InetSoft Product How-To: Creating Report Metrics

Creating report metrics with InetSoft's reporting software allows users to make fast and well informed decisions. View the information below to learn more about the Style Intelligence solution.

A Metric is a numeric column in a data worksheet, which is designed using the Asset Composer. A metric can also have a detail report associated with it, to which the end user can drill down from the Report Portal.

Click the 'Apply' button after each step.

1. Select the Scorecard tab and click on the 'New' link below the score­card object tree. Select the 'Metric' option or select an existing metric for editing from the scorecard object tree, under the node 'Metrics'.
2. Type in a suitable name and description.
3. Select the Asset tab below the editing panel and choose an asset from the list of available options.
4. Select the Detail Report tab at the bottom of the editing panel and choose a detail report for this metric. A detail report could theoreti­cally be any report but is usually a report which displays the asset that the metric belongs to. An end user can drill-down into this metric to view the detail report. Additionally, when the trigger condition is not met, the detail report can be emailed to the specified personnel via the email action.
5. Select the Parameters tab at the bottom of the editing panel to spec­ify parameters for the drill down report (if necessary).
6. Select the Columns tab at the bottom of the editing panel. There are three fields:
1. 'Measure': This is the numeric column in the data asset which is to be measured (essentially, the metric).
2. 'Date Series': If the asset data is grouped by a date field, you can specify a date (time) series. This will be used when you want to perform trend detection.
3. 'Prorating Method': Prorating is the process of extrapolating (predicting) data for an incomplete time period. For example, say you require a 2% monthly increase in sales; if you check for this trend mid-month, between the last month's sales and the current month's sales, it could lead to an erroneous analysis, since the month is only half over and more sales will be made in the month. You therefore need to predict (prorate) data for an incomplete period. There are a number of prorating options; select the desired one from the list.
7. Select the Security tab to assign read permissions to users/groups/roles who wish to use this metric in their own targets.