NiUG Discovery 2011 Advanced IQA Half-Day Session

NiUG Discovery

BaltimoreOctober 18-21

Advanced IQA

Wednesday, October 18, 2011Kye Hittle, Director of IT

Beta Theta Pi Foundation & Admin Office

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What is IQA?

• Intelligent Query Architect is a browser-based reporting tool built into iMIS

• Not a third-party tool (like Crystal or SQL Server Reporting Services)

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What does IQA do?

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IQA Finds

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IQA Produces Lists & Spreadsheets

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IQA Reports

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Why use IQA?

• Design a query once for multiple uses• More flexible search options

Multiple parameters in one query Parameters can be calculations Flexible results display

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Where does IQA live in iMIS?

• The nav bar in Customers, Events, and Orders modules includes a link to a module-specific IQA folder in the iMIS doc system

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• Queries and the Business Object Designer (BOD) are also available under the Tools tab

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…or iSA tab for older versions of i15

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• IQAs are also used in many iMIS components (e.g. public views, System Setup)

• Allows you to customize some interfaces

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When should we use IQA?

Displaying small result sets on-screen

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Results need to be live links to a Customer, Event registration, donation, etc.

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Reports with many parametersCrystal Reports IQA

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Extracting results into a spreadsheet

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When should we NOT use IQA?

Reports that require: • Formatting • Layout• Multiple levels of grouping • “Think spreadsheets”

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Report Designers• Typically iMIS

admins & “power users”

• Create New and Edit existing IQAs

Who uses IQA?

End-users• Typically staff and

public view users• Run IQAs built by

designers

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How End-users Run IQAs

1. Find and select IQA2. Click Run (or double-click)3. (optional) Supply filter values & click 4. (optional) Select record or extract results

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How Report Designers create IQAs

1. Gather & Analyze reporting requirements2. Determine/create data Sources (Business

Objects) and link3. Create Filters4. Select Display fields5. (optional) Set Sorting order, Security6. Test7. Save

• IQA Design Overview

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Gather reporting requirements

• Do we already have something similar? Where else will the organization need to use similar queries?

• Where is the data located in the iMIS interface? How is it linked?

• What filters are needed?• What columns do you need to display?

Any sorting?

• 1. Reporting Requirements

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Analyze reporting requirements

• Do Business Objects exist to access required data?

• Are subtotals, counts or averages needed?

• Are

• 1. Reporting Requirements

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Before we begin designing…

• Click New > Query to create from scratch• Click Edit to create from existing IQA

(recommended)• Set your IQA Edit view to Advanced to see all

options

• IQA Design Prep

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Basic vs. Advanced Mode

• Basic Mode Define sources + filters + what to display Run or Run as Report

• Advance Mode Using Queries in iMIS searches Aggregate criteria & display SQL Expressions in queries

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What’s a Business Object?

Business Objects are predefined or custom abstractions of iMIS database table(s) and/or

view(s)

• 2. Sources (Biz Objs) & Links

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What’s a Business Object?

Example The predefined CsContact Business Object represents a Customer record (uses Name,

Name_Fin tables)

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Choosing Business Objects

• There are hundreds of pre-built Business Objects and you will create many custom objects

• How do designers figure out which Business Objects to use?

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Choosing Business Objects

iMIS Standard Prefixes• Most built-in biz objects start with ‘Cs’• Biz Objects built for Custom Demographic

tables typically start with ‘CsDemo_’• Use Biz Obj Designer to see

tables/views/fields in each Biz Obj• …use a naming standard for custom

Business Objects (e.g. prefix with org acronym)

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How to select Business Objects

1. From the Sources tab of your IQA query, click Add Source

2. From the pop-up window, select Business Object

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Linking Business Objects

• Each Business Object must be linked to at least one other Business Object

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Linking Business Objects

• In order to link two Business Objects they must share a common field (often iMIS ID)

• The field names do not have to be identical but the data must match for a record to be included (using default link)

• This is the same concept as (inner) joining relational database tables

CsContact

• iMIS ID• Full

Name• Informal• Email• …

CsActivity

• ID• Activity

Type• UF 1• UF 2• …

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How to link Business Objects

1. Select one of the predefined links (defined by Biz Obj) OR select Custom

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2. (if Custom) Choose the field to link on for each Business Object

3. Important! Click button to save!

Deletes a link

Equals is the most common link type.

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All Sources have now been related!

You will have one less Link than total

number of Biz Objs.

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What’s a Filter?

Answer: Simply put, Filters are the selection criteria for your query.

Analogy: Excel filter function applied to a column displays only records that meet filter value(s)

• 3. Filters

Filters limit result sets.

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What’s a Filter?

Analogy: selecting Books from the amazon sidebar after searching for football updates results to display only books

• 3. Filters

Filters limit result sets.

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What’s a Filter?

• IQA Filters can have default values and/or be entered at IQA run-time

• Note! You may have already “filtered” results based on your Source links (e.g. if you link CsContact to CsDonations, people without gifts will be excluded*)

*unless Left Join link type is selected (discussed later)

• 3. Filters

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How to add a Filter

1. Choose <Biz Obj>.<Field> to filter from Property drop-down

2. Choose Filter Comparison

• 3. Filters

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3. (optional) Enable Multiple filter values

4. (optional) Enter default filter Value(s)

How to add a Filter

• 3. Filters

Multiple option only available on certain fields

and comparisons.

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How to add a Filter

5. (optional) Choose filter Prompt No = do not display filter prompt Optional = display, not required –

most flexible Required = display with asterisk

6. (optional) Rename the user prompt7. Important! Click button to save!

• 3. Filters

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How to edit or delete a Filter

Make changes and then click Refresh to save!

• 3. Filters

Click to delete a filter

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Determine what fields Display

1. Set drop-down to All

2. Check/uncheck <Business Object>.<Field> to include/exclude column from results

3. Click Refresh

• 4. Display

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4. (optional) Enter column Alias to provide a different column heading

5. (optional) Choose column Order from sequence drop-downs on right

6. Click Refresh

Determine what fields Display

• 4. Display

If no Alias is specified, this

is used.

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Determine Sorting order

(optional) 1. Select <Business Object>.<Field>

to sort on from Property drop-down2. Select Ascending or Descending7. Important! Click button to save!

• 5. Sorting, Security

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Set Security options

(optional)

• 5. Sorting, Security

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• 6. Test

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• If no results are returned make sure that your links and default filter values are correct

• Count records or choose spot-check candidates to verify the IQA returns results you expect

• Paste SQL from first tab into SQL Management Studio (may require editing)

• 6. Test

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Congrats! Don’t lose your work. Use Save or

Save As… to create a copy.

• 7. Save

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Saving: Folders & naming

• Decide whether to store all IQAs inCustomers or spread out among individual iMIS modules

• Create and enforce an organizational folder (e.g. departmental, functional) and IQA naming strategy to easily find IQAs

• Create a policy among designers to make copies when they are significantly modifying an IQA – leave original for current uses

• 7. Save

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• Well thought-out folders give more context to IQA titles

• Use the description field when creating/updating for historical notes (unfortunately only visible to designers, not end users)

• 7. Save

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IQA Examples

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Creating a Basic IQA Step-by-Step

• Query editor mode shown: “Basic” • Scenario:

Search for all members in New York state

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What if…

• We want to add criteria: “who’s attended a past event”

• Add a second business object

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Add more criteria

• Add ‘meeting’ as activity type• Add date criteria too

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Double Rows…why?

• Customer registered for more than one event• We need a way to return only unique records…

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Does Not Exist Relationship

• Still in Basic Mode Does not exist relationship Helps identify who hasn’t done something

• Scenario Which of my active members have never attended an

event?

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If we run this now

• We’ll see: Constituent records with no activities at all

• We need to add filters Which constituent Which activities

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Adds – which Active Constituents have no activities?

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Adds – with no event activities?

Other activities are included

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Advance Mode – Does More

• Alias field names• Linkable in module searches• Aggregate Queries

• Let’s take our basic query and add additional information

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More Complex Queries

• Scenario – Searching for high value constituents Spent within the past year Life time spending is over 10,000

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• Aggregate Criteria for filters Max effective date = most recent Sum amount = total spending

• More useful if: User can play with criteria Make it easier to understand what they can do

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User Prompts for Filters

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Define Message to User

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Change your column names by assigning an Alias

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SQL Expressions in IQA

• You can use SQL Expressions to calculate your data

• Scenario: How many years has someone been a member?

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Business Object Designer

• Allows you to create/modify Business Objects• Located under Tools or iSA tab

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Business Object Designer

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TIPS & TRICKS

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Creating live links

• Tips & Tricks

Keywords

key_contact

key_event

key_order

Customers

Events

Orders

iMIS ID

Order No

Full list: http://docs.imis.com/15.1/index.asp?

topic=/15.1/29699.htm

Use keywords on Display tab in Alias field to enable Select option

Note! Arrows will not display in Edit mode –

only at run-time.

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Use relative date criteria

• Tips & Tricks

Make selections based on current date rather than requiring user to enter a fixed date.

Click the Run button and IQA will enter the @date command, which means

current date.

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Multiple Filter values

• Tips & Tricks

To search for multiple values, enclose in quotes and separate with commas

(e.g. area code equals “314”,”512”)

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Avoid Excel Extract Security Warning

See this article for registry entry:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948615

• Tips & Tricks

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Alternative Link TypesBeyond the Equals Join

• Left Join will include all records from Biz Obj on left CsContacts Left Join CsDonations will include

all contacts, even those who didn’t donate

• Not Exist will return records not contained in the other Biz Obj CsContacts Not Exist CsEventActivity will

return customers who did not register for a previous meeting

• Tips & Tricks

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Formatting date/time fieldsAnnoyed by the time showing in your XLS?

Update field in Business Object DesignerProperties > Display

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Mapping Activity DB Fields

• Tips & Tricks

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Adding value lists to Filters

Update field in Business Object DesignerProperties > Values

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Adding value lists to Filters

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SQL Expressions in Display tab

Use for non-persistent values you don’t want to store in the database but

need for reporting(e.g. specialized member name format)

vBoCsContact.FirstName+' '+vBoCsContact.LastName+' '+'is the '+vBoCsContact.Title+'.'

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If you have an iQA that uses an email/URL field (e.g.

CsContact.Email) in a business object and would like it to appear as a link that users can click on when the query returns results, you

can do the following:

1. In your IQA query go to the Display tab.2. Mode: Advanced3. View: All

Turn Email and Website Fields in Queries into

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4. Scroll to the very bottom where you see the Custom SQL Expression

5. Enter the following into the SQL Expression field:

char(60) + 'a href="mailto:' + vBOCsContact.email + '"' + char(62) + vBoCsContact.Email + char(60) + '/a' + char(62) Note: leave out mailto:’ + for URL values

6. Give the SQL Expression an Alias, such as LinkedEmail

7. Click the symbol to add it to the list of display fields

Turn Email and Website Fields in Queries into Links

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SQL Expression in the list of displayed fields after being added

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Results of the IQA

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From the Tools Nav Bar, go to

Utilities > User defined tablesLook for Build All to the far rightThis will build Bus Objects for all

your custom tables

Create Business Objects for all User Defined Tables

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• Create your View in SQL and grant the iMIS Group SELECT permissions (grant select on sqlview to IMIS)

• Open BOD and create a new bus object• Go to Database tab and click ADD

Create Business Objects from Custom SQL Views

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IQAs can be Sources

Create very generic, frequently used IQAs and add as you would a Biz Obj.

Make sure to display at least one key field in the sub-IQA.

This is great for code

lookup tables. Many are

already built in. See the doc

system.

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Find the IQA being used by Public Views

Make IQAs Available on Public Views

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Notice how the search criteria on this Public View site are identical to the search criteria defined in the IQA query on the previous slide

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• Decide whether to store all IQAs inCustomers or spread out among individual iMIS modules

• Create and enforce an organizational folder (e.g. departmental, functional) and IQA naming strategy to easily find IQAs

• Create a policy among designers to make copies when they are significantly modifying an IQA – leave original for current uses

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• Well thought-out folders give more context to IQA titles

• Use the description field when creating/updating for historical notes (unfortunately only visible to designers, not end users)

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New IQA Features in 15.1

• Totals, counts, subtotals

• Output to PDF• Output to SQL Server Reporting Services

(formatting, grouping, global formats) without leaving iMIS

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Previous Versions of Biz Objs

• You can revert to previous versions of Business Objects, but the versioning system is not yet available for IQAs In the Business Object Designer select Biz Obj, click

Versions, select desired version and click Revert. You will need to Compile and Publish the object again

• Tips & Tricks

NiUG Discovery 2011 Advanced IQA Half-Day Session

easily find

individual

iqa naming

iqa leave

business objects

business object

biz obj

organizational

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