Active Reports Unleashes Data Analysis                                                   

By Rob Seppanen

WebFOCUS Active Reports (“AHTML”) is a powerful data analysis tool. It was first developed to fill the needs of users who wanted to still analyze data even though they were disconnected from their corporate intranet.

Imagine an account representative sitting in a lonely airport lobby during a two-hour layover. Without a connection to her company’s internal network, all she can do is get a Starbucks coffee and make some phone calls. What she really wants to do is analyze this month’s sales figures and plot a strategy for the coming month. This is the type of situation with which Active Reports makes a name for itself -- remote data analysis.

Unlike other tools, Active Reports is completely self-contained. All the report data and the functions to analyze the data are stored in one file that can be downloaded or e-mailed directly to a user’s laptop. Active Reports is run from within the laptop’s web browser, but it does not require an Internet connection. Active Reports is completely written in JavaScript, follows the latest industry standards. It frees the user from the corporate network and supplies the user with a powerful set of data analysis functions.

Active Reports users can customize their reports with full a range of charting, ranking, calculations, rollup and exporting functions. These are displayed on Active Report’s dynamic dropdown menu system. There are other features that may not be as readily obvious to a new user. They include hiding columns and freezing columns, and locking filters. These features make Active Report incredibly flexible.

Hiding Columns
When designing reports for end users, developers worry if they have remembered to include every user-required data element into the reports. Including every possible column that a user may need can make a report unwieldy and difficult to view online. Also, developers will sometimes spend countless hours trying to squeeze in every important bit of data by condensing the width of columns or dramatically reducing the font size.

Active Report has a simple user-controlled feature, which allows uses to hide columns when viewing reports. For example, large amounts of report-viewing real estate can be taken up by wide alphanumeric text fields. Once the user understands the layout of the report, she can temporarily hide the wide fields, thereby reducing the viewing width. The hidden columns can be brought back into the report with a simple mouse click. Developers may now include more data columns into the initial report with the confidence that the users will be able to navigate the report effectively.

Freezing Columns
Freezing is a similar feature to hiding columns in that the report can be reduced in width for more efficient viewing. Freezing inserts a dynamic horizontal scroll bar into the Active Report, with the starting position assigned by the user. The freeze point can be placed on any column and the columns to the right of the freeze point are now controlled by a scroll bar. Even the rightmost columns can be viewed side by side with the leftmost columns.

Locking Filters

Locking filters is a very versatile feature that gives comparative functions to Active Reports. Simply said, the user can apply filters and see the before and after views of data without having to re-run the report. Instead of having multiple executions of a report that drains system resources, Active Reports can lock different filtered views of the report.

For example, an initial report lists total income and percentages for all regions, and the user creates a chart to graphically show the percentages. The user then decides to filter the data to remove a certain region’s income from the calculations. Without locking filters, the user would have to re-run the report to have both charts on the screen at the same time. With locking filters, the user can easily compare both charts. The first chart is locked and won’t change with additional filters. The second chart dynamically recalculates and redisplays with the additional filter.

This feature saves system resources by allowing the user to restrict and analyze data without having to re-execute reports or having to remember what data was used in each separate report.

Conclusion
Active Reports has many user-controlled features that make analyzing data easy, efficient and flexible.