Analyze tab
So you're ready to start analyzing your data with Bime! The journey starts in the analyze tab. This tutorial will take you through a basic workflow: navigating the library, the connection builder and the pivot table.
This tutorial is designed to last 10 minutes.
Creating a connection for each data source is slightly different, but the underlying principles are exactly the same. We'll use Google Spreadsheets in our example. Click 'New connection' to go to the connection builder.
Fill in the details of your connection. Choose whether you want it to be publicly or privately available. Check the Déjà Vu box if you wish to store your data in Bime's distributed cache.
It is not necessary to host data in the cloud to be able to use Bime, but there are many advantages to doing so. Déjà Vu is our mechanism for taking a data snapshot that then allows access to the data online, anytime, anwhere, allowing collaboration by your team whether on-site or off, cutting down on traffic to the original database, and alleviating the load in the production system. Transferring data to the cloud also allows the data to be updated (on a set schedule or ad hoc), and for additional detail or information to be added to the existing connection through the Autobuild function.
Enabling Déjà Vu is as easy as checking the box on the connection builder page and setting your desired refresh rate (the default being monthly).
Then go on to choose the data source you want to use.
Fill in your Google Spreadsheet credentials, pick the sheet you want to use from the list and choose "save/update", then "next". Your connection is created! It's really as simple as that.
You can drag and drop any heading that has ended up in the wrong place (for example, numeric client / product references may be assumed to be measures, when they are more likely to be attributes), or add different dimensions to create hierarchies of measures and attributes.
The geographic dimension, and geocoding facilitated by Bime, means that location is not only available to be used as a title on traditional views, but also to provide displays using Google Maps to give you a real picture of 'where your data is'.
To be a true time-based attribute, the data source must be the full date: less detailed date-based data (for example, '2010') will be categorized in the axis of analysis like a product name or a client reference.
You can add your own dimensions - think of them as the folders into which your files (attributes) are placed - in order to have your data organized in the most helpful way, and allow easy breakdown of hierarchies. The order in which attributes appear in the schema adds speed and simplicity to interrogating data, because each breaks down to the one below it; for example, order category is above subcategory, and when you come to the pivot table, you can break down from the highest order at the click of a mouse.
Once the schema is as you wish it, click 'save and quit' and the connection is filed in your library. From here, it can be loaded to a pivot table for interrogation, or reopened to be edited.
If you need to add extra attributes, move things around, or alter the order of attributes or measures to make hierarchies, this can be done through the edit function at any time.
To load your data in the pivot table (the heart of the analytical function of Bime), choose it from the list in your library and choose "Load connection" or simply click the name. Once in the pivot table you can begin to analyze your data by dragging and dropping elements.
When a connection is loaded, all the data it contains is available to you on the pivot table. Loading data into the pivot table and creating a visualization is a 'query' - the result of interrogating your data. To do this, you simply drag and drop measures and attributes onto the layout. The table will tell you if you can't put it there!
At first, this will display data in the classical grid view, so you can see that you have included all the relevant data. This view can then be changed using the drop-down menu to change 'grid' into a different type of chart.
As you change visualizations you can add, move, or remove measures or attributes at any time.
Using the 'options' box available with some visualizations (not in the grid view), you can 'weight' your data so that the representation includes a combination of measures (for example profit and turnover) in same result by resizing or recoloring them.
To the right of the table are your 'post-processing' options, which include rendering your results as percentages, filtering to focus on the best and worst-performing areas, or setting floors or ceilings.
The 'totals' and 'sort' options are further tools to alter and improve the display of your results.
The 'Auto Query' button showing a green spot means that the visualization will automatically update itself as you drag and drop items onto the frame. This can be very helpful in showing immediate changes as new attributes or measures are factored in, but if you prefer to put all the data onto the frame and then see your visualization only when you are finished, click on the Auto Query button and it will show a red spot - a sort of Bime pause button - until you click it again to see your visualization finished (or, ready for more data to be added to it!).
The 'save' button shows you your options for saving a finished query.
You can remove individual measures or attributes from the frame by dragging them off the main frame, and the 'clean' button wipes the slate clean of all measures and attributes on the frame so you can start again!
If you go back to the library you will notice that any query associated with a connection is shown alongside that connection, along with a screen shot of the query itself. To search for queries in the library simply type the name of the query or the name of the connection (e.g. "Google Analytics" or "Time on Site") into the search box. Hovering over the image of the query will give you information such as the last Déjà Vu update, the date the query was created, and the last it was last modified. Click the image to bring up options to load, edit, duplicate or delete the query.
