How to understand joins in your database using Hyperion Interactive Reporting.

{Posted from a BI-Training Hyperion instructor}

As an instructor teaching Hyperion Explorer, I often will get a question about someone's database at work. Unfortunatly, I cant answer those questions. Thats called 'consulting'. And I do accept Paypal for those kind of questions. (Just dont tell my boss!)

So, how does one approach an understanding of massive database within a data warehouse? Well, Hyperion Intelligence is a good discovery tool. By that I mean, its easy to peek inside the various tables to figure out whats important.

Take a look at the Detail view in the Query section. It uncovers the first ten rows by default. So if your'e afraid to create a runaway query by Processing a query with everything in that table, this will give you a peek into it. From there, determining the joins is the next challange. Typically, they are the firsts colulms in a table. The join between these colulmns and the colulmns in another table can be done automatically, or you can delete and re-join as required.

The auto join is on by default, but if you see a spider web of joins, its best to turn it off und ther datamodel options. From there, experimentation is in order to achieve what business question you want answered, whether it be outer joins, or equal joins.

Good luck!

A Traffic Light approach on Pivot sections in Hyperion Interactive Reporting

{Posted from a BI-Training Hyperion instructor}

Looking to crate a traffic light in a pivot?

One approach is to use the spotlighter. But the problem here is that you cannot compare two fields against each other, say an Actual and Goal. The solution is the use of a computed item.

Create a computed item in the pivot using an if condition.

Say if (actual > goal) {'great'} else {'underachiever'}.

This would produce a fact with either word in the colulm.

Now use the spotlighter to focus on the new fact, and if ='great' Green ; = 'underachiever' Red.

From here, if you dont acutally want the words great or 'underachiever', you could play around with the Fonts, perhaps using an up arrow or down arrow, using windings.

Welcome to the BI Training blog

Welcome to the first blog posting from http://www.bi-training.com/.

We have been training and consulting in Business Intelligence since 1995. We have trained over 15,000 students all over the country but predominantly in the east coast of the US.

We intend on providing tips and tricks on the technologies we work with including the business intelligence products from Oracle (Hyperion/Brio/Scribe), Business Objects, Informatica, Cognos and Microsoft as well to serve as a general BI industry discussion area.

Our blog postings will include posts from many of our instructors and consultants on an informal basis. Our intent is to create a discussion area which will provide some insight into our industry.

Welcome!