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News & Events
Beyond 20/20 Inc adds new features to Perspective
Multilingualism for drill through added.
Data providers with more than one linguistic audience have taken advantage of the multilingual support feature of Perspective. Using the newest version, data providers can extend language support to the drill-through table view, and introduce language specific format control for currency and numeric fields.
Dimension searchers enhanced.
Dimension member search allows users to shorten the time it takes to find the entries of interest, especially when there are a large number of members. Using Perspective’s new pattern search (e.g. san% for all entries containing san), users can now find their choices even faster.
“Zero Suppression” supports multiple values.
“Zero Suppression” is convenient for eliminating rows and columns of a table for which no data is to be displayed. Using the newest version, users can now eliminate rows and columns for which no data or a range of uninteresting values are to be displayed.
New time series calculations added.
The Time Series Set feature allows users to request, among other things, the calculation of various growth rates. Using the newest version, users can now also request the calculation of an index (for those wishing to calculate a for example a price index) or level changes (for those wishing to display actual period over period changes in the value of a measure).
Fixed row/column headings for View Table added.
Studying large tables with a web browser is challenging when the row and column headings are not visible. Using the newest version, users can request that the relevant headings be kept in view while scrolling through the rows and/or columns of data.
Top/Bottom Reduction optionally reporting the excluded residual value added.
“Top/Bottom Reduction” allows users to eliminate all rows from a table except for the “Top 10” or “Bottom 20%” associated with the values of a particular column. As it is sometimes useful to know the total value of what was excluded, using the newest version users can now request that this value also be displayed.
Documenting a report added.
Using the newest version of Perspective, users can now display the dimension members selected or defined for a report or document a saved report by displaying it and printing the result.
Alternative labels for dimension members added.
Dimension member labels are often lengthy, ensuring there is no confusion about what is being described. Once familiar with the contents of the cube, however, users usually find the long names unnecessary. Using the new version, data providers can now include alternative labels (e.g. – short names, long names, codes, colloquialisms) for each language, and users can switch between them at will when defining a report.
User-defined ad-hoc groups added.
At times, users may wish to combine dimension members into completely arbitrary aggregates in a report, for example group counties that make up a large metropolitan area, or combine specific diseases that are being studied in the aggregate. Using the new version, users can define ad hoc groups as part of a report definition, and display measures for such groups as if they were dimension members.
User-defined custom bands added.
It is common to come across dimensions in cubes that are bands of ranges, for example sales prices with bands between 0 and 5,000,000 in increments of 500,000. At times however, users may prefer to define their own ranges as part of a report definition for such dimensions. Using the newest version, data providers can create numeric dimensions that can be organized into custom bands, and users can specify their own bands when defining a report.
User-influenced business rules added.
Business rules for calculating values (measures) for pre-defined dimension members are introduced and vetted at the time that cubes are created. For calculations done on-the-fly at display time (e.g. – ad hoc groups; calculated averages), associated business rules must be vetted at report definition time. Using the newest version, users can specify the type of business rule to be employed in performing such calculations.
Ranking in ascending or descending order.
When viewing a table, users can choose to rank the values of one or more columns, for example rank the unit sales volume and total revenue for selected sales persons. Using the newest version, users can now rank values in ascending or descending order making it possible for example to rank sales volumes in ascending order, and customer complaints in descending order for comparison purposes.
Scaling includes user specified decimal place selection.
Scaling allows users to report only significant digits or adjust measures in a way that they can be compared in a single chart (for example unit sales and sales revenue). Using the newest version, users can specify the number of decimal places to be displayed for each scaled measure, to ensure significant differences are not inadvertently masked.
Exception highlighting extended to calculated fields.
Users can specify that measures within various ranges in a table be highlighted when displayed, for example error rates of less than 1 percent in green, those between 1 and 5 percent in yellow, and those greater than 5 percent in red. Using the newest version, users can now request calculated measures such as percents, averages or totals also be highlighted.
Optional Menu bar can supplement or replace the icon based toolbar.
Some users prefer Menus to Icons as a way of manipulating an application. Using the newest version, data providers can optionally include a Menu bar that affords users access to all of the functionality available using the Icon Toolbar.
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