This example explains how to design and create a dashboard which will provide
a quick overview of revenue and expenditure position of a selected company, for
a selected year and a period. This dashboard consists of a number of charts to display
different aspects of revenues and expenditure. Some of these data visualization
are for the selected year and period while others provide a trend up to the selected
period within the selected year.
The created dashboard can then be published as a quick report in IFS Enterprise
Explorer so that the users can view the dashboard via IFS Navigator. The values
for parameters Company, Year and Period can be changed and
the dashboard can be viewed by users for their specific needs.
Open Business Reporting & Analysis/My Reports page
in IFS Enterprise Explorer and click Report Builder
to start the reporting tool.
Create a new, blank report using the New Report
or Dataset dialog box.
Create a data source and a dataset as described in
Data sources and Datasets section
and set up the GL_Balance_Dataset as mentioned there.
Enter Company as a dataset parameter with 900 as the default
value if it is not already entered when creating the dataset.
Enter Year and Period as report parameters. Set
Data Type of Year parameter to
Text and Data Type
of Period parameter to Integer. Enter
2006 as default value for Year parameter and 3 as default
value for Period parameter.
Resize the dashboard report area:
From Properties pane change
Size property of
Body to Width = 10in and
Height = 7.5in
Click Header in
Insert tab to add page header. Enter header text as Revenue/Expenditure
Dashboard with parameter values as shown below.
Figure 1: Dashboard header
Divide the design area by inserting rectangles depending on how the dashboard
should be displayed. In this exercise, four rectangles of equal size (Width,
= 4.75in and Height = 3.5in)
will be placed in the design area.
Enter chart title Revenue, Business Unit wise (font Verdana and font
size 12) in a text box and place it as the header in the top left rectangle.
Enter a column chart using chart wizard with following settings:
For Value - BALANCE
For Categories - Code_D (for Business
Unit)
Add Abs() function to Sum(BALANCE)expression to remove
minus sign from revenue balances.
Resize and place the chart in correct position of the rectangle.
Delete Chart title,
Legend and Axis titles.
In Chart Data pane, go to
Category Group Properties, change
Label to Code_D_Description.
Click on the columns and enter expression for
Tool Tip property (copy the expression from
Sum(BALANCE) and paste here).
Select the chart and enter filter criteria as shown below. Make sure to
enterCInt( ) operator to Accounting_Period expression in
order to convert period value to integer to be able to compare with integer
Period parameter values.
Figure 2: Filters entered in chart properties dialog
Select the chart and change Palette property
to BrightPastel.
Change the background color using BackgroundColor,
BackgroundGradientEndColor and
BackgroundGradientType properties.
The preview of the chart is as shown below:
Figure 3: Preview of column chart for Revenue Business
Unit wise analysis
Click Insert Chart and add a line chart
to the top right rectangle. Delete the chart title.
Enter Year to Period Trend of Expenditure (font Verdana and font
size 12) in a text box and place it as the header in the rectangle.
Enter the following settings in the Chart Data
pane:
BALANCE for Values field
Accounting_Period for Category Groups
field
Account_Group for Series Groups field
Do similar changes as charts above to set Tool
Tip, Palette, and
BackgroundColor properties.
Add following filters for the chart (see the screen below). Make sure to
include Accounting_period<= <Value
of Period parameter> and enter CInt() operator in expression
to convert Accounting_Period values to integer values in order to be
able to compare with Period parameter value.
Figure 5: Filters for line chart and Expression for Accounting_Period
field value
Preview a chart similar to the one below:
Figure 6: Preview of line chart for Year to Date trend
of expenditure.
Click Insert Chart and add a 3-D clustered
column chart to the bottom right rectangle. Delete the
chart title.
Enter Period Expenditure Comparison Across Years (font Verdana and
font size 12) in a text box and place it as the header in the rectangle.
Enter the following settings in the Chart Data
pane:
BALANCE for Values field
Accounting_Period for Category Groups
field
Account_Group for Series Groups field
Add filters similar to the earlier chart including the CInt()
operator for Accounting_Period but with following changes:
Accounting_Period = <value of Period parameter>
Accounting_Year <= <value of Year parameter>
Note: If you want to put a lower limit to the accounting
years that are displayed, do enter an additional filter condition similar to:
Accounting_Year >= 2005
Do similar changes as charts above to set Tool
Tip, Palette, and
BackgroundColor properties.
Preview a chart similar to the one below:
Figure 7: Preview of 3-D column chart for Period Expenditure
across years
The preview will be as shown below once the dashboard is created:
Figure 8: Preview of the complete dashboard (zoomed out)
Save it in Dashboards folder in report
server site.
Then login to IFS Enterprise Explorer as an administrator.
Open Solution Manager/Administration/Quick
Reports.
Define the dashboard as a quick report (as shown below). The Presentation
Object field will be automatically updated when the dashboard is published.
Make sure that the file name you enter is the same as the file name with which
the dashboard is saved in the report server.
Figure 9: Defining dashboard as a quick report
Click Publish in the
Quick Report window to allow other users to view
the report. (Note that the possibility for other users to view the report also
depends on the security settings for the presentation object.)
Open Business Reporting & Analysis/Dashboards to view the dashboard.
You will find the above dashboard listed under Dashboards
folder (or under DASHBOARD type in
Quick Reports window).
Click on the dashboard name to view the dashboard in IFS Enterprise Explorer
as shown below:
Figure 10: Viewing dashboard via IFS Enterprise Explorer (only part of the dashboard viewed in resized IFS EE)
