Workbooks & Visualizations¶

Last updated: 2026-04-27 Tags: workbook, canvas, visualization, chart, filter, calculation, storytelling, self-service

📖 Full Oracle Documentation: Visualizing Data and Building Reports

Summary¶

Workbooks are OAC's modern self-service analytics interface. A Workbook contains one or more Canvases (pages), each with Visualizations built from Datasets or Subject Areas. Workbooks support rich interactivity, AI-powered insights, map visualizations, and narration for storytelling.

Workbook Structure¶

Workbook
  ├── Canvas 1 (e.g., "Executive Summary")
  │     ├── Visualization: Revenue Trend (Line Chart)
  │     ├── Visualization: Top Products (Bar Chart)
  │     └── Filter: Year = 2024
  ├── Canvas 2 (e.g., "Regional Detail")
  │     └── Visualization: Sales by Region (Map)
  └── Canvas 3 (e.g., "Story")
        └── Narration text + embedded viz

Creating a Workbook¶

Home → Create → Workbook
Select a Dataset or Subject Area as the data source
Drag columns from the Data Panel onto the canvas
OAC auto-suggests a visualization type based on the data
Customize the chart, add filters, save

Visualization Types¶

Standard Charts¶

Type	Best For
Bar / Horizontal Bar	Comparing categories
Line	Trends over time
Area	Cumulative trends
Combo (Bar+Line)	Two metrics with different scales
Scatter	Correlation between two measures
Bubble	Three-measure correlation (size = 3^rd metric)
Pie / Donut	Part-to-whole (use sparingly, max 5-7 slices)
Treemap	Hierarchical part-to-whole
Waterfall	Incremental changes
Funnel	Stage-based conversion
Box Plot	Statistical distribution
Radar / Spider	Multi-dimensional comparison

Data Tables¶

Type	Best For
Table	Detailed row data
Pivot Table	Cross-tabulation
Heat Matrix	Density / frequency across two dimensions

Spatial¶

Type	Best For
Map	Geographic data
Flow Map	Origin-destination

KPI / Summary¶

Type	Best For
Tile (KPI Card)	Single metric highlight
Language Narrative	Auto-generated text summary
Custom Plug-in	Third-party chart types

Grammar Panel (Properties)¶

Each visualization has a Grammar Panel with:

Columns: assign data to X, Y, Color, Size, Shape, Tooltip, Trellis axes
Properties: title, legend, axis labels, data labels, colors, sorting
Filters: local filters scoped to this viz only
Analytics: trend lines, reference lines, clusters, outliers, forecast

Filters¶

Canvas Filters¶

Apply to all visualizations on a canvas:

Add via the Filter Bar at the top of the canvas
Range, list, date range, or expression filters
Can be pinned across canvases

Visualization Filters¶

Apply only to one visualization:

Right-click column → Add Filter

Dashboard Filters (Workbook-Level)¶

Pin a filter to apply across all canvases.

Filter Types¶

Type	Usage
List	Select one or more values from a list
Range	Min/Max numeric range
Date Range	Relative ("Last 30 Days") or absolute
Expression	Custom formula filter
Top/Bottom N	Filter to top or bottom N values

Calculations¶

Add Calculation to Dataset¶

Data Panel → Right-click column → Add Calculation
Expression editor with functions, operators, and column references

Common Functions¶

-- String
CONCAT("First Name", ' ', "Last Name")
UPPER("Product Name")
SUBSTRING("Description", 1, 50)

-- Numeric
ROUND("Revenue" / "Units", 2)
ABS("Variance")
POWER("Growth Rate", 2)

-- Date
YEAR("Order Date")
MONTH("Order Date")
TIMESTAMPDIFF(SQL_TSI_DAY, "Ship Date", "Order Date")

-- Conditional
CASE WHEN "Revenue" > 100000 THEN 'High' 
     WHEN "Revenue" > 50000 THEN 'Medium'
     ELSE 'Low' END

Canvas Properties¶

Background: color, image
Canvas Size: auto, fixed pixel, 1920×1080 (presentation mode)
Grid: snap to grid, grid spacing
Refresh: manual or auto-refresh interval

Presentation Mode & Stories¶

Presentation Mode¶

Full-screen view of a canvas for dashboarding/presenting.

View → Present
Navigate between canvases with arrows

Story Mode (Narration)¶

Add text, images, and embedded visualizations for guided analytics:

Add a Narration canvas
Drag in text boxes and viz thumbnails
Present as a slide-style story

Share link: copy URL to share (recipient needs OAC access)
Export: download as PDF, PNG, PowerPoint, Data (CSV/XLSX)
Embed: embed canvas in external web pages (see APIs, Embedding & Integration)
Email: schedule delivery via Agents (see KPIs, Alerts & Notifications)

AI-Powered Features in Workbooks¶

Explain¶

Auto-generates insights for a selected measure:

Basic facts (total, average, distribution)
Key drivers (which dimensions drive the metric)
Segments (clusters of data)
Anomalies (outliers) Access: Right-click a column/measure → Explain

Ask (Natural Language Query)¶

Type a question in plain English → OAC generates a visualization:

"Show me revenue by region for last year"
"Top 10 products by profit margin"

Auto-Insights¶

OAC proactively surfaces interesting patterns when opening a workbook.

AI Assistant¶

Generative AI (OCI AI Services backed) for chart recommendations, data descriptions, and Q&A.

Performance Tips¶

💡 Tip: Limit the number of visualizations per canvas to 8-10 for best rendering performance.

💡 Tip: Use Dataset caching for frequently accessed self-service data.

⚠️ Warning: Blending large datasets client-side is slow. Pre-join in a Data Flow instead.

💡 Tip: Use Subject Areas (BI Server) for large data volumes — they support aggregate navigation and database pushdown.