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Discoverer Questions

What is Oracle BI Discoverer?
Oracle Discoverer is the Business Intelligence tool from Oracle Corporation that allows you to build custom queries against the AQS database on the EPA server.  US EPA has deployed BI Discoverer Plus and BI Discoverer Viewer in its web architecture.  BI Discoverer Plus allows users to create, run, save, and share queries; BI Discoverer Viewer allows users to run previously created and saved queries.  Query results can be saved in a variety of formats, spreadsheets being the dominantly used one.

Discoverer is a retrieval only tool.  You can not make changes to the AQS database using this tool.

(Response updated 4/3/07)

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What do I need to use BI Discoverer?

You must be a registered AQS user, have a web connection, and use a web browser with Java enabled such as IE 5 or later or Netscape 4.7 or later.  The BI Discoverer applet is downloaded from US EPA's server to the client PC.  Discoverer Plus requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE).  A download will be offered automatically if needed the first time a user connects with Discoverer.  If you are not prompted and you don't have Java installed, go to www.java.com and download/install it from there.

Users outside of EPA have reported successful use of BI Discoverer with IE 7.  The US EPA as not yet adopted IE 7.

(Response updated 4/3/07)

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What setup information do I need?

In addition to your AQS userid and password, you need to know the database name: aqsprod and the url:  https://iasint.rtpnc.epa.gov/discoverer/plus  Once at the url, you must first create a connection.  This connection information is stored in a cookie on your PC.  If you delete all cookies, you will have to recreate a connection each time (not a big deal, just a little extra step.)

First time users:

The first time you attempt to use Discoverer, you will need to create a "Connection".  You will need your AQS userid and password to create this connection.  The name of the database is: aqsprod.

Once you see the Workbook Wizard, you have successfully connected to BI Discoverer.

(Updated 4/3/07)

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Where can I get more information on using Discoverer?

There's a user guide for AQS available from the Manuals and Guides page, an Adobe version of a Powerpoint slide show from a training session, and a full user guide available from Oracle Corporation's web site.

(A new manual and training session is currently being prepared.  It should be ready by about mid-May 2007.  The basic concepts and working is the same, but the interface is considerably better.)

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What does 'Java.lang.class not found exception: oracle.disco.disco.applet' mean?

If you still see this error, try opening your Java Console from Windows' Control Panel.  If there's a problem with opening that, you may need to uninstall Java and re-install it.  You can get the latest version of java from Sun Microsystems at this site exit EPA http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp 

(Updated 4/3/07)

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