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Viewing Reports

End User

When you select a report from the sidebar menu, it will open in the DataCentral viewer. This provides a full-screen, immersive experience for analyzing your data.

Because DataCentral integrates seamlessly with Power BI, the reports you see are fully interactive, exactly as they were designed by the report creator.

1. The Report Viewer Interface​

The report viewer consists of two main parts:

The DataCentral Toolbar​

Located at the very top of the screen, this toolbar provides options to manage the report within DataCentral. Depending on your permissions and settings for the report, the toolbar may contain the following buttons:

  • Edit Report: Allows you to make small changes and edits to the report (requires appropriate permissions).
  • Refresh Dataset: Manually refreshes the underlying dataset to ensure you're viewing the most current data.
  • Full Screen Mode: Expands the report to fill your entire screen, hiding browser toolbars and tabs.
  • Enable Heatmap Overlay: Displays a heatmap overlay showing user interaction patterns on the report.
  • Pin Report: Sets this report as your default report that appears on login at the home page.

2. Interacting with the Data​

Reports in DataCentral are not static images; they are live and interactive.

Cross-Filtering and Highlighting​

When you click on a specific data point in one chart (e.g., a bar representing "North America" in a bar chart), other charts on the page will automatically update to reflect that selection.

  • Cross-Filtering: Other charts will only show data related to your selection (e.g., a line chart will only show sales over time for North America).
  • Cross-Highlighting: Other charts will still show all data, but the portion related to your selection will be highlighted (e.g., a pie chart will show all regions, but the "North America" slice will be brighter).

Tooltips​

Hover your mouse cursor over any data point (a bar, a line, a map region) to view a "tooltip." Tooltips provide additional, detailed information about that specific point, such as exact numerical values or related metrics.

Drill Down and Drill Up​

If a chart displays hierarchical data (e.g., Year > Quarter > Month), you can "drill down" to see more detail.

  • Look for the drill-down icons (usually arrows) in the top corner of the chart.
  • Clicking the single down arrow turns on drill-down mode. Then, clicking a specific "Year" will drill down into the "Quarters" for that year.
  • Clicking the double down arrow drills down to the next level for all data points simultaneously.
  • Clicking the up arrow returns you to the higher level.

3. Using Filters and Slicers​

Reports often include controls specifically designed for filtering data.

  • Slicers: These are visual filters placed directly on the report page (e.g., a dropdown menu of years, or a list of product categories with checkboxes). Click or select items in a slicer to filter the entire page.
  • The Filter Pane: Sometimes, report creators place filters in a collapsible pane on the right side of the screen. Click the "Filters" tab to expand it and adjust the available options.

4. Navigating Pages​

Many reports consist of multiple pages.

  • Look for page navigation tabs, usually located at the bottom of the report canvas (similar to Excel spreadsheet tabs) or in a menu on the left side of the screen.
  • Click a tab to switch to a different page of the report.

5. Row-Level Security (RLS) Note​

If you notice that a report seems to be missing data (e.g., you only see sales for your specific region, while the chart title implies global sales), this is likely due to Row-Level Security (RLS).

Your administrator has configured the system to only show you the data you are authorized to see. The report is functioning correctly and securely filtering the information based on your user profile.