WEBFOCUS QUICK DATA FOR EXCEL

Transcription

1 WEBFOCUS QUICK DATA FOR EXCEL BRIAN CARTER INFORMATION BUILDERS SUMMIT 2008 USERS CONFERENCE JUNE 2008 Presentation Abstract: Even with the growing popularity and evolvement of Business Intelligence products such as WebFOCUS, Excel continues to be one of the most common means used to generate reports and analyze data. Excel users continue to stand firm when it comes to replacing Excel with a BI reporting tool, despite the challenges involved with accessing data within the Excel environment. WebFOCUS has responded to these demands and challenges with Quick Data, a WebFOCUS Add in for Excel. Now users can access and analyze all of their enterprise data without leaving their preferred environment. This session will walk you through all of the latest enhancements to Quick Data and even show you how to call your own structured ad hoc forms right from within Excel. Excel users will not want to miss this session! WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 1 of 21 5/16/2008

2 OVERVIEW WebFOCUS Quick Data is an Excel Add in that allows the creation of reports within Excel. Quick Data provides Excel users with secure access to all available data sources within the enterprise. Reports created with Quick Data take advantage of WebFOCUS unique ability to generate Excel output with styling, formulas, and named ranges. Reports can be edited, refreshed, and also shared among users. Quick Data is optionally installed and configured automatically when installing Developer Studio and can also be deployed to users for use in the stand alone Excel environment. Users can access any licensed WebFOCUS installation. EXERCISE 1 CREATE AN EXCEL DASHBOARD USING REPORT ASSISTANT In this exercise, you will build a simple Excel dashboard. Using Report Assist, you re free to create any type of query you want against any data source you have access to. Here, you ll build two queries and use the new features of Excel 2007 to create a sales dashboard. You ll also set up the dashboard to refresh automatically! Instructions 1. Start the Reporting Server. 2. Open Microsoft Excel. 3. Change the background color of the worksheet: a) Click the top left corner of the worksheet which is the small gray square with the little white arrow. b) Select Red (Accent 2) from the Fill option. 4. Select row 1 and change the background color to a lighter shade (60%) of red accent 2. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 2 of 21 5/16/2008

3 5. In cell A1 type in Gotham Grinds Sales Dashboard. 6. Maximize the Excel application window and select the all of the visible cells in row 1, then select Merge and Center option. This should center the heading across the worksheet. 7. Using the font group in the ribbon, increase the font size to 20pt, make it bold, and add a black border around the cell. 8. Add an image for a logo: Select the Insert tab on the ribbon and select Clip art. Search for coffee cup. Then pick one of the coffee cup images as shown below. Shrink it up a little so it fits snuggly in the left hand corner. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 3 of 21 5/16/2008

4 9. Position the query: The query is stored in the worksheet as a table of data. The top left of the table will be the active cell. Select cell C Click the Add ins tab in the ribbon and in the WebFOCUS group, select Create Query. 11. Select the WebFOCUS reporting environment: This requires knowledge of the protocol, server name, and port number, but once typed in it is remembered. Type in for this lab. 12. Select the data source: Scroll down and select GGSALES and click the Finish button. This will launch the Report Assistant. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 4 of 21 5/16/2008

5 13. Change the field list to show the description for the data fields by un checking all options except for Description. Also check the Show field descriptions in the Selected field display options. 14. Drag and drop Total dollar amount into the Sum area. 15. Drag and drop Product name into the Sort by area. 16. Add grand totals to the query by checking the Add grand totals to the end of the report. 17. Click the Run button. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 5 of 21 5/16/2008

6 18. Click the Quit button and view the results. 19. Quick Data automatically adds a named range to the entire data table as well as each column. This is very helpful when referencing this data as a source for analysis or within an advanced Excel application. Click the drop down arrow in the Name box to see all of the available ranges. Select each one to see how it highlights that area of the worksheet. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 6 of 21 5/16/2008

7 20. Quick Data also automatically adds native Excel formulas for totals and computed values. Click on the Total value for the Unit Sales column and note the formula. 21. Let s turn off the column totals and utilize Excel s function to give us the average sales. Right click in the query and select Edit Query from the menu to launch Report Assist. Uncheck the Add grand totals and rerun the report. 22. Now let s add the average sales by adding the word Average under the Product column and under the Dollar Sales column, select the AVERAGE function. 23. Excel will automatically pick up the range name provided by Quick Data for the range just hit the Enter key to accept the formula. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 7 of 21 5/16/2008

8 24. Formatting and styling can be done in WebFOCUS, but you can also utilize Excel s rich formatting capabilities. To make sure the Excel formatting is preserved when the query is refreshed, we must change a property of the query. a. In the WebFOCUS Add in menu (or in the right click menu), select Data Range Properties. This will bring up the standard Excel dialogue. b. Change the query properties to Preserve cell formatting. Note that you can also set the query to refresh automatically at timed intervals and when the spreadsheet is opened. 25. Format the data in Excel: a. Highlight the data along with the average line and select the Clear Formats option (Home tab). This will reset the fonts, colors, etc back to match the current theme in Excel. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 8 of 21 5/16/2008

9 b. Set the background color to white and add a thick border around the entire data table. c. Bold the column titles and add a border under them. d. Make the Average line Italic and add a border above. e. Highlight the Sales column along with the average and change the format to Accounting with zero decimal places. These Number options are in the Home tab. 26. Let s add some visualization to the numbers: a. Highlight all of the values in the Sales column (do not highlight the title or the average). b. Select Conditional Formatting and select the four colored arrow set of icons under the Icon Set option. This will automatically distribute the data into four categories and provide an appropriate icon for each category. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 9 of 21 5/16/2008

10 27. Now let s add a chart that will simulate the sales trend over time: a. Go to worksheet 2 and add a new WebFOCUS Query. b. Select GGSALES as the data source. c. Add DATE as the Sort BY and DOLLARS as the measure. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 10 of 21 5/16/2008

11 d. Run the report and close Report Assistant. e. This data will be used to chart the Sales trend chart. Let s go back to Sheet 1. f. Click the Insert tab in the ribbon and Insert a Line chart. g. The chart will be added but there is no data specified yet. Click on the chart and then click Select Data. h. Type in QDATA2 for the date range. Click OK. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 11 of 21 5/16/2008

12 i. Now select a chart layout more suited for a dashboard view. Select Layout 11 which is just the line. Also change the line color to match the theme. j. Scale down the chart size and position the right of the report as shown above. k. Add a chart title: select the Chart title option and click Above chart. Then type Sales Trend for the title. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 12 of 21 5/16/2008

13 l. Add a linear trend line: select the Linear Trendline option. m. Add a thick border around the chart: i. Make sure the chart is selected and click the Format tab under Chart Tools. ii. Use the Shape Outline features to select the border color and thickness. 28. Let s add one more chart. a. Select the QDATA1 range name by clicking the drop down arrow in the name box. The chart will automatically pick up the data range! b. Select the 2 D Pie chart option in the Insert tab. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 13 of 21 5/16/2008

14 c. Now, change the title to Product Sales, add a border, and change the design to match the theme. Or pick the one you like! 29. Add a Refresh option to the queries: Select a cell in the query and select Data Range Properties from the add in menu. 30. Check the Refresh data when opening option. 31. Repeat this for the Query in the second worksheet used for the sales trend chart. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 14 of 21 5/16/2008

15 32. Now let s change the data to simulate the refresh capability: Change all of the sales values to $1 for both queries. The charts will update to reflect the new numbers. 33. Now let s save the workbook: Save it locally to My Documents or wherever and call it GGsalesDashboard or whatever name you prefer. 34. Close the workbook. 35. Now reopen the workbook. Tip: use the recent files to quickly select your workbook. 36. Enable the Quick Data module to operate. Excel s security features automatically disable macros and VB from executing. Simply, click Options and then Enable this content on the dialogue. 37. When you click OK, the queries will execute and the data updates! WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 15 of 21 5/16/2008

16 EXERCISE 2 ACCESS DATA IN WITH A GUIDED AD HOC FORM In this exercise we ll configure Quick Data to use Managed Reporting authentication to log in and access your data. In addition, we ll use a guided ad hoc form to bring data into Excel. This gives ad hoc users a more structured method of accessing and interacting with the data by using simple parameters to interact with a predefined data source. 1. Configure Quick Data for Managed Reporting and Ad hoc form use: Note that this is an administrative step and is NOT done by the Excel user. a. Access the WebFOCUS Administration Console: Open a browser and go to: b. Click on the WebFOCUS Administration Console link. c. Log in with id: admin and no password. d. In the menu on the left hand side click the Configuration link. e. Click the WebFOCUS Quick Data link at the bottom of the list. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 16 of 21 5/16/2008

17 f. Change the quick_data_security radio button to MR. Note: you have a choice of using your own server based authentication and security (Self Service type of application) or you can utilize WeFOCUS out of the box Managed Reporting security. g. Enable the Ad hoc form feature: Now click the domain drop down and you ll be prompted to log in to MR to access the domain list. Select the domain and the folder where the Ad hoc forms are located. Select the Quick Data for Excel domain and My Excel Forms for the folder. Note: Ad hoc forms that will be used with Quick Data must be stored in one dedicated folder within a single domain. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 17 of 21 Copyright 2008 Information Builders, Inc. 5/16/2008

18 h. Now save the changes and clear the cache for good measures. i. Close the Admin Console browser window. 2. Let s create a query in Excel using a structured ad hoc form: a. Open Excel. b. Right click on cell B2 and select Create WebFOCUS Query c. Click next since the server should be set. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 18 of 21 5/16/2008

19 d. Now you re prompted for a Managed Reporting login id and password. Enter admin for the id and leave the password blank. e. Notice that a new option appears allowing you to select the method for creating a query. In this exercise we ll select HTML Form. f. Now you re presented with a list of ad hoc forms (ok only one in this lab!). Select gg_sales_analysis. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 19 of 21 5/16/2008

20 g. Now the ad hoc form is launched. Note that the data source is selected and you can choose any number of dimensions and measures to build a query. h. Since a dimension and measure are already selected simply click the run button. WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 20 of 21 5/16/2008

21 i. Now add a second dimension and measure and run again. j. Now add and remove parameters as you wish. You re done! Note: All of the same benefits exist such as named ranges, edit and refresh capabilities, etc. There really is no limit to what you can do in these structured ad hoc forms you re free to create and design the form any way you wish. Now you have two methods in which users can obtain and access data right from within Excel using WebFOCUS! WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel Page 21 of 21 5/16/2008