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Lesson 8: Designing a complex folder

Lesson 8: Designing a complex folder

It will probably take you about 15 minutes to complete this lesson.

In this lesson you will create a complex folder and then create a condition within the complex folder.

A complex folder is a special type of folder that contains items from other folders. When you place an item from a simple folder into a complex folder, you are really making a reference to the original item.

You can simplify the data analysis tasks of an end user by gathering items from separate folders into one complex folder. This avoids the need for end users to select items from multiple folders and completely hides joins from end users.

Discoverer Administrator does not allow you to add an item to a complex folder if the item does not have a join associating it with the other items in the complex folder.

Note: If you place an item into a complex folder with the same name as another item, Discoverer Administrator adds a numeric suffix to the duplicate item. You cannot have two items with the same name in a folder.

For more information, click Help.

This lesson consists of the following exercises:

• "Exercise 1: Creating a complex folder"

• "Exercise 2: Creating a condition"

Exercise 1: Creating a complex folder

In this exercise you will create a complex folder that end users can use to analyze profit, product type, product category, and other relevant information associated with the video stores business area.

To create a complex folder:

1. Display the Workarea: Data tab and click the New Video Stores business area.

2. Choose Insert | Folder | New.

   This creates a new folder titled NewFolder in the New Video Stores business area.

Figure 9-1 Workarea: Data tab creating a complex folder

Text description of the illustration complx1.gif

Notice how the icon representing a complex folder differs from the icon representing a simple folder.

3. Rename the NewFolder as 'Store and Sales Details'.

4. Create another new folder (following the previous steps 1 and 2 ) and name the folder 'Video Analysis'.

Hint: To make it easier to copy items from one folder to another, open another Workarea window. This provides you with another view on the same Workarea. The next few steps show you how to do this.

5. Choose Window | New Window to display a new Workarea window, providing you with a second view of the same Workarea.

Figure 9-2 Displaying two Workarea windows

Text description of the illustration wkaw2.gif

Now you're ready to add some items to your complex folders.

6. In the left Workarea window, expand the + symbol next to the Store Information folder and select the following items:
   • Store Name

   • City

   • Region

   • Floor Plan Type

   • Store Size

   • Reports

   To select more than one item at once, hold down Ctrl while you click on the items.

7. Move the selected items to the Workarea window on the right and drop them into the Store and Sales Details complex folder.

   This copies the selected items into the complex folder.

   You will now repeat the process of copying items from other folders to populate the complex folder with all the items your end user needs.

8. Copy the Sales Details.Profit item to the Store and Sales Details complex folder.

9. Copy the following items from the Product Information folder into the Store and Sales Details folder:
   • Description

   • Full Description

   • Product Category

   • Department

10. Copy the following items from the Time Information folder into the Store and Sales Details folder.
    • Transaction Date

    • Year

    You are now ready to populate the Video Analysis folder.

11. Copy the following items from the Sales Details folder into the Video Analysis folder.
    • Sales

    • Unit Sales

    • Cost

    • Profit

12. Copy the following items from the Store Information folder into the Video Analysis folder.
    • Store Name

    • City

    • Region

    • Reports

13. Copy the following items from the Product Information folder into the Video Analysis folder.
    • Description

    • Full Description

    • Product Category

    • Department

14. Copy the following items from the Time Information folder into the Video Analysis folder.
    • Transaction Date

    • Year

    • Month

15. Close the second Workarea window and maximize the first window.

Note: The item classes providing lists of values are now shared between the two complex folders. The items you have copied into the complex folders inherit the properties of the original items. If you delete one of the original items from a folder all references to that item are also deleted.

In this exercise you created a complex folder that end users can use to analyze profit, product type, product category, and other relevant information associated with the video stores business area.

Exercise 2: Creating a condition

In this exercise you will create a condition in a complex folder.

A condition filters retrieved information. For example, you can create a condition for analyzing the chain of video stores that selects only the Video Sale or Video Rentals departments. The end user can make use of this condition in Discoverer Plus or Discoverer Viewer to review recent sales activity for each video store in those two departments to determine which stores are most profitable.

To create a condition:

1. Display the Workarea: Data tab and click the Video Analysis.Department item.

2. Choose Insert | Condition to display the New Condition dialog.

Figure 9-3 New Condition dialog

Text description of the illustration ncon1un.gif

Note: The Item field already displays Video Analysis.Department.

3. Choose the IN operator from the Condition field.

   This restricts the data to one of a number of values (e.g. Video Sales or Video Rentals).

4. Choose Select Multiple Values from the Value(s) drop down list to display the Values dialog.

Figure 9-4 Values dialog

Text description of the illustration condv.gif

The Values dialog enables you select one or more values to be used in the Value(s) field.

5. Select the Video Rental and Video Sale check boxes from the Select values: list.

6. Click OK to include the selected values in the Value(s) field.

7. Clear the Generate a name automatically check box to enable you to specify your own name for the condition.

8. Type Department is Video Rental or Video Sale into the Name field.

   The New Condition dialog should appear as follows:

Figure 9-5 New Condition dialog (completed)

Text description of the illustration ncon2.gif

9. Click OK.

You have now created a condition in the Video Analysis folder that can filter data on the basis of whether a department is Video Rentals or Video Sales. This condition can be applied to a Workbook in Discoverer Plus.

What the Discoverer Plus user sees - conditions displayed in Discoverer Plus

The Discoverer Plus user sees a condition represented by a filter icon. The following figure shows how Discoverer Plus displays the condition 'Department is Video Rental or Video Sale'.

Figure 9-6 How Discoverer Plus displays a condition applied to a worksheet

Text description of the illustration uscond.gif

In this exercise you created a condition in a complex folder.

Lesson summary

In this lesson you created a complex folder and then create a condition within the complex folder.

In this lesson you completed the following exercises:

• creating a complex folder

• creating a condition

In the next lesson you will create hierarchies that help end users navigate through data.