HP Storage Essentials Storage Resource Management Report Optimizer Software 6.0 Building Reports Using the Web Intelligence Java Report Panel (August 2008)

Building Reports Using the Web Intelligence Java Report Panel 33
4
Building basic data providers
Overview
This chapter describes how you can build a basic report by creating and running a data
provider using objects in a universe. It explains the fundamentals of universes and
describes the objects that you use to construct a query.
It includes information on the following:
•
understanding data providers and universes
• building a simple data provider
• setting a scope of analysis, to include additional data for analysis
• viewing and editing the SQL generated for the data provider
• defining data provider properties, to return data more efficiently
• selecting a context, to direct a data provider to return specific data
• incompatible objects
Understanding data providers and universes
You access data in a database by running data providers using objects in a universe. This
section describes what a data provider is, how you use a universe to build and run data
providers to get the data you need, and how to create reports using the Web Intelligence
Java Report Panel.
What is a data provider?
A data provider contains one or more queries that return data from a database. A query
requests data from the database. If the data is available, then the requested data is
returned by default in the form of a table which contains rows and columns.
When you build a query, you are creating a request for information from a database. A
request can be very simple, for example; give me total sales in California for the first
quarter of last year, or more complicated, for example; give me an average age of
customers who bought sweaters during the spring television promotion in Paris.
Queries are sent to the databases in a language called SQL (Structured Query Language).
However, when you use Web Intelligence you do not have to know any SQL. The Web
Intelligence report panel presents the information available in the database as objects that
have names and meanings familiar to you. These objects are organized in a structure
called a universe.
You build data providers by combining objects in a universe. The universe translates the
objects presented in your business language to SQL, and then sends the request for