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.