Data sources are prepared
by a data source administrator in a centrally managed location so
that you can easily define a report. Authorized users who have an
Administrative role can load tables into memory using the data preparation
interface. All data sources contain data items, which can refer to
calculations or columns in physical data (tables). Reports can include
query results from more than one data source.
Each data source includes
one or more data items. For example, a data source named
Order
Information might include standard data items
such as
Order ID,
Product
ID,
Unit Cost,
Order
Date, and
Order Amount.
You decide which data items to use. You can select all of the data
items in the data source or a subset of the data items.