How to Get a Free Trial Version of Oracle BI Publisher

October 15, 2012
Larry Zagata
Blog

I believe a big part of the value of our blogs is sharing information in a community that sometimes doesn’t always have a great venue for the sharing. Sometimes we demo or share our opinions, but we try to always share real information.

In fact, there is so much information out there about PeopleSoft and business intelligence, that unless you live it and breathe it and use it to solve daily problems, it is impossible to know all of the content that’s available. To that end, I want to share where you can get a free demo version of Oracle BI Publisher for trial purposes. You can download the content and it comes pre-delivered with data models, reports, dashboard and a fully functional version of BI publisher. You can even upload your own data content to practice creating reports and dashboard with your own data which has value and means something specifically to you.

The download is quite simple — go here (you’ll need your Oracle user name and password). Read and accept the license agreement (read and accept with your company’s permission of course), and select the appropriate version to download. From there, once downloaded, simply follow the instructions. Everything is pre-configured and ready for use. You do not have to figure out web servers, etc. in order to make this fully functional. There are of course install guides and quick start guides and tutorials for your reference.

(click to enlarge)

Once installed you will have icons on your desktop, like this:

Simply double-click Start BI Publisher, let the window open and the processes start up and once they are started, double-click the Sign Into BI Publisher icon and it will launch your web browser for sign-on. Simply launch Stop BI Publisher when you are finished. Once within the application, you will be able to run existing reports/dashboards, modify existing reports/dashboards and create new. Soon you will understand the capabilities of Oracle BI Publisher. This is a great way to get a feel for the application without jumping in with both feet. I recommend it highly.

Enjoy!