Important Terms
The following are some important terms, both general database terms and terms specific to Advanced Reporting, that appear throughout various articles. The terms are briefly defined in this section for your reference.
- Ad Hoc Editor: The interactive data explorer in Advanced Reporting. Starting from a predefined collection of fields, the Ad Hoc Editor lets you drag and drop fields, dimensions, and measures to explore data and create tables, charts, and crosstabs. These Ad Hoc Views can be saved as reports.
- Ad Hoc View: A view of data that is based on a Domain or Topic. An Ad Hoc View can be a table, chart, or crosstab. You can save an Ad Hoc View as a Report in order to edit it in the interactive viewer, or schedule it in the Report Scheduler.
- Custom Field: In the Ad Hoc Editor, a field that is created as a simple function of one or two available fields, including other custom fields. Generally custom fields are created using measures or date fields.
- Dashboard: A dashboard displays several reports, text, images, and web pages in a single, integrated view.
- Dashlet: An individual component of a dashboard. Dashlets can be added or removed from a dashboard.
- Database: Holds and organizes information in a structured manner. Reporting & Analytics allows you to create reports based on this data.
- Domain: A data source that presents the data in business terms, allows for localization, and provides data-level security. Custom domains allow you to choose certain tables and fields and combine them to create reports from them. Sometimes called a Dataset in relational database terminology.
Note: Domains, as referenced above and throughout this article, are not the same as Domains (e.g. campus domains) in SumTotal Learning Management.
- Domain Topic: A Topic that is created from a Domain by the Data Chooser. A Domain Topic is based on the data source and items in a Domain, but it allows for further filtering, user input, and selection of items.
- ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load): The process of uploading recent data and changes into the database. For Advanced Reporting uses, it is performed once every 24 hours meaning most data and reports do not reflect real time. If you were to enter new information, it would not be present until the ETL runs overnight.
- Field: Equivalent to a Column in the relational database model. Fields originate in the structure of the data source, but you may define custom fields in the Ad Hoc Editor. Any type of field, along with its display name and default formatting properties, is called an item and may be used in the Ad Hoc Editor.
- Filter: A constraint placed on a field to refine the data available in an Ad Hoc View or visible in a report. The filter’s conditions are determined by the field data type (text, number, date, datetime).
- Folder Panel: The panel to the left of the repository. Navigate to reports and domains via this panel.
- Group: In a report, a group is a set of data rows that have an identical value in a designated field.
- Input Control: A button, check box, drop-down list, text field, or calendar icon that allows you to enter a value when running a report that accepts input parameters.
- Measure: In a report, a field that is of a numerical data type and is used as either the crosstab’s data values or a chart’s dependent variable. Examples of Measures are Price, Duration, and Distinct Full Name Measure.
- Report: The formatted result of a database query that brings together related data for evaluation and analysis. In Reporting & Analytics a report can take the form of a table, chart, or crosstab.
- Repository: The main storage location for all the Advanced Reporting objects. This includes developed ad hocs, reports and other resources organized by domains, dashboards, reports, charts and tables in designated folders.
- Role: A designation for each user that accesses Advanced Reporting. Roles determine the default actions available to each user. Roles are also used to set permissions on folders and reporting objects. The available roles in Advanced Reporting are User, Author, and Administrator.
- Schedule: The automation of a report to be delivered based upon a specified frequency, with custom defined parameters. Note: Only reports can be scheduled (and not Ad hocs)
- Schema: The map that connects all the tables and data together in the database. It holds all field names and connects them in a structured manner.
- Table: A piece of a database that contains data specific to the fields included in the table.
- View: A virtual table that displays fields and columns.