Using Views

In this section:

WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE views can be used to perform a variety of tasks. Views include:


Top of page

x
WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Getting Started Dialog

The WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE Getting Started dialog box displays after you click the icon on your desktop. Use this dialog box to open the application.

Use the dialog box to:

Tip: To display this screen each time you start the application, be sure a checkmark appears in the Show This Screen on Startup field.

Access the Quick Start Wizard

  1. Click the Quick Start button to display the welcome page of the Quick Start wizard. Click Next.
  2. In the Load Data wizard page, select the method in which you wish to load data:
    • Click Data Wizard to load data using the Data Wizard.
    • Click Data Templates to load previously-defined data. The Load Previous Data Sources dialog box displays. Select a data source by clicking the check box next to the applicable entry and click Open.

    Click Next.

  3. Select an analysis template based on the type of data that you are using as well as the analysis you are performing. Click Next.
  4. In the Select Primary Analysis Field wizard page, use the drop-down lists to select the data table and table field which will be the primary focus of your analysis. Click Next.
  5. Optionally, you can select other fields, using the Select Related Fields wizard page, to aid in your data analysis. Click Next.
  6. Optionally, choose a Measure field from the drop-down list. Note that if you do not select a measure here, WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE uses the count of items as the unit of measure. Click Next.
  7. The Summary wizard page displays information about the page that WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE has created based on your selections. Review this information. To complete the process, click Next. To make changes, click Back and change your selections as required.
  8. The Page Design Completed wizard page displays. Click Finish to close the wizard.

Creating a New Project

  1. Click the New Project button. A blank page is added to the workspace.

Opening an Existing Project

  1. To open an existing project, click the Open Project button. In the Open Project dialog box, select a project from the list and click Open.
  2. The data is loaded and the project page is displayed in the workspace.

Top of page

x
Color and Selection Legend

To access this view, select Color Legend from the View menu or click the button. The Color Legend, located at the bottom right side of the screen, displays the color scale for currently-selected data.

The Color Legend shows how color is applied to the data that is displayed in the Color By field. By selecting data within a chart, you can see how color is assigned to the selected data. This is a read-only view. Information displayed here cannot be changed or edited.


Top of page

x
Project Workshop

The Project Workshop View allows you to view and manage your project. To display the Project Workshop view, select Project Workshop from the View menu or click the button in the View toolbar.

The Project Workshop Elements

Capabilities

  1. Load Data
  2. Manage Data Sources
  3. Use the Link Wizard and Modify Links Dialogs
  4. Use Color Models
  5. Use the Expression Builder
  6. Use the Date Parser
  7. Configure Data Hierarchies
  8. Data Pool Visualization


Top of page

x
Date Parser

The Date Parser can be used to generate new date/time fields for a dataset without having to manually edit the data source. New date/time fields are created in the project using one of 29 format options, based on data values from an existing field with a DateTime data type.

The Date Parser can be very useful for generating rollups (for example, week, quarter, month, year) from a detailed date format. However, be aware that the result data type is (currently) a String, not a Date, so use a format that will sort properly and be aware that some charts that accept dates do not accept string (for example, Time Table x axis). The formats that will sort properly are marked with a check in the Sortable column.

To access the Date Parser, select Date Parser from the Tools menu or click the Date Parser button in the Project Workshop toolbar. Select a table from the Table drop-down list. Select a DateTime field from the drop-down list. Only fields with the DateTime data type will appear in this list.

In the Date/Time Field Options grid, select the checkbox for the applicable format option that will be used to generate the new date/time field. Once you select a format, the New Field Name column displays a default field name. You can edit this name as desired by clicking on the New Field Name cell and editing the existing name or typing in a new name.

NOTE 1: You can select multiple date/time field options.

NOTE 2: If the data values in the source DateTime field do not contain the necessary information, the generated field will contain empty data values (zeros). For example, if you selected the Hour:Minute format option and the source DateTime field does not contain time values, the new Hour:Minute field will be displayed 00:00 data values.

Click Apply to add new fields to the selected table in the data pool.


Top of page

x
Expression Builder

The Expression Builder is used to create new fields defined by an expression or calculation. This expression consists of operators, constants, functions, and fields from one data table. Fields may be numeric, string, or date. A separate tool, the Date Parser, is also available for manipulating dates and provides a wider set of formatting options.

To Access the Expression Builder

Select Expression Builder from the Tools menu or click the Expression Builder button in the Project Workshop toolbar.

User Interface

Elements of the user interface are:

Control buttons are:

To Create a New Expression

  1. Select the table to contain the new field from the Table box.
  2. Name your new field in the Calculated Field box.
  3. Type the expression or click or drag fields, operators, functions, and constants from the language box.
  4. Click Evaluate to create the new field and show its first 25 rows.
  5. Exit keeping the new field by clicking OK. Exit without keeping the new field by clicking Cancel.

To Create a New Expression

  1. Select the table to contain the new field from the Table box.
  2. Name your new field in the Calculated Field box.
  3. Type the expression or click or drag fields, operators, functions, and constants from the language box.
  4. Click Evaluate to create the new field and show its first 25 rows.
  5. Exit keeping the new field by clicking OK. Exit without keeping the new field by clicking Cancel.

To Edit an Existing Expression

  1. Select the table to contain the new field from the Table box.
  2. Select the name of the existing field from the Calculated Field box.
  3. Modify the expression by typing or clicking and dragging fields, operators, functions, and constants from the language box.
  4. Click Evaluate to modify the field and show its first 25 rows.
  5. Exit keeping the modification by clicking OK. Exit without keeping the change by clicking Cancel.

To Delete an Existing Calculated Field

  1. Select the table to contain the new field from the Table box.
  2. Select the name of the existing field from the Calculated Field box.
  3. Click the Delete button.
  4. Exit with this change by clicking OK. Exit without the deletion by clicking Cancel.

To See Usage of an Existing Calculated Field

  1. Be sure that the Usage tab is displayed. From the Table drop-down list, select the table that contains the calculated field(s) that you have to view. A list of calculated fields is displayed.
  2. To delete one or more of these fields from the project, click the checkbox for each field to be deleted (a checkmark should appear in the checkbox). Click the Delete button.
  3. Charts that use a calculated field may be found with the Usage button.

Warning

Beware of expressions that produce semi-additive measures! Semi-additive measures are meaningless if they are aggregated by summing. For example, you can calculate the percentage of one field versus another (for example, Int( FieldA / FieldB * 100)). But if you weight a Bar Chart by this new field, it will be weighted by the sums of the percentages of the rows that have that category. This is not a useful weight! In this case, you should use the Ratio weight in the bar chart instead to yield a weight that aggregates correctly.

Expression Language

Primitives

The names in angle brackets used below indicate a class of characters.

Item

Meaning

<integer>

Any integer number. Examples are: 0, 1, 11, 243.

<real>

Any real (decimal) number. Decimal constants in expressions must be entered in US format, with a . as the decimal point. Examples are: 0.1, 1.1, 3.14159.

Any string

A literal string is enclosed by single quotes (') and may contain any printable character.

<fieldname>

The name of a field in the target table. The value of that field for the current row is substituted. Names starting with an alphabetic character and consisting of only alphanumeric characters and underscore (_) do not need to be quoted. If the field name contains other characters, such as spaces, the name must be quoted. A field name that matches an Expression Builder reserved word, such as a function name, must be quoted. Use back quotes (`) for a field name. Double quotes may also be used.

A field name

A field name enclosed by back quotes (`) and may contain any printable character including space. Quoting may also be used if a field name is the same as an Expression Builder reserved word, such as a function name.

string

A string surrounded with double quotes that matches a field name in the current table will be taken as that field name; otherwise it is a literal string. This usage is not recommended since an invalid reference to a field name may not be detected; use back quotes instead.

mm/dd/yy

Constant dates are given as strings using the format of the current locale; time is optional. Constant dates are currently only valid in comparison operators.

i

Current row index, starting at 1.

n

Number of rows in the table.

missing

A missing value in a field. A missing value indicates the absence of data. Most charts ignore missing data or display it optionally. Missing values may be present in the source data. In general a missing value in an expression will cause the result of evaluating the expression to be missing as well, since most operations combined with missing result in missing. Missing values may be tested for (using the if ... then ... else ... expression) and created in the output field (again typically using an if ... then ... else ... expression).

now

The current date and time. This can be broken into year, month, or day using date functions, and can be subtracted from a date field value to find the number of days between the dates.

nowdataload

The date and time when the data was loaded. For an adv project that loads data, this will be basically the same as now. For an advm project that includes saved data, this will be the date/time when that project was created. Use this if you will be working on a project with saved data for a period of time and adding new calculations which you want to all be relative to the same current point in time. Case is irrelevant, so you can use NowDataLoad or other alternatives as well.

Functions taking Numeric Field

Item

Meaning

mean(field)

The mean or average of the field.

median(field)

The median, the middle value from the field after it is ordered. The middle of the sample.

stddev(field)

The standard deviation of the field values.

sigma(field), var(field), variance(field), sigma2(field)

The variance of the field values, the standard deviation squared.

norm(field)

The normalized value, (x - mean) / stddev

order(field)

Integer index of the value in the current row in sorted order. The median is the valued indexed by the middle value in the order.

rank(field)

Rank of numbers in the field.

min(field)

The minimum value in the field.

max(field)

The maximum value in the field.

bin(field, integer)

Create an integer bin number based on the field values. The range of the field is divided into integer bins, and the bin number is used as the value of the calculated field.

sum(field)

Sum of values in the field.

Functions taking Numeric Expressions

Item

Meaning

sqrt(expr), root(expr)

Square root.

log(expr)

Natural log.

log10(expr)

Logarithm base 10.

exp(expr)

Exponential.

abs(expr)

Absolute value.

sign(expr)

1.0 if the number is positive, -1.0 if the number is negative, and 0.0 if the number is 0.0.

int(expr)

The expression value truncated to an integer (if a double) or converted from a string.

double(expr)

The expression value as a real or double. The expression may be a string or an integer.

min(expr, expr, ...)

Minimum of list.

max(expr, expr, ...)

Maximum of list

string(expr, [format])

Converts expression to a string. The optional second parameter is a string specifying how the conversion of a number is to be done. The values for this format are given below. This is most commonly used to give the precision. For example, %.2f gives 2 decimal places. Since all numbers are internally represented as real numbers, to format an integer without a decimal fraction, use this format: %.0f.

Formatting Numbers

The format for a numeric result may be specified by appending as <format>, where formats are n[0-9], d, or c[0-9] ([0-9] specifies an optional number of positions after a decimal point; the brackets are not actually used in the specification):

Item

Meaning

n[0-9]

Format as number with optional precision. A thousand separator (,) will be used. Examples are n (0 precision), n0 (0 precision), n2 (2 digit precision).

d

Format as integer number with no thousand separator (,). This can be used if the result is a year, of example, where a thousand separator is unexpected.

c[0-9]

Format as currency with optional precision. A thousand separator (,) will be used. Examples are c (0 precision, currency symbol, thousand separator) or c2 (2 digit precision, currency symbol, thousand separator).

For example, here is an expression that will be formatted as currency, with a thousands separator, and no decimal places:

amt / 10.0 as c

For example, here is an expression that will be formatted as currency, with a thousands separator, and 2 decimal

amt / 10.0 as c2

The result of this expression will be formatted as an integer with no thousand separator and no decimal places of precision:

amt / 10.0 as d

This result of this expression will be formatted with a thousand separator and 1 digit of precision:

amt / 10.0 as n1

See Examples below for additional examples.

Functions taking String Expressions

Item

Meaning

double(string)

Convert string expression to a double. If the string is not a valid number, then missing.

int(string)

Convert string expression to an integer. If the string is not a valid number, then missing.

substring(string, start, [length])

Substring of string expression beginning a start position (1 index) for length characters. If length is omitted, the remainder of the string.

match(string, pattern)

Returns 1 if pattern matches the string expression, otherwise 0. Syntax for patterns is given below.

sub(string, pattern, replacement)

For string expression, for the substring matched by pattern, replace with replacement. Matches for occurrence of pattern.

gsub(string, pattern, replacement)

Replaces all occurrences of pattern in string expr with string replacement.

lower(string)

Convert string to all lower case.

+

Plus operator concatenates 2 strings.

Note that the Date Calculator can also be used to convert dates into a large number of equivalent formats.

Operators

Item

Meaning

( )

Parenthesis, for grouping.

+

Addition for number, concatenation for strings

-

Subtraction. If operands are dates, the result is the time difference in days.

*

Multiplication

/

Division

%

Modulo

div

Integer division

mod

Integer modulo

^

Exponentiation

Logical Operators

The result of a logical operator is an integer 0 (false) or 1 (true).

Item

Meaning

&&

Logical and

||

Logical or

!

Not

==

Equals

!=

Not equal

<=

Less than or equal

<

Less than

>

Greater than

>=

Greater than or equal

Set Operator

The set operator in is used to test if a field value is contained in a specified set of values. This is a short hand to replace a sequence of tests: field == a || field = b || field = c || ....

Item

Meaning

<fieldname> in {v1, v2, ..., vn)

Test if values from fieldname are in the set of constant literal values. The values must be numbers, strings, or dates, according to the type of the field fieldname.

Conditions

Item

Meaning

condition ? expr1 : expr2

If the condition is true, the result is expression1; otherwise the result is expression2. Conditionals can be nested to form if ... then ... else if ... chains. When nesting, use parentheses to group. For example, consider this expression:

a = b ? e1 : a = c ? e2 : e3

This means:

(a = b ? e1 : a = c) ? e2 : e3

but you probably intend:

a = b ? e1 : (a = c ? e2 : e3)

Use parentheses so that it is interpreted as you intend.

if <condition> then <expr1> else <expr2>

Alternative syntax for if ... then ... else .... This form does not require that the else clause be enclosed with parentheses.

Formats for Numbers

Numbers are stored internally as doubles, so the format specification describes how to format a double as a number. The format for a number converted to a string may be specified using a string with this format:

The number is substituted for the format specification, which begins with a %. Any other characters are included in the output but do not affect formatting. Format specifications are:

The default format uses %f.

Regular Expression Patterns

Pattern matching functions accept string that are patterns using this syntax.

An element can be one of the following things:

Examples:

Repetition

Any element other than a positive assert, a negative assert, or an anchor can be followed by a repetition count. The most general kind of repetition count takes the form {min,max}. An element that is followed by this form of repetition count matches at least min successive occurrences and no more than max successive occurrences of a sequence that matches the element. For example, a{2,3} matches the target sequence aa and the target sequence aaa, but not the target sequence a or the target sequence aaaa.

A repetition count can also take one of the following forms:

Examples:

A repetition count can also take one of the following forms:

Examples:

Concatenation

Regular expression elements, with or without repetition counts, can be concatenated to form longer regular expressions. The resulting expression matches a target sequence that is a concatenation of the sequences that are matched by the individual elements. For example, a{2,3}b matches the target sequence aab and the target sequence aaab, but does not match the target sequence ab or the target sequence aaaab.

Alternation

A concatenated regular expression can be followed by the character '|' and another concatenated regular expression. Any number of concatenated regular expressions can be combined in this manner. The resulting expression matches any target sequence that matches one or more of the concatenated regular expressions.

Examples

Item

Meaning

1

This creates an integer field with a constant value of 1. Give this a meaningful name based on the thing that each row represents (for example, # Customers if a row is a single customer). This can be used instead of the standard count aggregation since that isn't available within the Expression Builder expressions or Bar Chart ratio aggregations.

abc

New string field with values abc.

x > (2 * median(x)) ? 1 : 0

New field has value 1 where the value of field X is greater than twice the median value, otherwise value 0.

x - mean(x)

New field contains difference between current row value and the mean.

order(x)

New field has sorted order index of values in numeric field x.

int( x / 8 )

New integer field has the value of numeric field x that contains a number of hours converted to an integer number of 8 hour days.

(Employees <= 100) ? 100 : ((Employees <= 250) ? 250 : ((Employees <= 500) ? 500 : ((Employees <= 750) ? 750 : (Employees <= 1000) ? 1000 : 1500)))

if ... then ...else expressions can be nested to apply a series of tests; this creates bins for number of employees into groups of 100 and under, 101 - 250, 251 - 500, 501 - 750, 751 - 100, and over 1000. It may be easiest to create this outside of the Expression Builder using a text editor and then copy and paste it into the Expression Builder.

Note that parentheses must be used to nest the conditional expressions in the else clause correctly.

if field1 = cp then y else n

New string field with values of y or n based on whether field field1 has value cp.

Field1 / (Field2 == missing ? 1 : Field2)

Divide Field1 value by Field2; if Field2 value is missing, then divide by 1.

'A' + `Field A` + FieldB

Concatenate the string literal A with the string field Field A and the string field FieldB. Field A and FieldB must both be string fields; if not, convert to strings with the string() function.

match(FieldA, ^[0-9]*$)

New field with value 1 if FieldA value is a number (matches the pattern that defines a sequence of numeric digits) or 0 if not a number.

match(FieldA, ^[0-9]*$) ? 1 : missing

New field with value 1 if FieldA contains a string that is a number, or missing if not.

if FieldA = missing then 0 else FieldA

New field with values of FieldA with missing values replaced by 0.

year(Date)

The 4 digit year from a date.

int(now - Date)

Elapsed days from a date to today as an integer. The elapsed days returned by the subtraction is a float, which is not ideal for use in categorical charts such as bar charts.

int(NowDataLoad - Date)

Elapsed days from a date to when the data was loaded as an integer. Use this form if you are working for a period of time with saved data and want calculations to all be based on the same now.

year(now) - year(Date)

Number of years between date and today.

(now - Date) * 0.714

Approximate working days between Date and today (0.714 ~= 5/7).

match(Date, Q3) ? string( (int( substring(Date, 1, 4) ) + 1), %.0f) + Q1 :(match(Date, Q4) ? string( (int( substring(Date, 1, 4) ) + 1), %.0f) + Q2 :(match(Date, Q1) ? substring(Date, 1, 4) + Q3 :(substring(Date, 1, 4) + Q2) ) )

Shift a string in year/quarter format to a June 30 fiscal year:

2007Q3 to 2008Q1

2007Q4 to 2008Q2

2008Q1 to 2008Q3

2008Q2 to 2008Q4

This is a series of nested if ... then ... else ... expressions for the 4 possible quarters. If the existing field matches Q1 or Q2, the year substring is found and the shifted quarter is appended, Q3 or Q4 (respectively). If the existing field matches Q3 or Q4, the year substring is found, converted to an integer, incremented 1, converted back to a string with 0 precision and the shifted quarter appended. Note that the conversion of the year to a string must have 0 decimal places specified (%.0f), since the integer is represented internally as a float.

year as d

Format field as number with no thousand separator (,).

amt / 10.0 as c

Display field as currency, with thousand separator (,).

FieldA in {a, b, c}

True (non zero) if the value of FieldA is a, b, or c. Note that the constant strings must be quoted.

FieldB in {1, 10, 100}

True (non zero) if the value of FieldA is 1, 10, or 100.

FieldC in {'10/1/2001', '10/1/2002', '10/1/2003'}

True (non zero) if the value of FieldC is any of the given dates. FieldC must be a date field. The date is formatted according to the current locale and must be a quoted string.



x
Flight Recorder

In this section:

The Flight Recorder is a record of what you have done that can also be used to repeat previous actions. It provides

The Flight Recorder is a panel that appears initially on the right side of the application frame. It is not displayed by default. You display it by choosing the "Flight Recorder" menu item in the "View" menu or "View" toolbar.

Most of your actions are recorded to the Flight Recorder automatically. Recorded actions have a 1 line summary; some have additional details that are revealed by clicking the arrow to the left.

The display for a selection operation includes:

  1. The label "Select", the operation.
  2. An indication of the selection mode: Replace (=), add (+), subtract (-), intersect (&) and toggle (^).
  3. The type of chart (Bar, Pie, Line, etc.).
  4. The Page and Title of the chart.
  5. Expanding shows additional details:
    • A textual description of the selection.
    • The number of rows selected.
    • A reduced image of the chart after the selection.

Other actions are tracked as well, although they are typically only described by the action and (if appropriate) chart page and title.

Clicking a Flight Action selects it; click again to unselect it. Drag over a series of actions to select them all. Selected actions are highlighted in green.

The Flight Recorder pane provides a set of action buttons. (All of these may not be visible if the pane is not wide enough; drag the frame wider if necessary.) By default a minimal set of action buttons is shown; a larger set may be shown using the context menu in the Flight Recorder pane (below).

Button

Description

Bookmarks

Manage or use local bookmarks (discussed below).

Turn on/off

Turn recording off to stop collection of actions during a sequence that you are not interested in recording. Not shown by default.

Clear

Clear all or selected actions. Not shown by default.

Note

Add a note to the pane at the end or a selected item. Notes are inserted with default text; click the note to edit the text.

Import

Import a sequence of actions from a file. The file is produced with the "Export" button (next). Not shown by default.

Export

Export the selected actions to a file. If nothing is selected, the entire Flight Record is written. The number of actions written is displayed in a dialog afterward. Not shown by default.

Go To

Click a selection action in the Flight Record, then press this button to go back to the state after that selection action. Non-selection actions are not repeated. A Note is added to the Flight Record where this was done; An entry is added to the Flight Record that lists all of the actions repeated. If the selected state is different after replay than when the actions were originally used, the different counts is shown. Limitations on this replay are discussed below.

Do

Re-execute the selected flight actions. Only some actions can be re-executed. A Note is added to the Flight Record where this was done; expand the entry to see the actions repeated. Counts of the original selected items versus the current are shown if they do not match the original selection state. Limitations on this replay are discussed below.

Help

Display help on this pane.

You drag across items in the Flight Record with mouse button 1 depressed to select them.

Clicking the Right Mouse Button shows a context menu with additional options:

  1. Select All: Select all text in the Flight Record.
  2. Copy: Copy currently selected text to the clipboard.
  3. Print: Print the flight record.
  4. Full User Interface: show all operations listed above

The pane containing the Flight Record can be managed like any WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE pane:



x
Local Bookmarks

Bookmarks are states in your analysis that you can return to. They persist between sessions on the current PC and are associated with the current project. A bookmark can either be a saved list of actions (as in the "Do" command described above) or a list of actions that recreate the state as of a single selected action (as in the "GoTo" command described above). Bookmarks are managed with the "Bookmark" menu item in the top toolbar.

Actions for bookmarks are

Since bookmarks are stored on the local PC, to share them with another person or PC, export the bookmarks and send the file.



x
How are "Go To" and "Do" performed?

The "Go To" and "Do" commands replay actions you took previously. These both use the text descriptions given by the "Select" or "Filter" detail lines in the Flight Record. These lines are text descriptions of the selection action that you took with the mouse in the chart.

Differences between these commands are:

  1. The "Go To" command replays only previous actions that impact the goal state that you selected, returning you to that state. The starting state of the dashboard doesn't matter.
  2. The "Do" command replays only the actions you selected. The starting state is whatever the current state is when you press the button. If this state is not the state when the sequence was originally done, the end state may be different.

If you select the same sequence of actions and use each button, "Do" works starting at the current state, while "Go To" will try to return to exactly the same state no matter what the current state is.

Actions are replayed using the text descriptions given by the "Select" entry for the action. These descriptions are logical expressions using the same language supported by the Expression Builder. Replaying works by evaluating this condition for every row in the data table. If the result is true, then that data row is "identified" by the action, just as it was by the graphical selection you made with the mouse. The impact of a row being "identified" is based on the selection mode (replace, add, subtract, intersect, toggle) recorded for the action.

Graphical selections in charts can be ambiguous: there may be a number of interpretations of you intent. For example, consider the selection in the bar chart labeled "Perror per Team" here. Bar Chart selection. This bar chart is ordered by "Team", the X axis category, with categories weighted by the field "Perror".

This selection could be described in a few ways:

If this exact data is loaded, any of these interpretations will have the same result. If the data is different, however, the result may be different with different interpretations. For example, if a new category "SanD." appeared in the data, this category would be selected by condition 4 but not by the other rules.

The conditions created are based on the ordering of the chart, its range, and the items selected. Conditions are chosen to give a description that seems most appropriate, but this condition may not have the same result when applied to new data.

When the automatically created condition is not correct for new data, you can edit the text on the "Select" (or "Filter") line, using the expression syntax described for the Expression Builder, to better express your intent.

Conditions are in terms of the data that is used by a chart. For charts that show aggregated data, the conditions are in terms of the aggregation, not the underlying data.

When a previous Flight Actions is replayed, it is done using the state of the chart when the action was recorded, independent of the current state of the chart. For example, if you change the ordering of a bar chart, replay of a previous action is still based on the ordering in effect when the original action occurred (assuming the recorded condition depends on order).

Limitations


Top of page

x
Help View

From the View menu, select Help View or click the button in the View toolbar. The Help Index displays on the right side of the screen. It displays a table of content for how-to and other help-related information.

When you select an topic from the table of contents, it is displayed in the Help tab located in the workspace area. This tab contains the following navigation buttons:

Toolbar Button

Description

Navigate Back. Displays the help topic that you last viewed.

Navigate Forward. Displays the next help topic in the table of contents.

Refresh Page. Displays the latest version of the current help page.

Sync Contents. Use this function to synchronize the Help view topic in the Contents tab based on the topic displayed in the workspace.

Stop Browser. When you make a selection, click on this button when it appears red in the menu to cancel the current action.

Home. Returns to the Welcome to WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE Help topic.



x
Navigation Pane

A Navigation Pane is a pane in the WebFOCUS Visual Discovery Workbench AE User Interface that can show a short formatted document that tells a user something important about how to use the current tab. The Navigation Pane is an embedded web browser that displays a page coded RTF. The page can use any of the capabilities of RTF, including popup windows, images, text formatting, and links. A Navigation Pane is associated with a single tab in a WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE dashboard, and is automatically displayed when the tab is displayed. A Navigation Pane may describe the next step in using a dashboard, but it does not directly change the state of WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE. It is documentation only.

The user may close the Navigation Pane if they do not wish to see it; it will remain hidden in subsequent sessions.

From the View menu, select Navigation Pane or click the button in the View toolbar. The content shown in the Navigation Pane is page-specific and changes as you move from page to page within the project.

Content in the Navigation Pane may include links that lead to other content pages, much like the web.

For more information about Navigation Panes, see the tutorial page.


Top of page

x
Property Explorer

The Property Explorer can be used to edit less frequently-used and/or advanced properties specific to an individual chart. Properties are described for each chart in its overview.

To access the Property Explorer, select Property Explorer from the menu or click the in the chart toolbar. You can also access the Property Explorer from many of the individual charts by selecting the Property Explorer button in the Chart toolbar.


Top of page

x
Using the Task View

In this section:

The Tasks view appears on the left side of the screen. It displays the tasks are required to load data, create pages, analyze displayed data, and share results.

To display this view, select Tasks View from the View menu or click the button.

Tasks include:



x
Step 1: Load Data

This step offers two options for loading data:

New Data Source. Displays the Data Wizard. Use this wizard to load text, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Access database, relational databases, or Microsoft Analysis Services data. See Load Data Using the Data Wizard for more information.

Load Previous Data Source. Displays the Load Previous Data Sources dialog box. This dialog box contains data sources that have been previously loaded using the Data Wizard and which were designated as Remember Data Source Definition items in the wizard. Choose a data source by clicking the checkbox next to the appropriate selection. Click Open.

Refresh Data. Reloads the data source in its current state. This function allows you to access the most-up-to-date data source without having to exit WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE and reload the data.



x
Step 2: Design Pages

This step offers two options for designing pages:

Build Page. Displays the Basic Analysis Quick Start dialog. Use this dialog box to designate data fields to create a page. A page consists of a layout, data (primary and optional secondary data fields that you specify in the dialog box), and measure field (also selected using this screen).

  1. In the Basic Analysis Quick Start dialog, you can specify primary data field information first. Using the drop-down lists in the Primary Data Field section:
    • Select the table from the data to be analyzed.
    • Select the field that is most important to your analysis.
  2. Optionally, you can select additional fields for analysis in the Secondary Data Fields section, as well as a Measure field. Note that the Measure field serves as the Y axis in those charts with X and Y axes.
  3. Click Create Page. Your new page is displayed in the workspace.

Load Page Template. Use this function to select and load a page template. When you select this option, the Load Page Template dialog box displays. Select a template from the list and click Load.



x
Step 3: Work with Data

The Project Workshop is the place to go to work with data.

  1. Load Data
  2. Manage Data Sources
  3. Use the Link Wizard and Modify Links Dialogs
  4. Use Color Models
  5. Use the Expression Builder
  6. Use the Date Parser
  7. Configure Data Hierarchies
  8. Data Pool Visualization



x
Step 4: Analyze Data

Now that the data you selected is displayed in a page, you can analyze the information to find answers to your business questions.



x
Step 5: Share Results

You can easily share the results of your analysis by using one of the following options:

Export Data:

You can export data directly from Data Sheets or Summary Sheets on dashboard pages. If you have filtered and excluded data from your dashboard then you will be exporting the subset of data that is currently selected.

Note: Only the columns shown in the data sheet or summary sheet are exported. If you want to export additional columns, then they should be added to the chart. If you want the columns to export but do not necessarily want to see those additional columns in the dashboard, place them over to the right and shrink the column width so that you don't see them.

To export data from a dashboard page, right click on the Data Sheet or Summary Sheet that you want to export and select "Export" from the popup menu (Figure 1). The data will be exported into a CSV file with a link that will open it in Excel.

Exporting data from a Summary Sheet (or Data Sheet)

Copy Charts and Pages

You can copy charts directly from the dashboard pages as they show on the screen. There are three ways to do this:

  1. Copy a Single Chart: to copy a single chart out of the dashboard, left click on the background of the chart so that the chart window displays a thin grey border around the outer edge (Figures 2, 3).

    Note: Be careful that you do not click on any data in the chart because then you will be selecting data instead of selecting the chart window. Once the chart window is highlighted with the grey border, use the Ctrl+C function on your keyboard to copy the chart. You can now paste the chart into a new document.

  2. Export Current Page: In addition to copying a single chart from a dashboard page, you can also copy all of the charts on one dashboard page using the "Export Current Page" option on the Page Menu.

    This menu selection will export whatever page is currently open in your dashboard. It opens a dialog (Figure 4) which will allow you to change the default export title and description for the page that you are exporting (the default title is the page name in the dashboard). Next, choose the file format that you want to export the page to. Under Options, decide whether or not you want to include the color legend. Then save and open your new file.

  3. Print screen: Another option is to screen capture the whole page by using the Windows Print Screen function.


x
Saving a WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE Project

You can save your work in a WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE project in one of two formats:

  1. An .adv format contains the project definition, but no data. When an .adv project is opened it goes back to the source data and reloads and rebuilds itself with a current copy of the data. If you send this project to others, they must have rights and a path to access the data. If the project cannot find the source data, it will prompt the user for its location.
  2. An .advm format contains the project definition and all the data. When an .advm project is opened it does NOT go back to the source data -- rather it loads the data that is stored in the project file into RAM, without going back to the data source(s). Because user rights are not an issue with this format, you can send (or post) this project to other WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE users as a standalone file.


x
Procedure: How to Save a WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE Project:
  1. Open the File Menu on the top toolbar.
  2. Select "Save" to resave the current project in the same name and format.
  3. Select "Save As" to save the project under a new name or format.
  4. Projects are originally created in .adv format. To save as an .advm form, select "Save As" and then make sure "Save as type" is set to .advm.


x
Automating Project Refresh and Save

Also, WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE ships with an adv2advm utility which will open an .adv project file in order to reload data from the data source(s), and then covert that file to an .advm for end-user viewing and interaction. This utility can be embedded in a short script so that a project can be refreshed periodically, say daily, with the end result being an .advm file. An .advm file will open faster, not impact the data sources, and consume less RAM than the same project in an .adv file format. See Adv2Advm Utility in Embedded Data in a Project, for more details.


Top of page

x
Using the Template Library View

The Template Library is a repository of elements that comprise a page. To access this view, select Template Library from the View menu or click the button.

The Template Library includes:

Data Sources. A data source is the path name where an existing data source is located on your computer network.

Color Scales. A color scale is a range of colors that can be applied to a variable. See Use Color Scale for more information about the color scales available in WebFOCUS Visual Discovery AE.

Page Layouts. A page layout includes the size and placement of the elements that comprise a page.

Color Schemes. A color scheme is a set of specific colors that are assigned to specific items. For instance, a color scheme could consist of a white background, black title font, green selector, etc.

To select a template library element:

  1. Click on the appropriate template element (Data Sources, Color Scale, Page Layouts, Color Schemes).
  2. A menu of selections displays. Double click on the desired selection.

WebFOCUS