What are the benefits of using Aliases in OBIEE?
It is a best practice to create aliases for all tables. Aliases are created in the Physical Layer of the repository. Some of the benefits of using aliases are given below:
· You can create a join relationship which is different than the actual foreign key relationship in the database. This helps in defining relationships to meet business model criteria.
· An alias is used to avoid circular joins and to configure self joins. (for more details on Fan Trap and Circular Joins check this blog.)
· Aliases can function in numerous ways to define business model e.g. a table can act both as a dimension and a fact using aliases.
· You can rename aliases to make physical and business model easier to understand.
Click here to read more about aliases in Oracle Documentation.
More information in this wiki/blog: http://gerardnico.com/wiki/dat/obiee/alias
Reference: Oracle® Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g Release 1 (11.1.1)
Cheers!
Deepak
