About Cubes and Views
- Nicolás Palombo (Unlicensed)
The analysis objects for O3 Browser by nature are multidimensional cubes or just cubes. Cubes are created through data extraction either from the transactional systems of the company or from other specific sources of information in the organization.
Cubes contain information about one determined area of the business you wish to analyze.
Cubes are constructed by the multidimensional models designer, preferably with knowledge of information technology. The developer is assisted by the Ideasoft O3 Performance Suite module called O3 Designer.
Among the tasks the developer must perform to define the analysis model we have:
- Surveying the task with users who have a necessity to analyze different types of information. As a result of this task, specifications regarding measures or indicators to be analyzed, as well as the relevant context for their analysis are obtained.
- Surveying the task with information systems administrators, so as to know the location of the relevant data sources for the model and the necessary details for its extraction.
- Definition of the multidimensional model, which mean inclusion of the measures and dimensions of the cube, as well as the mechanisms to extract data from transactional systems or other sources of information.
- Definition of mechanisms to update information in the cubes as frequently as necessary according to the model.
A multidimensional analysis model consists of the complete definition of data structure and the mechanisms to enable the building or updating of the cube. Concerning this manual, no difference will be made as to the terms multidimensional model, cube or multidimensional cube, all of which identify the source of information analyzed by O3 Browser.
O3 Browser lets the user work in standalone mode or in client/server mode. Depending on the mode, they will access the analysis model through the file system or through a connection to the Ideasoft O3 server. In the latter case, O3 Server will control access to information requesting authentication from each user.
O3 Browser lets you analyze information in a very intuitive and easy way and from different approaches or points of view, combining both the data that form the cube context and the measures it offers in different ways.
For instance, if a multidimensional mode is defined in order to analyze the sales of a company, it will surely be possible to answer the following questions:
- What have been the sales in physical units, in the last four years for the different product lines?
- What have been the sales in physical units, in each of the quarters last year, for each client?
- What has been the income corresponding to sales of a given product line for foreign customers this month?
- What was any given salespersons profit last month?
These queries can be answered by analyzing the sales cube information in different contexts. The possibility to answer them all from only one cube is one of O3 Browser main advantages, and this is achieved thanks to its simple graphic interface.
The action that changes perspective or analysis context in a cube so as to obtain different views is called navigation or drilling. O3 Browser lets you navigate cubes in different ways from the different components of its interface:
- From the Explorer, in the Tools menu, selecting different drilling actions.
- From the Dimensions Bar, selecting the levels of detail of information or data on which attention should be focused, or dragging the interest context to the graph being viewed.
- From the Analysis panel, selecting the desired option from the right click drop down menu.
O3 Browser allows you to save any data configuration that might result of interest to check in the future, so that it wont be necessary to go over the drilling steps taken to get it. This configuration is saved as a view extension file, and is named view.
Thus, a view is a configuration as to the selected dimensions both on the X-axis, and on the series, the analyzed measures, the filters applied and the different levels of detail established, as well as other operations that can be used in order to analyze data.
The default configuration on opening any cube is determined in the model definition, and depends on the order in which the dimensions that determine the analysis context and measures to analyze are defined. The first dimension of the model will be shown on the X-axis, the second dimension will appear on the series, and the values of the graph will be those represented by the first measure. The default graph type is a 3D bar. The user can generate all views he deems necessary and save them for further analysis. In each case an adequate name should be chosen for saving purposes. (See the Save View As command)
If the user works in the client/server mode he must have permission to save his own views in the server. Otherwise, he will only be able to save views locally. Permissions to save views are defined in the O3 Server Administrator component.
Views do not contain data in themselves, but a reference to the multidimensional cube with which they were generated, as well as guidelines as to the analysis context used. As a consequence, any updating of the information in the cube will automatically be reflected in the views defined.