Standalone vs EBS Embedded
I had grand plans to spend last night getting the first of the web services posts together - I have all the code samples just need the eloquent prose around them ... my plans were dashed when my wife got me to help out on a school fund raiser 'flyer' - what ought to have taken an hour, stretched into the night - what joy it is to mess about with MSWord trying to combine 4 documents and get the look and feel the same ... NOT!
So you're getting something as useful, if not more so, that I had ready yesterday.
We have been pinging mails around over the last day or two - a customer asked 'what are the differences between the standalone release and the embedded EBS version.' We all thought someone had documented those, alas none of us had, but Pradeep one of our PMs that you'll find regularly lurking on the forum, took it upon himself to bash out a quick table of comparison.
I have embellished a little here and there ...
| BIP Enterprise Server (stand-alone) | BIP with EBS | ||
| 1. | Data Extraction | Connects to any databases that supports the use of JDBC drivers | Meant for only Oracle DB ie the db that EBS is using. Can connect to others but requires licensing |
| 2. | Various types of Data Sources ? SQL, Data Template, OBIEE, Olap MDX, Discoverer, Web Services, HTTP / RSS feeds, File | Oracle Reports or PLSQL base concurrent programs can extract data from DB. Can use BIP Data Templates to extract from other sources e.g. XML file, Excel, etc | |
| 3. | Scheduling | Scheduler available, scheduler can be configured with different types of databases - oracle, db2, sql server, sybase, etc. | Scheduling is managed by concurrent manager. Tight integration with CM to generate output based on user driven template and output format selection. |
| 4. | Security | Multiple security models supported ? BIP security, Olap, EBS security, database security, OBIEE security. | Adheres to EBS security ie users, responsibilities, reporting groups,etc |
| 5. | Web Services | Web service APIs available for BIP integration with any application | No web services API |
| 6. | Tools | Template formats supported RTF, PDF, XSLFO, Flex, Excel | Same but Flex is not supported. Excel templates under controlled release. |
| 7 | Online Analyzer and Excel Analyzer utilities available for data analysis | Not available in EBS | |
| 8. | BI Desktop is able to connect to Enterprise Server to design and upload reports to the server. | Feature not supported in EBS | |
| 9. | Bursting | Bursting configuration can be set on the Report Editor screen , UI based. | Bursting is set by configuring a control file (xml file). |
| 10. | Delivery | Delivery to email, fax, ftp, webdav, http and printer are supported | Delivery channels not available out of the box, requires custom code to deliver documents using BIP APIs |
| 11 | UI | Complete UI to manage users, roles, admin, reports, scheduling, etc | Leverages OAF UI to manages templates. Reports managed and scheduled via CM UI. USers and roles(responsibilities) managed by AOL UI |
By no means a highly detailed and exhaustive list, the big ticket items in my mind are the delivery and web services - please dont even ask right now. If we extend the question, then we get to JDE and PS differences from the standalone. I need some time to get that those together.
