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Welcome back!
In the last video, we learned what models are
created a simple model by importing data directly to our story,
and then we saved the story as "My First Story"
Let's revisit this story together
to get to know the data a little bit better
and see what insights we can discover with SAP Analytics Cloud.
To find your story, choose "Browse" and then "Stories" from the menu.
You'll find your story listed here
and you can even search for it using the search bar.
Let's start by taking a look at the data in the model
to remind ourselves what we're working with.
Here in Data view is where you can switch between
the Exploration view, where you can explore your data
and Data Manipulation view where you can revisit your raw data
and manipulate or make updates to the model.
Data Manipulation view is only available
if you created your model by importing data directly into your story.
If the model you're using was created by the Modeler
or was published by someone else
then you won't be able to access Manipulation view
In Data Manipulation view we can see that
this data set is made up of sales transactions for an online retailer.
Each row of data is an individual transaction.
And each column is categorized as either a measure or dimension.
You'll remember that measure contain quantitative information
that can be used for calculations.
While dimensions are qualitative and help provide context.
These icons help us to quickly see which columns are which.
And it looks like the only measure in this particular dataset is Sales Revenue.
Let's add USD in the label field of this measure,
so we know what currency we're working with.
The rest of our columns are dimensions.
But you may have noticed that
the symbol on our date column looks a little different.
This calendar symbol indicates that
our date column has automatically been defined as a time dimension.
The Time Dimension specifies the overall time frame of our model
and is used to determine
the time granularity that can be used for analysis.
For example, if you have a chart that shows sales over time,
you might want to be able to see the value
over a year,
quarter,
month,
or even days.
By enabling the drill-down option in the details panel
we'll be able to drill-down to the time period at the smallest granularity.
Which in this dataset is days.
Okay, this data is looking good.
Let's head back to Data Exploration view to check out our updated model.
In Exploration View we can easily see all of our measure and dimensions,
and can make selections to create some quick visualizations based on our data.
It's probably a good time to start answering some business questions.
As an online retailer, I might want to know,
how are my sales trending over time?
To answer this question, let's choose the measure "sales"
and our time dimension "date"
Based on these selections,
SAP Analytics Cloud automatically suggests a line chart
to display our information.
But if you want to use a different chart type
you can choose it from the drop-down here.
Right now, our line chart shows only a single data point
with the total sum of our sales for the entire dataset.
If we drill down to the next level of detail
we can see the sales numbers annually.
Now the line communicates an overall sales trend.
Drilling down is possible because we enabled the drill-down option
on our time dimension, back in Data Manipulation view.
Great -
Let's change the title of this chart to "Annual Sales Trend.
If you want to add this chart to your story,
It's as easy as copying this chart from the Explorer view to a page in your story.
Let's paste it on to the first page.
Remember, every object in your story is contained within a tile.
Just like our line chart here.
From here, you can still make changes to your charts
that were created in Explorer view.
Just click on the tile you want to edit, and open the Designer.
There are two panels inside the Designer.
The Builder panel and the Styling panel.
With the Styling panel you can update the formatting of your tiles.
For example, you can change the background colour and font size.
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Using the Builder panel, you can make changes to the chart itself.
For example, you can choose a different chart type
and select different, or additional measures and dimensions to explore.
You'll also need the Builder panel to build charts directly on your pages.
Let's try by answering another business question.
As an online retailer, I may want to know,
what are my most popular items?
Let's build a chart to find out.
Here, in the "Insert" section of the tool bar, you can see that there are
many objects available that can be added to your page.
Choosing the "Insert Chart" option creates a new tile for a chart.
With the builder panel, you can select the bar/column chart type.
To find out which items generate the most sales,
add the measure "sales" and the dimension "item".
Now this tile displays our bar chart.
Let's refine the chart to help us see the information we want faster.
From the tile menu
we can sort the items from highest to lowest based on sales.
This makes it easy to see that
product 6 is the most popular item of all time in this dataset.
To simplify this chart even further,
you can choose to display only the top 5 items.
Now, let's retitle this chart "Most Popular Items".
If you want to know the most popular items,
you might also want to know the least popular items.
And there's a quick way to make this chart!
First, let's copy our chart of most popular items.
You can use your usual copy and paste quick keys to duplicate tiles.
Or, you can select copy from the menu.
Now that we have this duplicate chart,
we can simply select "Bottom 5" from the tile menu
to see the least popular items.
In the subheading of any chart you'll find some helpful information.
For example, we can see that the values are measured in USD.
This is thanks to the label that we added to the "sales" measure in our model.
We also know that our first chart is displaying the Top 5 items
and our second chart is displaying the Bottom 5 items.
Let's retitle this chart to "Least Popular Items"
in order to avoid any confusion.
If you want to customize how your story looks,
there's an easy way to style the entire story.
Choose the Story Preferences option from the toolbar
to access visual settings for your pages and tiles.
From here you can customize the styling for each object in your story.
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Let's retitle this page "Overview"
and save the updates we've made to our story so far.
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When you want to add a new page to your story
you can choose from a canvas, grid, or responsive page.
Canvas pages are blank, like the one we're currently working with.
Grids are useful when you're working with tables.
And responsive pages automatically resize to look good on any device.
Responsive pages are also compatible
with the Analytics Cloud Mobile App for iOS.
As you can see, where your data really comes to life
is on the pages of a story.
So when you're ready, check out our next video
I'll take you through sharing and collaboration with your team.