Student Data Warehouse Training (last updated: 12/15/2010) “Some day, on the corporate balance sheet, there will be an entry which reads "Information"; for in most cases, the information is more valuable than the hardware which processes it.” - Grace Murray Hopper

Training Schedule Part 1 - Lecture & demo Data Warehouse Background & Overview Query Tools & Architecture Terms and Definitions Student Data Overview Using Corporate Documents Building a Query and Report in BusinessObjects Part 2 - Hands-on in lab  work through 5 or 6 exercises in the lab

Background What is it?  Central warehouse for student, course, enrolment data  Does not replace existing systems  Unlimited report building capabilities How did we get here?  Student data warehouse completed in 1998  Started capturing data in Fall 1997  Entire/natural connection downloading

Data Warehouse Overview Data is organized for ad-hoc, reporting access not transaction processing Snapshots at various points in time Easy access with query tools Retention of additional historical data Students enrolled from Fall 1997 onward All of the WSU transcripts for them (even prior to 1997) Does not replace existing systems, but provides another way to access the data from them.

Flow of Data Online Phonebook ( addresses) OARS UNAF (addresses) SRTS STUDENT DATA WAREHOUSE END USER (YOU) WSU ORG

Sources of Student Data OARS - Student Records System Student academic, demographic data Traditional enrollments and DDP (EUS) Course/Section data Other supporting data SRTS - Transcript System Student Transcripts - gpas, credits Student Transcript Details - courses, grades

Other Sources of Data Online Phonebook student addresses ( forwarding) UNAF - Universal Name and Address File mailing, home, parents and workplace WSU ORG supervising org units and colleges for majors

Query Tool Options BusinessObjects Complete query and reporting tool InfoBurst Scheduler for pre-defined reports May only be used with BusinessObjects BusinessQuery Add-in for Microsoft Excel (being phased out) InfoView Allows pre-built reports to be refreshed via the Web, but cannot build new reports.

Technical Architecture

Terms and Definitions Universe a collection of information (e.g. a warehouse); A semantic layer between you and the database that adds descriptive information, security and enables “smart” queries. Class a set of related objects. Classes can have sub-classes to further group objects together. (icon is a folder)

Terms and Definitions Object - a data item or formula  dimension - a data object (icon is a blue cube)  measure - an object that is numeric and can be used in a calculation or is the result of a calculation (icon is a pink sphere)  detail - a qualification of another object, provides more detail on another object (icon is a green pyramid)  Pre-defined Condition - a special kind of object that helps to limit or filter the amount of data returned (icon is a yellow funnel)

Terms and Definitions Document a BusinessObjects file that acts as a container for reports (.rep extension) BusinessObjects documents are composed of 3 items: Data Provider - the query that retrieves data for reports. Report - the formatted results of the query Data - the raw data that was returned from the data provider (database) and displayed on the report

Student Data Overview Build sample query A brief walk- through of each class of data (folder) in BusinessObjects  Describe each class  Highlight key objects and pre-defined conditions (filters)  Things to watch for in each class

Using Corporate Documents Example of using pre-built BusinessObjects report  retrieve “Geographic Origin” from Corporate Documents (run for 10 th day) Talk about the rest of the Corp Documents

Building your own Report Select result objects - these are what columns of data will be returned from the database and displayed in your report. Build conditions - these put limitations on the number of records that are returned from the database. Use pre-defined or your own conditions as much as possible. If you don’t specify otherwise, you will get ALL (up to 250,000) the records. Be careful when combining data from multiple classes

Formatting the Report Set as Master creates a master/detail report Can also add breaks, totals, sorts, etc. How to “Slice and Dice” the data

Tips & Techniques  If using more than one “snapshot” class, be sure to specify the snapshot generation on EVERY class  Use Student \ Latest Transcript Summary for most queries rather than Student Transcript  ONLY use Supporting Data when a list of codes is required.

More Tips & Techniques Build the query to get the data you want first, then format the report. Start with a small set of data, then add to it. Look at each object to make sure you have put appropriate conditions on each class used.  Conditions are what limit the amount of data returned; use them as much as possible. Notice the UPPER CASE objects; they are the unique identifiers for each class. Watch out for duplicate rows aggregation in BusinessObjects.

How to learn more WSU Data Warehouse web page: Student Data Warehouse listproc Monthly user group meetings 2nd Tuesday of each month (1:30 - 3:30) Online guides and tutorials (installed with software): BusinessObjects “Getting Started” BusinessObjects “Quick Tour” BusinessObjects “User Guide” BusinessObjects Computer Based Training CD Can be purchased directly from InfoSol See Links section on data warehouse web page

Lab - Exercise 1 Run the “Geographic Origin” report in BusinessObjects retrieve from Corp Documents refresh (for 10 th day)

Lab - Exercise 2 Build a Student List report  select students for a particular college/dept  include name and major Modify to also include cumulative gpa (save for Exercise 5)

Lab - Exercise 3 Return student name, and address for a list of WSU numbers numbers in Excel Build 2 queries in BusinessObjects  1 st – against spreadsheet  2 nd – against warehouse using results of 1st

Lab - Exercise 4 Export the data from BusinessObjects and bring into Excel

Lab - Exercise 5 Reformat report Student List (created in Exercise 2)  add class standing code make a master-detail report with class standing code as master  create a total count and gpa for each class code  break on major within each class code  clean-up title, page breaks, etc.  insert Special Fields feature

Lab - Extra Exercise Build a query/report chosen by the class