Calc Explorer

Overview

Calc Explorer enables administrators to gain insights into the calculation processes and analyze the performance of lengthy builds. It lays the groundwork for future enhancements in configuration and performance analytics. The Calc Explorer only captures items which take longer than 10 seconds to calculate. As an example, you may navigate to a report, and then to a period within the report, but find no components listed. This is because for that build, report, and time period no report components took more than 10 seconds to calculate. The Calc Explorer also shows builds specific to Trunk or a branch, separately. The user can switch between Trunk and any active Branch to view the desired builds instead of scrolling through the huge list. The “carat” will be displayed only if there are multiple calculations of the same build.

As of version 12.11.4, Calc Explorer is available to all administrators by default (GA).

Definitions

Field	Description
Build	A specific point in the progression of Check Ins that can be calculated for display in Flagship.
Calc	A calculation of a specific build.
Entity	A component of a project (e.g. Transforms, Metrics, Reports).
Calc Type	A description of the number of entities calculated compared to the entire project. All - A calc that requires all entities to be fully calculated. Example: A build that is triggered after cache clear or upgrade. A material change is checked in, such as a Project Time setting where additional time periods are added. Partial - A calc that requires the calculation of entities that are dependent on the change set. Example: A build that is triggered after a data upload or config change. None - A calc that requires no entities be calculated. Example: A non-material change is made to project such as disabling a report.
Query	The smallest unit of a calc, typically an entity for a specific time period.
Build Duration	Time taken by the build - in hh:mm:ss and in mins. You can search for the biggest or shortest build by specifying the range, like <5, >70, and so on.
Max Timeperiods	Shows the maximum number of time periods for the build.
Number of Queries	Shows all the queries in a build, in table form. You can search and sort for particular entities. The list of calculated time periods can also be brought up.
Change Set	What project changes were made since the previous build.
Changes	What Check Ins have been made since the previous build.
Calculation Effort	A measure of the resources needed to complete a particular query, expressed as a number. Example, 3.2M instead of 3,200,000.
Transform	A Table with all of its associate transform steps typically based off a raw data source.
Number of Columns	The number of columns in the output step of a Transform. Example, 2.50L instead of 2,50,000.
Number of Rows	The number of rows in the output step of a Transform. Example, 2.50L instead of 2,50,000.
Report	Report that contains a collection of KPIs, graphs, charts, and tables.
Report Component	A single KPI, graph, chart or table that is part of report.

Interaction

Clicking on a build in Calc Explorer displays a summary of the build, including various entities based on the scope of the calculation.

Partial Build

Displays entities relevant to the partial calculation.

All build

Features a Sankey diagram starting at Level 1, showing entities sized and sorted by Calculation Effort. Drill down into each entity for detailed calculation components and entity specifics.

Note: Only builds created after the Calc Explorer feature is enabled will be accessible; previous history is not available. This includes customers who had earlier access via the beta release.

Sankey Navigation

Reports

Click on the Report entity to drill to the first level of information where the top 10 reports are shown, with the remaining reports consolidated into a single flow. The size of each flow is based on the calculation effort and is sorted in descending order. Hovering over a report name displays the Calculation Effort for that specific report, including % of Total and % of Parent.

Right-click on the report to either open the document (for the selected period) or see the full data path.

Filter for specific reports by name by entering a search term in the Search Last Tier box. Navigate through the full list of reports by using the left/right arrows around the Showing 1-10 of X paging feature located below the Search box.

The second level drill shows the top ten time periods by Calc Effort, with the rest consolidated into a single flow. Here again, you can right-click on the time period to either open the document or see the full data path.

The third level drill displays the report components that are the most calc-intensive. By hovering over the component, you'll reveal detailed insights into its consumption of maximum calculation time, both in relation to its parent report and the aggregate time across all entities.

Note: Only Reports have a drill beyond the Time Period level

You can do the following to find the exact location of a report component:

Right-click on the report component in Calc Explorer.
Select "show document".
When the report opens the report component should be outlined in blue:

Transforms

Clicking on Transforms will take you out of the previous entity you were viewing, and display the first level of transforms with the default sort by Calculation Effort.

Transforms works the same way as Reports, except they have two secondary elements - row (red bar) and columns (blue bar). You can explore Transforms using Sort By to organize the flows by calculation effort, # rows, or # columns. The red and blue bars are secondary visual indicators and are controlled by the Show option:

The value in the first dropdown determines the thickness of lines and boxes
The value in the blue bar dropdown determines the height of blue bars
The value in the red bar dropdown determines the height of red bars

Only Transforms have the Rows and Columns attributes, as shown:

Right-click on the transform time period to either open the document or see the full data path.

Drills and Metrics

Drills and Metrics work similarly to Reports and Transforms.

Drills

Additional secondary metrics are introduced for drills to provide deeper insights into their related performance. To drill down for additional metrics, click on the Drills option. These metrics will provide the following insights:

Total Matrix Rows - Total number of rows in the calculated matrix
Total Matrix Columns - Total number of columns in the calculated matrix
Assignment Ratio Rows - Count of rows containing actual allocation values (excludes empty/zero rows)
Matrix Type - Indicates whether the matrix is dense (high percentage of non-zero values) or sparse (mostly zero/empty values)