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Oracle Discoverer 10g Handbook - Chapter Headings

Welcome to the second edition of the Oracle Discoverer Handbook.  We have greatly enhanced and updated this book to bring it up to date to the latest 10g version, 10.1.2, of Discoverer (Desktop, Plus and Viewer), and for the first time we have covered the Administration edition.  We take you through all of the steps required to build the complete end user layer used in the book.

Here are the chapter headings (with additional comments in blue):

1. An overview of Discoverer, what is it and why do you need it?  We tell you why!
2. Users and Databases, we describe the responsibilities of the end user and introduce the concept of a Discoverer library
3. Getting started in Discoverer, who are your key users?  We tell you.  We also describe the main features of Discoverer and show show you how to log in
4. The Workbook Wizard - the essential steps, we walk you through the basics of building a workbook and teach you how to avoid writing queries from the twilight zone
5. The Workbook Wizard Part - the optional steps, we discuss the other steps, the ones that you think you need but actually don't!  At least, not at first
6. Formatting the output in Desktop and Plus, a complete description of all the formatting capabilities of Desktop and Plus
7. Using graphs to present data, we show you to build graphs in both Desktop and Plus, a must read if you want to master graphing in Discoverer
8. Turning a Discoverer query into a report, headers, footers, margins and all that jazz
9. Using Discoverer to analyze data, we introduce you to analysis, specifically talking about statistical, classification, deviation, trend, time and spread analysis and how to build workbooks for each
10. Discoverer Viewer, for the first time in print, a complete reference on how to use Viewer
11. Refining items, drilling and hyper drilling we show you how to build worksheets that allow drilling and pivoting of data, including hyper drilling
12. Building effective conditions, simply the best description of conditions anywhere in the universe
13. Refining parameters, calculations, sorting and percentages, dynamic parameters, cascading parameters, CASE and DECODE calculations, standard margin, manipulating dates, complex percentages, and more
14. Query management, includes how to manage a library, third party scheduling, the windows command line - oh yes and let's not forget email
15. User preference, the toolbar, and the Discoverer administrator, What do all those buttons and menus do?  We tell you.  Plus, just what can your administrator can do for you - a collection of 20 things that can make your life easier
16. Introducing Discoverer OLAP, Written primarily by Mark Rittman, we show you all there is to know about using OLAP with Discoverer
17. Getting started in the Administration edition, we teach you how to build your first business area - the one used in the end user part of the book (the first 15 chapters)
18. Editing the business area, let us show you how to edit your business area, handle summaries, add new items and lots more
19. Interacting with the end user, a collection of some 20 workflows that describe how to handle the user requests from chapter 15
20. Configuring Discoverer, we show you how to configure your registry settings and those pesky preferences that control Plus and Viewer, plus we explain the concept of security using a Virtual Private Database and talk about Single Sign On
21. Setting up portal for use with Discoverer, let us show you just how to set up Discoverer for use in portal
22. Summary Management - all you would ever need to know about setting up summary tables
23. Appendix 1 - Michael's Gold mine of answers to FAQs, some 60 pages of Michael's answers to your most asked questions - this will be worth the price alone!
24. Appendix 2 - Functions, if you have not seen it yet, this is simply the most complete description of every Discoverer function known to man, its syntax and lots of useful examples. We have even included a section on analytic functions and how to work with these inside Discoverer
25. Appendix 3 - Databases and Views, let's talk schemas - relational and star, and see how Discoverer works with Oracle Applications, plus the use of Noetix Views and home grown views.  We will also tell you how to set up Discoverer against Oracle Applications and give you a few simple SQL examples
26. Appendix 4 - Tutorial database, an overview of the database used throughout the book