After connecting to a database, Interactive Reporting presents subsets of the database contents in the Query section through custom views called data models, which are visual representations of actual database tables. You use a data model to interact with a database to create queries which fetch data from the database.
Data models make the database more accessible by:
Standard data models derived from database tables enable you to create metatopics—virtual views independent of the actual database. Metatopics standardize complex calculations and simplify views of the underlying data with intuitive topics customized for business needs.
Users can create their own data models, or use prebuilt data models stored in the centralized Reporting and Analysis repository.
You can also provide a document that contains a master data model from which other users can build one or more queries. This master data model allows your users to concentrate on specific data, not how to set up the data access. Any data model can be promoted to a master data model.
You can offer users a raw look at the table schema, or hide the complexity by first creating one or more metatopics and then promoting the data model. Each time the user adds a new query, Interactive Reporting asks if the query should be linked to the master data model. Any linked queries inherit changes made to the master data model, but the data model is locked and cannot be modified. (Only the master data model can be changed.)