Nielsen c74.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:10pm Page 1572 Part X Business Intelligence To create a data-driven subscription, select the Subscriptions tab on the report you wish to deliver and click the New Data-driven Subscription button. This will guide you through the process of creating a data-driven subscription. Data-driven subscriptions can be delivered by e-mail or written to a file share. In either case, you can specify a data source containing the dynamic data for the report and write a query to return the appropriate data. Figure 74-5 shows the options available to specify the command or query that returns data for the data- driven subscription. Just like a report, this data can be accessed from a variety of data sources, including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and XML. The values returned in the command or query can be used to execute the report, as shown in Figure 74-6. FIGURE 74-5 Use the Data-Driven Subscription feature to tailor report subscriptions to users based on another data source. 1572 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c74.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:10pm Page 1573 Administering Reporting Services 74 FIGURE 74-6 To control report execution, provide static values or use values from the database. In addition to dynamically setting the delivery settings for the report, the query fields can also set val- ues for the report parameters. This powerful feature enables you to dynamically deliver the right report with the right content to the right user. Table 74-4 contains the delivery settings available for an e-mail subscription, and Table 74-5 contains the delivery settings available for a file share subscription. Subscriptions can generate a variety of output formats, as detailed in Table 74-6. This provides great flexibility to accommodate different usage of the output. For example, one user might prefer to receive the report as a PDF because all of the formatting of the report remains intact and the file may be eas- ily distributed, while another user might prefer to receive the report as a comma-delimited file (CSV) so the data can be imported into another system. Both CSV and Excel formats are a good choice if the user wants the data in Excel, although Excel will attempt to retain the formatting of the report within Excel, while the CSV will simply export the raw data used in the report. 1573 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c74.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:10pm Page 1574 Part X Business Intelligence TABLE 74-4 Available E-Mail Delivery Settings Field Name Description Sample Value TO List of e-mail addresses to which the report will be sent. Separate multiple addresses with semicolons. Required. myself@xyz.com; myboss@xyz.com CC List of e-mail addresses to which the report should be copied. Separate multiple addresses with semicolons. Optional. mycoworker@xyz.com BCC List of e-mail addresses to which the report should be blind copied. Separate multiple addresses with semicolons. Optional. mysecretinformer@xyz.com ReplyTo The e-mail address to which replies should be sent. Optional. reportReplies@xyz.com IncludeReport True or False value. Set to True to include the report in the e-mail message. Use RenderFormat to control the format. True RenderFormat The format of the report. See Table 74-6 for the list of valid values. Required when IncludeReport is True. PDF Priority Use High, Normal, or Low to set the priority of the e-mail message. High Subject The subject of the e-mail message Daily sales summary Comment Text to be included in the body of the e-mail message This is the daily sales summary. Please review. IncludeLink True or False value. Set to True to include a link in the e-mail body to the report on the report server. Note that this is a link to the actual report with the parameters used to execute the report for this subscription; it is not a link to a snapshot of the report. True Data-driven subscriptions allow the same scheduling or trigger options as normal subscriptions. Once you create a data-driven subscription, it will appear in the list of subscriptions on the My Subscriptions page. Use this page to view information about the subscription, including trigger type, last run date and time, and the subscription’s status. You can also edit the subscription from this page. 1574 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c74.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:10pm Page 1575 Administering Reporting Services 74 TABLE 74-5 Available File Share Delivery Settings Field Name Description Sample Value FILENAME The name of the file to be written to the shared folder MyReport_1 FILEEXTN True or False value. When this is True, the file extension will be appended to the filename based on the specified render format. True PATH The UNC path for the shared folder to which the file will be written \\computer\sharedFolder RENDER_FORMAT The format of the report. See Table 74-6 for the list of valid values. PDF USERNAME The username credential required to access the file share myDomain\bobUser PASSWORD The password credential required to access the file share Bobpasswd WRITEMODE Valid values include None, AutoIncrement,andOverWrite AutoIncrement TABLE 74-6 Available Report Formats Value Description MHTML Web archive WORD Microsoft Word HTML4.0 Web page for IE 5.0 or later (.htm) CSV CSV (comma delimited) EXCEL Microsoft Excel PDF Acrobat (PDF) file XML XML file with report data RPL Report Page Layout — Reporting Services internal binary format IMAGE TIFF file 1575 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c74.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:10pm Page 1576 Part X Business Intelligence Summary Reporting Services provides a robust set of facilities to enable administration of the report server. SQL Server Management Studio configures the basic server features and defines roles, while Report Manager configures the application of those roles to individual objects. Up-front planning of report server permissioning, including both the granularity with which permissions will be managed and the reports both shared and not shared between various users, can drive deployment strategies, especially the folder hierarchy. Deploying reports and related objects via BIDS, Report Manager, or custom applications provide many options to meet the needs of individual environments. Consider deploying documentation and related information directly to the report server as well — users welcome such supporting information and the report server is happy to provide ad-hoc access to nearly any file type. Linked reports provide a way to customize report execution in many ways, enabling a ‘‘develop once, deploy many times’’ strategy. They also can be used to simplify permission schemes. Standard subscriptions provide users with a way to be notified of reports containing the latest information or periodic updates. Data-driven subscriptions provide enterprise installations with a convenient way to manage centralized report generation and distribution. Given a reasonably well-thought-out configuration, these features combine to provide a platform that can be an effective tool for users, developers, and administrators alike. 1576 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c75.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:22pm Page 1577 Analyzing Data with Excel IN THIS CHAPTER Understanding the benefits of ad-hoc data analysis Building connections to both relational and multidimensional data Sorting, filtering, and reviewing relational data in Excel tables Discovering data relationships and trends using PivotTables and PivotCharts Taking analysis to the next level using data mining add-ins Using data mining to detect erroneous data based only on data set patterns Forecasting time series data based on historical trends R eporting Services provides a method to create reports that expose trends, exceptions, and other important aspects of data stored in SQL Server. Reports can be created with a level of interactivity, but even the most interactive reports limit how the end-user interacts with the data. Using Microsoft Excel to analyze data gives users much greater flexibility and interactivity. Because Excel is in common use and most staff already know how to use at least the basic features, i t also lowers the training hurdles that prospective users face. This enables a much larger audience to undertake data analysis, so they won’t have to make do with canned reports. The advantage of data analysis is the ability to discover trends and relationships that are not obvious, and to look at data in ways and combinations not normally performed. Ad-hoc analysis is also a good way to quickly prototype reports, enabling report development to happen once requirements are well understood. With the addition of data mining features to Excel 2007, options for including mining models in routine analysis can be explored as well. This chapter focuses on the features of Microsoft Excel 2007 that use SQL Server data or features — how to retrieve data from relational and multidimensional databases, common ways of analyzing such data, and how data mining features can help you understand the data. Organizational interest in data analysis tends to be focused among a small popu- lation, with the majority of staff satisfied with reports created by others. Interested staff tend to share the following characteristics: ■ They perceive the value of data to their professional success (or feel hindered by a lack of data). ■ They have mastered basic office automation skills (e.g., spreadsheet construction). ■ They have a basic understanding of the data being analyzed (e.g., know the difference between a product category and a product line). 1577 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c75.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:22pm Page 1578 Part X Business Intelligence Championing data analysis a mong staff likely to have these characteristics can haveapositiveimpactonthe organization, increasing the availability of data to staff while decreasing the number of reports needed. Data Connections A data connection describes how to connect to a server or other source of data, and optionally the query or table f rom which to retrieve data. This may seem like a mundane topic, but how a workbook’s con- nections are defined has important implications for validity, reuse, and sharing of analyses. The Data tab of Excel’s Ribbon provides several functions to create and manage connections: ■ Get External Data: Invokes wizards and dialogs to create a new connection. Once the connection has been defined for the workbook, a connection file containing a description of the connection is created to enable that connection to be reused. While connections can be defined to a variety of data sources, this chapter focuses on getting data from SQL Server. The primary ways to define these connections are located on the From Other Sources menu, and include From SQL Server, From Analysis Services, and From Microsoft Query. ■ Existing Connections: Lists all the connections that Excel can find, including those in the current workbook, any connection files found on the network (in a SharePoint Data Connection Library), or any connection files in the user’s local My Data Sources folder. Selecting a connection file makes that connection part of the workbook and invokes dialogs to import its data. While the Existing Connections dialog often contains all the connections of interest, connec- tion files located in other folders can be retrieved by pressing the Browse for More button. If the desired file is not found, it can be created by pressing the New Source button on the Browse dialog, which invokes the Data Connection Wizard, similar to choosing Get External Data, described above. ■ Connections: Choosing Connections from the Data tab of Excel’s Ribbon will display the connections currently in use by the workbook. The workbook’s copy of a connection can be viewed and modified via the properties dialog, removed from the workbook with the Remove button, or new connections can be added by clicking the Add button, which invokes the Exist- ing Connections dialog described above. In addition, the properties of all existing connections can be examined and modified. By default, a connection is cached by each workbook in which i t is used, and that cached copy is used to retrieve data until that data source becomes unavailable, at which point the corresponding data connection file is read to see if anything has changed. Alternately, setting the connection property ‘‘Always use connection file’’ (on the Definition tab) will reverse Excel’s search order (file first, cached connection last). This alternate setting would be useful when data sources could change without the old one being eliminated — then only the connection file would require update instead of every workbook that references a connection. Other important connection properties to consider include the following: ■ Save password: Found on the Definition tab, this determines whether a password is saved in the connection and thus visible to others, or not saved, whereby each user is prompted for the password. This issue can be avoided by using integrated security connections. 1578 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c75.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:22pm Page 1579 Analyzing Data with Excel 75 ■ Refresh options: Found on the Usage tab, this enables external data to be refreshed either when the workbook is opened and/or on a regular interval. ■ OLAP options: Found on the Usage tab, this determines which server formatting will appear for query results and how many rows will be displayed on drill-through operations. Managing Connections in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server I t is generally desirable to deploy task or subject-specific data connections, rather than train staff about servers, databases, tables, and so on; but deploying d ata connections in an organization can be c h allenging as well, especially when database locations or structural changes require updates to an unknown number of workbooks stored in an unknown number of locations. SharePoint offers a good solution for centrally storing and managing connection information via a Data Connection Library. Connections stored in such a library appear as ‘‘Connection files on the Network’’ for Excel users. Setting up the connection library takes a few steps: 1. Choose the site on which the connection library will be hosted, select Create from the Site Actions menu, and then choose Data Connection Library. Give it a name and click the Create button. Save the URL of the new library. 2. The new library must then be marked as trusted to work as expected. Run SharePoint Central Administration, choose the Application Management tab, and then select ‘‘Create or configure this farm’s shared services’’ link to display a list of shared service providers. Choose the provider that hosts the services of interest (e.g., SharedServices1) to view available operations. Select ‘‘Trusted data connection libraries’’ to view the list of trusted libraries and add the URL of the library created above. When copying URLs from the address bar of a browser, eliminate the /Forms/AllItems.aspx suffix. For example, http://home.mysite.com/Sitename/Libraryname/Forms/ AllItems.aspx becomes http://home.mysite.com/Sitename/Libraryname when specifying the library location. 3. Upload connection files to your new Data Connection Library either by using the library’s Upload function or by exporting connections from Excel. Find the Export Connection File button on the Connection Properties dialog in Excel. Sharing connections requires a bit of planning. Server names must make sense for the audience that is sharing the connection (e.g., referring to the ‘‘localhost’’ server implies a different server for each user of the connection). In addition, choose authentication methods that enable the intended audience to read the target data. Data Connection Libraries are a good approach to sharing connection information in an organization, and a requirement if Excel Services is used. 1579 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c75.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:22pm Page 1580 Part X Business Intelligence Data Connection Wizard Choosing to create a new connection to either SQL Server or Analysis Services will invoke the Data Con- nection Wizard to define the server, credentials, database, and optionally the table/cube to be queried. Specifying only a database results in a very generic connection that can be widely used by an audience that understands which database object they desire access to, but a generic connection to a relational database also prompts the Excel user to choose the appropriate database object every time the data is refreshed. Because the Data Connection Wizard does not offer the opportunity to enter a query, it is best suited to relational scenarios in which views have been built to present large, flattened data sets appropriate for performing analyses without requiring joins to other tables or views. For other scenarios, modify the connection to include a query: 1. Create a connection that defines the appropriate server and database using the wizard. 2. Construct the T-SQL required to return the data of interest in another environment, such as SQL Server Management Studio. 3. Launch the Connections dialog from the Data tab, locate the new connection and examine its properties. On the Definition tab of the dialog, change the command type to SQL, and then paste the T-SQL into the connection. When the wizard creates the connection, it automatically creates an .odc file containing the connection details in the user’s My Data Sources folder. This enables future references to the same data to be chosen from the Existing Connections list, a handy reuse that is improved by carefully naming connections. Anytime the properties of a connection are altered, such as described above, Excel warns that the cached and file copies of the connection will be different. They can be made identical again by using the Export Connection File function in the Connection Properties dialog. Several types of connection files are discussed in the following sections. The wizards described previ- ously will generate Office Data Connection (. odc) files, whereas the From Microsoft Query wizards will generate an Excel ODBC Query. Excel OLEDB Query (. rqy) and Excel OLAP Query (.oqy)filesprovide an alternative that enables the placement of queries in easily edited connection files without the baggage associated with ODBC. Microsoft Query Microsoft Query provides a graphical design environment for relational queries. While this is somewhat complex and relies on the deprecated ODBC technology, it can be effective for some users that have dif- ficulty with other methods of query construction. Create a new Microsoft Query connection by choosing From Microsoft Query on the Data tab’s From Other Sources menu. The wizard walks through choosing or defining a data source, and launches the Microsoft Query applet to define the q uery that will return data to Excel. Once the query has been defined, simply exit the applet to return the selected data to Excel for analysis. Note the ‘‘Use the Query Wizard to create/edit queries’’ check box at the bottom of the first wizard dialog. Checking this box will insert into the dialog additional steps that attempt to simplify the query definition process, but many users will find these additional steps confusing. 1580 www.getcoolebook.com Nielsen c75.tex V4 - 07/21/2009 4:22pm Page 1581 Analyzing Data with Excel 75 Unlike the Data Connection Wizard, the Microsoft Query process saves only a Data Source Name (.dsn) file, which omits the query definition. Fortunately, the full connection information, including the query, can besavedtoan. odc file b y using the Export Connection File function in the Connection Properties dialog. Connection file types Excel 2007 emphasizes the use of Office Data Connection (.odc) files, which are XML documents that define the connection details. These files are easily created using Excel’s wizards and tools as described above, but not easy to create or edit outside of Excel. The Excel OLE DB Query (. rqy) file is useful to define extensions outside of Excel. Consider the follow- ing example that defines a relational query against AdventureWorksDW: The connection files in this section contain long lines that may not be broken onto multiple lines. Unfortunately, they appear that way in print due to space limitations. In the samples below, make sure to continue indented text on the previous line. QueryType=OLEDB Version=1 Connection=Provider=SQLOLEDB;Server=(local);Database=AdventureWorksDW; Trusted_Connection=yes CommandText=SELECT LastName, Gender, EmailAddress FROM dbo.DimCustomer The connection string uses the standard format and the command text can be any valid query, although it must be listed on a single line. For queries against Analysis Services, the similar Excel OLAP Query (. oqy) file, shown next, provides a simple format to define a cube connection: QueryType=OLEDB Version=1 CommandType=Cube Connection=Provider=MSOLAP.3;Initial Catalog=Adventure Works DW; Data Source=(local);Location=(local) CommandText=Adventure Works Alternately, connections using MDX queries can be defined using the format shown here: QueryType=OLEDB Version=1 CommandType=MDX Connection=Provider=MSOLAP.3;Initial Catalog=Adventure Works DW; Data Source=(local);Location=(local) CommandText=select [Measures].[Internet Order Count] on 0, [Date].[Calendar Year].members on 1 from [Adventure Works] Basic Data Analysis Data can be retrieved using connections into three forms within Excel. A data table provides a simple list of data, with one row in Excel for each row returned from the relational query it is based on. PivotTables a nd PivotCharts provide an aggregate view of the underlying data set, providing a richer environment for analysis, and may use both relational and cube queries as source data. 1581 www.getcoolebook.com . 1576 Part X Business Intelligence Summary Reporting Services provides a robust set of facilities to enable administration of the report server. SQL Server Management Studio configures the basic server. getting data from SQL Server. The primary ways to define these connections are located on the From Other Sources menu, and include From SQL Server, From Analysis Services, and From Microsoft Query. ■. 1580 Part X Business Intelligence Data Connection Wizard Choosing to create a new connection to either SQL Server or Analysis Services will invoke the Data Con- nection Wizard to define the server,