DATACUBE REPORTING TOOL

OVERVIEW

• The Datacube is a method for analysing data that is collected within one Kontinuum Workflow
• The Datacube allows the user to analyse a series of one or more aggregate values grouped by two or more criteria

• Definition: An aggregate value is a value that is derived from applying a function to a series of values
• For example: The aggregate value of applying the sum function to 2 and 3 is 5
• Likewise the aggregate value of applying the Max function to 2 and 3 is 3

• Definition: Criteria is where the value of a certain field has a certain value
• For example: If we have the following information:

Age	Gender	Height
Young	M	1.8
Old	F	1.6
Young	F	1.5
Young	M	1.9

• Then we apply the Average grouped by the two criteria of Age and Gender we would get the following result:

	Age
	Young	Old
Gender	Average(Height)	Average(Height)
F	1.5	1.6
M	1.85

HOW DOES IT WORK?

• The Datacube works by asking the user what information they want to report on via a form similar to most Kontinuum forms
• The user then completes this form and presses the submit button
• This will send a request to the database to retrieve the information and display it as requested

WHAT ARE THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS TO PRODUCE A REPORT?

• To produce a Datacube the user must at minimum:

1. Select at least one field as a Value which has an aggregate function associated with it

a. This field should hold numeric information

2. Select at least two fields as a Measure

a. These fields are more likely to be non-numeric

b. At least one of the measure fields must have its alignment set to ‘top’

c. At least one of the measure fields must have its alignment set to ‘left’

GETTING STARTED

§ To start a new Datacube, login as a user that has Workflow Designer permissions

§ Click on Reports from the top menu

§ Select the Workflow for which you want to create a Datacube Report

§ Press the Select button next to the Datacube Report

§ A form will appear that needs to be completed with the minimum amount of information as specified above

BEHAVIOR

• The first column to be filled out is the Behavior column
• Supply an answer in the Behavior column for those questions you want to display or filter by, otherwise just leave them blank
• There are three options for the behavior – Measure Value and Filter

Definition of Measure

• A measure is a group by criteria
• In the above example the two measures would have been the Age and the Gender Criteria

Definition of Value

• A Value is a value under which an aggregate function has been applied
• In the above example the Value is the Height

Definition of Filter

• A Filter is not displayed and is used in conjunction with the Min / Max and Value columns to remove any data that does not conform to the values of the filter

ALIGNMENT

• The Alignment is the next most significant column
• It tells the Measure in which location of the Datacube that the column should appear
• There are two options for the alignment – Top and Left

Definition of Top

• If the Alignment is set to Top the different values for the criteria will appear at the top

Definition of Left

• If the Alignment is set to Left the different values for the criteria will appear to the left of the data in the Datacube

MIN / MAX / VALUE

• The Min Max and Value columns all behave in the same way
• If they are all completed they provide a filtering mechanism to remove data where a criterion is not met
• For example: In the above example we may change the Value column for Gender to only Male
• This would remove all records that have female listed as the Gender
• Conversely, if we have a column called Weight with values 40kg to 100Kg and we stated that the minimum value of weight to display is 50kg all data that is associated with a person under 50kg will not be included in the Datacube

AGGREGATE FUNCTION

• Only apply an aggregate function can be applied to a value
• The different aggregate functions currently available are: MIN, MAX, SUM, AVG, and COUNT
• MIN is the minimum value from the set
• MAX is the maximum value from the set
• AVG is the average value from the set
• SUM is the sum of all values from the set
• COUNT is the number of values in the set

BAND

• Often when you are grouping items together instead of wanting to group by each individual value you may choose to group by a band of values
• For example: The Designer may choose to see a group of sales by the month or by a quarter as opposed to the individual day on which those sales occurred
• The Band allows you to group by a different amount rather than every distinct value
• For date grouping you can group by day, week, month, year, quarter etc…
• For numeric groupings you can group by any number
• For example: To list average height of people in an age band of 0-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years etc…

SAVING A DATACUBE

• Once the Datacube Report has been designed it can then be saved for future use
• This is done by giving the Report a name other than Datacube and clicking on the Save button
• Next time you go to the Report menu and select the workflow for the report you want to view the newly created Datacube Report will be there

HOW DO YOU SET WHICH COLUMNS A USER CAN USE IN A DATACUBE

• The information a user sees is controlled by two things:

1. First the Designer can only see information that they can get to from the item list

a. For example: If a user belongs to one user group that can see only information for Australian customers then the information in the Datacube will display only information on Australian customers

b. Likewise if they also belong to a user group the can see New Zealand customers then they can see information for both Australian and New Zealand customers.

2. The columns that appear in the Datacube for analysis by a Designer are only the columns that have been assigned to a user group that theDesigner belongs to