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Data Item Format

Introduction

Campus Data offers a variety of formats to choose form when publishing data items. An item’s format classifies the form of the data the user can expect. These formats range from raw data sets to highly polished visualizations or dashboards. Selecting the right data format is an important part of helping users decide whether or not to request access to an item, and ensuring consistent usage of formats will improve the user experience.

Data Formats

Use the guidelines below to select the correct data format.

  • Dashboard It's tempting to pick "dashboard" for everything, because it's the hot new buzzword in business intelligence. However, a dashboard is a very specific type of BI.

    A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.

    If the data item being published does not include all of those components - especially if it include lists that may extend multiple pages - do not select dashboard. Select Report or Visualization instead.

  • Visualization In a business intelligence context, visualization is the act of transforming tabular data into a visual representation that allows a user to more easily interpret the data's meaning. If a data item has charts, or other graphical representations of tabular data, but doesn't rise to the level of a dashboard, this would be a good option.

  • Report A listing of tabular data - often with the potential for multiple pages - with minimal graphical elements.

  • Dataset A collection of related sets of information that is composed of separate elements but can be manipulated as a unit by a computer. An example would be an Excel workbook or CSV file (either uploaded to Campus Data or linked to in another repository).

  • Cube There is no way to link directly from Campus Data to a SSAS cube or tabular model. However, you can publish a link to an external web page that tells users how to access the cube using Excel or PowerBI, and Campus Data will treat the data item like any other, prompting a user to request access if they’re not already in a security group configured on the data item.

  • Article The Article data format is often used to publish explanatory text or alternative types of business intelligence such as Infographics and other PDF formats.

  • Collection A Collection in Campus Data is a special type of data format, that is actually a set of links to existing data items. Teams will often use Collections to group data items into logical usable sets to be presented to a specific set of users.

  • Survey The Survey data format can be used to publish a link to a survey hosted on a survey platform outside of campus data.

  • API The API data format should be used to publish information about a programmatic interface to data. API’s are a mechanism to allow software developers and applications to exchange data within computer programs. Published APIs will often link to the documentation which enumerates the possible endpoints the programmer can call, the data that will be returned, and the security model used to protect the data.