Automated determination of relevant slice in multidimensional data sources

• US 20070255681A1
• Filed: 04/27/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hulen, Corey, Lim, Chen-I, Tien, Ian
• Application Number:
  US11/412,499
• Publication Number:
  US 20070255681A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2477 Temporal data queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

Data from sources without a current time designator is consumed in scorecard applications by automatically detecting an appropriate time slice based on a last non-empty member in a given level of dimension. Lag values are assigned depending on a level of time dimension members and the last non-empty member. Once the current time value is determined, corresponding values are used for dimensions that are fully loaded with non-empty values. Negative lag values may be used to retrieve data for future members.

Claims

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for determining a current time member from a data source, comprising:

determining a last non-empty member in a temporally ordered first dimension of the data source;

assigning a lag value to the last non-empty member designating it as the current member; and

retrieving data from the first dimension for a scorecard operation using lag values associated with members relative to the current member.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first dimension is temporally ordered according to layered levels of a time dimension.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the lag value is assigned based on a selected level of the time dimension.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the lag value designating current member is assigned to a member preceding the last non-empty member, if the selected level of the time dimension includes at least one reporting level with associated empty members in the first dimension.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein an empty member is designated by one of an empty designator, a zero value, and a negative value.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating a member of a second dimension of the data source that includes only non-empty members as a current member of the second dimension based on the member'"'"'s association with the last non-empty member of the first dimension.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining a future member of the second dimension using a negative lag value.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first dimension is an actuals column and the second dimension is a targets column of a scorecard matrix.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the scorecard when the current time member changes based on an update of the data source.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for determining a relevant slice in a scorecard system, the instructions comprising:

determining a last non-empty data value in a temporally ordered first dimension of the data source associated with a first scorecard metric;

if the last non-empty data value is complete, assigning a zero lag value to the last non-empty data value designating it as the current data value;

else assigning a one lag value to the last non-empty data value designating a preceding data value as the current data value; and

designating a data value of a second dimension of the data source associated with the first scorecard metric that includes only non-empty data values as a current data value of the second dimension based on the second dimension'"'"'s association with the first dimension.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

updating at least one parameter of a subordinate report associated with the first scorecard metric based on the current data value.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

performing a scorecard operation using the first scorecard metric and a second scorecard metric, wherein the first and the second scorecard metrics are computed based on two different current data values.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

triggering an alert associated with the first scorecard metric based on the current data value.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

updating at least one parameter of a page filter associated with a scorecard that includes the first scorecard metric.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise:

rendering a scorecard cache invalid, if the current data value changes as a result of an update to the data source.

16. A system for determining current data values in a data source associated with a scorecard system, comprising:

a scorecard application configured to compute scorecard metrics and provide a scorecard presentation based on the computed scorecard metrics;

the data source configured to store data values associated with the scorecard metrics in a temporally ordered manner; and

a time intelligence module configured to;

determine a last non-empty data value in a first dimension of the data source;

assign a zero lag value to the last non-empty data value designating it as the current data value, if the last non-empty data value is complete;

else

assign a one lag value to the last non-empty data value designating a preceding data value as the current data value; and

provide the current data value to the scorecard application for a scorecard operation.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the time intelligence module is further configured to designate a data value of a second dimension of the data source that includes only non-empty data values as a current data value of the second dimension based on the second dimension'"'"'s association with the first dimension.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the scorecard operation includes at least one from a set of:

updating at least one parameter associated with a subordinate report, updating at least one page filter parameter, updating a computed scorecard metric, issuing a notification, updating a scorecard matrix.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the time intelligence module is further configured to determine current data values for at least to scorecard metrics with distinct granularities.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the data source is an On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) data source.