Visual Explorer provides Essbase users with powerful analytics in a highly graphical format. It enables users to unlock the information stored in multidimensional databases using a free-form canvas for exploring and analyzing data. The Visual Explorer user interface is shown in Figure 139.
Figure 139 Elements of the Visual Explorer User Interface
Visual Explorer is launched directly from the Essbase menu in Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel, using the “Visualize & Explore” command. Using the technique of dragging interface elements, Essbase users can quickly summarize and visualize data from an Essbase database. Visual Explorer then offers users the option to pass data back to the Excel worksheet from which it was launched, or to insert the data into a new Excel worksheet where additional analysis can be performed.
Note:
For detailed information on using Visual Explorer, refer to the online help that is accessed from the Help menu in Visual Explorer.
The following example uses Visual Explorer to identify quickly the most profitable product sales by quarter in the Sample Basic database.
➤ To use Visual Explorer to identify the most profitable product sales by quarter:
1 Open a worksheet.
2 Select Essbase > Visualize & Explore.
The Visual Explorer interface is displayed.
3 Optional: If you are not already logged in to the Sample Basic database, you can log in from Visual Explorer by completing the following tasks:
a. From Visual Explorer, select Data > Connect to Data.
b. In the Connect to Data dialog box, select Hyperion Essbase.
The Essbase System Login dialog box is displayed.
c. Select the server that you want to access from the Server list box.
If the server name that you want to connect to is not in the list, you can type in the name of the server.
d. Press Tab to move to the Username text box and type your username.
e. Press Tab to move to the Password text box and type your password.
f. Click OK to connect to the server.
When your server connection is complete, a list of available Application and Database pairs is displayed in the Application/Database list.
g. Double-click the application and database pair that you want to connect to in the Application/Database list box. Alternatively, you select the application and database pair and click OK.
h. In Name Connection, click OK to save the Server-Application-Database name of this connection for future use.
You can also rename the connection to a name to a user-friendly name.
i. Click Yes at the prompt if you want to save the connection name.
Performing Advanced Retrieval Tasks 131
Note:
If you save the connection name, it is displayed on subsequent logins in the Connect to Data dialog box (see step 3.b.
You are now ready to use Visual Explorer.
4 Under Marks, select Bar from the drop-down list.
5 Drag Year from the Dimension section of the Data window and drop it on the Column shelf.
6 Drag Sales from the Measures section of the Data window and drop it on the Column shelf, placing it to the right of Quarter.
7 Drag Profit % from the Measures section of the Data window and drop it on the Color shelf.
At this point, you can see which quarter is the most profitable based on sales as indicated by the darkest color bar.
8 Drag Region from the Dimension section of the Data window and drop it on the Row shelf.
9 Drag Category from the Dimension section of the Data window and drop it on the Row shelf, placing it to the right of Region.
When you drag a generation to a shelf, all generations that are ancestors of the selected generation are automatically included in this placement. However, if you press and hold down the Control (Ctrl) key while dragging a generation to a shelf, only that specific generation is included in the placement.
10 To ignore the Diet Drinks alternate rollup in this analysis, right-click Category in the Row shelf and select Filter.
Diet Drinks is an alternate rollup that contains shared members. You can deselect it from the query so that members that are already shown are not redisplayed.
11 In the Filter dialog box, clear the Diet Drinks member and click OK.
12 Expand Category on the Row shelf.
13 Review the visual worksheet.
As shown by the dark green bars in Figure 140, Colas in the East is the most consistently profitable product based on sales.
Figure 140 Bar Chart Showing Product 100-10 East as Most Profitable by Sales
You are now ready to pass the data from the visual worksheet into an Excel worksheet in Spreadsheet Add-in.
This task is optional. Optional tasks do not need to be performed as part of the tutorial. They are provided for information only.
In Visual Explorer you can further analyze the data in the Sample Basic database by completing any of the following tasks:
● Drag State from the Database Schema and drop it on the Page shelf.
The view is recalculated to view the data for individual states. The Current Page shows that we are viewing data for New York. For example, hover over the bar for Cola in New York in the East region during Qtr1, and the popup shows that the Sales total for New York in that quarter is $1,998.00. Click the right direction arrow or use the drop-down to view data from another sate.
● Drag Gen3, Population from the Database Schema and drop it on the Groups shelf.
The view is recalculated so that each column is now broken into market size based on population, separated by lines. Hover over individual sections and view Sales data by market size.
14 In Oracle's Hyperion® Essbase® Visual Explorer, select File > Export > Cross-tab to Excel to transfer data from the visual worksheet to worksheet in Excel.
Note:
Alternatively, you can select File > Update Excel (New Worksheet) to transfer the data from the visual worksheet to a new worksheet in Excel.