Manipulating Report Output

In this section:

How to:

OLAP provides facilities that make it easy for you to query and analyze data from within the OLAP report itself, from the OLAP selections panel, or from the OLAP Control Panel.

This section describes how to use the various OLAP tools to analyze your data. For details and more examples, see the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual.
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Procedure: How to Manipulate Data Directly in the Report

You can drag and drop dimensions directly within the report and use the context menu to apply data visualization.

Before you begin your analysis, the OLAP report appears as the following image.

manipulate data

  1. Suppose you want to see a horizontal display of the QUARTER column. Drag and drop QUARTER above the report.

    The report changes and appears as follows.

    OLAP

    Suppose you want to discover a trend in the Line Cost of Goods Sold column.

  2. Right-click Line Cost of Goods Sold and choose Visualization. This applies a data visualization bar graph to each value in the column.

    OLAP

    Scroll down in the report to see the bar graphs that are now applied to the values in the Line Cost of Goods Sold column.

    OLAP

  3. Drag and drop the QUARTER field back to its original location to the left of the Store Name field. Now you see a horizontal representation of the bar graphs.

    OLAP

    Now that you have manipulated data directly within the report, you can try different methods from the OLAP Selections Panel in the next exercise.
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Manipulating Output With the OLAP Selections Panel

How to:

You can quickly customize the report from the OLAP selections panel. Every dimension in the hierarchy has a control (drop-down list) next to it. You can multi-select values from any of the dimension controls to further simplify your report output.

You can also use Measures and Graph controls. Each control contains a down arrow to the left that, when clicked, opens the corresponding pane. These controls enable you to make basic customizations on the measures present in your report. They are located to the left of the first dimension control.
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Procedure: How to Manipulate Output With the OLAP Selections Panel

This procedure demonstrates how to use the controls from the OLAP selections panel to customize your report output.

Before you begin your analysis, the OLAP report, CENTREP.FEX, appears as the following image.

OLAP

   

To use the Measures control so that this report does not display the Date of Order column:

  1. Click the down arrow to the left of the Measures control and uncheck the Date of Order box.

    OLAP

  2. Click the Run button. The report output no longer shows the Date of Order column.

    OLAP

  3. Drill down on the Q1 hyperlink.

    OLAP

  4. Drill down on the 01 hyperlink.

    OLAP

    Now you can use the Graph control to view a graph that shows product sales for the first month of the quarter.

  5. Click the down arrow to the left of the Graph control.
  6. Check the box to the left of Line Cost of Goods Sold.
  7. Change the graph style from the default style, Vertical Bar Chart, to the Pie Chart style by clicking the Graph OLAP icon.
  8. Click Run.

    The Line Cost of Goods Sold is graphed for the first month.

    OLAP

    You have just experimented with the OLAP Selections Panel to drill down on dimensions and change the graph style.

    In the next exercise, you will use the OLAP Control Panel (OCP) to perform other functions that will customize your report with even greater precision.

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Manipulating Report Output With the OLAP Control Panel

How to:

From the OLAP Control Panel (OCP), you can perform every function available to a WebFOCUS OLAP user. In this section, you will perform certain functions that can only be performed from the OCP.

For more details about the OLAP Control Panel and its functions, see the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual.
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Procedure: How to Stack Multiple Measures

When you have more than one measure, the OLAP Control Panel enables you to stack the measures of your OLAP-enabled report by either rows or columns (the default is by rows). Enable this feature by clicking the Stack Measures check box in the OLAP Control Panel.

Note: You cannot apply data visualization when stacking measures. For details, see the Creating Reporting Applications With Developer Studio manual.

  1. Before stacking measures, turn off the graph control. Click the down arrow to the left of the Graph control and uncheck the box to the left of Line Cost of Goods Sold.

    Use the Measures control so that the report displays the Date of Order column.

  2. Click the down arrow to the left of the Measures control and check the Date of Order box.
  3. Click the Line Cost of Goods Sold check box until Include Measure is selected.
  4. Click Run.

    OLAP

  5. Click the OLAP button in the selections panel to open the OLAP Control Panel.

    Dimensions

  6. Select the Stack Measures check box to display measures in separate rows.
  7. Click Run to execute your report.

    The measures for PRODTYPE, Date of Order, and Line Cost of Goods Sold are now displayed in stacked rows.

    PRODTYPE

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Procedure: How to Specify a Date Range From the OLAP Control Panel (OCP)

You can choose selection criteria from a date selection panel containing the appropriate controls for the date format. When you apply selection criteria to date elements, the results are limited by the date(s) you select. For example, you can select to view data associated with a particular date or to exclude data from the specified date.

The OLAP Control Panel provides a date selection panel that enables you to select a full date format (YYMD) or a partial date format (YMM) that includes only the month or year, and to specify a quarter of the year when applying selection criteria to date elements.

Imagine that you want to restrict information in your report to data that ranges from 2000 to 2003. Before you specify a range, unstack the measures:

  1. Click the OLAP button in the selections panel to open the OLAP Control Panel.
  2. Uncheck the box to the left of Stack Measures.
  3. Click Run.

    OLAP

  4. Click the OLAP button in the selections panel to open the OLAP Control Panel.
  5. In the Dimensions box, click Time Period, then Values under Year.

    The Date selection panel for YEAR opens.

  6. Check the Range box.

    The From and To drop-down lists open. You can select a range of years from these lists.

  7. Change the From year to 2000 by clicking the down arrow.
  8. Ensure that 2003 is the value for the To year.

    Dimensions

  9. Click OK to return to the Selection Criteria panel.
  10. Scroll down in the Selection Criteria panel until you see the Year drop-down list. The range 2000-2003 should appear in the Year drop-down list.

    Dimensions

  11. Click OK again.
  12. Click Run to execute your report. Only order dates for Q1 that fall between the years 2000 and 2003 are shown.

    OLAP

Congratulations! You have successfully completed this tutorial. Now you can customize your OLAP-enabled reports.

WebFOCUS