RadarCube
ASP.NET: OLAP Grid users guide
In the OLAP grid, the following areas can be marked out:
The Cube Structure tree serves for displaying the structure
of multidimensional cube the grid has been already connected to by the moment.
By using the "drag-n-drop" operation you can drag the measures and the
hierarchies which are displayed as the tree nodes in the appropriate pivot
areas of the grid. You can drag the measures in the "Values area"
and the hierarchies to other pivot areas.
By using the standard drilling operations you can expand the
contents of the hierarchies located at the rows or the columns pivot
areas in the data area.
The hierarchies located at the filter area cannot be
"expanded" in the data area. As a rule, the hierarchies where the
filter was applied before to its members are placed in the filter area.
To delete the hierarchy unnecessary for further OLAP analysis from
the pivot areas of the grid, drag the panel with the name of the appropriate
hierarchy back to the Cube Structure tree.
The same operations are fulfilled with the cube measures as well.
Drag the measures necessary for analysis to the "Values Area", and
the measures which no longer need back to the Cube Structure tree.
The order of the hierarchies and the measures in the appropriate
areas corresponds to their disposition in the data area. To alter this
order, just swap the necessary panels of the measures or the hierarchies by
using the "drag-n-drop" operation.
Either in the row or the column areas there is one more auxiliary
panel: "Measures". The position of the measures names in the data area
is altered depending on the area it is located in, and depending on its
position in the area pertaining to the hierarchy panels (ahead or behind all).
The drilling operation is fulfilled when pressing the drilling
buttons in the cells with the hierarchy members' names, or when using the
appropriate items of the context menu. The four kinds of the drilling
operations are available:
 |
Expanding till the first level of the next hierarchy in the
appropriate pivot area. |
 |
Expanding till the next level of the current hierarchy. |
 |
Expanding of the "children" of the current node on the same
hierarchy level. |
 |
Collapsing of the expanded contents of the current node. |
The example below illustrates the aforecited drilling types.
In a given example we have two hierarchies in the row area: "Product
categories" and "Promotions".
On the first level ("Category") of the "Product categories"
hierarchy we created a group "Others" for the products category which
the overall sale doesn't exceed $10 million, and put two members into this
group.
Now let's fulfill the drilling operation as stated on the picture
above, and we╥ll get the following:
The context menu can be called for any cell of the data area. In the
Internet Explorer the call of the context menu is fulfilled by right-clicking
on any cell of the data area. In other browsers the call of the context menu is
fulfilled by clicking on the icon "
" which appears in upper
right corner of the cell the mouse cursor is placed over.
By using the context menu you can fulfill the operations of sorting,
grouping, drilling, changing the measure view modes, hiding measures, tuning
the behavior of the hierarchies when aggregating the data.
The contents of the context menus can be added or changed in the
code of the specific web-application. The expansion of the context menu is one
of the easy ways of the expansion of the OLAP web application functionality
according to the specific demands of the end users.
There are two types of sorting: hierarchy members sorting and
sorting by measures value.
Hierarchy members sorting is fulfilled when using the context menu for
the cells with the level names in the data area. Each level of the multilevel
hierarchy can be sorted separately.
There are three types of the members' sorting: ascending, descending
and sorting by default. Sorting by default coincides with the
sorting for a given hierarchy level specified in the OLAP server.
The algorithms of all three types of sorting can be changed, if
necessary, in the code of the specific web application.
Sorting by measures value allows you to collate the OLAP grid by
measure value ascending or descending order in a specific data column.
Sorting by measures value can be set by clicking on any cell from the
bottom cells row with the hierarchy members names or the measures in the column
area, or by using the context menu on the cells containing the measure values.
All operations with the groups in the ASP.NET version of the OLAP
grid are carried out using the context menus on the cells with the hierarchy
members names and on the cells with the hierarchy levels names.
You can create the group members either with the help of the
levels-cells context menus (in this case the groups are created on the first
hierarchy level), or with the help of the members' cells names context menus.
In the latter case the groups are created on the same level as the cell for
which the context menu has been called.
When the group has been created, other hierarchy members can be put
into it afterwards. This operation is also fulfilled by using the context menu
of the hierarchy members.
With the context menu you can also eliminate a member from the group
and completely clean the groups or delete it.
By using the grouping of the context menu operation users can easy
collate the hierarchies by splitting the members relevant and irrelevant for
analysis. For example, users can use sorting by measures value, and then, with
the help of the command "Move all members below this to group...", to
group all members irrelevant for analysis by simplifying thus the procedure of
the analysis.
Filtration of the hierarchy members can be fulfilled in two ways: by
using the hierarchy members context menu and by using the hierarchy
editor.
By using the context menu you can apply the
context-dependable filters to the hierarchies. For example, users can use
sorting by measures value and then after having been used the command "Hide all
members below this" of the context menu to apply to the hierarchy the
filter which cuts off all members irrelevant for analysis.
By using the context menu you can also apply filters by
using the "Pareto" or "80/20 rule" principle (20 percent of something is always
responsible for 80 percent of the results). It is fulfilled via the following
menu items of the subcommand "Show only the top..." and "Show only the
bottom...". These subcommands chose several members measures of the
current hierarchy, the largest and the least by their value, or according to
the quantity assigned by the subcommand, or according to their summary
percentage from the upper level of the subtotal.
It is convenient to fulfill a sampling filtration of the members by
using the hierarchy editor.
The hierarchy editor is called by clicking on "
"
which is on the hierarchy panels or in the cells with the hierarchy levels
names in the data area. If the filter has been applied at least to one
hierarchy member, then the icon "" is to be changed
to "
".
The filter applied to the hierarchy members influences by default
the aggregation of a given hierarchy in the cube. That is a value of the
subtotal upper level which aggregates all members of a given hierarchy will be
altered depending on the filter applied to the hierarchy.
However, such behavior can be changed by resetting the filter's
influence the subtotal value calculation by using the context menu item
"Aggregate all hierarchy members" of the cells with the hierarchy levels names
in the data area.
Usually, it is necessary for the OLAP analysts to see not only the
direct measures values but the ration between them.
In RadarCube it is fulfilled via the "Show as..." command
of the context menu of the data area cells.
The list of the menu subcommands "Show as..." can be easy
expanded in the code of the specific web application with those modes necessary
for an end user.
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