Design Manager

Design Manager provides advanced reporting capabilities, allowing for detailed data intersections and the selection of dimension members from multiple models. It also enables you to choose Point of View (POV) options. 

How to Use the Design Manager?

1. In SpotlightXL, Go to Report > Design.
2. Select the desired cell and click Design Manager to view the current dimension and member. 
3. You can change the dimension value by clicking the member select icon, selecting a new value, and then click Update. All row and column dimensions and members are treated as "member" cells. See Identifying POV Dimensions for more information.

The cell is referred to as a "data" cell. Data cells represent data intersections, which are formed from the intersection of all dimensions in the model. If you select a new value for any of the dimensions, the data cell is automatically updated based on selections once you click the Update button on the Design Manager interface.

Select a blank cell and click Design Manager. Notice how the interface is updated to give you the option to create a data cell, dimension member cell, or POV cell.

You can also report off of any one model or multiple models available to you in the Model list box. 

Description of Fields

• Data - data intersection
• Member - Dimension Member
• POV - Option to Update Report Data

Data - Data Intersection

Report on the combination of two or more dimension members. Select members from a dimension intersection to populate the value within the report. You can pull data from an intersection for any model to which you have access. When Data is selected, the Model list box is available along with the dimensions that belong to the selected model as shown below.

You can select to exclude point of view (POV) dimensions in reports. For example, if your report has a page-level member for Company (My Cycles Company) and you want to show one cell of Total Corporate (My Holding Group) as a comparison, you can add the Total Corporate cell and exclude (or override) the Company POV for that cell.

Member - Dimension Member

Display a specific member name from a dimension. This replaces the cell with the name of the selected dimension member. When Member is selected, the Model and Dimension list boxes are available. Select the model from which you want to populate the report with dimension member information. Select the dimension that belongs to the selected model to populate your report.

When using POV and substitution variables, the member names will change based on the selected context.

POV - Option to Update Report Data

Make POV (point of view) selections based on a model and dimension. A POV is a method to allows users to select a particular member from a list box and then see all data in the report updated for that member. For example, if you want the user to be able to view different accounts, then put the Account dimension on the page level of the report, and make it a POV cell. As a result, data displayed in the report is controlled to display the selected Account dimension member. When POV is selected, the Model and Dimension list boxes are available.

Attributes

Select this checkbox to display the attributes that are available in the selected model. Uncheck this checkbox to hide the attributes from the Design Manager.

Filtering Members

Filtering member options is helpful when updating an existing report, finding specific report dimension members, and previewing members you might filter. 

Filter Member

How to Use Filter Member Option in the Design Manager?

1. Open a report in design mode by selecting the Report > Design.
2. Select the entire spreadsheet and click Design Manager.
   
3. Select a dimension member and select Filter Member.
   

Preview Filter Member

How to Use Preview Filter Member Option in the Design Manager?

  Filter Member:

1. Open a report in design mode by selecting the Report > Design. 
2. Select the entire spreadsheet and click Design Manager. 
3. Select a dimension member you want to preview before filtering. 

The result is that the cell range is displayed as shown below. This way you know exactly where the member exists within the report.

Identifying POV Dimensions

You often use the Design Manager to pinpoint what dimension intersections are being used for the data cells. Design Manager clearly shows how POV cells are being used. In a report, select one or more data cells and then click Design Manager. 

Similarly, if a user is running the report and wants to see what dimensions are being used in the report, they can select Metadata Viewer from the More menu. Then use Preview Filter Member to see details.

Excluding POV Dimensions in Reports

You can select to exclude point of view (POV) dimensions in reports. For example, in a model, if the price is maintained at the region level (Region dimension) versus the customer level (Customer dimension), you can exclude the Customer dimension as a POV in the report.

How to Exclude POV Dimensions in Report?

1. In SpotlightXL, go to Report > Design, select all the data in the report, then click Design Manager.
2. On the Design Manager window, click the Exclude POV checkbox.
3. Next to Customer, click the Exclude POV checkbox.
   
   
   
4. Click Update.
5. Save the report changes.
6. Run the report. When you change the POV for Customer and Refresh the data, no change is reflected. Only your changes to the Region or Scenario dimension affect the data.

Shared POV Dimensions Across Models in a Report

It is possible to design a report with a single Point of View (POV) cell that influences the data visible across multiple models represented by the data. This feature provides flexibility by reducing the need for multiple dimension selections when creating a consolidated report. A consolidated report amalgamates data from multiple models.

Consider two models, Sales Rep, and Sales Forecast, set up for an enterprise. The objective is to generate a consolidated report from both models. Some dimensions, such as Scenario and Region, are common between the reports. Despite the models sharing common dimensions, individual selections of dimensions from each model are necessary to create a consolidated report. Shared POVs enable the configuration of a single POV dimension for common dimensions within a report.

How to Set up Scenario as a Shared POV?

1. In SpotlightXL, go to Report > Design and select the first Scenario POV cell and click Design Manager. 
2. Use the horizontal scrollbar under Share POV and select the desired member.
   
   
   
3. Click Update. Next, delete the row containing the second Scenario POV cell.
4. Save the report design, then go to Report >Run. When you change the Scenario selection and click Refresh, the data for both reports is updated.

Refreshing the Report Data on a POV Change

With Refresh on POV change, you can specify if you want to refresh the report each time you change POV to see report data. Suppose you set Refresh on POV change to Yes. When you run a report, choose a POV to view the report, the report data contains refreshed data. By default, this property is set to No.

While running the report you can change the POV dimension member and if this property is set to Yes then the report will automatically refresh once you select any POV dimension member. In a sample report, if you have the Time dimension as a POV dimension and you select 2023 from the Time dimension then the report will be refreshed and the data for 2023 will be displayed in the report.