FEBRUARY 2014

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT V14 P6 8.X

BI REPORT CACHE SETTINGS FOR PCM OR P6 REPORTS AND FORMS

DOWNLOAD THE PDF HERE

 

When creating new reports in Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) for either Contract Management (PCM) or P6, it’s important that you set the report cache settings correctly.

Report Caching stores the data used for the report in a static query for the specified duration.  For information that changes rapidly, report caching should be turned off.  Otherwise, changes to the record will NOT be reflected in a reprinting of the form/report.

This feature is intended to eliminate the burden on the report server when a report is repeatedly run with the same data.  Without caching, each time any user clicks “Print”, the data is retrieved from the data source for display on your report layout.  With caching enabled, the report can use the same cached data multiple times.

The downside of this feature is that changes to the data are NOT reflected in the output until the caching period expires or caching has been turned off.

If a user complains that their report has the wrong information that they just updated in the database, cache settings are the likely culprit.

How to Set/Verify Caching Level

  1. Open BI web tool
  2. Click the Catalog link and browse to the form or report folders.
  3. Click on the report layout “Edit”
  1. Click on the Properties of the overall report next to Parameters and View Report, NOT the Properties associated with the individual layout.
  2. Click on the Caching Tab.
  1. Settings impacts:
    1. Enable Caching—checked this will not refresh the information on the report output until the cache period expires.
    2. User Level—this caches data by user running
    3. Document Caching—this caches data by the document
    4. User can refresh report data—for CM this is not available.

Example Scenarios

  1. Contract Management Request for Information (RFI) form printed.
    1. User prints, and discovers some information was not filled in. They proceed to edit the data and reprint the form.
    2. With caching turned on, the form will still print the same data (no change.)
    3. RECOMMEND: For all/most PCM forms/reports, Caching settings should be turned OFF.
  2. P6 Detail Report, or large PCM Multi-Project Cost Report (run weekly or monthly)
    1. For these types of reports that are run only periodically, some caching might be useful since user can print and re-print the report without putting additional burden on the BI server.
    2. However, with caching turned on, if the user detects errors that must be corrected before re-running, they must wait until the cache period expires to re-run the report.
    3. RECOMMEND: for data-intensive reports with semi-periodic data changes, consider setting data caching.

Final Thoughts

For PCM, typically caching of reports would be unnecessary or problematic.  Most PCM users are used to active refreshing of data, and caching of reports there would involve some training/adaptation.  PCM forms should always be set NOT to cache.

For P6 reports, caching might be acceptable.  Keep in mind that BI reports in P6 retrieve data from the extended data tables, which in themselves represent some level of cached data.  In addition, it’s common for P6 schedules to be updated only periodically, which would be consistant with BI caching.