Web Intelligence

Web Intelligence concepts

Accessing information with Web Intelligence

With Web Intelligence, you can query databases using everyday business terms, and using an easy-to-use interface. You can create simple or very complex reports and share the information you display with other colleagues.

As part of your job you make decisions all the time and therefore need the right information at your fingertips to help you make the right decisions. You want to access information using your everyday business vocabulary without having to understand anything about the technical way the information is stored. Once you have anaylsed information, you also need to be able to share it with your colleagues.

Web Intelligence allows you to access, analyse and share corporate data very easily.

To access BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, you must first log on to MyEd portal and launch BOXI from the 'BusinessObjects Reporting' channel which is located on the Admin tab. This process is explained in more detail in Lesson 2.

Understanding the semantic layer

The BusinessObjects universe is the semantic layer that isolates you from the technical complexities of the databases where your corporate information is stored. Because universes are based on business terminology that is familiar to you and shared throughout the organisation, universes allow you to create queries and get information using your own everyday terms.

The terms you need to be familiar with in order to understand how this semantic layer functions are;

1. Universe
2. Object
3. Class

Universes

A universe maps to the data in the database, but uses everyday terms that describe your business environment. This means that you can select exactly the data that interests you using your own business terminology. Universes are created by a universe designer using BusinessObjects Designer. The designer then makes universes available to you and other users so that you can access the data through an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

Universes are made up of objects, classes and pre-defined query filters.

Objects

The elements within the universe that you use to create reports are called objects

Classes

Objects that represent similar types of data are grouped into classes.

The above diagram shows the eFashion universe, which is the universe used throughout these lessons to build queries and create Web Intelligence documents. Classes are logical groupings of objects and they are indicated by the folder icon.

Object are elements that map to a set of data in a relational database, but using business terms. For example, one of the classes in the eFashion universe is the Store class, and a few of the objects in the Store class include State, City, and Store name.

Web Intelligence core functionality

Web Intelligence allows you to perform querying, reporting, analysis and sharing tasks, all in a single tool.

The following step outlines;

• How Web Intelligence queries retrieves data from corporate databases
• The different presentation styles you can choose from to display the data in Web Intelligence documents
• How Web Intelligence allows you to analyze data from different levels of detail
• How you can share Web Intelligence documents with others

Querying with Web Intelligence

You need to gather the required data by first querying the source data.

Using the interface below, you build a Web Intelligence query using an editor called the Query Panel to add and organise objects from a universe.

When you build a query in the Web Intelligence Query Panel, your business question is converted by the BusinessObjects server to SQL statements, the language used to query the database.

The SQL query is then sent to the database to retrieve the data mapped to the objects you selected. The information is returned to the Business Objects server as a microcube of data, which we also call a data provider. This information is then formatted and displayed in a Web Intelligence report as a simple table, or even a complex chart, ready for your analysis.

Reporting with Web Intelligence

You can use Web Intelligence document features to create professional reports from the data you retrieve. Once you have the data you need, you can display it in multiple ways:

• as a table (horizontal, vertical or form)
• as a crosstab
• as a chart (bar, line, area, pie or radar)
• as a multiple block report containing large amounts of data

Analyzing with Web Intelligence

You can analyze your reports and switch your business perspective by dragging and dropping data, inserting calculations, and changing the display to make the important information easy to see at a glance. You can also perform multi-dimensional analysis by looking at results at a global level or drilling down to a more detailed level of information.

Sharing with Web Intelligence

Web Intelligence allows you to share your documents with colleagues. You can choose to save them as public documents in the repository, and if your colleagues are InfoView users, you can send your documents directly to them. The repository stores sent and public documents and enables others to retrieve them. If they do not use InfoView, you can save your reports in Microsoft Excel or Adobe PDF format so that your colleagues can easily view and print them. You can share Web Intelligence documents in three ways:

1. Send a document to another user or group of users.
2. Save documents as files on your PC in PDF or Excel format
3. Schedule documents to be refreshed and sent automatically by using scheduler.

Depending on the group you belong to, you may be able to schedule and view a list of your scheduled documents. When you schedule a document you specify a time and a date to refresh it and send it to other users.

This lesson describes how to log onto InfoView, the portal you use to access Web Intelligence. You will learn how to;

• Log on to and off from InfoView
• Move around the InfoView Homepage
• Access documents
• Use online help

Logging onto InfoView

To use InfoView and Web Intelligence, you must first log on to MyEd portal and launch BOXI from the 'BusinessObjects Reporting' channel which is located on the Admin tab.

Note: To use the advanced features of BusinessObjects Enterprise and InfoView, it is recommended that you use Internet Explorer.

To log on to InfoView

1. Open your web browser.
2. Go to MyEd portal: https://www.myed.ed.ac.uk
3. From the Admin tab, click on the Launch BOXI button to open the application.

4. The BusinessObjects InfoView home page appears as illustrated:

 

Setting InfoView Preferences

InfoView presents a number of formats for viewing Web Intelligent documents.Before you begin you need to define the 'Interactive' format as the default option for your user account. This will allow you to filter, sort, add simple calculations, or drill on the values displayed in the reports.

To do this, simply follow the 3 steps below:

1. From the InfoView home page, select the preferences icon from the Navigational bar as illustrated here.

2. Select the Web Intelligence Document tab and check the radio button beside Interactive to set your view format.

3. Once you have done this, scroll down to the end of the page and select the OK button to save changes.

You preferences will be saved and you will be returned to the InfoView Home page once again. 

View a simulated demo of the how to set your InfoView Preferences. This demo highlights the steps involved to define the 'Interactive' format as the default option for your user account, as outlined in the above lesson. (Note: Demo opens in a new window!)

InfoView Preferences for Date formats

Note: InfoView picks up language-related formatting from the options set in your browser. The language preference in IE7 is set to English [en-gb] so there are usually no problems with date formatting in reports viewed with IE. However, in Firefox, the default setting is English/American[en-us], hence incorrect date formatting is displayed.

If you encounter this problem, simply change the Infoview Preference setting to English (United Kingdom), by following the steps below:

1. From the InfoView home page, select the preferences icon from the Navigational bar.
2. Select the 'General' tab and scroll down to section titled "My interface locals is". From the drop-down box, select English (United Kingdom) and hit "Apply" and then "OK". (You can also set your preferred 'interface locals' under the Web Intelligence tab.

Logging off from InfoView

When you log off from InfoView, you can save any settings you may have changed.

1. From the navigation Bar, click the Log off icon.

2. The "Logout with EASE" page will now be displayed in your browser. Make sure you click the "Logout Now" button to ensure that you have logged off successfully.

InfoView home page overview

The InfoView home page is divided into several panels. The following screen highlights each of these panels:

Title Bar

This area contains the BusinessObjects logo and the user name of the account that you used to log on to InfoView

Navigation Bar

This area contains a toolbar that you can use to perform the following actions:

Option	Description
	Home Display the InfoView home page.
	Toggle Navigation Show /hide the Navigation panel.
	Toggle Encyclopedia Show /hide the Encyclopedia panel.
	Create a new item Create a new folder, category, or object.
	Refresh the Workspace Panel Refresh the Workspace panel.
	Send a document  Send an object or instance to a destination.
	My InfoView Allow you to create custom dashboards.
	Search Allow you to search for objects.
	Preferences Allow you to set how information is displayed.
	Log off Logs the user off.
	Help Display the online help for InfoView.

Navigation panel

The Navigation panel displays a tree that shows your place in the structure of folders or categories in InfoView. It has a toolbar that you can use to perform the following actions:

Option	Description
	Show folders Displays the available folders.
	Show categories Displays the available categories.
	Refresh the Navigation Panel Refreshes the Navigation panel.
	Properties Sets properties for the selected folder/category.
	Move Moves the selected folder/category.
	Copy Makes a copy of the selected folder/category.
	Delete Deletes the selected folder/category.

Workspace panel

The Workspace panel displays the objects that are located in a folder or assigned to a specific category. It is in this panel that you do activities such as viewing, scheduling, and modifying objects, setting your InfoView preferences, and so on. It has a toolbar that you can use to perform the following actions:

Option	Description
	Organize Allows you to organize the selected object.
	Delete Deletes the selected object.
	Filter Filters the types of objects that are displayed.

Accessing InfoView documents from Folders

From the InfoView Home page, you can choose to access documents that are shared in My Folders or Public Folders. In My Folders, you can choose to store documents in:

• your Favorites folders
• your InBox, where others can send documents directly to you
• or in any folder that you create yourself

Public folders have been created by our BusinessObjects administrators, including the Training folder which contains the eFashion universe which we will use throughout this guide.

Folders and sub-folders are used to organise documents, while categories are a way to classify your information. For example, you could place your financial reports and documents into a folder named Finance and you could classify or tag your reports that deal with specific financial matters as Payroll, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. Using categories in InfoView is a way of grouping documents together, regardless of which folders they are actually stored in.

View a simulated demo of the InfoView home page. This demo will introduce you to the various panels of the InfoView homepage and also describe the toolbar icons from the Navigation Bar, as outlined in the above lesson. (Note: Demo opens in a new window!)

Using BusinessObjects Online Help

InfoView has online Help available which provides you with a description of both InfoView and the concepts behind it as well as instructions for using it.

The online Help will assist you if you need to reference a topic.

To access Help

1. Click the Help button to access the InfoView and Web Intelligence online Help files.

2. A popup window will open BusinessObjects Help file pages.

Note: You can also access a variety of other resources by clicking the BusinessObjects website link on the Online help page.

Managing & Viewing documents in InfoView

 This section reviews how to create folders to organise your documents, how to copy and move folders and documents and also how to search for existing documents. In InfoView, you can view documents that were created with Web Intelligence and other BusinessObjects end users querying tools, as well as documents created with other non-BusinessObjects applications. This lessons will show you how to;

• Manage folders and documents
• Open and view Web Intelligence document
• Refresh the data in a Web Intelligence document
• Print a document when viewing it in PDF format
• Close a Web Intelligence document

Managing Folders and Documents in InfoView

Creating a new folder

Folders are a way of classifying and organising your documents. In the InfoView Navigation Panel, you can create new folders to organise your documents.

To create new folders

1. In the Navigation Panel, click + to expand My Folders.
2. Click the Favourites folder.
3. Click the New button on the Navigation Bar.

4. Select Folder from the drop-down list. The Create a New Folder page opens in the Workspace Panel.
5. Type "Sales Figures" in the Folder Name field.
6. Type "Sales reports for eFashion stores" in the Description field.
7. Type "Sales" in the keywords field.

8. Click OK. The new folder appears in the Navigation Panel. You can now save documents or other objects to this folder.

Note: You may need to click refresh button in order for the new folder to show.

Copying and moving documents and folders

Using the Workspace Panel and Navigation Panel toolbars, you can copy and move documents and folders to new locations. You can copy a document into a different folder and also copy a sub folder into a different folder. When youmove a document or folder, it is deleted from its original location.

To copy documents and folders.

1. In the Navigation Panel, click + to expand the Public Folders.
2. Select the Training folder.
3. Select the Web Intelligence Sample document in the document list by selecting the check box by the document name.
4. Click the Organise button from the Workspace Panel toolbar located above the document list.
5. Select Copy to a New Folder from the Organise drop-down menu. The copy page opens in the Workspace Panel.
6. Select the Sales Figures sub folder within My Folders > Favourites as the copy location.

7. Click OK
8. In the Navigation Panel, select the Sales Figures folder.
9. If it doesn't show, click the Refresh button on the Navigation toolbar. The copied document displays in the folder's document list.
   Note: If a folder does not exist that you want to copy a document into, you can create a new folder from the Copy page by clicking the Add button.
10. Select the Sales Figures folder in the Navigation Panel.
11. Click the Copy button on the Navigation Panel toolbar.

12. The Copy page displays in the Workspace Panel. Select Favourites as the location for a copy of this folder.

13. Click OK. A copy of the folder, including all of the objects within the folder, is now located within your Favourites folder.

To move documents.

1. Select the check box before the copied Web Intelligence Sample document document in Favourites > Copy of Sales Figures.
2. To move the document to a new folder, click the Organise button.
3. Select Move to New Folder from the Organise drop-down menu. The Move page opens in the Workspace Panel.

4. Select your Favourites folder as the new location for the document.
5. Click OK. The document has been moved to the new folder and removed from the old folder. Notice that the folder titled 'Copy of Sales figures' is now empty!

Saving documents to personal folders and categories

Using InfoView, you can save documents to folders and categories. You have multiple options for storing objects in a category or folder. You can move and copy objects to a folder or category, as outlined above. Or you can open a Web Intelligence document and use the Save As feature to save the document to a new folder or category location. For example, you can open a Web Intelligence document from your Inbox folder, and save it to a designated Personal Category.

Searching for documents

The Search feature in InfoView enables you to search for documents within categories or folders by the object title, keywords, or all fields. There is also an advanced search feature that allows you to be more specific in your search criteria.

To search for documents in InfoView

1. On the Navigation Bar, type "Web" in the Search Title field.
2. Click the Execute search button. Any object with the word "Web" in the title displays in the Workspace Panel.

To search using complex search criteria

1. Click the Search title drop-down arrow and select Advanced Search. The Advanced page opens.

2. You can specify a specific folder if you wish to search by location.
3. Enter "Web Intelligence" in the Search by Title field.
4. Click Search. Any documents which include the word "Web Intelligence" in the title are displayed.

Managing & Viewing documents in InfoView

Open and view Web Intelligence documents

To open and view a Web Intelligence document

1. Open the Training folder within the Public Folders folder.
2. Open the Web Intelligence Sample document from the list of objects.
   Note: To open the document, single click on the document name. Clicking on the document name opens the most current version of the report.
   The document opens in the Workspace Panel.
3. Click the Hide the Navigation Panel arrow to view the Web Intelligence document in the full InfoView window.

4. Click the Document drop-down arrow on the document toolbar to view the menu. This menu allows you to close and save the document. If you are authorised to create and edit Web Intelligence documents in one of the report panels, the Edit option appears on the document as well.

5. Click the View drop-down arrow on the document toolbar to view the menu. This menu also allows you to view the document in different modes: Page mode, Draft mode and PDF mode. It also allows you to display the Left Panel.

6. If the Left Panel option is not already selected, click Left panel on the View drop-down menu. The Left panel opens in the InfoView Workspace, next to the document you are currently viewing.

Note: If your view of the Left Panel differs from the above screen (i.e. if you are looking at "Document Summary"), simply click on the drop-down arrow beside the input box at the top of the pane and select "Navigation Map" from the list of options.

The left panel is composed of the:

• Navigation Map pane - this pane lists the different reports that are included in the document, and the sections within each report.
• User Prompt Input pane - If you are viewing a document that prompts you to select the values you want to appear in the report, a list of values you have selected appears in this pane
• Find Pane - this allows you to specify search criteria for navigating to specific data in a document.

By default, the Navigation Map pane should appear automatically in the Left panel.

7. In the Navigation Map pane, click + next to Orders by Country report. The report folder expands and displays all the sections organised in the Order by Country report.

8. Navigate the report by clicking on England in the Group Tree. The report repositions to show the details on England.
9. Click on USA in the table. The report navigates to show USA section of data.

Closing a Web Intelligence document

To close a Web Intelligence document, you can either select the Close option on the Document menu, or click on the X button in the upper right-hand corner of Workspace Panel. Clicking on any of the folders or categories in the Navigation Panel will immediately replace the open document with the list of documents contained in that folder or category, effectively closing the document.

Print documents from InfoView

Printing

In order to print a Web Intelligence document, you need to display the document in PDF format and then print from Acrobat Reader. To ensure the best quality possible, it is best not to print from the browser print button. If you are viewing a Web Intelligence document in either HTML format or Interactive modes, click View > PDF to switch to PDF format prior to printing, making sure you select print from the PDF toolbar and not the browser print button.

Note:   Each report within the Web Intelligence document will need to be printed individually.

Step 1: Switch to PDF format prior to printing

Step 2: Select the print icon from the PDF toolbar and not the browser toolbar.

Creating Web Intelligence Documents with Queries

This lesson describes how to use the Java Report Panel to create, edit and run queries. You will cover the following topics;

• Getting new data with Web Intelligence
• Create a new Web Intelligence document
• Saving a new document
• Edit a documents query

Getting new data with Web Intelligence

In order to retrieve new data with Web Intelligence, you can either create a new Web Intelligence document or edit the query associated with an existing document.

Creating a new document involves two steps:

1. Choosing a BusinessObjects universe that the document will use as its data source.
2. Using the Web Intelligence Report Panel to create a query that will determine which data is extracted from the universe and how that data is formatted.

Web Intelligence Report Panel

There are three Report Panels available for use: the Java Report Panel, the Query-HTML Panel and the HTML Report Panel.

The Java Report Panel is the default panel for use within the Universityand will be the selected interface for creating Web Intelligence queries and documents as it provides better features for formatting and manipulating data.

The Java Report Panel has a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to create sophisticated documents containing multiple reports, tables and charts. You can create complex filters, custom formulas and highly formatted documents. A Java applet is downloaded the first time the panel is used from InfoView.

Create and edit Web Intelligence documents

You are now ready to create a new document.

Creating a new Web Intelligence document using the Java Report Panel

The Report Panel is composed of two separate panels:

• the Edit Query view
• the Edit Report view

You use these panels together to build queries and present the data returned by the query in a report. When you are ready to save, the following information is associated with the new Web Intelligence document:

• the query definition
• the data returned by the query
• one or more reports
• one or more blocks of data (tables, charts) presented in the reports and the formatting you have applied to the blocks.

Create a new Web Intelligence document

To Create a new Web Intelligence document, follow the steps outlined below:

1. On the InfoView Navigation Bar, click the New drop-down menu.
2. Select Web Intelligence Document from the menu.
3. Click on the eFashion universe which is displayed in the Objects area. The Java applet downloads if this is the first time you are creating a document using the Java Report Panel. If you are prompted by a Java Security box at this stage, simply click Yes to continue.



The Java Report Panel Edit Query view displays. The classes and objects that reference the eFashion universe are displayed in the Data tab of the Edit Query view.
4. To build the query, you simply move the objects you want in your report from the Data tab (on the left) to the Result Objects pane.

Handy hint: To use the full width of your screen, you can Toggle Navigationby clicking the toggle icon button on or off.

To build a query in the Java Report Panel

1. In the Data tab, click + to expand the Time period class to view the objects in the class.
2. Click and drag the Year and Quarter data objects into the Result Objects pane.
   Note: You can also double-click on the object to move it onto the Result Objects pane. The selected objects display in the results Objects pane as shown below:
3. Click + to expand the Measures class.
4. Double click the Sales Revenue object to add it to the Result Objects pane.
5. Click Run Query on the toolbar.

The Query is executed and the data returned is displayed in a new report in the Edit Report view. The values returned by the objects you selected are presented by default in a vertical table.

Saving a new document

You can save a document that you have created with Web Intelligence as a corporate document in InfoView. You can save a corporate document to:

• Personal folders - exclusively for your own reference and saved in My Folders or Personal Categories.
• Public folders - for sharing with other users and saved in a Public Folder or Corporate Category. Note: This only applies if you have been authorised to publish reports to Public Folders.

Documents that you save to your personal folders are saved in an area on the BusinessObjects server that is reserved for you. They are not saved on your workstation. You can also save Web Intelligence documents to your own computer, in other formats for easier sharing with non-InfoView users;

• Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet - useful if you want to combine the data in a Web Intelligence document with data from an Excel spreadsheet.
• Adobe Acrobat PDF - ideal for printing and viewing.

To save a new document to a personal folder

Using the report you have just created,

1. In the Edit Report view, click the Save drop-down button on the Report Panel toolbar.
2. Select Save as from the drop-down menu. The Save Document dialog box opens.
3. In the Title field, type "Sales Revenue Report" as the name of the document.
4. In the description field, type "Quarterly eFashion sales revenue report for all years" as the document description.
5. Leave the options below the keywords text box un-selected. By default, the Refresh on open option is not selected so that users will always see the original data that was retrieved when the document was created or last refreshed, and which was stored in the document when it was saved.
   To see the most recent data available in the database, users can refresh the document manually when they open it. Or, you can choose to select this option to ensure that the data is updated automatically each time the document is opened.
6. In the Location box, click + to expand the My Folders folder, if the folder is not already expanded.
7. Click the Favourites link, to store this document in your Favourites folder.
8. Click + to expand the categories.

9. Select the check box beside Personal Categories and click OK.
10. The document has been saved to your Favourites folder and referenced under your Personal category. You can now move or copy this document to other folder locations in InfoView if required.