendix A ("Michael's Gold Mine of Answers to FAQ's").
There are things you can find in this book that can't be found in one place anywhere else. If you are using Discoverer 10g it should be sitting on your desk.
Phillip Slater.
Ex-Director of Product Management, Oracle Discoverer from its instigation until December 2003.
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