Explorer Functionality in WEBI

With WEBI 2.0 is it possible to use the Explorer functionality as in the
Client without creating hierarchies? That is I would like to be able to
‘slice’ data by different dimensions that are not part of a hierarchy – NOT
merely drilling down an existing hierarchy. Is this possible?


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John,
Yes, it is possible to “drill around” in Webi without defining any
custom hierarchies. You will have default hierarchies in every
universe, which are strictly based on the class / object relationships
defined in the universe.

We have a universe that has no custom hierarchies, and we are able to
use the Explorer functionality in WebIntelligence with that universe.
All you have to do is click a box in the settings, saying that you
want drill capability for the query, and it will give you a drop down
listbox at the top of the result screen for each of the dimension
objects in the query. Be sure to save your query before you start
drilling around, because once in a while it loses the ability to drill
back up to your original results (i.e. the unsliced data). I haven’t
yet been able to identify a pattern to this problem.

Sheila Vachher
RCM Technologies
at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
sheila.vachher@occ.treas.gov

—“Brilliant, John - Consultant” JBrilliant@EA.COM wrote:

With WEBI 2.0 is it possible to use the Explorer functionality as in
the
Client without creating hierarchies? That is I would like to be
able to
‘slice’ data by different dimensions that are not part of a
hierarchy – NOT
merely drilling down an existing hierarchy. Is this possible?


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Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

“Be sure to save your query before you start
drilling around, because once in a while it loses the ability to drill
back up to your original results (i.e. the unsliced data). I haven’t
yet been able to identify a pattern to this problem.”

This depends on whether the drill requires a new query or not. For example,
if you create a document containing Year and Revenue and you start drilling
on a year, let’s say 1997, to see the quarters, WebIntelligence will create
a new query to retrieve this information from the database (which is shown
in the tooltip when you move the cursor over the year) . It automatically
adds a condition to the query to limit the data to quarters in 1997 only,
which is why you will only see 1997 revenue when you drill back up.

Instead, you can add objects to the document in the Web Panel, for drill
purposes only. In the Results Tab, click the Scope of Analysis button, and
you will see a new pane where you can put these objects. After building your
document in this way, drilling won’t require a new query as long as you are
drilling to data that was included in the Scope of Analysis. Instead of
adding conditions, WebIntelligence will now use document filters to limit
the displayed data after drilling, which will allow you to drill back up to
the original data set. Of course, when you are drilling to data that was not
included in the document, a new query will automatically be generated again.

To see exactly when a new query is being generated, you can check the
parameter ‘Drill outside of cube dialog’ for the QTManager in the
Administrator Tool. This will bring up a dialog page whenever your drill
requires running a new query. This dialog also allows you to remove the
condition that was automatically added for this new query (in the example
above: retrieve all quarters for all years) and add more objects from the
same hierarchy to the new query (e.g., retrieve weeks and quarters for
1997).

Feico Mol
Program Manager Web Products
Business Objects


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