September 18, 2024

 

Question from Attendee: What time zone does Alma run on? 

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: It’s set up when you implement Alma. Check the time and date stamp in your Alma environment. Everyone who uses your Alma environment will see the same time zone.

 

Where would I find the list of my roles in Alma?

You can see your roles by clicking on the Profile icon in the upper right of Alma, then User Details. For Analytics, you can also tell what roles you have based on your Analytics menu options.

 

What is the best way to share the directory of a particular Report / Dashboard / Query in Analytics?

Normally you share analytics products via Analytics Objects. But if you're talking about sharing with other Designs Analytics staff at your institution, another attendee suggested copying the Location path text from within the item’s More > Properties menu.

 

Are there Reports / Dashboards / Queries for Electronic Resources?

Yes, under Shared Folders > Alma > E-Inventory. We'll be covering e-resources in Session 3 on 02Oct2024.

 

If a Consortia and you are an admin is it only for your institution or all consortia members?

It behaves like other roles in Alma, so the administrator role will grant admin privileges for the environment in which the role is assigned. And Analytics Administrators can only create analytics objects 

 

Is there a webpage that includes the subject areas that are updated less frequently, with those schedules?

See the Analytics Data Refresh page.

 

Is there a way for Analytics to take information from later if libraries are open late? On weekdays excluding Friday, we are open until 10. So this would mean we are missing 2 hours of data each day? 

The time the ETL process occurs can't be configured. To see the data for those late hours, you'll need to wait until a second day later. After the data from those late hours are in Analytics, they will be associated with the correct date.

 

Can move items from My folder to the Institution folder? 

Yes, the recommended method would be to copy and paste, or use Save As. You can also click and drag, but be careful you don't accidentally drop the report into an incorrect place!

 

Is it possible to copy items from the shared folders to My folder (so, the other way from Q5)?  I tried yesterday and I could right-click -> Copy but couldn't figure out how to get a Paste option (and Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V didn't work)

There's a paste option in the Tasks box in the lower left, and an icon in the menu bar in Analytics.

 

Will you go over how to copy whole dashboards from the Alma folder, to be able to edit the dashboard locally. I think there are special considerations for copying dashboards, if I remember correctly.

Yes, we will cover that in Session 4.

 

Are the community reports like their reports with our data, or their reports with their data as examples? 

You will only ever see your own institution's data in Analytics.

 

Can we see loans by item type; for example, reserve, stacks?

Tune in next week when we'll create Fulfillment analyses.

 

Once you've opened a dashboard, how do you get back to the list you selected it from?  The Back arrow gives me an error about resubmitting the form.

Click on the Catalog menu again.

 

I'm not seeing a Community Folder in my instance of Oracle. Is this something that we need to set up or that each institution can opt out of/in to? 

Please open a support ticket.

 

I'm really new to this job, and I need some help--what kinds of e-resource reports are available? (I'm also planning to take the e-resource courses).

Join us in two weeks, when we'll cover Electronic Inventory analyses!

 

Kevin mentioned that there is an API for consuming analytics objects but that he wouldn't be discussing it.  Did he mean not at all or just not today?  If it's not coming up later in the series, can you suggest documentation?

We won't be discussing it in this series. Here is the API documentation.

 

Will we be going over SQL functions in Analytics? If so, in what week will this be covered? 

They'll be covered some in the next couple weeks, but Week 6 is dedicated to Filters and Functions in Analytics, which is where SQL functions are used.

 

[In the example of a report on the number of users per user group] Does that mean there are 18 Users who aren't assigned a User Group?

Yes - remember that this is a training environment, not a real library, so we have some weird data like that!

 

[In the example of a report on the number of users per user group] I don't see the dates this data covers. Am I missing it?

We didn't include any date filters in this analysis, so it's just reporting on any users that are currently in our environment.

 

Are there any reports that could impact others if we pull it while trying out reports? 

There is no effect anywhere when you create reports, run reports, etc. If you are practicing creating new reports and you delete the reports you're creating, you'll be fine. It gets a little more complicated when reports are combined into dashboards ... you don't want to accidently delete a report used on a dashboard. If you are concerned about a specific scenario, please reach out to the Support Team for further clarification.

 

What is the difference between an object and a report? 

The report is the analytics product created in the Alma Analytics tool ("Oracle Analytics"). The object is what we're creating in Alma, which links to the analytics report, to make it "consumable" by (available to) other people. 

 

Does the object in Alma update on the same schedule as Analytics?

It just pulls in the report from Analytics right at the moment it needs to display, so it will show the same data that appears in Analytics (with the regular Analytics update schedule).

 

Is the Analytics Object List just for sharing reports to non-Analytics role users?

Generally yes, although you'd probably even use an object to share with those who have the Design Analytics role as well, because it's easier for them to click a link in Alma rather than go into the Analytics tool just to look at a report.

 

If I save a report in the My Folders folder rather then an institution folder, can I still share the report with other users in the Alma client? 

No. Reports saved in your private folder cannot be made into Analytics objects. Also: Other staff at your institution who have the Design Analytics role cannot access your My Folders folder.

 

If you share an object via a link, can you configure so that the date of the data that is included appears?

Yes, you would need to add the date to the Analytics report itself.

 

Our fund reports are showing in USD.  How do we change this to £ Sterling?

Please open a case with Support to address this situation. 

 

How can I limit the access to financial data inside my IZ to staff users from a certain library. so a library sees only its data?

There is a new feature available for this: Working with Library Independence.

 

When scheduling a report for "every 3 month" - when does it run? E.g: when I schedule it today (September): when will the first report be sent to the subscribers? 

On the scheduler there is an option to pick which day of the month it will run.

 

So Alma Analytics is still considered the main reporting tool it sounds like? I assume there are things you can do in Analytics which is not supported in Data Visualization?

Analytics is one of two reporting tools. Data Visualization uses the same ETL process to get the same data from Alma, but it’s a completely different tool with its own interface and its own reporting options. You can use one or both tools to get analytics reports; each has some advantages. You'll find information about Data Visualization in the Analytics documentation.

 

Could Data Visualization Objects be treated as Analytics Objects?

Yes, although there are some extra steps necessary. We won't be discussing the Data Visualization in this course.

 

Will there be a similar series for Mixpanel (the new Primo Analytics) in the future?

We’ll create a training after the release of Primo VE NDE in 2025.

 

---

September 25, 2024

 

Question from attendee: Is there a way to reorder filters once set in an Analysis Criteria page?”

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris staff: No. The order of filters doesn't affect functionality, because they all apply with a Boolean AND. However, if you want to change the order -- for example, to group related filters together to make them easier to read and understand -- you have to delete the existing filters and add them back in the order you want.

 

Is there a way to un-merge cells vertically in the Results page and repeat the same value per expanded cell?

Answer (from an attendee): Yes, by heading to the Criteria page > Column Properties of the targeted Header > Column Format > toggle Value Suppression from Suppress to Repeat

 

What is the difference between "Loan Details > Material Type" and "Physical Item Details > Material Type"?

The Material Type field on the Physical Items Details table comes from the item record. The Material Type field on the Loan Details table comes from the information about the loan. It's very likely they are the same. (Compare that to the Material Type field from the Bibliographic Details table, which comes from the Bibliographic Record of the item ... and could be different.

 

What field needs to be used to show retention of items? 

The Committed to Retain setting can be set at the item level or the title level.  See this documentation. 

 

Could you give a quick overview of the difference between lifecycle (active / deleted), base status (in place / not in place) and process type? How would we combine those to show withdrawn items?

• Lifecycle Active = records that you see in Alma
• Lifecycle Deleted = deleted from Alma (but still in the tables)
• Base Status in place = item is on the shelf and there is no process type

If an item has a base status of not in place it will have a Process Type. Withdrawn items would have a Lifecycle of Deleted. 

 

When creating an analysis from simple logical SQL, Analytics seems to allow table aliases, but only in nested queries. Is there any way to use table aliases in a single SELECT, and how? What's the syntax?

Please open a case with Support for this question. 

 

The Last Loan date only includes transactions done in Alma?

The Last Loan date field also included migrated data.

 

Does that include items never loaned?

With the existing criteria yes, items that have never been loaned have an empty "Last Loan Date" and are included in that report.

 

We just migrated to Alma in January.  Our usage reports do show some usage from before January, but not as much as our old system showed.  What history should I expect to see?  Or is this likely to be institution-specific and I need to ask elsewhere?

This is definitely something I'd recommend opening a case and sharing specific examples with our team so they can look at your institution data and advise in detail.

 

Is there a list of all these "subject areas" and what they mean? like Normalized Title, etc?

There sure is -- right here!

 

It won't let me put modification date at the end. it puts it with physical item details.

You can click and drag the columns to move them around. We also don't recommend trying to follow along live with these sessions - it can become easy to get lost and we write up all the steps in the exercise documents for you to try on your own later.

 

I often just add the subject area into selected column and choose a filter from there and then remove the recently added subject area.  Is there any issues with this manner of adding filters?

No issue with doing that (I often do so as well), it can just be a bit more confusing in a demo sometimes.

 

I always want to know when I first look at the results, how many rows are there in my results set. Is that something that you can easily see somehow?

It's possible to add a count of the number of rows at the top of the analysis. See this documentation.

 

How would you do a call# range?

We aren't demonstrating this today, but there are a variety of call number fields that can be used in analyses.

 

This is a little bit left field from what we're doing now, but under "Catalog" are those pre-made reports? I'm seeing one that interests me and am wondering how to access it. 

Yes, we showed an example of the default/out of the box Physical Items dashboard earlier and will show the same for Fulfillment in a bit. The steps for how to access those are in the exercises document on the series page.

 

If I want to email a colleague at my institution and have them work on an analysis that I started, is there a way to provide them a link that goes directly to that analysis?

Especially if the user has already logged into Analytics from Alma, the URL from your web browser when you're editing the analysis should work. Otherwise, sharing the navigational path should allow them to locate it as long as it's saved in the shared institution folder.

 

Do we need to include the Lifecycle field in all Physical Items analyses?

Yes, unless you would like to also report on withdrawn/deleted items. Anytime you want to report only on the items that are currently in Alma, you should include a Lifecycle filter.

 

Whenever I try to create a report, I get a gray screen with a sad face and the error message "analytics12-naw.alm.exlibrarisgroup.com refused to connect". I have tried 3 different browsers, open it in a new tab/window, cleared my cache/cookies/browsing data, etc. Nothing seems to make a difference. Is this something that needs to be escalated to EXL support?

When you see this error, are you clicking Create > Report (under the Published Reporting heading)? Options under that heading are not available in our installation of Oracle Analytics. The option that should work for everyone is Create > Analysis.

 

Is there a glossary or something similar for all the different report-building pieces?

There are a lot of different pieces in the Analytics documentation, including a couple pages related to terminology.

 

What does the "in-house + Not In house" mean in the field label?

This is referring to both loans to users and any in-house uses registered by a circulation desk when scanning.

 

A lot of my reports that I am looking at for e-resources are "no results, no results".  what could be happening here? 

We'll look at E-Inventory analyses next week. That may help answer your question; otherwise, please open a support case and share examples both of the analysis and of the data you expect to see.

 

For the Overdue report on my version of Analytics I don't have an edit or a save-as option. Is that a permission issue? Or some other setting?

It potentially could be if you have one of the new limited Designs Analytics roles; if that doesn't explain the behavior, please open a support case to look in detail.

 

When we make our own reports, SQL is a checkbox. With out of the box reports like this, is there a way to "uncheck" that SQL box?

There is not, so instead you'd need to create a new filter and delete the SQL filter.

 

How is "academic year" defined?

The academic year is defined based on country, using this schedule.

Is there a place where we can find the SQL codes?

There are some common SQL codes here.

 

Why is that some loans (hold requests) has zero?

That included some other loans that were performed but did not originate from a hold request. We might want to refine our criteria further to ensure those results were not included if we were actually using that in our institution.

 

Can you find out and explain if "Return Date", "Loan Date", "Due Date", and any other dates on how they were entered into the system? 

Those are going to be the relevant dates for the actual loan that was performed in Alma. If you're seeing particular confusing data in your environment, please open a Support case.

 

Why would you choose borrower details instead of the Patron checkout one?

Those fields can include different data; patron information at the time of the loan, versus the information in the borrower's user account. Full info is in the documentation.

 

---

 

October 2, 2024

 

Question from Attendee: I'm not sure what the link resolver is? How does it appear on Primo? What would a student have to click to count as usage of the link resolver?

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: Electronic resources provide links either via the Alma link resolver (OpenURL) or via a link-in-record (also known as a Direct Link). The links look the same in your Discovery service regardless of the linking method. The searcher clicks on the link in Primo (from the brief or full-record view) and is taken to the resource. The provider counts that as usage, regardless which linking method got the patron to the resource. However, it will only count as a link-resolver use if it was an OpenURL link obtained from Alma's link resolver.

 

Could someone define what "counter"is?

COUNTER usage data is provided by vendors to indicate the usage of your E-Resources on their platform.  Project COUNTER is the organization that maintains the standard.

 

So when I go into this same report in Alma the usage is all blank. Assuming this is because we haven't set up sushi in alma yet?

Yes, this uses COUNTER data, so if you haven't loaded COUNTER data (whether manually or via SUSHI) into Alma, then you won't see it reported in Analytics. You'll want to check either in Alma or with a colleague who would be in charge of this area.

 

I've seen SUSHI mentioned before, but I am not sure I quite understand what it is. Can you briefly explain it?

SUSHI is the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative, which develops standards for tools like Alma to automatically retrieve COUNTER reports from providers. More on SUSHI here.

 

Is there a way to tell from which country each resource was accessed for linked resolver requests?

I'm not sure whether that data is available in the Project COUNTER reports; if not, then COUNTER-compatible reports you get from the provider won't have the country info. But it's possible a provider tracks that information and makes it available in some other, proprietary report ... although that kind of report can't be loaded into Alma, the way a COUNTER report can.

 

Is there a way to enter cost in for resources without using the full Alma Acquisitions module?

No, the cost is dependent upon the expenditure in Alma. For extensive detail on how these are calculated, please see this information in the Developer Network.

 

We're in the process of migrating to Alma.  We currently have access our Test Load system and a Sandbox system.  Can we run through the Analytics exercises on either of those systems?

Please reach out to your implementation consultant for more information on using Analytics in these environments.

 

Is there a way to filter reports (or make custom reports) to just one "library" in our Alma system?You can add filters to reports, or for even more separation, you may want to look into Library Independence.

 

Instead of "save as", can we copy and paste a report into our own folder? I tried and it gave me an error.

If you have already made changes to the out-of-the-box analysis, the Save As option would be the method to use. It is also possible to copy and paste an existing report to another folder.

 

Where are the material type indicators pulling from? Is that from COUNTER/SUSHI?

Yes, those are from the COUNTER-report data. As a reminder, if you ever have a question on where data in a field comes from, check out the Subject Area documentation!

 

Is it possible to change the default currency from dollars?

It's part of your Alma configuration. The default currency is set in Configuration > Acquisitions > General > Currency Subset.
 

My university is in a consortial environment. Do the analytics dashboards look only at IZ information? For example the "OpenURL requests without services" tells me that 100% of our Science and Nature requests had no services, but we have current online subscriptions to both journals in our NZ.

There are a lot of nuances to Network analytics that we aren't able to cover in this series. Yoel Kortick presented on Network Analytics as part of his consortia series. Otherwise, if you have specific reporting questions, please reach out to your consortial central office or open a Support ticket.

 

Doesn't the "No. of Available Portfolios" field only apply to things that are currently available? Would that possibly mean the counts could be off if a portfolio was activated during that time, but isn't currently available? Or is that a static counter?

It all depends on what information you want to see reported; yes, that measure is reporting on currently available portfolios. So what our report really showed was the activation date of any currently available portfolios. If you wanted to see other data, such as inactive or deleted portfolios, you could amend the analyses accordingly.

 

If you are wanting all eCollections that are in your repository currently (and not ones you have previously deleted) is there a particular subject area/filter you need to choose?

Just like we looked at last week for physical items, there are lifecycle filters for e-resources, including for portfolios and collections. For electronic collections, you'd add a filter for Electronic Collection Lifecycle = In Repository.

 

Is there a way to compare annual subscription costs for electronic resources between two or more fiscal years?

That isn't one of our demonstration examples today, but yes, you could create this type of analysis.

[Follow-up] Is there an out-of-the-box report for that comparison?

We're not familiar with any, but new out-of-the-box reports are often released, and one may have been added that covers it. And if not, see if an out-of-the-box report can be adapted for your needs. You might also consider browsing the Community folder to see if another institution has already created such an analysis.

 

Is it possible to display the decimal in the Acquisitions Dashboard instead of the rounded amount for funds?

Yes, you could customize the dashboard/reports to display decimals.

 

How do you get a usage report by fund code?

This would be more like the Cost per Use examples we looked at in the first half of the session.

[Follow-up] I would like to know yearly usage of each of my fund codes.

Ah, so not "usage" but how much money in each fund is being used. You could use the fields in the Funds Expenditure Subject Area to report on those funds, transactions, and fiscal years.

 

When I reorder results, is that persistent or shall I also reorder in criteria?

If you're reordering columns on the Results page, that is persistent. The order of the columns on the Criteria page only affects the first time the Results page is accessed; after that, the system just adds columns to the right side of the Results page, regardless where the column is on the Criteria page. So, adjust the columns on the Results page to be the way you want them seen by your "consumers" who view the report later.

On the other hand, if you're talking about the Sort order of results in a column, that is not persistent. You need to choose a column to sort on from the Criteria page if you always want to sort on that column. A consumer can choose to sort on another column if they like, when looking at the analysis. 

 

Why did Class 1 have a hyperlink in the results column? What is the purpose of those links?

On a report that shows Library of Congress Classifications, that link allows you to drill down into lower levels of the LC Classification.

 

I have really liked having the ability to base the results of an analysis on another analysis -- its a great way to combine information available from different subject areas.  If I am sharing a combined analysis with others, do they need to have access to all of the analyses or just the final one?

We won't talk about this functionality until later in the series, but in short: yes, they need to have access to both analyses.

 

---

October 9, 2024

 

Question from Attendee (referring to content from last-week's session): We have been working with Alma since September 2023. I make a report in Physical Items because I want to get all titles from a library, including all titles which are not borrowed. If I choose all Loans from last year I get all loans since September 2023. But I want all loans since January 2024. Where can I enter the reporting period. Sorry for my bad English.

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: One of the filter options in the filter Loan Date > Loan Date Filter is Current Year.

 

[Another question about content from last-week's session]: Where can I choose a period for example the first three months of a Year or the first 6 Months?

We don't see a quick and easy way to do this. You will probably need to include some SQL text in the filter.

 

If you have a dashboard with reports from different subject areas (E.g. Fulfillment and Users). Can the Dashboard prompt include a field such as PURGE DATE, which is included in the different subject areas but with different paths (In Fulfillment the path would be: "Borrower Details"."Purge Date" and in Users the path would be "User Details"."Purge Date")?

Prompts will be covered in more detail next week, but to answer the question: Yes, this is possible, although only if the Alma source of the field (Purge Date, in your example) really is the only source for that field in both subject areas.

 

What is the difference between a Folder in the catalog called Dashboard with a [blue] folder icon, and the one with the green Dashboard icon? We have it in our institutions folder too. :)

The one with a green icon is a special Analytics system folder that allows dashboards to be retrieved from the Dashboards dropdown menu in the top right navigation bar. Unfortunately, you can't use this same organizational structure there (such as subfolders for Dashboards, Prompts, and Reports), so it can be a bit more confusing with lots of files. You can use it if you find it helpful. Alternatively, if you want quick access to Dashboards, you might instead configure them as an Analytics Object (which we'll show in Week 7!). The blue Dashboard folder in your institution's Shared Folder was probably added by a staff member at your institution.

 

Are we able to add values to a chart? 

Yes, you can edit the contents of each table and to generate a different pie chart/visualization]

 

Once I added my reports to the dashboard, they disappeared from the Reports folder? I did it in my own folder.

Oh no, this shouldn't happen! Please submit a Support ticket so they can investigate.

 

In near future, is there any plan to deliver session on merge two different subject areas and generate the report?

Yes, we'll be talking about that in Session 8 - Useful Tips in Analytics.

 

Is it possible to have a date/months to be filtered chronologically instead of alphabetically or descending?

Yes, by configuring the Date column to be Sorted in your chosen way.

 

[Comment from an attendee] To display data labels go to view / graph properties > titles and labels > labels > data markers > display options > show data labels = always

 

Is it possible to have a prompt that toggles between loans where (1) Loan Circulation Desk - Library = Physical Item Details - Library and (2) Loan Circulation Desk - Library is not the same as Physical Item Details - Library and (3) Everything = (1) + (2). Thank you :)

Maybe! We'll learn more about the power of prompts next week!

 

When adding a report to a dashboard from the catalog, is there a way to search rather than scrolling through everything?

Unfortunately no, and this is something that could be suggested on the Ideas Exchange portal.

 

Is it possible to select current year SQL_TSI_YEAR by default in the Loan Year prompt? Thank you.

Yes. Let's check it out next week!

 

If the copied dashboard still points to the out-of-the-box reports, is there a point in copying all the out-of-the-box reports beforehand? This action seems like it would result in a lot of unused reports.

You are generally correct. Reports linked in a Dashboard can be stored anywhere in Shared Folders. The reason you would copy (and paste) a dashboard in the first place is if you want to make changes to it or to one or more of the reports. If you have no need to change any of them, then you would just use the original out-of-the-box dashboard when you make an Analytics Object. So, if you knew exactly which report in a dashboard you wanted to change, you probably could copy just the dashboard and that report into your institution folder and then edit just those two, and leave the other reports in the dashboard pointing to the out-of-the-box reports. You would need to decide if that is more confusing for you and your team of designs analysts. 

 

Should you go through and delete the unedited reports that were copied to your own storage when you copied the dashboard?

As in the previous question, you could, if it was important to cut down on the files in your institution folder and there would be no confusion for you and other design analysts.

 

Why would you use Archive/Unarchive? Compared to copy?

Archiving is going to be both simpler and more straightforward for updating out-of-the-box dashboards. However, as discussed above, if you only need to make a change to one particular report, you could copy just that dashboard and the one particular report you want to change, and not have copies of all the rest of the dashboard content in your institution folder.

 

Is it possible to share a dashboard via Analytics Objects List in Alma? If yes, will it appear in a similar way as it does in Analytics itself? Many thanks.

Analytics Objects will be covered in week 7, but to answer your questions: Yes, Dashboards can be shared as Objects; and Yes, it will appear in a similar way, as long as the Object is not a file attachment (like a PDF). 

 

Last week Kevin created an SQL filter but didn't explain the coding used TIMESTAMP... etc.  Where can we get that information?

That syntax was introduced and explained in our Week 2 session on Physical Inventory and Fulfillment. Also, here is the general information about SQL functionality.

 

Follow-up Question: He also demonstrated a filter feature that can sometimes be used in place of SQL.  I haven't yet found that in last week's recording.  Could you tell me the timestamp of that moment.?

I believe this was the third example report last week. The steps are in the exercises document from Week 3, and I believe it begins around 39 minutes into the recording. 

 

He chose "Top 10" but it gave him 13?

Several results had the same number of loans. Listing only the "top 10" would cut off the ones that had the same number of loans as number 10.

 

Should Lifecycle [=Active] be selected for this report?

Not for this one on Loans; we don't care whether the borrowing users or loaned items have since been deleted. 

 

Without adding a date, is the data current from the previous day? so the dashboard would be current each day if you opened it up daily it would be updated?

The data that appears will depend on the criteria included in the reports in the dashboard, as well as any relevant dashboard filters. The data that can possibly appear will be up to the most recent ETL process (in other words, the previous day), but the exact data that is appearing will vary based on your analyses.

 

Are you able to publish/share the data visualizations created in analytics with people who don't have alma?

Yes, you can email them a link or an attached file! We'll discuss Analytics Objects in Week 7.

 

At the first session, there was mention of taking a quiz at the end to get a certificate. Where would one find the quiz/certificate?

We found out just this week that the quiz and certificate won't be ready until after the end of the series in early November 2024. (Clarivate is in the middle of transitioning to a new certification system.) We will post on the series home page when the exam and certificate are available; check back in late November 2024.

 

Can a dashboard be created under the "My Folders" area instead of the "Shared Folders" area?  What are the pros and cons of doing so?

You can create it under "My Folders", but then only you will be able to run or even see that dashboard. That's a positive thing if you don't want anyone else to edit it. But it's a negative because no other Design Analytics staff at your institution can see it in the OBI Analytics tool, and you can't make an Analytics Object out of it to share with others. When you are ready to share the Dashboard You'll have to later archive/unarchive the Dashboard to put it in your institution's shared folder.

 

Is it important to keep the reports, prompts, etc in a folder linked to the dashboard? Is that just for ease of organization, or is it important for making sure things work correctly?

Totally just for ease of organization! You may find yourself consolidating those folders or using a different structure if it makes more sense for you.

 

Is there a way to see what reports are included in a dashboard?

Not directly without editing/viewing the dashboard. This is another reason the example folder organization structure can be helpful - to make it clear for your colleagues or any successors what content is included in the dashboard.

 

Is the dashboard pointing to the Alma-folder it was copied from, or is it pointing to the KevinLC folder version of the report w/ the original name?

Just like Kevin showed, the pasted dashboard was still pointing to the Alma-folder it was copied from.

 

[Follow-up question from previous answer]: Does that mean that when you copy/paste a dashboard from OLDLocation to NEWLocation you need to re-link all of your reports in so they point to a report in NEWLocation?

You don't need to re-link to any reports that weren't edited. 

 

I would be uneasy clicking "replace report in fulfillment dashboard" because I would think it was replacing it in the original Fulfillment dashboard. Would it even let me do that?

No, you would not be able to do that in the out-of-the-box dashboard. It's always good to be safe though, and that's another reason this second method (Archive/Unarchive) is even better.

 

If you really only are interested in a small portion of the dashboards/reports, do you still always copy the whole folders or does it make sense sometimes just to grab the specific dashboard and prompt and reports. It just might confuse other staff members if we are only using a subset but there's all this other noise from copying/unarchiving entire folder.

That's a great example of where your own practices depend on what makes the most sense for your institution. Like in our example we only really wanted the Fulfillment Dashboard, but we copied everything in the Fulfillment folder. We might want to go back and clean up the dashboards we weren't using.

 

Can you archive/unarchive individual report?

You can, but in most cases there wouldn't be a need to; you would just copy and paste the individual report. It's mostly relevant for Dashboards to avoid the need to re-link the embedded analyses.

 

Why does it reorganize my columns in the report even though I have them in a different order in the criteria? Is there a way to lock them in so I don't have to change them everytime I run the report?

As Kevin showed, you can reorder the columns in the table view on the Results page and save that change.

 

Could you do "loan year is prompted" OR "loan year = 2024"? so that you can test that your analysis gets results before going out to the dashboard?

You could, absolutely.

 

In terms of the Loan Year prompt, would I have to update this every year to display the current year e.g. to 2024 next year, etc.. Or is there a "most recent year"-prompt option?

Tune in next week, when we talk about other things prompts can do!

 

Can you include reports from two subject areas (e.g.: acquisitions and e-inventory) on a single dashboard?

Yes you can!

 

What if you select multiple dates and want the data to display by each year?

Then you might consider an analysis that displays the year in the results.

 

If I have a single dashboard page with two separate prompts with a view of two separate reports is it possible to link prompt 1 to only affect report 1, and prompt 2 to only affect report 2 when both reports have a "is prompted" filter for a field that is present in both prompts? 
 

This might require testing with the specific dashboard, so please reach out to the Support Team.

 

Can you use a saved set as the basis for an analytics report?  If so, is that true for both logical and manual sets?

You cannot directly create an analytics report from an Alma set.

 

Is there a trick for an analysis with no filters at all on a dashboard page to not run and populate all possible results before the prompt is applied?

Simple but not very nice to look at: Edit Dashboard > Dashboard Properties > [select the dashboard page, like where you rename that page], then choose "Prompt before opening." See the Analytics Listserv for other ideas. 

 

If you hadn't added the filter to each Analysis first ("is prompted"), would adding this prompt to each of the tabs in the dashboard still have worked? 

There needs to be a filter on that column that matches the Dashboard Prompt, but the filter doesn't actually need to be set to "is prompted." Regardless what the filter is set for, it will take the selection from the Dashboard Prompt and use that as the filter.

 

Not the topic for today but I wonder where you change Analytics default currency from $ to our local currency (e.g. in all the Out of the box Funds reports from Ex Libris)? There must be a way to do this without editing specific reports.

As far as we can tell, there is no way to change it. Because of that, Ex Libris staff is working to remove currency symbols from out-of-the-box reports. (The numbers displayed in those fields of those reports will be whatever currency your Alma environment is set for; it's just that some of the column headings and currency markers built-in to the report have the $ symbol.)

 

---

October 16, 2024

 

Question from Attendee: Is it possible to configure a column that instead of NULL - we use a specific word. E.g. when the column has an "electronic" word then put e-resource.

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: Sure! Use the CASE-WHEN-THEN-ELSE function, but instead of "WHEN NULL" use "WHEN ..." and then the LIKE function we used to match words.

 

What’s the difference between loan year and loan fiscal year? 

Loan year will be the calendar year, and loan Fiscal year will be your fiscal year, which might be in line with your academic year.

 

To clarify, "fiscal year" is defined at the institution level, right?

Yes, the fiscal year is going to be whatever dates correspond to the fiscal year at your institution.

 

Is there a way to recognize afterwards from which dimension a prompt field was selected?

You'll need to go edit the prompt to see which field was used.

 

Can you use a filter for loan date? What is the difference between using a prompt for loan date vs filter loan date?

The prompt allows the consumer of the report to select the parameter of the prompt. A filter is set by the creator of the analysis and the results are displayed; the consumer cannot change the loan date. 

 

I am thinking that consumer = patron. Is this how you are defining consumer? Or are you defining consumer as librarians or staff?

An Analytics consumer is usually a librarian or a staff member at your institution. It's anyone you want to see the report.

 

Is it possible to share prompts across reports or do they need to be created for each report?

Prompts can be created for a dashboard, which could affect multiple analyses. We showed that last week. Other than that, no, you cannot share prompts.

 

When you want to include a link to rerun the report: If you use the COPY URL option from an Analytics object, do you need to use the rather complicated option to edit the URL to rerun the report? (which was just demonstrated)

Yes. That's how you create an internal link to the prompt page.

 

If a consumer accesses an Analytics Report via a URL link, do they still need to login to Alma (use an Alma license) to get to the report?

We will discuss this in Session 7 about Analytics Objects, but for now: When you use an Analytics Object to share a report, the link can be provided to anyone; they don't need to login to Alma. But if you copy the URL from within the Analytics tool, it may not work for someone who doesn't have the Design Analytics role on their Alma user account.

 

What is the difference between creating a prompt via the Prompts tab vs using the filter function and specifying 'is prompted' - does using Prompt tab allow more editing for specificity?

The difference is whether you are creating a report prompt (as we're demonstrating in this session) or a dashboard prompt (which we demonstrated last week). The "is prompted" filter operator is used for reports that are embedded in dashboards and filtered via a dashboard prompt.

 

If you have a dashboard with reports from different subject areas (E.g. Fulfillment and Users). Can the Dashboard prompt include a field such as PURGE DATE, which is included in the different subject areas but with different paths (In Fulfillment the path would be: "Borrower Details"."Purge Date" and in Users the path would be "User Details"."Purge Date").

When you create a prompt, you have to indicate the one Purge Date field that it applies to (for example, Fulfillment). That prompt will not affect a report on the Dashboard that displays the Purge Date from the User Details folder.

 

I would like to create a dashboard that can be accessed by my colleagues at our library.  On the team dashboard, I would like to include a report that shows all acquisitions expenditures (physical and electronic) according our fiscal year.  Ideally, I would like my team members to be able to select the fiscal year, using a prompt for that report.  How do I do that?  

This would use a Dashboard prompt for the fiscal year. We demonstrated how to add a Dashboard prompt in last week's session.

 

Is it possible to offer a prompt where the consumer could paste in a list of item barcodes to get the report data for those items? 

Answer from another attendee: I have a report in which you can paste in a list of MMS-IDs in order to pull the OCLC number.  I imagine you could do a similar report with a list of semicomma delimited barcodes to retrieve some other information.  It is in the Community reports for Purdue University Northwest.

 

What does "Active" titles mean if it is still necessary to limit to "In Repository" in Lifecycle?

Active titles is the count of active titles. However, the In Repository lifecycle for bibliographic records will ensure that no deleted titles appear in the results. Without that filter, deleted titles might display in the report with a 0 count, since there are 0 active titles.

 

Can you drag a field from the left into the Filters area?

No, Analytics does not allow dragging a field into the Filters area. You could however drag the field into the columns, create a filter off of the column, and then remove the column from display.

 

What if you want it to be an exact match? "Computer" or "computer", but not "computerized"?

Probably best to contact Support for that. Or maybe ask other folks on the Analytics Listserv for ideas. You can't really do that with the LIKE function. It may be possible to do with a REGEX (regular expression) function, which we may have time to show next week, but we won't be able to show your kind of example.

 

Is there a subject areas definitions for dummies list anywhere? 

See the Subject Area documentation here.

 

What flavor of SQL does Analytics use? Oracle?  

It's really its own SQL syntax, but it's mostly Oracle (since it's an Oracle software). This is part of why we share examples of SQL syntax for Analytics that you can use as a basis for further refinement.

 

Where do we get those SQL out-of-box prompts?

We've shared some in the exercises for this session. We'll also share resources at the end, including where you can find more examples of SQL for analytics.

 

I'm hoping I can get help with editing a report I created. I have a column for barcode and a column for call number.  I have a filter where I can enter a list of barcodes, then get a result of the call number that matches the item with that barcode.  My problem is that my results list in numerical order by barcode.  How do I get the order to stay in the order that I entered the barcodes in the filter?  Would there be a prompt option that would work better than a filter? Thanks so much!

This will require some testing to see if/how the report could be reconfigured to prevent the barcodes from sorting alphabetically (since that's how Analytics works by default). Please open a case so the Support Team can look at your report and advise further on possible options.

 

Is there any reason it's better to make the title in the prompt results both lowercase, rather than making both uppercase?

Either option would work; lowercase is possibly more readable, and that's the more standard method used in programming. (There also may be some subtleties we don't know about, like maybe the system looks at all uppercase differently? Give it a try!)

 

Is it possible to do a prompt for ISBNs?  For example, if a record has two volumes, I would like to create a report and use a prompt for others to be able to retrieve ISBNs with only 13 digits (and also able to recognize ISBNs starting with 979s) in separate columns (the results: column 1 will have the 13 digits of vol. 1, and column 2 will have the 13 digits of vol.2)

This is a more complex reporting need than we can give a yes/no answer to. I'd encourage you to give it a try after completing this week's exercises, and if you need further advice, share the path to the analysis with the Support Team so they can test and assist more specifically.

 

Can we have the prompt stay with the report result?

Not with a report prompt. If you put a prompt into a dashboard instead, you could maintain the prompt and report separately.

 

I think there was an Alma Analytics certification mentioned in the first session - where can I find more info about that?

We found out recently that the quiz and certificate won't be ready until after the end of the series in early November 2024. (Clarivate is in the middle of transitioning to a new certification system.) We will post on the series home page when the exam and certificate are available; check back in late November 2024.

 

---

October 23, 2024

 

Question from Attendee: Do you have a link to the analytics list?

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: The analytics listserv can be found along with the other mailing lists on the ELUNA site.

 

A filter I was struggling with yesterday was figuring out "in house use" since that term is used for BOTH checkouts in the home library and items scanned in but not checked out... if I understood what I was doing correctly. 

I'd have to see your analysis directly, so it's going to be best to bring this to the Support Team's attention. If you would please open a case and let the support team know where you've saved the analysis as well as examples of the behavior you're seeing, they'll be able to assist.

 

Could you please direct me to the support docs that deal with formatting report tables for export (to csv/excel)? I can physically rearrange report tables in Alma but they export in the same order as the criteria page. I've search the knowledgebase but am not finding info on export to excel from analytics. Thank you. 

Answer from another attendee: To the question about getting columns to export in the order you want - using the Formatted option rather than the Data option will export the columns in the order from Results, Data will export from the order in Criteria.

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: Thanks! Yes, this is one of those variations in the export format choice that can make a difference.

 

What is the limit on the size of list you could paste in?

I believe the limit is 9,999 values when pasting (for example, into a filter).

 

Do you get a message if some of the barcodes aren't found?

You will not.

Maybe a question that will be covered later in the presentation - I’m trying to make a report of expired users, filtering out any users who ever had any closed fines, filtering out any that are part of two specific user groups, and filtering out any that currently have any user blocks. Since this is using info from 3 different subject areas (Users, Fines & Fees, and Fulfillment) I think I need to filter my report by another report. But – the user ID column is “user primary identifier in fulfillment and fines and fees, and just “primary identifier” in the user report. 

We'll cover "is based on results of another analysis" as a filter in our final session (week 8).

 

What is the use of the filter setting "equal to" with the value of "null" versus "is null"? I recently made a report as equal to null which returned an error, but when I changed it to "is null" it worked. I am essentially wondering the difference between the two and why the error occured as it seems the same to me but the system took it differently.

That "equal to" with the NULL selection is something that Oracle added by default. It would be looking for any field value that had the literal text NULL. Usually what you want is the "is null" operator, as in, any field that is empty.

 

Couldn't you just use the "Is like (pattern match)" rather than the SQL trick?

No, the same issue occurs when you try to enter a semicolon in the value field.

 

Could you edit column formula for 2022, and then duplicate the column, and then in the new column edit the column formula and change it to 2023?

Yes, there are a lot of different ways you could get to the same end.

 

I know this was said and I just missed it. When do we want to do the filter in the formula vs doing the same thing in the "filter the whole report" section?

The filter in the formula affects just the contents returned by that formula (in other words, that column of data), whereas the other filter affects the results of the entire report.

 

Sorry I'm sure I'm missing something but if you filter a date field to 2022 in the formula, or you filter the whole report by that value in that field, wouldn't you get the same result?

If you only had one measure field, yes. But if you want to have multiple columns, like one for 2022 and one for 2023, if you had a report-level filter for Year=2022&2023, then both of the two measure columns would display the totals for both those years.

You could always add the Year field to display in the table, but that would require an additional field to display.

This isn't something you'll always need in your analyses, but it's a useful tool to have in your pocket.

 

Why can't you filter any/all MARC fields?

Most of the MARC fields are included in Analytics as the relevant data they contain. If you do want to report on the MARC field as it appears in Alma, you can ask for support to assign it to a Local Parameter.

 

Also, will Bibframe eventually be compatible with analytics?

I would suspect yes, but I encourage you to keep an eye on the roadmap and release notes for any specific information and updates.

 

Concerning column filters - could you have two different fields making up your columns and allow user choice (or prompt) on either or both columns to show particular combinations of data that the user is interested in

That's a very interesting idea! I haven't tried that out personally, so you might need to do some testing. Most likely it would rely on a presentation variable prompt though, and that variable would be used in the column-level FILTER function.

 

Are all available field filters listed anywhere? specifically which fields offer a filter functionality- is there an available list of these specific fields collected in one place? 

Available fields are all listed in the Subject Area documentation. If you're referring to fields that are the pre-defined filters (like Start Date Filter), I don't know whether there is a specific list, but they're primarily available in the various "Date" folders.

 

If I have a report of a number of items,  I have the number of rows that Kevin just demonstrated. How would I determine the number of unique titles or bib records are in the report?

This is something you could use a COUNT function for - adding the COUNT function to the MMS ID column (or COUNT DISTINCT when you're concerned about uniqueness).

 

When do you use "if" vs. "when"?

"When" is the terminology used by Oracle for the CASE WHEN functions.

 

Is there a normalized pub date field in Analytics (that already does this cleanup)? Probably not if you're showing using regex. Just thought there might be one already.

There is not one, although the Begin Publication Date and End Publication Date fields are generally a bit cleaner, since they come from the 008 field. The Publication Date field being shown now is the free text field, which is a lot more messy (and makes for a good example to show generally how RegEx works).

 

How long will these resources be available on that website?

The series home page, with recordings, exercises, links to documentation, etc., will be available until we deliver this series again in the future!

 

Using "Evaluate('regexp_substr(%1,%2,%3,%4,%5,%6)', "Bibliographic Details"."Publication Date", '\d{4}', 1, 1, NULL, 0) " - what happens to wonky years like "19-- " ? It's not a correct date, but would the results omit this entry because it's not four digits?

Correct, those would show as blank since they wouldn't match the regular expression.

 

Is it possible to click on the Number of Items and have the mms ids of the individual records that fall into that year show up?

Yes, by setting up an action link! Which we won't be talking about in this series, and it doesn't seem to have any documentation. Send a Case to the Support Team, and hopefully they can help.

How can I build a filter that says Location Name is Not Equal to Temporary Location Name? (is there a way to compare between headers)

Build the filter using "Convert this filter to SQL" and then: "Location"."Location Name" <> "Temporary Location"."Temporary Location Name"

 

This isn't about filters, but I'd like to create a report that shows me all my orders, for physical AND e-inventory, by reporting code - I can't figure out which area to create the report in. Purchase requests seems to have some data in, but we don't really use purchase requests when buying things...

The Funds Expenditure area of Analytics has reporting codes, PO lines, and invoices as attributes. 

 

If you open a record in the MDE, and open the form editor for 008 or LDR, does it show the LoC position numbers or the Alma ones?

The Library of Congress positions display in Alma.

 

Aren't filters like LANGUAGE already in the list of predefined fields? Not sure why I need to look for it in the 008 position here?

Language Code is an attribute in the Titles subject area. The examples for this exercise are showing you how to use any part of the fixed fields to use as a filter. 

 

How does the RCOUNT function handle merged rows, like the same title in multiple libraries? Does moving its position change how it counts the rows?

When I tested this, it counted both rows of a merged row, and it didn't matter whether the RCOUNT column was at the right side of the table or the left.

 

Can I create a "Bin" and use it in an second report?

Assuming you mean you want to save the Bin for re-use: No. But, as we discussed in other questions, there are ways to use one report as data for another report, if that is what you are thinking. 

 

Can an analysis be done by obtaining what titles you have physical and electronic records? 

Yes: Use two filters, one for each type of record. There are also some out-of-the-box reports that show this.

 

Why in some cases does the filtering prompt have no effect on the report? 

We would have to take a look at your report and your filter. Contact the Support Team and give them the location of the report.

 

Can a historical report be made for an item, with location changes, loans, etc.? 

Check out the Subject Area: Physical Items Historical Events

 

Can you use the bins tab option for grouping numbers?

Yes! It works the same way. 

 

Any idea if there will be any sessions for ALMA admins? Or are these tools and functionalities applicable for admins as well?

The information that is shared during this series is applicable for admins as well as any users with designs analytics roles. You need the Designs Analytics role to create analytics reports and dashboards, and you need the Analytics Administrator role to share those analytics reports with others in your institution, via Analytics Objects (next week's topic). 

 

---

October 30, 2024

 

Question from Attendee: What role do I need in order to see this Analytics Object List?

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: The Analytics Administrator role.

 

Could you also tell me how to create a Widget with analytics. I see the parameter on the object (Add as widget) but I don't have it then appear on the dashboard to add it. Thank you.

We discussed the procedure to make an Analytics Object into a widget in the session but, if an Object widget doesn't appear in your (or someone's) Alma home page, then it is probably because you don't have the Roles attached to that Object.

 

Can you share reports/dashboards or objects with people who do not have an Alma account?

Only through the Scheduled Report part of the Object, and only if you send the report as an Attachment.

 

Are you going to say something about the "report URL" option? Do you still need an Alma login if you access a report via the report URL?

If you get an analytics report URL, you need to have Alma login access. The only way for someone without Alma access to get an analytics report is when the Object's Scheduling sends the report as an Attachment. 

 

Can you make objects from Network Zone folders?

Answer from an attendee: "Yes, I can create an analytics object from a report in our NZ folders (CARLI consortium)."

 

When you add the reports into objects, do they update? Like if you have the fines/fees dash will it show up with new fines after it is added as a report?

Yes, it will show whatever data is applicable at the time you open/run the Object (just like you would when a Design Analytics staff member runs the report the OBI site directly). The exception to this is if you send a scheduled report as an attached file, which provides a "snapshot" of the current data as of the time the report was run for the attachment.

 

Does Alma provide embed code for its widgets? For example, to put it on a website? 

I do not believe this is currently possible, since widgets are restricted to particular Alma users/roles. You'd more likely need to use an API to retrieve the data and display it on an external site.

 

Is there an alma letter associated with sending reports this way?

Yes, it's the Analytics Letter. It is not enabled by default, so you need to configure and enable it.

 

Is there any way to get data from the Analytics object into the letter?

Not at present. The Analytics data isn't included in the Letter XML, so it can't be added to the letter.

 

Can you use prompt selection for reports you are sending in Excel - e.g., same report, but prompt selected with a specific member of consortia?

No. You'd have to create separate objects with separate defined filters for the desired data.

 

So it is either/or - link or attachment? 

It is, yes. You could create a duplicate object if you wanted to schedule some particular users to get it in the other method.

 

What is the difference between adding someone to receive a scheduled report and adding them as a subscriber?

Those are the same thing. The difference is between Subscribing (getting the email with the report) and Sharing (which are the people and roles who have access to the object in Alma itself.)

 

If an analytics admin creates a scheduled report and shares it with specific roles, do users in those roles (or the admin in the way we just saw) need to manually subscribe to these reports or are they automatically subscribed when it is shared? 

Sharing and subscribing are separate settings for an Object. Adding roles or individual users in the Sharing setting makes it so that the users are able to view the Object in Alma. But they are not subscribed automatically when the Object is shared. They can subscribe themselves to the Object when looking at it in the Shared With Me page, or an Analytics Administrator can subscribe them to the Object.

 

Is there a report of all analytics objects and who are subscribed to them and who have the analytics objects added as widgets?

In the Analytics Catalog, in the Alma folder (default, out-of-the-box dashboards and reports), there are two folders that may have what you're looking for: Analytics Objects, and Analytics Usage Tracking. And if they don't have what you're looking for, you can create a new report or dashboard using those two subject areas.

 

Is there a way to see what analytics objects have been shared with a particular user role?  Eg all objects shared with the Catalog Manager

I don't think so, but there might be something in the Analytics reports (see previous question). 

 

Is there a list that tells you exactly which MARC fields and subfields you can report via Analytics? Under the Titles area, most of the options have friendly names, like 'publication date', but that doesn't tell you which field(s) and subfield(s) it pulls data from...

This documentation page tells you which MARC fields that Analytics uses.

 

How can users of Alma Analytics contact Oracle support for questions that are outside the scope of support of Ex Libris? In my Analytics account, there's a user id, but I don't know which email and which password are associated with this id. When I try to log into "My Oracle Support", I'm asked for the password. I used the forgot password function but did not receive an email. When I try to log into the "Oracle Cloud Portal", the user id is invalid.

You cannot contact Oracle Support, because the customer/user of that Analytics Account with Oracle is Ex Libris. You need to submit a case to Ex Libris Support and, if necessary, those folks can pass messages on to Oracle Support. (It's similar to how patrons at your library cannot file a ticket with Ex Libris Support.)

 

---

November 6, 2024

 

Question from Attendee: Can you return just part of the information in a column? For example, just the information after the / in 'Title (complete'

Answer from Clarivate / Ex Libris Staff: This is probably possible using functions, but the specific example would need to be reviewed; submit a case to the Ex Libris Support Team to get assistance, and share the path to the report.

 

Is it possible to edit the prompt (Prompt Material Type and Year_PR) e.g. of the report "Trends by month" in the Dashboard "Usage via COUNTER Reports" that the current year plus the last 2 years are preselected/set as default?  I tried e.g.  "Usage Date"."Usage Date Year" BETWEEN YEAR(current_date)-2 AND YEAR(current_date) as well as  "Usage Date"."Usage Date Year" BETWEEN YEAR(TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_YEAR, -3, CURRENT_DATE)) AND YEAR(TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_YEAR, -0, CURRENT_DATE)) and select BETWEEN YEAR(current_date)-2 AND YEAR(current_date) from "Usage Data" but it does not seem to work.

Please submit a case for this question.

 

If a report uses the output results of another can you share that via Analytics objects. Do both reports update when run if date is e.g. last 3 months

Yes. Both reports are run/updated when the analysis is run.

 

Suggestion from another attendee: A good use for a saved column is the Publication Date field. A couple of weeks ago you showed how to use a regular expression to return a 4 digit year by removing punctuation characters from the field; this can be best shared between reports using a saved column.

 

Suggestion from another attendee: In reorganising folder structure in our institution some reports shared in Analytics objects no longer worked as the location path had changed. Needed to removed and added again

 

Are the saved columns for a particular subject area only visible/available to be used when creating a new analysis from the same subject area? (i.e. if I save the column from an analysis from the subject area Titles, would it be available when creating a new analysis from the Fulfillment area)

Yes, the saved columns can only be used for reports in the same Subject Area as the saved column. When looking in the Catalog to add a saved column, it only displays the saved columns from the same Subject Area.

 

If changes are made to the original column, does it update the saved version?

Yes. You have to edit the saved column itself … not the original column in the original report where you first made that column. But once you do, any time you open/run a report where you inserted that saved column, it will use the updated column properties and formulas.

 

So you can't navigate/search for the image path - you have to copy it this way?

Yes, you would need to enter it manually by copying and pasting or if you know the image path you could type it in

 

Why can't one use the "Upload Image" button on the image?

You could do that. But the Analytics system stores the image in a folder with all the other images that other institutions have uploaded in that way, so it is difficult to find the logo for your own institution. It is easier to find (and update) images in a folder in your own institution folder.

 

Are there plans to enable you to use a set from Alma as an input in analytics?

Not that I'm aware of. Submit that to the Idea Exchange so other institutions can weigh in on the idea.

 

Is it possible to create a set from a report that requires input via a prompt?

The set will be created from the data that is showing, not the prompted data.

 

Is it possible to create a set that uses a analytic report the way you showed by an scheduled job? Use case: first of the month a set of users with a certain expire date

This is not possible currently. Submit this as an idea on the Idea Exchange.

 

Can you create a logical set from an Analytics report?

[Also] A set created from an Analytics report is always itemized? Does not update autoamatically?

A set created from an Analytics report can only be an itemized set. But an Analytics report is, essentially, creating a logical set of results that match the criteria (filters) of the report. Therefore, each time you need the set, you could create a new set based on that report's output. But if you really need a logical set like that, you probably should create the logical set in Alma with the filters you need, and not use Analytics to do it.

 

What is the difference between Previous Complete 2 years and Previous Complete 24 months?

Using the reference point of when this question was asked (early November 2024): The previous complete two years were 2022 and 2023, because 2024 isn't yet complete. The previous complete 24 months are Nov. 2022 through Oct. 2022, because November 2024 is not yet complete.

 

Why is barcode showing in results tab blue? I noticed this today in my reports too. sometimes field name is (regular) black font and sometimes blue (I had to step away twice during webinar--so if you answered apologies) thank you!

In that report, the Barcode column was filtered, so it shows as a hyperlink for more information about that column.

 

Will we discuss how to change the colors of charts and graphs? Like to change the colors to be company branding colors for example.

Yes, you can do this in the Properties of the graph.

 

Can we upload a local report into BI for that to become the input, kind of like a static "report" that is used for sets or filter by output of report.

No, that capability isn't available. Submit that to the Idea Exchange so other institutions can weigh in on the idea.

 

Could you please explain the difference between In House and Not In House?

Num of Loans (In House) - The number of items that were registered as "in-house use" when they were scanned in at a circulation desk.

Num of Loans (Not In House)-The number of items that were actually loaned to patrons.

 

Hi! I was the person who asked about this filtering a report by another report. And an issue I encountered was one info silo used "primary identifier" (users silo) while the other used "user primary identifier" (from fines silo). Any idea about how to overcome that, when I want a report to be able to filter those out from a big list of users?

If you want to filter on both of those fields, then yes, filtering one report based on the output of another report is the way to go. If you're concerned that your results may not reflect what you need, check with the Support Team by submitting a case.

 

Is a new PO Line created every time a user requests an e-inventory item?

This is not related to Analytics, but Purchase Order Lines are created by an acquisitions staff members. Patron-driven acquisitions workflows are discussed here.

 

I have a question about a dashboard I created.  I have a date range prompt.  And once I get results - I don't have the Export button at the bottom of the table.  I just see Return - Create Bookmark Link

Check in the Page Options (gear icon) in the upper-right corner of the page. There should be an option to Export to Excel > Export Entire Dashboard.

 

When adding conditional formatting to a field in a report, does the color distinction you create carry through and show in Excel if you export to Excel?

Yes, if you export Formatted to Excel. However, as some other attendees noted, exporting Formatted (rather than Data) can introduce other problems in the file. You'll want to test both to make sure it works the way you need it to. (And, by the way, you can also set up Excel with conditional formatting!)

 

How to conditionally format based on entry of a prompt?

I don't think this works. A prompt is a setting for a filter, so when you make a choice on the prompt, all the results will match that prompt (and any other prompts and "permanent" filters that were used).

 

[When informing the Support Team in a Case where to find a report you're working on.] It can't go in your "My folder", though! Support hasn't been able to see those reports for me.

Correct. Nobody else except you can see anything in your My Folder folder ... not the Ex Libris Support Team,  and not even another Design Analytics staff member at your institution.

 

Question from a topic a few weeks ago, Kevin showed how to add a variable to a title of an analysis that is based on a prompted field (so that the report's title can show the date that was entered by the user), but is it possible to add a variable to a title based on a autocalculated field by analytics (so the date is autocalculated, i.e. the last 365 days, instead of being prompted and entered by the user)?

This may be possible, but it's difficult to explain here. Submit a case to Support for assistance.

 

Question from creating prompts: Is there a way to filter the options that a consumer has access to when creating a prompt?

Yes! It's part of building a prompt. On the New Prompt popup, open the Options section, then change Choice List Values to Specific Column Values and start adding in value choices.

 

How long will the recordings, documentation, and exercises be available?

They will be available until the next time we run this series ... likely in late 2025 or 2026.

 

How do you navigate to the Alma Analytics test?

The Analytics: Become an Expert quiz and certificate of completion are not available yet (as of Nov. 6, 2024). We're in the middle of moving to a new testing system. When it is available, instructions will be listed on the main page of the series.

 

re prompts - how to conditionalize drop-down choices of one prompt based on selection of a prior/higher prompt

This may be possible, but it's difficult to explain here. Submit a case to Support for assistance.

 

Several times when you created a SQL filter in previous classes, the formula filled in automatically, as if it was pasted from a copied text. Is there a guide to the specific SQL syntax Analytics uses anywhere?

Kevin and Rachel "cheated" and copied and pasted SQL from their notes, to speed up the demonstration. But you can find some SQL examples on the Common Analytics Procedures page, and also the Developers Network. There's always lots of help at the Alma and Analytics listservs. And SQL is a basic programming tool, so you may find what you need by looking around the internet.

 

Suggestion from an Attendee: Prompt values can be limited using SQL statement too

 

If I want to use "conditionally change text format" to highlight a row (cell fill colour), do I have to format every column separately, or is there a way to conditionally change a row based on a column value. For example, the user wants to highlight values > x (x in prompt). I just want a row highlighted if the value in one column is less than some value

I don't know if there is a way to highlight a whole row when one cell on that row fulfills a particular condition. But, yes, you can have a condition be when the field is "greater than" a value. And yes, you can have a cell background change a particular color when the field meets the condition.

 

How can we compare two columns in the filter? For example, we want to find all users who have expiry date (column1 ) less than one month from the account creation date (column2). 

You could do it with creative SQL programming. But if you'd rather not go down that path, you could make two reports and create the filter in the second report based on the "results" of the first.

 

Always been curious: what is the use case for Selection Steps (seen at the bottom of Results in a report)?

None of us has ever used these! So, I had to check the Oracle Analytics Server documentation: "Selection steps are applied after the query is aggregated and affect only the members displayed, not the resulting aggregate values. For example, suppose that you have a list of members in which the aggregate sums to 100. If you remove one of the members using a selection step, then the aggregate sum remains at 100."

 

What if you wanted to see the item's actual receiving date on that report, could you add it?

You can add any available data element to the report.

 

---