Setting Up the IDO Source for a Critical Number

When defining a critical number, if the source for the critical number is to be an IDO, you typically need to define exactly what properties from the IDO are to be included in the critical number definition and how they are to be used.

To accomplish this, use the Critical Numbers IDO Source Setup form, which is available only from the Critical Numbers Setup form.

To set up the IDO source for a critical number:

  1. Open the Critical Numbers Setup form and use it to launch the Critical Numbers IDO Source Setup form.

    To launch the Critical Numbers IDO Source Setup form, click the Source Name button on the General tab.

  2. In the Basic Setup section, specify these required and desired settings:
    BField / Option Description / Comments
    IDO Name Required. From the drop-down list, specify the IDO that contains the property you need for your calculation.
    Function Required. From the drop-down list, specify the type of calculation you want to perform on the property value.

    For all functions except Count, you must also select the property that is to be monitored, in the field labeled of.

    • Sum calculates the total of all values of the IDO property that meet the filter criteria.
    • Count shows the number of records that meet the filter criteria.
    • Average calculates the total of all values of the IDO property that meet the filter criteria, divided by the number of records considered.
    • Minimum displays the least value of the IDO property for all records evaluated.
    • Maximum displays the greatest value of the IDO property for all records evaluated.

    The field labeled of displays only the properties that are valid for the specified function.

    Filter Optional. Specify a filter to be used in retrieving the property values.

    To help ensure the correct syntax, use the Filter button to launch the Critical Numbers/Drilldowns IDO Filters Setup form.

    For more information, see Setting Up a Critical Number/Drilldown IDO Filter.

    Display Blank Results Optional. When selected, this option instructs the aggregate operation to include all possible results, including data with an actual value of zero (0) in the critical number display.
  3. In the Generate Multiple Numbers By Group section, specify this information:
    Field Description / Comments
    Group By Optional. Specify in this field the name of the property by which you want to group results from the critical number query.

    This option is useful when you want to break out the results of your critical number query in some way.

    For example, suppose you have a critical number named "Total Sales" that performs a SUM operation on all prices for orders. If you use this critical number value, you would get just one value, the total of prices for all orders. The caption for this critical number, then, would be simply "Total Sales".

    Now suppose you want to break out the results by state. To do this, you would specify in this field the property by which to group the results, in this case, the State property. Then, when use that critical number, you would get results for each state with its own "subtotal" by state: Total Sales - Alabama, Total Sales - Alaska, Total Sales - Arizona, etc.

    Note:  In this case, you could also ask that each state be represented in the results displayed, even if you have no orders from that state, by selecting the Display Blank Results option (see above). In this example, that would mean that you would see a return of 0 for each state from which you have no orders.
  4. Use the options in the Date Ranges section to specify exactly how critical numbers based on date properties are to handle and present the data. Use these options if information that falls within certain time periods should be considered. You can select multiple date range options as desired.
    Note:  The Display Blank Results option also applies to date ranges. This means that, if you have no sales during the week to date, and you ask for sales data for the Week To Date (WTD) range, the Display Blank Results option makes the difference whether you get a result of zero for the WTD or there is no result at all for the WTD, and it is not even listed.

    For each date range option, you can specify:

    • Description Suffix: Specify what suffix should be added to the caption for a date-based critical number value. This suffix helps identify what the date range for the search is.

      For example, suppose you wanted to see a summary of all orders, both for the entire year so far and for the current month so far. You would select both the Year To Date option and the Period To Date option. ("Period" options default to "month", so you would want to change the description suffix to MTD.) When the critical number data is displayed then, you would have two displays, one captioned "Total Sales YTD" and one captioned "Total Sales MTD".

    • Goal: Optionally, specify here the number above/below which the critical number value is acceptable. A specification of zero (0) means that no Goal setting is specified.
    • Alert: Optionally, specify here the number above/below which the critical number value is unacceptable. A specification of zero (0) means that no Alert setting is specified.
    Field / Option Description / Comments
    Date Property From the drop-down list, specify the IDO property of type Date that is to be used to retrieve and calculate the critical number.

    If this field is empty, all other options in this group are disabled.

    Rolling Range This option allows you to specify a period of time based with reference to the current date.

    Use Days To Include to specify the number of days to include in each search; for example, 7 for a week's worth of data.

    Use Days To Offset to specify how many days to back up from the current date; for example, 1 for the data starting yesterday.

    So, using these two example values, you would be able to retrieve the previous week's data; in other words, one week's worth of data, starting one week ago yesterday.

    Year To Date This option specifies the period from January 1 of the current calendar year to the current date.
    Period to Date This option specifies a system-defined period in which the current date falls.

    By default, the period is defined as a month, in this case, the current month.

    Week to Date This option specifies the period of time that starts with the beginning of the current week through the current date.
    Note: The starting and ending days for a week are determined by the calendar of the culture. So, in one culture, the week might be defined as running from midnight Sunday through 11:59:59 PM the following Saturday. In another culture, it might be the same times from Monday through Sunday.
    Today This option specifies that the current date is to be used.
    Last Year To Date This option specifies the period of time that starts with January 1 of the previous calendar year to the current date.
    Last Year This option specifies the calendar year previous to the current calendar year.
    Last Period This option specifies the last full period previous to the current one.

    By default, a period is defined as one month, in this case the calendar month previous to the current month.

    Last Week This option specifies the week previous to the current week.
    Note:  The starting and ending days for a week are determined by the calendar of the culture. So, in one culture, the week might be defined as running from midnight Sunday through 11:59:59 PM the following Saturday. In another culture, it might be the same times from Monday through Sunday.
    Yesterday This option specifies the entire calendar day previous to the current date.
  5. To save your changes and return to the Critical Numbers Setup form, click OK.
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