Advanced Analysis and OLAP Thin Has New PowerPowerPlay Web client has reached functional parity with the PC clientby Paul Dean Continued from Page 1 PowerPlay integrates well with the other products in the Cognos BI suite and works particularly well with Impromptu — Cognos's managed query and reporting tool. PowerPlay cubes can be created from an Impromptu query definition (IQD) file and cubes can be configured to drill through to detail via the IQD file. When drilling down, you can also access relational fields not loaded into the PowerCube, such as customer attribute information. Series 7 version 2 introduced support for drill-through from third-party cubes.
PowerPlay has powerful time-series processing capabilities. In addition to the standard year/quarter/month/day calendar, it supports relative time (month-to-month, year-over-year, YTD, and so on) and 13-period years. In addition to a GUI, Transformer has a model definition language and open API that can automate cube updates. It can also overwrite the default partitioning and aggregation behavior. PowerPlay Web ExplorerThe starting point for any PowerPlay client is an OLAP cube, either a PowerCube or a third-party cube (accessed via PowerPlay Connect). The user is unaware of the OLAP server where the cube resides and will see no difference in functionality. PowerPlay Web Explorer runs using any modern browser, either directly from a URL or via Upfront — Cognos's portal product that provides a common interface for the Cognos BI suite. In common with other OLAP client tools, PowerPlay Web Explorer provides different view types to display data: crosstabs and charts. A split view (see Figure 2) can display a crosstab and chart at the same time, and they automatically synchronize: Changes in one are reflected in the other. Both views support drill-down, can display data as values or as percentages of row or column totals, and are modified using the "dimension line" or the "dimension viewer." The dimension line, at the top of the display, provides a hierarchical drop-down menu for each dimension. The user can change the view by choosing different categories. The new dimension viewer (see Figure 2) provides a tree view of all dimensions and measures within the cube. A user can right-click on any item in the dimension tree to pivot, filter dimension categories, or nest rows and columns. Crosstabs provide extensive formatting options, including hiding and sorting rows and columns, zero-row suppression, color-coded exception highlighting (the rules can be saved and recalled), and the ability to insert rows and columns that are the results of calculations between dimension categories. Chart types are limited to pie, bar (simple, clustered, stacked, 3D), and line, but each type has formatting options. The Find tool is used to identify categories that contain specific text strings in the rows or columns of the current report, or within specific cube dimensions. In this way, you can locate specific categories quickly without having to traverse through hierarchies. In addition to the conventional OLAP features I described, PowerPlay provides Pareto filtering and Projections. Pareto filtering (also known as the 80/20 rule) automatically groups the categories that amount to less than 20 percent of a row or column total into an "other" category. This is a useful feature when a dimension, like customer, has a large number of categories and you want to identify the 20 percent of customers that account for 80 percent of sales. Projections extend time-based data for a designated number of periods, such as to forecast the next three months based on the last two years of monthly sales. Forecasting types include linear (trend), curved (growth), and seasonal (auto-regression). Views can be saved and published to the Upfront portal and accessed by other users. High-quality printing is available by first exporting a view to a PDF file. Data can be exported to comma-separated value files and then imported into other applications like Excel. Complete online help and a tutorial are included; new users should be productive within hours. A Good PedigreePowerPlay Series 7 version 2 is the latest in a long line of proven OLAP products from Cognos. It's powerful and easy to use. Companies looking for an OLAP component that integrates well with the comprehensive Cognos BI suite or for a common interface to a heterogeneous OLAP server environment should consider this product. Paul Dean [pldean@sbcglobal.net or (312) 636-1980 ] is an independent consultant providing OLAP implementation and training services. RESOURCESRelated Articles at IntelligentEnterprise.com:
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