The Pennsylvania State University - Administrative Information Services, a unit of Information Technology Services

iTwo Glossary

A - C | D - E | F - G | H -Q | R | S | T - Z

A - C

Answers

The application within iTwo that allows ad hoc querying and report-building within various subject areas.

Chart

A graphical representation of data. Within iTwo, charts include area, bar, bubble, line, line/bar combo, line, time series, pareto, pie, radar, scatter, and step. Some charts are better for certain types of data than others. Pie charts show one dimension of categorical data, such as majors, gender, or registration status. Line charts are useful when showing enrollments within categories such as majors, gender, or registration status over a period of time. Area charts are similar to line charts but show each category within the context of a total. Bubble charts require too many continuous numerical dimensions for effective use in the Student Enrollment subject area.

Column Selector

Within Answers, a type of view (located under the Other Views submenu) allowing users to choose (via drop down menu) which columns they see in a table or pivot table. For example, a column selector including the columns for gender, ethnicity, and residency status will display a table with one of these attributes based on the user's choice in the selector drop down menu. The screen shot (below) shows what a user might see when interacting with a column selector. (See "compound layout" definition for a description of the other views). The screen shot (below) shows what a column selector looks like during its construction in Answers.

Column Selector from a User Perspective:

Column Selector example

Column Selector from the Developer's Perspective:

Column selector from developer's perspective

Compound Layout

Within Answers, a view (see "view" definition for more information) that allows the combination of other views using the same underlying query and data. For example, the column selector example above is a compound layout that includes title, filter, column selector, and pivot table views, or report components.

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D - E

Dashboard

The application within iTwo that allows users to interact with reports built in Answers through the use of dashboard prompts.

Dashboard Prompt

A dashboard prompt serves as the communication vehicle between the user and the report. Users select or type in criteria to limit what they see on their dashboards. For example, prompts allow the same report to be used for viewing enrollments at York Campus and at World Campus. The image below shows an example of a dashboard prompt:

Dashboard prompts sample

Delivers

The application within iTwo that allows the creation and scheduling of reports to be run automatically and sent to specified individuals.

Dimension

A way of breaking down the data into logical groups. For example, the Time dimension includes columns, such as semester, week, current week, and term. The Student Attributes dimension includes demographic columns, such as ethnicity, gender, full time/part time, and age range. Dimensions are connected to fact tables, which include quantifiable measures, such as enrollment count, FTE Count, or baccalaureate new admits. Dimensions, which organize related information, are conceptually equivalent to existing warehouse tables such as Transcript or Student Bio. In fact, another commonly used term for dimension is "table."

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F - G

Fact/Measure

Facts are items that are measured. They are usually numerical and represent head counts, FTE's, credits, dollars, courses, etc. Facts can be aggregated. The number of enrollments during Week +06 of FA09 at York rolls up, or is included in the number of enrollments at the Commonwealth Campuses during that same time period. Facts can also be derived, such as FTE counts.

Filter

Filters restrict the data that comes back within a query. Filtering for a specific campus will bring back records pertaining only to that campus. Filtering for a specific week or semester within Student Enrollment will bring back only those records from the specified time.

Green bar styling

A type of report style for tables and pivot tables that is conducive for importing into Excel. Data not in this format will include merged cells when imported.

Groups

See "security" definition.

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H - Q

Metadata

Metadata sits between the raw data in its various tables and the columns and dashboards shown on the web. All of the joins between tables happen at the metadata level so that they are seamless to people using the Web. Metadata can also contain repository variables (see "repository variables" definition for more information), such as Current_Semester or Current_Enrollment_Week. Metadata represents a logical view of the data and how it fits together.

OBIEE

An acronym for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, the product platform upon which iTwo is built.

Pivot Table

Within Answers, a pivot table displays rows and columns of information but is more compact than a table. Multiple column and row headers can be specified. You can also calculate subtotals and grand totals as well as percentages per row or column.

PY

Abbreviation for previous year.

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R

Repository

The underlying data within iTwo upon which Answers requests and Dashboards are built. Also known as the metadata repository.

Repository Variable

A variable created within the metadata repository and which is available to all users. Examples include Current_Enrollment_Week and Current_Semester.

Request

In Answers, a request is a query.

Rollup

In data aggregation, details sum to a subtotal, and subtotals sum to a grand total. For example, the enrollments for majors sum to the enrollments of a department. The enrollments of a department sum to the enrollments for a college. In other words, they roll up.

 

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S

Security

iTwo has two different types of security.

  1. User Security: Users belong to various security groups, such as deans, registrars, trainers, etc. These groups are assigned permissions based on job responsibility. For example, access to budgets will be limited by mnemonic so a dean of one college will see his/her own budgets but not those of another college.
  2. iTwo Function: Functional access is granted based on the level of training completed, as shown in the table below:
iTwo User Category iTwo Access Description Requirements
Everyone View Dashboards (in subject areas where they have the security) No Training Required
Basic Answers View Dashboards + basic answers functionality
Create and save filters, compound layouts, charts, tables, pivot tables, and Text views.		 Training required
Advanced Answers View Dashboards + Basic Answers + Advanced Answers + Delivers
Edit column formulas, enter XML and SQL, and create and save column selectors, view selectors, advanced filters, and other additional chart types. Users in the Advanced Answers group will also be able to create scheduled reports (Delivers) and automatically send them to themselves or others.		 Training required
Dashboard Developers View Dashboards + Basic Answers functionality + Advanced Answers functionality + Delivers + Dashboard Development
Create dashboards and link them to prompts.		 Training required

Note: Training is necessary because Answers is different than Microsoft Access, the tool most people understand from querying the data warehouse. The basics are easy to master, but the Advanced Answers training will require at least a conceptual knowledge of SQL and some programming background.

Session Variable

A session variable is specific to each user and their login session. For example, when a user logs in, their home unit and their work location are captured during the authentication process and placed into session variables. These are then used as defaults for the college and campus prompts in the Student Enrollment dashboards. Everyone has these variable assigned to them, but the variables contain different values customized for a particular user.

SQL

An acronym for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to manipulate data in databases. iTwo provides a graphical interface whereby columns (fields) and filters (criteria) are selected to create requests (queries), which are then passed to the underlying databases to retrieve requested data. This data is then wrapped within an XML query that controls the look and feel of the data. Both the SQL code and the XML code is viewable via the Advanced tab to users having access to Advanced Answers.

Subject Area

A pre-built dataset on iTwo allowing the use of user reports and ad hoc queries. Subject areas are similar to databases in the Data Warehouse. Currently, the Student Enrollment subject area is available.

 

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T - Z

Table

A "tabular" view of the data, with rows and columns. Spreadsheets are typically tables. iTwo has two basic table views: table and pivot table.

View

A view represents a particular way that data from a report is displayed. For example, views can be charts, tables, or narratives. A compound layout (see "compound layout" definition for more information) often holds several different views of the same data.

View Selector

This specialized type of view in Answers allows a user to specify which view to display via a drop-down menu within either an Answers compound layout or within a section on a dashboard page.

XML

An acronym for Extensible Markup Language. iTwo uses XML to control how data is displayed, what colors are used, and how objects such as compound layouts, view selectors, and dashboards operate. iTwo also uses SQL to talk to the underlying databases and retrieve the specified data. Both the XML code and the SQL code is viewable via the Advanced tab to users having access to Advanced Answers.

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Content Questions: AIS Support
Page Last Updated or Reviewed: Thursday, May 19, 2011