There are three ways to work with OLAP data, from the
report itself, from the Selections panel, and from the OLAP Control
Panel. This documentation is organized to help you understand what
you can do from each location and which method is most suitable
and efficient for your particular OLAP settings.
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You can perform a wide range
of basic analytic functions from the report itself. Changes you make
in the report are implemented instantly. Every OLAP user can perform
these tasks:
- Sort the data
in measures in either ascending (lowest value to highest) or descending order
(highest value to lowest).
- Drill down
on measures, dimensions, or both (depending on the settings described
in Setting OLAP Reporting Options).
- Hide fields
in the current report.
- View hidden
fields in the dimensions hierarchy and add them to the report.
- Change a vertical
(By) sort field to a horizontal (Across) sort field and vice versa.
- Delete sort
fields.
- Add a column
of small bar graphs that help you visualize trends in numeric data (measures).
- Display a graphical
representation of your data in a frame above the tabular report.
For an illustration of report-powered OLAP analysis, see We Do It Every Day: A Typical Web Query.
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When the OLAP Selections panel is turned on, you can
quickly limit the data in the report by selecting specific values
for the dimensions in the hierarchy. A drop-down list is available for
each dimension. You can multiselect values from one or more dimension
lists to refine your report output.
If you wish to add a dimension element to the report, you can
drag it from the Selections panel into the report frame. (The cursor
changes to a plus sign (+) to indicate an acceptable location.)
Each dimension has a relational operator button located to its
left. This button toggles through a selection of basic numeric operators
that enable you to quickly define your selection criteria. The operators
are:
- Equal to.
- Not equal to.
- Less than or equal
to.
- Less than but not
equal to.
- Greater than or
equal to.
- Greater than but
not equal to.
For details, see Selection Criteria Relational Operators.
The following image shows the Equal to operator as the selection
for each dimension in the Selections panel.
The name of the dimension field appears as defined in the Master
File, even if an alternate column title has been specified.
In addition, you can customize the display of the measures in
your report from the Selections panel. You can click either the
Measures or the Graph arrow in the upper-left corner of the pane
to list the measures.
- From the Measures
arrow, you can display or hide the selected measures or request
a column of simple bar graphs to reveal trends.
- From the Graph
arrow, you can choose the measures you wish to graph and specify
one of the following basic graph types: vertical and horizontal
bar, line, area graphs, or pie charts.
Note that the Selections panel is resizable. The controls for
dimensions, measures, and graphs float as you resize the report
window, so that they continue to be visible in the frame.
Five buttons appear below the Selections panel: OLAP, Run, Reset,
Save, and Help.
-
OLAP. Opens
the OLAP Control Panel (OCP).
-
Run. Executes
the report with the current set of selections.
-
Reset. Resets
all the controls in the report to their previous state (that is,
before the current set of selections was made and after the last
execution of the report).
-
Save. Opens
a list of options from which you can save or view the document.
-
Help. Opens
the WebFOCUS online Help.
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From the OLAP Control Panel, you can perform every analytic
function available to a WebFOCUS OLAP
user, as shown in the following image.
The main window of the OLAP Control Panel
contains the following components:
-
Dimensions pane. Reflects
the hierarchical structure of the data source being used by the
current report. For example, the Location dimension contains the
Region, State, and City fields. The Region is made up of several
States, and each State contains several Cities. You click the arrow
to the left of a dimension name to view the elements that comprise
it. (The fields shown here are also listed in the Selections panel.)
-
Drill Down and Drill Across panes. List
the fields being used to sort the report. You can pivot a Drill
Down field to a Drill Across field or a Drill Down Across field
to a Drill down field, and shift their positions in the report.
You can also accomplish these tasks by dragging fields within the
report.
-
Measures pane. Contains
the body of your report (usually numeric fields). You can change
the display mode of a measure by clicking the check box next to
the measure. The options are display, hide, and show a column of
associated bar graphs. This is equivalent to the options available
from the Measures control in the Selections panel.
Although the most frequently used functions are available directly
from an OLAP report and/or from the Selections panel, several can
only be performed from the OLAP Control Panel.
OLAP Control Panel operations include:
- Sorting options
for dimensions: from lowest to highest or highest to lowest (A to
Z or Z to A), restricting sort field values to a specified number
of either highest or lowest values, and assigning a rank number
to each row in the report. For details, see Sorting Data.
- Options for
grouping numeric data by tile (for example, percentile, decile,
or quartile). For details, see Grouping Numeric Data Into Tiles.
- Defining selection
criteria based on omitted or existing characters, dates, and range specifications.
For details, see Limiting Data.
- Saving OLAP
output in PDF and Excel formats. In Managed Reporting, users can
also save OLAP output in the private content folder. For details,
see Saving and Displaying OLAP Reports and Graphs in Other Formats.
- Stacking multiple
measures to limit the width of the report. For details, see Stacking Measures.