Straightforward navigation and object design
QMF for Workstation offers an extremely intuitive, graphical drag-and-drop design environment for visual reports and dashboards.
For example, the graphical query diagram view allows less-experienced users to join tables by dragging and dropping related columns, effectively "wiring" them together. The OLAP query designer allows you to drag and drop dimensions and measures of interest into queries and immediately see the results of those selections. Online assistance is available to help users create SQL and OLAP queries.
After the query is run, query results can be manipulated using a drag-and-drop, fully interactive data-analysis grid. This grid supports adding calculated columns (for example, adding a Total column that sums three columns in the query results). You can also use the grid to rearrange columns and group and aggregate the data, including using pivot functions.
Selecting from the graphical palette, you can also drag and drop charts, graphs, selectors, and other graphical elements onto the canvas and wire data to them, as appropriate. You can then size and position each element and manipulate properties such as format, color, and options. This capability allows you to customize items such as fonts, legends, and logos.
Clicked items carry their full context to the destination object or page. For example, by clicking on a pie slice that is embedded in a bar chart embedded on a regional map, data that characterizes region, sales month, and product ID can be automatically transferred to the destination object or page. After the data is transferred to the object or page, that data can be used to drive the drill-down charts and graphs that provide more information about the item. All graphical entities can be assigned drill-down actions so that you can customize what a particular part of a visual report or dashboard will do when it is clicked or dragged.
The Web client and desktop client environments share a common look and feel, which allows users to move from one interface to the other easily and reduces the need for additional training and its associated time and expense.
- QUERY
- Stores queries
- DATA
- Stores query results
- REPORT
- Stores query results as formatted by the report formatting specifications that are currently in the FORM temporary storage area
- FORM
- Stores report formatting specifications
To navigate to different parts of the form object, you can issue the SHOW command followed by the name of the form panel that you want to see.
- CHART
- Stores query results as formatted by the chart formatting specifications that are currently in the FORM temporary storage area
- PROC
- Stores procedures
- PROFILE
- Stores specifications and preferences for aspects of a user's QMF session
QMF for TSO and CICS also provides a straightforward, iterative design environment for reports. The RUN QUERY command returns query results; users can then issue various SHOW FORM commands to display a set of default formatting specifications for each area of the report, then iteratively build on these specifications until the report is final.