Freestyle Reports DW DIG Crosstabs, Hotspots and Exporting

Transcription

1 Exporting a Report You can export a report into other file formats. Acrobat (.pdf) Before exporting a report to.pdf format, make sure the columns in your report provide ample space for their contents. If the content of a column is too close to the edge of the column, the content may not appear in the.pdf. HTML, Complete (.htm,.css,.jpg,.gif,.cfg,.jar) Printing exported reports via your web browser can cause reports to be printed incorrectly. Export your reports to Acrobat if you want to print them. If you save the report in HTML format, you must save it in a folder separate from other HTML reports. HTML, Single file (.htm) Using this format removes any graphics from the exported file, and replaces page breaks in the exported file with empty rows so that you view a simplified version of the report. It is well suited for viewing on a handheld device or as an attachment. Text (.csv) This format is used to import into other applications that accept a comma-separated values format. Excel (.xls) For table and crosstab presentations, most formatting (data formats, font, size, and so forth) is preserved. For chart presentations, only the data is exported. Each presentation in a report becomes a separate spreadsheet within the exported file. Since you may frequently export the report to Acrobat in order to share it with others, let's see what that output looks like. Open BI Query Reports File > Open Open Top5Salespeople.rep and choose Refresh the data. File > Export > Acrobat (.pdf) In the "Save As" dialog box, leave the file name as"top5salespeople.pdf" and click Save. Minimize BI Query Reports. Open Windows Explorer. Go to C:\Program Files\Hummingbird\BI\Data Models\SAMPLEDATA\Reports and open Top5Salespeople.pdf. Compare what you see in Adobe Reader with the source in BI query Reports. (When preparing this handout, I spotted 4 visual differences.) Close the.pdf. Page 1 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009

2 Note: If you use exported reports in a network or internet environment, do not use spaces or special characters (such as &, <, >, ", ", etc.) in file names. This avoids problems that can occur with different naming conventions. Copying Presentations to Other Applications You can also export reports by copying and pasting tables and crosstabs from BI Query Reports into other applications. For example you can paste a table into Microsoft Excel. You can also copy and paste charts, but they may either be pasted as graphics or pictures, or only the raw data may be pasted. In the Top 5 Salespeople report, click on the table presentation, selecting it so that the gray border appears, but individual items within the table aren't also selected. Edit > Copy. Open Excel, and Edit > Paste. Repeat, this time copying and pasting the bar chart into Excel. Adding Hotspots A hotspot is a button that is linked to a qualification in the associated query. Clicking it lets users change the values on which the report is based. A report whose associated query contains a prompt also lets you qualify the report. However, it does not provide a visual cue, like a hotspot, to indicate that you can re-qualify the report. You can add hotspots anywhere in a report, including using them as titles, labels, or column headings. Before adding a hotspot to a report, in the query, qualify the attribute that you want to user to change using the hotspot. Make sure you select the correct data source in the Hotspot Wizard. Activate the band (double-click) where you want the hotspot inserted. Go to the Insert Menu and choose Hotspot. When your mouse pointer changes to a crosshair, click and drag diagonally in the band to create the shape of the hotspot. Select the correct data source and click Next. Select the attribute qualification you want the hotspot connected to and click Next. Select the value(s) you want the users to be able to select from and click Finish. To edit or move the hotspot, first select it by shift-clicking, ctrl-clicking, or right-clicking. Page 2 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009

3 Let's try using the hotspot in the Top 5 Salespeople report. Then let's delete it and practice inserting it. Click the hotspot dropdown and select Year = Notice that the report now displays "Report Needs Refresh". Choose Data > Refresh. Note that the hotspots for the chart and the table are not tied to each other. Right-click the hotspot for the table and select "Cut". Click the Hotspot button on the Presentation toolbar so that your cursor turns into a plus sign. Click and drag in the report where you want the hotspot to appear to cause the Hotspot Wizard to appear. In the Data Source tab, select the data source associated to the table and click Next. (Compare the columns of the data sources to help you select the right one.) In the Qualification tab, select the qualification that you want associated to the hotspot and click Next. (In our example, there is only one.) In the Values tab, enter 2001 under "Available Values" and click the Add button so that it appears under "Selected values". Repeat for 2000, and Use the Up and Down buttons so that the years appear in the desired order. Clear the "Allow user to type values" checkbox, and click Finish. Test your hotspot by using it change the table to show 2003 data. In the Hotspot Wizard Values tab, "Get Data Values" and "Load Database Values" aren't available for attributes that are calculated attributes. Only 10 items will display in the hotspot drop down. If you add more to your list of possible values when you set up the hotspot, you will see "More " as an option in your drop down list. Crosstab Reports Crosstabs are useful when you want to analyze a small number of data elements in a variety of ways, or when you want to convert something that normally appears in rows to columns or vice versa. Switch to the Retail Golf model and go to the Marketing Road Map. Start a new query. Page 3 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009

4 Open Territories Select and Sort on Territory Open Retail Locations Select and Sort on Country Open Product Detail Select and Sort on Category Open Orders Select and Sort on Year Select and Sort on Month Select and SUM Order Amount Connect all objects used in the query by manually selecting relationship lines as needed Run the query and send it to BI Query Reports In Presentation Designer, choose Crosstab and click Next. On the Style tab, select Landscape, assign a file name of "Crosstab Example", and click Next. On the Arrange Columns tab, we need to make a number of changes. It may default in looking like this (after clicking on the plusses to expand the items): The Metrics dimension would contain numerical data like summed amounts or counts. Although Year and Month look like numbers, we wouldn't treat them like numbers and sum them so they don't belong as metrics. If you have two dimensions that are related, like Year and Month, put them both under the same dimension. Then you can drill down and drill up through them. If you have two dimensions that aren't directly related, like Country and Category, you want them each as a separate dimension, as shown above. Then you will be able to rearrange the data to look at Country within Category, or Category within Country. Drag the item Year to the bottom of the list so it appears in its own dimension. Now right-click on "Dimension: Untitled 5" and choose Properties. Change the Description to Time, uncheck "Add 'All' Level", click Apply, and then click OK. Drag Month to underneath Year in the same Time dimension. Select the item "SUM Order Amount" and right-click and choose Properties. Change the Column type to Currency, click Apply, and click OK. Page 4 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009

5 Click Next, and the Building HyperCube tab should flash by, and it should take you to the Arrange Data tab. Drag the items around so that "Filter on" has Territory; Columns are Metrics and Time; Rows are Country and Category. Then click Finish. To work with the crosstab, double-click on it. Page 5 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009

6 When a dimension has an "All" Level, you can drill down. You can also drill down when a dimension has multiple items, like Year and Month. Click on the Grey bar above All Country to select the column. Then right-click on it and choose Drill Down. Repeat for All Category. Select the grey tab to the left of the years labels, right-click, and choose Drill Down. You can use the Filter to select data for just a single territory. In the Toolbars area under Filters, click the dropdown next to All Territory. Then in the tree that appears, click the plus sign next to All Territory and select Europe. You can quickly pivot (swap) the rows and columns. Move your mouse pointer to the grey box in the upper left hand corner, called the Pivot Cell. The mouse pointer should change to two arrows pointing 90 degrees away from each other. Double-click, and the rows and columns should swap places. Double-click again to put them back. Another way to rearrange the data is to change which dimension is first, and which is second. Because Country and Category were separate dimensions, you can drag Category above Country, and the crosstab will adjust to let you look at categories within countries. Right-click on the crosstab and choose "Rearrange Data". Drag Category above Country and click Close. Note: Because Years and Months were part of the same dimension, you can't rearrange them to analyze the data by Year within Month. They will only display Month within Year. You can also reorder individual items within a dimension, either to sort them in order, or to emphasize certain items by placing them first. Notice how the months in Year 2000 aren't in numerical order. We can fix that. Right-click on the crosstab and choose "Rearrange Data". Click on the button to the right of Time. Click on the Plus next to the Time dimension. Click on the plus next to 2000 in the dimension window. Select 2000 in the Dimension window. Then reorder the months by selecting individual months in the Members window and using the arrow buttons at the right side of the dialog box to move them up or down. Click Close and Close. Page 6 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009

7 Once the HyperCube has been built, fundamental changes to the design, like whether an item is its own dimension or part of another dimension, or whether an "All" level is used, appear to only be changed by recreating the crosstab from the original BI Query results set. Query Design Tips for Charts and Crosstabs Charts and crosstabs work best for summary-level information, not for detailed data. When gathering data for a chart or crosstab, refer to the following guidelines: Ensure that the data are intrinsically multidimensional (contains information on at least three dimensions of your business, such as Product, Region, and Metrics). Identify the critical time period. (If you need to compare results over quarters, don't include monthly or weekly data.) Keep the number of attributes/dimensions in your query small. Ensure that some of the data is numeric (for example, the data contains metrics such as Units Sold or Revenue). Focus on one business problem per chart. (Don t try to answer every question in a single chart.) Ensure that columns don't contain too many values. Charts communicate most effectively with seven or fewer values along one axis. Ensure that the data are fairly evenly distributed. (For example, each metric is captured for all products sold in all sales offices.) Page 7 of 7 Revised 3/27/2009