With data tracking, you can highlight values that change after each refresh for any level of aggregation.
When you turn on data tracking, the document gets two data sets: one for reference and one for current values.
The document compares these data sets and highlights changes based on your formatting choices. If the document includes calculations, it compares results from each data set to show the changes.
A document with data tracking holds twice as much data as one without it. As a result, it may take longer to process.
Types of Data Change
Web Intelligence lets you track these types of data change:
- Inserted data
- Deleted data
- Changed data
- Increased values
- Decreased values
Data Tracking Activation
You turn on data tracking in the Analyze section of the toolbar. The Track Data Changes dialog box appears and lets you pick a data set as a reference point for future changes. This data is called the reference data.
Data Tracking Reference Data
- Compare with Last Refresh: The current data becomes the reference data after each refresh. The report always shows the difference between the most recent data and the data before the last refresh.
- Compare with Refresh from: The data refresh you choose becomes the reference data. The report always shows the difference between the most recent data and the data refresh you chose.
- Reports: Choose one or more reports from the list.
When you turn on data tracking, the Show Changes option becomes available. You can use it to show or hide highlighted data changes.
Options for Formatting Data Changes
When you turn on data tracking, you can use the default appearance options for data changes, such as font style, size, and color. You can also set other options in the Track Data Changes dialog box on the Tracking Options tab.
Functions Specific to Data Tracking
You can use the formula language to include calculations based on data changes. For example, you can add a calculation to show the difference between the previous value and the current value of a measure. You can also use formulas to set formatting rules for data changes.
To show the reference data set in your report, you use the RefValue function to create a formula or variable. This function returns the value of the reference data for the measure.
For example, if the sales revenue measure is one thousand and the reference value is nine hundred, the formula RefValue([Sales revenue]) returns nine hundred.
The RefValueDate function returns the date of the reference data used for data tracking.
Data Tracking Restrictions
You cannot use data tracking with the following actions:
- Drilling out of scope
- Query drilling
- Removing a query
- Any change that alters the SQL generated by a query
- Purging the document
For more information about this topic, please read SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence User's Guide
Let's Summarize What You've Learned
- Data tracking highlights changes in data between refreshes, helping you focus analysis on key areas.
- You can track inserted, deleted, changed, increased, and decreased values in your reports.
- Activating data tracking allows you to compare current data with previous or selected reference data sets.
- Formatting options let you customize how data changes appear, overriding system defaults if needed.