Transcript Freeze Panes” in WebFOCUS Reports – Using CSS!

Choose Your Own Adventure!
Dynamic Grouping and Recursive Drill-downs
Travis Hettenbach
Koch Mineral Services, LLC
June 4, 2008
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 1
Anyone used to read the CYOA Books?
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure
“After an introduction to the story, the reader is asked to
determine the protagonist's next course of action. For
instance, the first decision offered in The Cave of Time is:
 If you decide to start back home, turn to page 4.
 If you decide to wait, turn to page 5.
After the reader makes a choice, the plot branches out and
unfolds, leading to more decisions and eventually multiple
possible endings.”
 So, now it’s time for you to choose! Would you like to hear the
rest of this presentation?
 If you decide to hear the presentation, clap to continue.
 If you decide you don’t want to hear the presentation, boo
now.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 2
Choose Your Own Adventure?
 Users desire a way to group their reports on-the-fly.
 Give them various ways to group the same data
 Powerful analytics
 Make it easy to use
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 3
How would a basic grouping example look?
 Demo
 car_group_1.fex, car_group_2.fex, car_group_3.fex
 Benefits
 Simple to code & easy to understand
 Straightforward usability
 Disadvantages
 Strict & hard-coded drill-path
 Multiple fexes to maintain
 Lack of flexibility may lead to frequent code-changes
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 4
So how can we alleviate the disadvantages?
 Problem: Strict & hard-coded drill-path
 Solution: Dynamic drill-path (of course)
 Problem: Multiple fexes to maintain
 Solution: A single fex (obviously)
BUT HOW?!
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 5
Dynamic BYs, WHEREs
 Make a dynamic drill path using amper variables
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 6
Recursive drill-downs
 Maintain only one fex by using recursive drill-downs and give
the user their drill “options” using DRILLMENUITEM
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 7
Demo
 recursiv.fex
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 8
Pros/Cons
 Advantages
 Single fex to maintain
 Very dynamic drill-path
 Powerful Analytics
 Intuitive to use
 Disadvantages
 Limits on multi-drill
 Complex coding
 Difficult to maintain
 Potentially more coding
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 9
Some other enhancements…
 Give the user a way to select their grouping levels
 DropDown Listbox Demo
 Dual Listbox Demo
 Real-world Demo
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 10
Questions?
 Feel free to email me. Example files available upon request
(or see attachments at the end of this presentation).
 Travis Hettenbach
 Koch Mineral Services, LLC
 Development Manager
 [email protected]
 Focal Point – Trav
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 11
Attachments
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 12