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    Courses missing from Analytics report when adding columns "Current course start date" and "Current course end date"

    • Product: Alma

     

    Question

    I have an Analytics report which is looking for all Humanities courses with course codes ending with 16_17. Our end-goal is simply to extract a list of courses from Alma which contains start date, end date, and the primary identifiers of all instructors on that course.

     

    But we've found that the report is not finding all results. Course YXZ-16_17, for example, should be matched by the filters in this report but isn't coming through. Could you tell us why this course doesn't appear in the report?

     

    I found that if I delete columns "Current course start date" and "Current course end date" from the Analytics report, the course XYZ-16_17 is successfully included in the results.

     

    When I look at the course in Alma, the start date and end date are correctly filled in.

    Answer

    The reason why you don't find the course YXZ-16_17 when you add columns "Current course start date" and "Current course end date" to the report is as follows:

    In Course Reserves subject area, the main part of this area is actually the citations.

     

    In the example of YXZ-16_17, the course has been opened but does NOT have any citations and therefore our main fact table will be actually empty and there will be NO connection between the Course Dimension and the Date Dimension (Analytics needs connections to exist between tables Dimensions and Main tables, called a "star schema" (we call the main table "fact table") in order to show reports with ALL equivalent info).

     

    So although you will be able to see the course name (it comes from the course dimension) you will not be able to see the whole picture.

     

    Another example from the Physical Items SA - you can see info from the BIB folder BUT if you try to add bib info and date info while there are NO matching ITEMS - you will get empty results.

     


    • Article last edited: 31-03-1975
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