When we are at the starting stage of BI project development, we must remember that it is crucial to select the right tool for its implementation. Today we want to show you how one of the principal functionality of dashboards is implemented in different BI systems. Let's talk about drill down from both points of view: the dashboard development, and the convenience and clarity for the end user. We will touch on the applications of this technology in IRIS BI, Power BI and Tableau.

What is %SQLRESTRICT

%SQLRESTRICT is a special %FILTER clause for use in MDX queries in InterSystems IRIS Business Intelligence. Since this function begins with %, it means this is a special MDX extension created by InterSystems. It allows users to insert an SQL statement that will be used to restrict the returned records in the MDX Result Set. This SQL statement must return a set of Source Record IDs to limit the results by. Please see the documentation for more information.

Why is this useful?

This is useful because there are often times users want to restrict the results in their MDX Result Set based on information that is not in their cubes. It may be the case that this information may not make sense to be in the cube. Other times this can be useful when there is a large set of values you want to restrict. As mentioned before, this is not a standard MDX function, it was created by InterSystems to handle cases were queries were not performing well or cases that were not easily solved by existing functions.

Hi, Community!

I’m sure you are using Developer Community analytics built with InterSystems Analytics technology DeepSee:

You can find DC analytics n InterSystems->Analytics menu.

DC Analytics shows interactive dashboards on key figures of DC entities: Posts, Comments, and Members.

Since the last week, this analytics project is available for everyone with source code and data on DC Github!

Users of analytical applications often need to generate and send out PDF reports comprised of elements of the analytical panel. In the InterSystems stack, this task is solved using the DSW Reports project that is an extension of DeepSeeWeb. In this article, we will explain how to use DSW Reports for generating PDF reports and emailing them.

The DeepSee Shell Best Practices Series - Get your MDX query performance stats from the DeepSee Shell

DeepSee Shell can show MDX query stats and result set stats.

IRIS BI

We offer you to embed business intelligence into your applications in order to give your users an opportunity to ask and answer sophisticated questions about their data. Typically, your application will include customizable dashboards that can provide insight into data from Business Intelligence models known as cubes.

In contrast with traditional BI systems that use static data warehouses, Business Intelligence keeps being constantly synchronized with the live transactional data.

When using Related Cubes in InterSystems IRIS BI, cubes must be built in the proper order. The One side must be built before the Many side. This is because during build time for the Many side, it looks up the record on the One side and creates a link. If the referenced record is not found on the One side, a Missing Relationship build error is generated. The One side is going to be the independent side of the relationship, AKA the side of the relationship that is referenced by the Many side or the Dependent cube. For example: Patients contain a reference to their Doctor.

By default, Analyzer executes queries as components are added. Often, there are times where you may know exactly what you are looking to do, and you do not want Analyzer to execute 5 queries as you drag and drop items onto rows/columns and select your filters. This is where toggling Auto-execute off can help.

The DeepSee Shell Best Practices Series - Example of using the MDX subquery flag in the DeepSee Shell

We have different flags for DeepSee advisors to look into the execution details and the methods DeepSee is using to do calculations.

flag [flagname] [on|off] – Turn a diagnostic on or off.

flag cmbr on|off – Show current member processing.

flag compound on|off – Show rewrite of compound queries.

In part 1 and part 2 of this series we set up two user types, simpleuser and poweruser. In this part of the tutorial we create one last user type having privileges typically needed by an administrator/developer in analytics.

When you have been using cubes for business intelligence in a namespace for some time, you may find that there are many cubes in the namespace, only some of which are actively being used. However, it can be difficult to tell which cubes users are or are not querying, and maintaining unused cubes can be costly both in terms of storage and of computation to keep them up to date. This article provides some suggestions and examples for monitoring which cubes are in active use, and for removing cubes that you determine are no longer necessary.

Hi, Community!

You know, that when we build hierarchies in DeepSee dimension all the members of lower level should be the part of one member of the higher level.

If not you'll get some empty results in MDX queries with this hierarchy.

With Time dimensions the obvious valid hierarchy is Year->Month->Day, cause every Month consists of one Year and every day consists of one month.

In part 1, part 2, and part 3 parts of this series we set up three user types. In part 4 we saw how to secure model elements and DeepSee items. In this last part of the tutorial we conclude with some remarks on DeepSee security and troubleshooting tips. In particular, we see how pivot tables in User Portal can be "hidden".

The DeepSee TroubleShooting Guide helps you track down and fix problems occurring in your DeepSee project. A common problem is finding less records than expected in a DeepSee Cube or a related Subject Area. The DeepSee TroubleShooting Guide suggests starting your investigation by checking the following:

Check cube for build restrictions

Check if maxFacts is used

Check if Build Errors are occurring