DataMart - Advanced

Presenter: Dave Bennett

Advanced use of Datamart Review - Datamart and its tools Review - Finding data Review -Connecting to Microsoft SQL Understanding relationships Building a multi-table report

Agenda

What is Datamart? • The interface between Providex, the database Jonas currently uses, and Microsoft SQL providing

access to the data through other software applications.

What Software Applications can be used?• Familiar applications such as Excel, Excel with PowerPivot, Access, Crystal Reports, and other ODBC

compliant applications.

What is Required?• 2008 Windows Server R2 Standard or higher, 2008 SQL Server R2 Standard or 2012 SQL Server

Business Intelligence or Enterprise edition, Windows 7 64bit with 4gigs of RAM, 2010 Microsoft Excel with 2010/2012 Microsoft PowerPivot (Free downloadable add-on)

• Datamart Interface service. This will need to run 100% of the time to insure the data between Providex and Microsoft SQL is in sync.

What data is available in Microsoft SQL?• Almost all the customer, vendor, employee, accounting, inventory, work order, job costing and

equipment management data.

What is DataMart?

Datamart comes with a “Data Dictionary” available through “Help” within Jonas, which typically includes the names and descriptions of various tables and fields (columns) in each database.

How do I find the data I am looking for?

Usually the names are pretty close to how they appear within a particular Jonas Screen. One of the exception to this will be spare or user defined fields among others.

How do I find the data I am looking for?

Ctrl+F will bring up a ‘Finder Box’ within Internet Explorer. Find the field ‘JobNumber’. Note: There are 90 tables with the field ‘JobNumber’.

How do I use the Data Dictionary?

Double click on the field name ‘JobNumber’ and it will show a list of tables where the filed ‘JobNumber’ exists. Note the table names are descriptive as well to give you an idea of what is in them.

How do I use the Data Dictionary?

Double click the table name, and review the other fields of data available with in this table. Note: Gold indicator mark next to the field indicates this is a ‘Key’ field. Most, but not all ‘Key’ fields will have this mark.

How do I use the Data Dictionary?

Open Excel -> PowerPivot -> From Database -> From SQL Server. Enter your connection information within the appropriate boxes. Test the connection.

Connecting to Microsoft SQL (Data Warehouse):

Select the desired method to import the data. Here we will use ‘List of tables’

Connecting to Microsoft SQL (Data Warehouse):

Select the table(s) you want to import data from. This is usually based on the findings from within the data dictionary.

Connecting to Microsoft SQL (Data Warehouse):

Import results based on the selected table(s). Note: The tab(s) on the bottom of the window contains the name of the table(s) selected.

Connecting to Microsoft SQL (Data Warehouse):

From the PowerPivot window, select the PivotTable type.

Make a PowerPivot report

Choose where to create the PivotTable. Note the coordinates and adjust as desired.

Make a PowerPivot report

Now you are ready to layout your report!!

Make a PowerPivot report

From the PowerPivot field list, select a field, drag and drop in the ‘Row Labels’ box. To change the order and grouping of the fields, from the ‘Row Labels’ box, select and drag the desired field to the new view/group position.

Make a PowerPivot report

From the PowerPivot field list, select a value field, drag and drop in the ‘Values’ box below. Right mouse click on the field within the ‘Values’ box, select ‘Measure Settings’ and change the aggregate type to counting, average, sum and others.

Make a PowerPivot report

To add ‘Slicers’ aka Interactive Filters, select the field from PowerPivot field list, drag and drop to Horizontal or Vertical Slicers box.

Make a PowerPivot report

Creating and Understanding table relationships:• A relationship between two tables will be defined by a primary key in the parent

table and a foreign key in the child table. Example: JobMaster table will contain one record with job information (Parent), and JobCostDetail will contain many records with job detail (Child), aka a one to many relationship.

Advanced -- Adding Additional Tables to a Report

A Primary Key (PK) belongs to the Parent table (e.g. JobMaster), and the Foreign Key belongs to the Child table (e.g. JobCostDetail). With respect to PowerPivot and its limitations of a one to many relationship, the Key must be unique in the Parent table. Additionally, only be one field can be a Key. Therefore the need to concatenate (combine) various keys to make one unique key in each the Parent and Child table.

Creating and Understanding Keys

Although PowerPivot uses table relationships, in our illustration, more work needs to be done to use data the within Parent table(s). Similar to the results of the vLookup function in Excel, we will use a DAX function called ‘Related’ to pull the data in our working Child table.

Working within the Child Table

PowerPivot DAX Functions (Data Analysis Expressions) may appear similar to Excel formulas, but the syntax and implementation is a bit different . http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/F/B/0FBFAA46-2BFD-478F-8E56-7BF3C672DF9D/Data%20Analysis%20Expressions%20-%20DAX%20-%20Reference.pdf

DAX Functions

Using the data from within our Child table to create a report.

Creating Report

Questions and Answers ……..

Time permitting …..

A look at the included templates provided with Datamart• Project Management / Job Costing • Service Bill / WorkOrders• General Ledger

A look at custom reports designed for clients