BLISS User Manual 
Date:  12/02/98          Version:  1.5          Authors: Marina Arseniev, Tim Morse

  • What is BLISS?
  • What is required to use BLISS?
  • How do I exit BLISS?
  • Specifying Query Selection
  • Specifying Query Constraints
  • Submitting Your Query
  • Tabular Output
  • Controlling Tabular Output
  • Creating a Summarized Query
  • Creating a Distinct Query
  • Downloading Your Query Results
  • Launching EXCEL or Other Application to View/Process Results
  • Batch Queries - downloads at scheduled times
  • Saving Your Queries, Customizing Forms, Sharing Queries
  • Other options - Maximum Number of Rows, Timeout, etc
  • Improving Performance

    • What is BLISS?

     BLISS (Business Logic Information Selection System) is a tool that allows users to build sophisticated queries against a set of Data Warehouse-Aware Business Objects . Business Objects are simply models and code that emulate real world entities such as Ledger, Payroll, etc.

    What is required to use BLISS?

     BLISS requires at least a 166 MHz PC and Netscape version 4.0 or Internet Explorer version 4.0 or higher. Your monitor resolution should be set at 800 by 600 pixels or higher.

    How do I exit BLISS?

    To exit BLISS, click the button, or you can also click the small button on the
    upper right hand corner of your screen that looks like:

    Specifying Query Selection


    When you first enter a BLISS query form you will see query fields like this :

    Fund Code:

    Additionally, you will see buttons at the top with topics such as:


    Each button is like a Tab Folder and will bring up respective data.

    To get help on a particular attribute:

    To specify that you want an attribute to be returned in the result set:

    Specifying Query Constraints

    When you first enter a BLISS query form you will see query fields like this :

    Fund Code:

    Additionally, you will see buttons at the top with topics such as:

    Each button is like a Tab Folder and will bring up respective data.

    To change the qualifier on an attribute (i.e. attribute=x or attribute!=x)

    You can enter a single value to qualify the field by entering the value in the white box to the right of the operator. For example, to qualify the Fund Code, you can leave the operator as = and enter the number 68314 in the white box.

    You do not have to enter a qualifier value for an attribute to select it. Also, you do not need to select an attribute to enter a qualifier value for it.

    These are the operands that are available for querying in the fields:

    equal to Equal to.
    <= Less than or equal to.
    >= Greater than or equal to.
    not equal to Not equal to.
    pattern with case Case sensitive pattern match. Find all names that have the word DOE in them. You can also perform a wildcard search with the * character. For example, DOE* will find all entries starting with DOE. DOE*JOHN will match anything starting with DOE and ending with JOHN.
    pattern without case Case insensitive pattern match. Find all names that have the word john in them. You can also perform a wildcard search with the * character. For example, Doe* will find all entries starting with DOE, Doe, or doe. Doe*John will match anything starting with doe (lower or upper case) and ending with john (lower or upper case).
    sounds like Find all names that sound like "catcher". Will find: cacher, casher, cashr.
    between Between 2 values. A window will pop up asking you to input the starting and ending values.
    list of values List of values. A window will pop up asking you to input the a list of possible values.
    advanced An advanced query window will pop up that allows you to formulate more demanding and complex queries and joining them with AND or OR.

    Some fields may have a fixed set of allowable values from which you can choose from a pull-down menu:
    Colors:

    Only one field can be selected from this type of list.

    Selecting Multiple Values from Lists.
    Alternatively, you can select multiple values from lists such as:

    Several fields can be selected using the Ctrl key and the left mouse button at the same time. To select multiple values, simply hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while clicking the mouse button. Clicking again will de-select the item or items. Also, you can scroll through the list using the scroll bar at the right of the list by clicking the up or down arrows. A single fields can be deselected by choosing a different field. Try it now !

    The button allows you to view and select from a list of possible values that can be entered as a qualifier for a field. For example, clicking on the Sub Code field will bring up a choice of possible values for a sub code.

    Buttons on the left bottom portion of your screen...

    This displays in a window all the attributes you have selected and qualified
    This button will open a window that allows you to save your current query
    This button opens a window that lets you load a previously saved query
    This button lets you select the order in which tabular output will appear
    This button selects or deselects all the attributes on the current screen
    This button will reset all of the attributes on all screens

    Buttons on the bottom central portion of your screen...

    This button will open a window containing this help document
    This button will reset all the attributes on the current screen
    This button will submit your current query
    This button will close the query window

    Submitting Your Query

     To get the result of your query you have to submit it. At the bottom of the query form you will see a set of buttons like this :

    Tabular Output

     If you submit a query that returns more than one row of data, you will see a list in tabular form like this :
    Sub Object Financial Class
    00 0000 SALARIES - ACADEMIC - UNDESIGNATED
    01 0000 SALARIES - STAFF - UNDESIGNATED
    02 1180 IAP AWARD FUNDING
    03 2900 TRAVEL - OUT OF STATE
    03 2901 TRAVEL - FOREIGN

    There could be one or more columns where the values have hypertext links (normally in a color other than black). When clicked, these links allow you to view related data in the database. The values in the leftmost column will normally lead you to a full-screen version of the corresponding row, with all information available. Other columns will lead you to related data screens.

    Controlling Tabular Output

     The tabular output will normally only display a sub-set of the attributes available. However you are able to change the selection of which attributes should be displayed by clicking the checkbox on each attribute.

    Creating a Summarized Query

     The Summarize box allows you to display summarized results rather than full detail. For example, you may want to display the total amount for General Ledger transactions for a specific account/fund combination rather than all transaction details for this account/fund combination. To summarize data, you must first select an attribute or attributes to summarize on (such as department_code, account_code and sub_code) by clicking the checkbox next to the attribute name. You must then unselect all other fields, except the amounts that you want to see summarized. To unselect a field, you will have to uncheck the respective attribute.

    In general, the more criteria you add, the quicker the summary will be displayed. For instance, selecting summarization by a field such as an organization_code may result in a delay since there may be alot of data at the organization level. However, a summary for a subdivision or department may produce results much faster because the search is more limited.

    Creating a Distinct Query

     Distinct
    By checking the Distinct checkbox, all duplicate rows will be eliminated from your query output. For example, if you are querying employee information by department code, and one of the employees has two departments s/he belongs to, then the information would appear twice in the output. Checking "Distinct" eliminates this.

    Downloading Your Query Results

    The Download box allows you to create a data file that can be downloaded to the desktop. To use this feature, you must first configure a Netscape Helper Application. To create a download extract data file, you must create your query, press the Download checkbox and then press the Submit Query button. The data file is in tab character delimited format, carriage-return and linefeed terminated lines. As such, the data is ready for import into many applications that will accept tab-delimited data (these include Access, Sybase etc.) There is currently a limit of 50000 rows placed on the download file. EXCEL is currently limited to 16000 rows of data for Office 95. The limit is 65,538 rows for Office97. Please contact AdCom Services if this row number is insufficient.

    Launching EXCEL or Other Application to View/Process Results

     The Download box allows you create a data file that can then be directly imported into a desktop application such as EXCEL via a Netscape Helper Application. To use this feature, you must first configure a Netscape Helper Application that launches your desktop application for the download file. Then, you can follow the guidlines in Downloading Your Query Results

    Batch Queries - downloads at scheduled times.

    A user that wishes to run queries from a host at scheduled times rather than on demand can do so by saving a query as outlined in: Saving Your Queries....

    and running it from a host via HTTP (the Web itself).

    Please call AdCom Services at x8500 and obtain the necessary system information to invoke batch downloads.

    Saving Your Queries, Customizing Forms, Sharing Queries

     It is often required to run the same queries at regular intervals. To perform this task most efficiently, the user should formulate the query, test it, and if satisfied, save a query using the Save Query button on the form. The query can be saved with a name (that can include spaces) and a description for future reference. Subsequently, the same query can be loaded using the Load Query button. Any parameters that may need to be altered (such as a Monthend Date) can be altered after the query has been loaded by editing the loaded values. The Submit button can then be clicked to run the query. The Reset button clears the loaded query and resets the form to its default values. To delete queries that are no longer useful, use Load Query and then the Delete Query button should be clicked and directions on the "Delete Query" form followed.

    Another useful feature that the Save Query button can be used for is to customize your forms. If it is the case that everytime you use a form you select or de-select particular data fields, check the Download checkbox or Summarize checkbox, or make any other changes, you may want to save the query with the Save Query button. Subsequently, you can use this query with your default parameters set. This query could then also serve as a template query for building more complex queries. You may consider adopting a naming convention for your queries that allows you to build off of some "base classes" of template queries.

    Again, the naming conventions adopted for queries can reduce much of the complexity of managing queries.

    Other options - Maximum Number of Rows, Timeout, (etc.)

    Currently, 500 rows are returned to the Browser by default. 50,000 rows are returned in the download. The timeout is set to 10 minutes. In the future, these parameters will be user specified. For the time-being, please contact AdCom Services at x8500 if these are not reasonable.

    Improving Performance

     There are several factors involved in the response time of this application: