How to build Dashboard using Excel data with InfoCaptor Dashboard Designer

This paper will illustrate how to build Dashboard (reports, charts) from Excel Spreadsheet. The data file is also provided so you can follow the steps.

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How to build Dashboard (reports, charts) from Excel Spreadsheet.........................................................................3 This is the sample Excel Spreadsheet test_data.xls............................................................................................. 3 Launch InfoCaptor............................................................................................................................................... 4 Connect to the Excel file......................................................................................................................................5 Create your first Dashboard................................................................................................................................. 6 Add content to your new Dashboard................................................................................................................... 7 Syntax for Querying Excel Worksheets...........................................................................................................7 Your first Portlet (Qlet ).......................................................................................................................................7 Portlet Customizations......................................................................................................................................... 9 Create Summary Portlets................................................................................................................................... 10 By Region...................................................................................................................................................... 10 By Product Category......................................................................................................................................10 By Channel.....................................................................................................................................................11 Create Pie Chart (Glet).......................................................................................................................................12 Add Parameters..................................................................................................................................................18 Year Parameter...............................................................................................................................................18 Link the Parameters to Portlet............................................................................................................................22 By Region...................................................................................................................................................... 25 By Channel.....................................................................................................................................................25 By Product Category......................................................................................................................................25 Top Countries.................................................................................................................................................25 By Period....................................................................................................................................................... 25 Dynamic Refresh of Dashboard when changing Parameter.............................................................................. 26 The Dashboard So Far....................................................................................................................................... 29 Create Drills Drill from one portlet to another............................................................................................... 29 Important Information............................................................................................................................................34 Column Names...................................................................................................................................................34 Connection problems? ...................................................................................................................................... 34

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How to build Dashboard (reports, charts) from Excel Spreadsheet

For practice, you can download this excel spreadsheet and use the same SQL code in this document. All of the SQL code that is highlighted in Yellow can be selected and copied using the Acrobat select option Did you download InfoCaptor Dashboard Designer? If not, then it is a good idea to have it installed so you can follow the steps easily.

This is the sample Excel Spreadsheet test_data.xls

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Launch InfoCaptor

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Connect to the Excel file

If the path of the Excel file is c:\files\data.xls then use \\ , result c:\\files\\data.xls In this case the file to be used is d:\\test_data.xls. Select Excel File sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver from the Driver list.

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Create your first Dashboard

Click on the New Dashboard button (yellow highlight) Enter the desired dashboard name (green highlight) Click OK (blue highlight) It creates an empty dashboard as shown below

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Add content to your new Dashboard

Syntax for Querying Excel Worksheets
Each worksheet in Excel file is treated like a SQL table The worksheet is referenced as [worksheet name$] You can perform normal SQL selects on this table

Your first Portlet (Qlet )

Lets create the first portlet We will show the complete file in the portlet using below query Select * from [detail_data$] {detail data is one of the worksheet in the test_data.xls file}

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Click on the New Qlet button or select Create Query Portlet from Menu bar In the property window as shown above, enter the Qlet Name Select the Connection Enter you query in the text editor Click on the Apply button

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Portlet Customizations
Once your portlet is visible, you can change the cosmetic features such as colors and fonts, increase/decrease column widths, change the location of the portlet and resize the portlet.

We just changed the column colors.

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Create Summary Portlets

Using the same data, we can create any slice of data by grouping the numbers by any column. Click on the new Qlet button and type the following query

By Region
select country_region, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] group by country_region order by 3 desc

order by 3 desc tells to sort by the third column in descending order. You can also mention the sort this way order by sum(amount_sold) desc or order by sum(amount_sold) asc for ascending We will add few more portlets as shown below.

By Product Category
select prod_category, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] group by prod_category order by sum(amount_sold) desc

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By Channel
select channel_class, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] group by channel_class order by sum(amount_sold) desc

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By Now the dashboard should be getting crowded

But what is a dashboard without charts? Lets add some colors to it with charts.

Create Pie Chart (Glet)

We will convert each of the above queries into Pie chart. For a pie chart we just need two columns, the first column becomes the base on which the pie sections are named after and the second column is the numeric column that decides the pie size for each section. Since we have three columns in all of the above queries, we will pick the first and the second column. Click on the New Chart button Enter the name of the Glet Select the Chart Type (2d Pie or 3d Pie) Enter the following query

select country_region, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] group by country_region order by 3 desc Click Apply

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We dont need the order by clause for a pie chart. You can select pie , Pie 3d or Ring from the drop down. Here is the 3D pie version

Here is the Ring version

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Similarly lets create other pie charts By Product Category Pie chart select prod_category, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] group by prod_category

By Channel Class select channel_class, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] group by channel_class

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Your dashboard should look something like this

As you see the portlets are randomly placed and sized. We will take care of the placement and sizing later. Lets add few more stuff to the dashboard. Now we add a Bar chart Top Countries select country_name, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] group by country_name order by sum(quantity_sold) desc

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We select the Chart Type = Bar, enter the query and hit Full Apply The bar chart is displayed but there are few ugly things. The labels on the X-Axis are overlapping, we need proper names for the X and Y axes and what if we just need to see the Top 5 Countries?

As you see, we changed the Max Rows=5 which limits the bar chart to top 5 countries. We changed the X Axis label = Country, Y Axis label = Quantity Sold and finally we set the x Axis label angle to 30 degrees Lets add another bar chart by Month By Period select calendar_month_name, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] group by calendar_month_name

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Now we align and re-size the portlets Click on Menu Edit Show Grid. Drag the borders of each portlet and resize them as you see fit

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Now that our dashboard is almost ready, we will add some parameters and make it more user friendly.

Add Parameters
Year Parameter
Click on the new parameter button or from the menu select Create Parameter

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Enter Year as the parameter name In the Display Column type distinct fiscal_year In the text editor type the worksheet name FROM [detail_data$] Click on Fully Apply

The above is the result list of values The list of value is showing a decimal value, this is because of the Excel formatting.

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Change the query to add a condition as below. We will use the TRIM function (if you list of values shows a null value then also add a where condition to remove null value e.g where fiscal_year <> null )

Similarly lets add the region parameter Region Parameter

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For this parameter we have enabled the All Values. We also added country_region in the (ID1) Internal Column1 property. This is needed in order for All Values to work. Now we need to wire all the portlets to the above two parameters.

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Link the Parameters to Portlet

Right now the parameters and the portlets are independent. In order to link the tables and charts to the parameter we need to modify the SQL queries for each portlet (table and chart). Select the By Region and Edit it. The current query is
select country_region, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] group by country_region order by 3 desc

Just after [detail_data$], hit Enter or return key to create a new line below Type and fiscal_year = , then right click just after the = sign A list of all Parameters is made visible.

Select the Year (p33) parameter, a sub-menu will popup Select p33: Get Display >/*distinct TRIM(fiscal_year)*/ p33 is the internal Identifier for the Year parameter Once you select p33: Get Display >/*distinct TRIM(fiscal_year)*/, the query should be as shown below
select country_region, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = 'G_PARAM<p33:Display>' /*distincttrim(fiscal_year)*/ group by country_region order by 3 desc

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Since Year is a numeric value, we will remove the quotes around G_PARAM<p33:Display> and remove the string /*distinct TRIM(fiscal_year)*/. So the final query looks as shown below
select country_region, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display> group by country_region order by 3 desc

The code G_PARAM<p33:Display> is an instruction to pick the current value of the Year parameter identified by id = p33 and get the Display Value When you click on Full Apply, the SQL query is dynamically reconstructed at run time to use the parameter value. If you go to menu Run Display Log, click on Log Enabled button, refresh the chart and go back to the Display Log, you will see the modified query as it is submitted.

Similarly we add the condition for the Region parameter

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For the Region we include a LIKE operator. Since we have enabled All Values in the region parameter, the All Values internally passes a % character in the ID1 field, i.e if you select All Values in the region parameter then the G_PARAM<p34:ID1> will contain a value of %, in all other cases it will contain the actual country region. Here is the log display with All Values

We will apply the above conditions to all the portlets. The resultant queries are as below

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By Region
select country_region, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display> and country_region like 'G_PARAM<p34:ID1>' group by country_region order by 3 desc

By Channel
select channel_class, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display> and country_region like 'G_PARAM<p34:ID1>' group by channel_class

By Product Category
select prod_category, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display> and country_region like 'G_PARAM<p34:ID1>' group by prod_category order by sum(amount_sold) desc

Top Countries
select country_name, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display> and country_region like 'G_PARAM<p34:ID1>' group by country_name order by sum(quantity_sold) desc

By Period
select calendar_month_name, sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display> and country_region like 'G_PARAM<p34:ID1>' group by calendar_month_name

When you change any of the parameters, you need to click on the Refresh Dashboard action refreshes the full dashboard.

button. This

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Having to click on the Refresh button everytime you change the parameter is little tedious. So is there a way where the dashboard refreshes automatically whenever there is a change in parameter? Absolutely! Infact, you can control which portlet gets refreshed for any particular parameter change.

Dynamic Refresh of Dashboard when changing Parameter

First take a note of the internal identifiers for each of the Graph portlet and Query portlets. When you click on any portlet, the internal ID is displayed at the bottom in the status bar

The internal ID for By Region portlet is = q32. Now we will add a trigger in the Year parameter to refresh By Region whenever the user changes or selects a year value

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As shown above, edit the Year parameter (right click on Year title, select Edit) Set Run Dynamic Java Script = Y Click on the Dynamic Java Script Editor Type the following command //<REFRESH_LIST>q32</REFRESH_LIST> You can refresh more than one portlet by adding the portlet id separated by comma e.g. //<REFRESH_LIST>q32,q34,g35</REFRESH_LIST> Now if you need to refresh all the portlets then there is an easy shortcut Just type //<REFRESH_LIST>ALL</REFRESH_LIST> NOTE: ALL is in Caps Similarly, add the trigger command to the Region parameter

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The Dashboard So Far

Create Drills Drill from one portlet to another

We will create a drill from the By Region portlet to a detail level by By Region and Country. So this detail level will tell us How is the Sales distributed among different countries for each Region We need to create a new Qlet with the following SQL query
select country_region, country_name,sum(quantity_sold) as qty_sold, sum(amount_sold) as amt_sold from [detail_data$] where fiscal_year = G_PARAM<p33:Display>

and country_region = 'param<Region Name,Asia>'

group by country_region,country_name order by 3 desc

In the above code, we introduced a new element which is called as Portlet Filters. Each portlet filter is defined using the following syntax [param<Filter name, default filter value>]. The quotes at the beginning and end of the filter definition are needed if the column (in this case pldesc) is character. If the filter is against a numeric column then you dont need the quotes.

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Once you click Apply, it prompts you to enter the Filter value

We can type any value in the Region Name or just accept the default Asia value. Click on Apply. The portlet is refreshed and the results are as shown below.

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Now focus on the By Region Qlet Right click on the first column i.e. on any cell in the Country Region column

Switch to the Drill Settings Tab as shown here Click on the Add button. Enter Drill Name, Select Drill Into as By Region and Country

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Once you select the Drill Into value as By Region and Country, the Parameter region will show the available parameters. Click on the values region and a drop down will appear. This is the list of available columns from the By Region Qlet which is the parent Qlet. Select the Country_region value Click on Done and Close Click on Close on the Drill Settings tab Refresh the By Regions Qlet and you will see the Drill indicator on the Country Region column

Right click on any cell on the PL column

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Select Get Details by Country The child Qlet is refreshed and the drill value is displayed

This completes the Drill definition and testing.

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Important Information
Column Names
The first row of the Excel file is assumed to be the Column names. Its good idea to not have spaces in your column names. For e.g If possible convert a column name like Account Balance to Account_Balance. This way you can directly refer the column name in your SQL query. Alternatively, If you have blank spaces in between words in your Column name then put them in double quotes Account Balance , For e.g. Select sum(Account Balance) from [sheet1$]

Connection problems?
If your excel file C:\\test_data.xls is open in Excel, you cannot connect using InfoCaptor. Similarly if your Excel file is connected through InfoCaptor then you may not open it in Excel, you may lose your connection.

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