Waterfall Chart in OBIEE11.1.1.6.0

Waterfall Chart in OBIEE

As several blogs have mentioned there is an unactivated graph in OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0. This is the waterfall chart.

A waterfall chart is a special type of floating-column chart. A typical waterfall chart shows how an initial value is increased and decreased by a series of intermediate values, leading to a final value. An invisible column keeps the increases and decreases linked to the heights of the previous columns.

It used to be possible to mimic this type of behaviour using a stacked bar graph and setting the 'running total' to the same colour as your background, but this is so much easier.

By default this is not visible in the graph list and we need to enable it manually.

Update: Please note this is not supported by Oracle in this version so if you uncover a bug, you're on your own.

Configuration Changes

Edit your instanceconfig.xml file between the <Views>....</Views> element.

Just before the closing tag add the following (leave off the </Views> which I have left in for clarity).

<Charts>
<EnableWaterfall>true</EnableWaterfall>
</Charts>
</Views>
Save the instanceconfig.xml file and restart OPMN.

WaterFall Graph Results

Now when you add a graph view to your query an option for Waterfall appears in the dropdown.

From playing around it is apparent that the four coloured squares (green, green, red and blue) to the right of the graph relate to
1. First (top) coloured square is the start value or initial column.
2. The second coloured square is used to represent increasing or positive values.
3. The third coloured square is used to represent decreasing or negative values.
4. The bottom coloured square is used to show the final balance.

It is possible to change the colours and representation, but, like I said, I'll need to play a bit more.

Changing The Range in Charts

You can override the default settings for charts. You usually want to do this because the size of chart, range, or layout doesn't match with what you had in mind for the design of your report

You want to stretch out your report, or if your graph never goes below a certain value change the axis default limits.

Easy enough, go to the Results Tab, Click on the little pencil to edit your graph and then in the layout and design panel click on the xyz image (along the top of the panel). When you hover your mouse over the image you get the tooltip "Edit graph properties".

A modal properties box appears, that allows you to edit the graph settings and parameters. The scale tab, shown above, is where you can override the defaults used for axis limits and scales.