Forms & Reports in PerformancePoint - Part 1 of 4

In this 4 part series I will discuss the different methods of creating Forms & Report in Performance Point Planning.  This post will be an introduction to what Forms and Reports are and a summary of the different approaches that can be used to create them.

Technically Forms and Reports are the same type of objects.  Regardless of whether you are creating a Form or Report you must start the process by creating a Report.  If you want to use the Report as a form you simply publish it using the Excel Add-in menu (the form must meet certain criteria to function properly).  Forms allow you to use Reports for data entry by assigning it to an Assignment.  It is also important to note that a report is made up of one or more matrixes.  Each matrix can only be based on one PerformancePoint Model. There are three methods for creating a matrix and they are all accessed through the Excel Addin:

Authoring Pane

• The documentation refers to it as a "dynamic user interface"
• It is completely GUI based
• It has some simple wizards for initially setting up the matrix
• It has a design section for placing the dimensions in the row, column and filter sections of the report
• PerformancePoint Excel Add-in help file provides detailed instructions on how to use this (Search for: "About the Authoring pane")
• Note: Include the double quotes when searching the help file

Report Wizard

• Wizard based tool that allows you to create a report based on a template
• If you don't want to use an existing template you can start with the "blank" template
• Once a report has been created with the Report Wizard you cannot use any other method to modify the report
• You can also save the report as a template when you are finished
• PerformancePoint Excel Add-in help file provides detailed instructions on how to use this (Search for: "Creating a report using the Report Wizard")

Custom MDX

• It does not use a GUI
• This approach gives you the most flexibility
• Its the approach I use for my Report and Form development
• Once a report is uses custom MDX it cannot use the Authoring Pane
• It is for advanced users or for users that want to spend some time to learn MDX
• You will want to have access to a developer tool like SQL Server Management Studio to write and test the MDX Queries
• Minor modification may be required to the MDX before using it in a report (e.g. using the CurrentPeriod variable)
• Here are some books you can use to get up to speed on the topic: 
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Server
  • MDX Solutions

In Part 2 I will review how to create a matrix using the Authoring Pane and the Report Wizard (using the CTP4 release).  These approaches are fairly straightforward because they are "wizard" based.  Parts 3 and 4 of the series will focus on Custom MDX.

 

Troy

 

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