Use the Analyzer to Build and Edit Insights

Now that you know how dashboards depend on the underlying data structure, you are ready to design Insights for your own dashboard(s).

Ensure that the underlying data structure has been defined for the dashboard.
Navigate to a Dashboard.
Select the ”+” icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, to add a new Insight. The “Visualization” menu opens.
Choose a visualization type to open a new, undefined Insight in the Analyzer. Select the icon in the upper right-hand corner to change the visualization type.
Start dragging columns from the Source Elements List (panel), on the left-hand side of the screen, to the grouping, coloring, and measure dimensions fields. If the list is empty, i.e. does not contain any tables or columns, select the ”+” icon for a list of the available tables to choose from.

Set up Insight Dimensions in the Analyzer

Recall that a dimension is an attribute used to structure the data. Each dimension of the Insight contains (and is defined by) one or more filters.

Fields in the Analyzer:

Measures

It is easiest to define an Insight if you begin by thinking about what you want your Insight to measure, e.g. units sold or revenue would be a Measure.

Grouping

Next, the grouping dimension would be defined by how you want to group, or slice, the measure you choose. For example, you can group by category, or by a time period.

Coloring

Finally, the coloring dimension would help with making visual distinctions. For example, if you choose to group Revenue (i.e. Measure dimension) by Year (i.e. Grouping dimension), you can use the coloring dimension to display each year in a different color. You can also add an additional filter to the coloring dimension to enable a drill-down. Some visualizations, such as a Grouped-Column Charts, require the coloring dimension to be defined.

Specify Filters for Measures

You can specify a filter for a measure by dragging an element from the source elements list (on the left-hand side of the screen) and dropping it in the measure field. You can type the element you are searching for in the search box to easily locate it. Elements that are defined as Measures in the table definition are labeled by dark blue circles. After placing an element in the field, select the down arrow to set the corresponding filter parameters.

Data Settings for Measures

Name: Specify a display name for the measure filter.

Aggregation: Choose an aggregation for the method of the measure.

Scale: Set the scale of the x-axis to Thousands(K), Millions(M), or Percent(%). If you set the scale to None, the x-axis will scale automatically.

Running Total: If you turn Running Total on, data will be displayed cumulatively along the y-axis.

Filter-in-Filter: Use this setting to add a filter to a measure only, without affecting the rest of the Insight. Choose a column, operator, and value for this filter.

Format Settings for Measures

Format: Use this setting to define how you want numbers to be displayed in the Insight. This is simply a display mask and does not affect how the data is stored or processed.

Color: This setting affects the primary color used to visualize data in the Insight. Use it to change the color of the line in a time series, or of the columns in a column chart, for instance.

In a line graph with multiple data series represented, this setting affects only the highest or lowest line on the x-axis, depending on the sort order. In a grouped row or column chart, the color set here will be applied to either the first or last row or column in each group.

Conditional Formatting: Tables and KPIs support conditional formatting for measures. Use conditional formatting to highlight values that meet a preset condition. Choose an operator and a value for each condition. For tables, you can specify both background and text colors. For KPIs, you can specify text color.

Create a Formula Filter on Measures

To create a Formula Filter for a measure:

Drag and drop the New Formula button into the measures field.
Select the down arrow corresponding to the new formula to define it.
Set the aggregate function to “FORMULA”, in the “Aggregation” field. This causes Incorta Analytics to refer to the formula expression (entered in the next step) to determine the actual aggregation function.
Select in the “Formula” field to open the Formula Builder, where you can create the formula expression. The Formula Builder opens.
Select Done to close the Formula Builder.
Set the remaining filter parameters, including Name, Scale, Formatting, etc.

Specify Filters for the Grouping Dimensions

When you specify more than one filter for the grouping dimension in a single Insight:

Their order from left to right determines the drill-down path for the Insight.
If you use multiple filters in the grouping dimension, use no more than one filter for the coloring dimension.
If there are multiple filters in both the coloring and grouping dimension, the grouping dimension determines the drill-down path.

Specify Filters for the Coloring Dimensions

Adding a filter to the coloring dimension for this Insight allows you to split revenue per year by category. In the following figure, because the visualization type is a Stacked Column Chart, the Category filter causes the data for each bar to be split and stacked by product category. When you define filters for the color dimension, the visualization type determines how the color is applied. In a line graph, for instance, the data series for a color dimension would be split into multiple colored lines. The categories are sorted alphanumerically unless you define a sort order.

You can add as many filters to the coloring dimension as you need. When you specify multiple filters for the coloring dimension in a single Insight,

Order from left to right determines the drill-down path for the Insight unless there are multiple filters in the grouping dimension.
Define only one filter for the grouping dimension.

Define a Sort Order

To set a sort order:

Select the down arrow on the coloring or grouping dimension element you want to sort, e.g. Category.
Search for the element you want to sort by in the search box atop the Source Elements List on the left hand side of the screen, e.g. Revenue.
Drag the element and drop it in the sort-by field of the drop-down menu of the grouping, or coloring, dimension.
Select the black arrow to sort ascendingly (arrow pointing up), or select it again to sort descendingly (arrow pointing down).
Select the drop-down menu indicator inside the “Revenue” element to view the table and column information for the element, and to edit its display name if desired.

NOTE: Set the sort order for each filter in the dimension so that as the user drills down, the sort order remains consistent.

Use the gear icon to access non-filter settings for an Insight. The Settings menu of an Insight is divided into two tabs; the Settings Tab and Layout Tab.

Settings Tab

Max Rows: This setting limits the number of rows of data from the grouping dimension to be included in the Insight.

Max Groups: Use this to return a large table where there is a group-by of 500,000 values or more.

Logarithmic: Switch on to focus on the part where data points starts fluctuating. For example, if all the horizontal data points on the chart share the same vertical values up to a certain point, you can want to start the vertical dimension at this point to increase the scale and focus on the fluctuating data. Switching “Logarithmic” on does this automatically.

Auto-Refresh: Auto-Refresh is set on by default. Leave it on if you want the Insight to update automatically whenever the underlying data is updated. Set it off if you want the Insight to update only when a new session is begun, as when the underlying data set is very large.

Join Measures: Calculating the group-by function across joined tables is a very complex operation impacting the engine’s performance, and thus disabled by default. Setting the join-measures feature on enables this calculation. A popular example for this is calculating product cost grouped by years.

Layout Tab

Rotation: Select the labels orientation on the horizontal axis of the Insight.

Legend: Switch on to display what dimensions the chart colors represent.

Values: Switch on to display the values on the charts.

X-Axis Labels: Switch on to display labels on the x-axis.

X-Axis Title: Switch on to display the title of the x-axis.

Y-Axis Labels: Switch on to display labels on the y-axis.

Y-Axis Title: Switch on to display the title of the y-axis.

Y-Axis Min: Provide the minimum value of the displayed y-axis value.

Y-Axis Max: Provide the maximum value of the displayed y-axis value.

Show Empty Groups

Show Empty Groups is a feature that can be used to display aggregated dimensions that have no child values. Suppose a child table (e.g. Sales transactions) has a foreign key referencing a parent table (e.g. Country). Using Show Empty Groups, you can build an Insight showing countries (parent) with no sales (child values).

The following steps explain how to Show Empty Groups on a table Insight, containing different countries (Parent) with their corresponding revenue (child) values.

To enable Show Empty Groups:

Select the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight to open the Analyzer mode.
Select the down arrow next to a (parent) dimension to show its null child values (e.g. Country). The drop-down menu appears.
Enable the Show Empty Groups.
Select Done in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to exit the analyzer mode. Notice that dimensions with null (child) values are now displayed in the table.

The Formula Builder

The Formula Builder makes it simple to create a complex formula expression.

Formulas are color-coded in the formula builder, displaying functions in red, variables in black, operators in purple, numeric parameters in blue, and string parameters in green.

To access the Formula Builder, select inside any “Formula” box, wherever found.

On the left side of the page is a list of columns, pre-populated according to the underlying schema definition. To add columns from additional schemas, click the ”+” icon on the left-hand side.

To build a formula expression:

Select a function category from the function drop-down menu to select a formula.
Select a function, it will be automatically inserted into the formula field.
Select the ”+” appearing when hovering over a column name in the panel on the left-hand side. The formula builder inserts its full path of that column between the parentheses, in the format <SCHEMA_NAME>.<TABLE_NAME>.<COLUMN_NAME>.
Use the Variables drop-down menu to select and insert variables. Variables are displayed in yellow.

Pagination in Table and Pivot Table Insights

This feature allows users to set the number of rows per page in a table, to suit their viewing prefernece.

NOTE

This feature applies to Table and Pivot Table Insights only.

To activate pagination:

Navigate to any dashboard with a table Insight.
Go to the Analyzer mode by clicking the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight.
Select the settings menu (gear icon) in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
Select the number of rows by clicking on the up and down arrows, or inserting the number required in the box next to “Page Size”.vIf the Page Size is set to Zero or left blank, the default number of rows displayed will be 1000 rows per page.
Select Done in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, to exit the Analyzer mode. The number of pages appears in the bottom left-hand corner of the Insight.
Select the single left (or right) arrow on the lower left-hand side of the table Insight to go to the previous (or next) Insight.
Select the double left (or right) arrows to move to the very first or very last page.

Convert a Chart Insight into a table in the dashboard view

This feature allows users to switch a Chart Insight into a Table Insight (aggregated/regular) right from the dashboard view. That is, users will not need an edit privilege in order to change the chart type from chart to table.

To convert a Chart visualization into a Table:

Navigate to a dashboard.
Hover over a chart Insight and select the three vertical dots in the upper left-hand side corner of the Insight.
Select “View as table” from the drop-down menu.

Toggling between Insights

This feature allows users to switch from one Insight to another in a dashboard, by selecting the Insight from a drop-down list. This feature can be used only when the “Full Screen Mode” option is enabled.

To enable “Full Screen Mode”, use the following steps:

Navigate to a dashboard.
Select the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight.
Select “Focus” to enable full screen mode.
Select the icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight to choose another Insight. To go to the next or previous Insight, select the arrows in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
To exit Full Screen Mode, select the “X” icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Dynamic Group-By

This feature only applies to non-aggregated Table Insights containing more than one grouping dimension. It enables users to select a grouping dimension from a drop-down list of a table Insight without going to the Analyzer.

To use this feature:

Navigate to any dashboard.
Select the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of an Insight to go to the Analyzer mode.
Add more than one grouping dimension in the grouping dimension field.
Select the settings menu (gear icon) in the upper right-hand corner of the page. A drop-down menu opens.
Enable “Merge Columns” and “Dynamic Group-By”.
Enable “Only Show selected”. This option appears only after activating “Dynamic Group-By”. If this option is not enabled empty columns for the rest of the dimensions will be displayed with no data.
Select Done in the upper right-hand corner, to exit the Analyzer mode.
Select the down arrow button in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight. A drop-down menu opens.

This feature helps view an organizational structure in a tree view, while adding optional attributes that can be specified in the Analyzer. The tree view can be collapsed and expanded when viewing managers and their subordinates.

NOTE: Schema tables used in Insights with hierarchy must be self-joined, in order for the data to be properly calculated.

The following steps show an example applying dynamic hierarchy on an HR Dashboard:

Navigate to a Dashboard with a table Insight.
Add a measure, (e.g. ZIP Code), and a unique dimension, (e.g. email).
Select the settings menu (gear icon).
Enable the “Merge Columns” option.
Select the down arrow of the grouping dimension. A drop-down menu opens.
Enter the hierarchy levels in the “Hierarchy Depth” field.
Drag measures and dimensions to the attributes field to add to the table. Notice the grouping dimension is added by default in the attributes field.
Enable “Exclude Parent” to hide the parent in the hierarchy tree view. The parent in the hierarchy tree is shown by default. Enabling “Exclude Parent” hides the parent.
Select the arrow next to the table column header, to expand or collapse all parent values in the column.

URL drill-down

The URL drill-down feature can be used in Insights of type list table to link its rows to external URLs (e.g. EBS).

To add a URL drill-down to an Insight:

Open the Insight in Analyze mode (by clicking the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight).
Open the measure definition and provide the address you would like to drill down to in the URL field:
Note that the URL feature is only available for reports of type “List”, and for measures when “Aggregated” is turned off in the dashboard settings menu. To turn off the “Aggregated” feature, select the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Insight in the Analyze mode.
Select Done to save and exit the analyze mode.