Before you create a dashboard, you must
understand how to create indicator data. Understanding the data flow
in the SAS BI Dashboard is the key to building enterprise dashboards
that operate efficiently within your organization’s business
intelligence system.
Unlike the flow of data
in a report (which is usually relatively simple), the flow of data
in a dashboard can be very different. Consider the dashboard in your
car. Although you see a single representation of the state of the
car, the state is actually a collection of different types of data
received by the dashboard. The fuel gauge receives data from the fuel
tank, the speedometer receives data from the wheels, the battery gauge
receives data from the battery, and so on. Like your car’s
dashboard, a SAS BI Dashboard can have disparate data sources.
Whereas a report created
with SAS Web Report Studio might fill several screens with data from
a single information map, a dashboard might render data in a small
display that is the result of SQL and JDBC queries and information
maps. A dashboard can also render the output of stored processes that
produce static images.
By using information
maps and SQL queries to retrieve data, you are unconstrained with
how the data is laid out at the data set level. For example, you can
use computed columns and grouping in the indicator data. After you
have the data configured, the lack of constraints helps you to set
up initial dashboards quickly.