NiUG 2012 Discovery Orlando: Beginning IQA

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Beginning IQA

Kye Hittle, Director of ITBeta Theta Pi Foundation

Monday, April 16, 2012

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What is IQA?

• Intelligent Query Architect is a browser-based reporting tool built into iMIS

• Not a third-party tool like Crystal Reports, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

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What does IQA do?

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IQA Finds

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IQA Produces Lists & Spreadsheets

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IQA Reports

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Why use IQA?

• Design a query once for multiple uses• More flexible search options

Multiple parameters in one query Parameters can be calculations Flexible results display

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Where does IQA live in iMIS?

• The nav bar in Customers, Events, and Orders modules includes a link to a module-specific IQA folder in the iMIS doc system

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• Queries and the Business Object Designer (BOD) are also available under the Tools tab

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…or iSA tab for older versions of i15

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• IQAs are also used in many iMIS components (e.g. public views, System Setup)

• Allows you to customize some interfaces

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When should we use IQA?

Displaying small result sets on-screen

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Results need to be live links to a Customer, Event registration, donation, etc.

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Reports with many parametersCrystal Reports IQA

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Extracting results into a spreadsheet

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When should we NOT use IQA?

Reports that require: • Formatting • Layout• Multiple levels of grouping • “Think spreadsheets”

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Report Designers• Typically iMIS

admins & “power users”

• Create New and Edit existing IQAs

Who uses IQA?

End-users• Typically staff and

public view users• Run IQAs built by

designers

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How End-users Run IQAs

1. Find and select IQA2. Click Run (or double-click)3. (optional) Supply filter values & click 4. (optional) Select record or extract results

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How Report Designers create IQAs

1. Gather & Analyze reporting requirements2. Determine/create data Sources (Business

Objects) and link3. Create Filters4. Select Display fields5. (optional) Set Sorting order, Security6. Test7. Save

• IQA Design Overview

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Gather reporting requirements

• Do we already have something similar? Where else will the organization need to use similar queries?

• Where is the data located in the iMIS interface? How is it linked?

• What filters are needed?• What columns do you need to display?

Any sorting?

• 1. Reporting Requirements

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Analyze reporting requirements

• Do Business Objects exist to access required data?

• Are subtotals, counts or averages needed?

• Are

• 1. Reporting Requirements

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Before we begin designing…

• Click New > Query to create from scratch• Click Edit to create from existing IQA

(recommended)• Set your IQA Edit view to Advanced to see all

options

• IQA Design Prep

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Basic vs. Advanced Mode

• Basic Mode Define sources + filters + what to display Run or Run as Report

• Advance Mode Using Queries in iMIS searches Aggregate criteria & display SQL Expressions in queries

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What’s a Business Object?

Business Objects are predefined or custom abstractions of iMIS database table(s) and/or

view(s)

• 2. Sources (Biz Objs) & Links

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Business Objects are an abstraction layer

Business Objects can enable field aliases, data formatting, code lookups,

data from multiple tables/views & more


IQA

Business ObjectBusines

s ObjectBusiness Object

Table or

View

iMISDatabase

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What’s a Business Object?

Example The predefined CsContact Business Object represents a Customer record (uses Name,

Name_Fin tables)


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Choosing Business Objects

• There are hundreds of pre-built Business Objects and you will create many custom objects

• How do designers figure out which Business Objects to use?


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Choosing Business Objects

iMIS Standard Prefixes• Most built-in biz objects start with ‘Cs’• Biz Objects built for Custom Demographic

tables typically start with ‘CsDemo_’• Use Biz Obj Designer to see

tables/views/fields in each Biz Obj• …use a naming standard for custom

Business Objects (e.g. prefix with org acronym)


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How to select Business Objects

1. From the Sources tab of your IQA query, click Add Source

2. From the pop-up window, select Business Object

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Linking Business Objects

• Each Business Object must be linked to at least one other Business Object


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Linking Business Objects

• In order to link two Business Objects they must share a common field (often iMIS ID)

• The field names do not have to be identical but the data must match for a record to be included (using default link)

• This is the same concept as (inner) joining relational database tables

CsContact

•iMIS ID•Full Name•Informal•Email•…

CsActivity•ID•Activity Type•UF 1•UF 2•…


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How to link Business Objects

1. Select one of the predefined links (defined by Biz Obj) OR select Custom


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2. (if Custom) Choose the field to link on for each Business Object

3. Important! Click button to save!


Deletes a link

Equals is the most common link type.

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All Sources have now been related!


You will have one less Link than total

number of Biz Objs.

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What’s a Filter?

Answer: Simply put, Filters are the selection criteria for your query.

Analogy: Excel filter function applied to a column displays only records that meet filter value(s)

• 3. Filters

Filters limit result sets.

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What’s a Filter?

Analogy: selecting Books from the amazon sidebar after searching for football updates results to display only books

• 3. Filters

Filters limit result sets.

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What’s a Filter?

• IQA Filters can have default values and/or be entered at IQA run-time

• Note! You may have already “filtered” results based on your Source links (e.g. if you link CsContact to CsDonations, people without gifts will be excluded*)

*unless Left Join link type is selected (discussed later)

• 3. Filters

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How to add a Filter

1. Choose <Biz Obj>.<Field> to filter from Property drop-down

2. Choose Filter Comparison

• 3. Filters

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3. (optional) Enable Multiple filter values

4. (optional) Enter default filter Value(s)

How to add a Filter

• 3. Filters

Multiple option only available on certain fields

and comparisons.

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How to add a Filter

5. (optional) Choose filter Prompt No = do not display filter prompt Optional = display, not required –

most flexible Required = display with asterisk

6. (optional) Rename the user prompt7. Important! Click button to save!

• 3. Filters

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How to edit or delete a Filter

Make changes and then click Refresh to save!

• 3. Filters

Click to delete a filter

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Determine what fields Display

1. Set drop-down to All

2. Check/uncheck <Business Object>.<Field> to include/exclude column from results

3. Click Refresh

• 4. Display

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4. (optional) Enter column Alias to provide a different column heading

5. (optional) Choose column Order from sequence drop-downs on right

6. Click Refresh

Determine what fields Display

• 4. Display

If no Alias is specified, this

is used.

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Determine Sorting order

(optional) 1. Select <Business Object>.<Field>

to sort on from Property drop-down2. Select Ascending or Descending7. Important! Click button to save!

• 5. Sorting, Security

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Set Security options

(optional)

• 5. Sorting, Security

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Test!

• 6. Test

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Test!

• If no results are returned make sure that your links and default filter values are correct

• Count records or choose spot-check candidates to verify the IQA returns results you expect

• Paste SQL from first tab into SQL Management Studio (may require editing)

• 6. Test

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Save!

Congrats! Don’t lose your work. Use Save or

Save As… to create a copy.

• 7. Save

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Saving: Folders & naming

• Decide whether to store all IQAs inCustomers or spread out among individual iMIS modules

• Create and enforce an organizational folder (e.g. departmental, functional) and IQA naming strategy to easily find IQAs

• Create a policy among designers to make copies when they are significantly modifying an IQA – leave original for current uses

• 7. Save

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Saving: Folders & naming

• Well thought-out folders and naming scheme give more context to IQA titles

• Use the description field when creating/updating for historical notes (unfortunately only visible to designers, not end users)

• 7. Save

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IQA Examples

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Creating a Basic IQA Step-by-Step

• Query editor mode shown: “Basic” • Scenario:

Search for all members in New York state

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What if…

• We want to add criteria: “who’s attended a past event”

• Add a second business object

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Add more criteria

• Add ‘meeting’ as activity type• Add date criteria too

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Cs

Cs

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Double Rows…why?

• Customer registered for more than one event• We need a way to return only unique records…

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Does Not Exist Relationship

• Still in Basic Mode Does not exist relationship Helps identify who hasn’t done something

• Scenario Which of my active members have never attended an

event?

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If we run this now

• We’ll see: Constituent records with no activities at all

• We need to add filters Which constituent Which activities

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Adds – which Active Constituents have no activities?

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Adds – with no event activities?

Other activities are included

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Advanced Mode

• Alias field names• Linkable in module searches• Aggregate Queries

• Let’s take our basic query and add additional information

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Cheat Sheets

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Cheat Sheet: ASI IQA Reference

http://docs.imis.com/15.2/iqaqueries.htm



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Cheat Sheet: Activity Table (1/2)

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Cheat Sheet: Activity Table (2/2)

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Cheat Sheet: Addresses

http://docs.imis.com/15.2/commonaddressjoins.htm



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Cheat Sheet: Tables/Joins

http://docs.imis.com/15.2/index.htm?turl=commonreporttablesandjoins.htm

http://docs.imis.com/15.2/index.htm?turl=commonreporttablesandjoins.htm

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NiUG 2012 Discovery Orlando: Beginning IQA