This page describes a part of the Mobile Dashboard's process for configuring reports. For an introduction to the report configuration process, see Section 5.1, “Introduction To Report Configuration”. For a general introduction to the online help manual, see Section 1.1, “Mobile Dashboard Online Help Manual Overview”.
An example report configuration is provided here, to clarify the various concepts involved. The example is a spreadsheet used for reporting on consulting services by a fictional company. It shows various information for weeks, months and quarters, broken down by department (e.g., Core or Testing) and region (e.g., NE or IC LA).
In the example below, the different approaches for configuring the spreadsheet will be discussed to aid understanding of the configuration process. The desired values for each entry are given, in the same order as seem in the Agenda, but detailed instructions for clicking and entering the values are not provided.
In this example, the goal is to extract all the data on this sheet, and be able to examine it from several different viewpoints, such as looking at monthly or quarterly figures across all departments, or across all regions within a department. There are three "dimensions" along which we would want to view this data, one dimension for the columns and two dimensions for the rows:
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The columns describe Utilizations (percent consultants are billable within a certain time period). The column headers are in Rows 4 and 5,
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The rows describe Departments (shown in red in Column A), and
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Regions within those Departments (regions are in black, and indented, in Column A).
We will configure the spreadsheet accordingly.
Notice that the weekly and monthly utilization percentages are in Columns C through G, with a gap (Column H) before the quarterly percentages start in Column I. We have an option of either including all the data in one extracted data item, or breaking it up into different data items. The decision is based on whether the weekly/monthly and quarterly data would be used together or separately. Let's assume they will all be used together, and extract all data into one item. (If we were creating two items here for weekly/monthly and quarterly percentages, the only difference between the items would be the definition of the upper-left corner and the right edge.)
The list below gives example settings for each part of the configuration. When specifying some piece of data has several different options, this is controlled by buttons and check boxes on the page where you enter that piece of data, and which option is being chosen will be mentioned in parentheses.
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Specify report version: The report version might be specified as being in Cell C5, which contains a relevant date for the report.
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Name new item: The name of the new extracted data item could be Utilization Forecast.
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Set upper left corner: The upper-left corner of the data would be C7.
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Set right edge: To process all the data on this sheet, the right edge could be fixed (the first option) at the rightmost column. But in case additional columns were added, it would be better to specify the right edge using the rightmost column containing a value (the third option). The best row to use is probably the column headers in Row 5, rather than a data row such as Row 7. Using Row 5 would be sure to include all the columns, even when some of them didn't have any data. If Row 7 didn't have data in some right-hand columns, but a data row below it did, that data would be lost if Row 7 were used for the right edge.
If only the data in the first table block (Columns C to G) were to be included in the item, then specify the right edge as including all the data until the first empty cell is found (the second option), again using Row 5, which would end the item at Column G, since Column H is empty.
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Skip columns: If only Columns C-G are included, then you could specify not to skip any columns (the first option). If all columns are being included, then we need to skip the gap at Column H, and we would do it by specifying Row 5 as the row to use to skip (the second option).
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Set bottom edge: The bottom edge could be specified as the bottommost row containing data (the third option) in Column C, assuming there are always data present in that column, if any exists for a given row.
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Skip rows: The rows to skip could also be specified as using Column C, for the same reason as above.
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Set column dimensions: Since there is only one column dimension, it would be Simple, and named Utilization, and its values found in Rows 4 and 5, which should be selected in the spreadsheet.
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Extract column headers: Since the column headers are simple, there is no need to do anything more to specify how to extract them.
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Set row dimensions: The row dimensions would be defined as Hierarchical, in Column A, and the first one would be named Department, and checked as applying to all rows, since there are no rows that are not a member of some department. If there were extra rows included for totals and/or subtotals, then some of these rows might not apply to any department (the overall total would not). If those totals were to be included in this item, then this first dimension would need to not be checked as applying to all rows.
The second dimension would be named Region, and marked as belonging to a Department. Because some Departments don't have Regions (e.g., Testing, Internal) this dimension should not be marked as applying to all rows.
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Extract row headers: To specify how the system can identify the different row dimensions contained in the same column, notice that they are distinguished by color (and also indentation, but one discriminating factor is sufficient). For Department, we set the color rule to red, and for Region we set it to black.
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Name data sets: If we want to make the names of the data sets that will be produced more understandable, we can rename them.
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Validate item: The item should validate without errors, as specified here.
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Configure screens: If users are interested in viewing department totals, then the first data set (Department Vs. Utilization) would be sufficient on a single screen (drag and drop the first data set into the screen configuration area). If users would also be interested in a breakdown of a department and view the regions within the department, a second screen might be appropriate. Create a second screen by dragging and dropping the Department and Region Vs. Utilization data set to the "Drop Data To Create Screen Below" area. We might also add the department total for the regions by dragging and dropping the Department Vs. Utilization data set into the same Table containing the Department and Region Vs. Utilization data set. The Table would thus display the department total and then all the regions within that department.
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When this report is shown on the mobile device, we might want users to initially see the data for all the regions (if any) in a department, but for only one department at a time. To do this, select the screen containing the Department and Region Vs. Utilization data set in the table at the top of the view, then click on the Table containing the data set, and use the dialog to Add the Department dimension to the "Show Selected Values Of" list.
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Provide abbreviations: If there were long row or column headers that we want to abbreviate, we would indicate the substitutions here.