Column Tooltips

When making a table report, is it possible to add column tooltips in order to explain to an end users what kind of information the column is providing

is a question I received yesterday, and off course we can!

There is a little trick to know though. Adding a column tooltip does not rely on a specific feature of the Oracle BI tools, but on the understanding on how Oracle BI reports are displayed.  Just like with reports that use narrative views, adding a column tooltip relies on understanding how browsers display web pages, using HTML markup language.

How to add Column Tooltips

Once the report is created and displays the data that you set out to display, open the column properties for each of the columns where you want a tooltip to be displayed.

1. Check the ‘Custom Headings’ checkbox
2. Check the ‘Contains HTML Markup’ checkbox
3. Append your column heading with the following text ‘<img src=”http://www.dewolf.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/helptopics_ovr.png” title=”# Wins divided by the total # Wins and # Losses”>’

Let me explain what that text string does:

• the ‘img’ html tag indicates that an image needs to be displayed
• the ‘src’ attribute is the url of the image that needs to be displayed
• the ‘title’ attribute is the tooltip that will be shown when the user hovers with the mouse pointer above the image

Here is the archived report of the example used above: Column Tooltips.  If you have never used one before, here you can find a tutorial on how to import archived reports.