Forms Overview – Kepion Support Center

Introduction

A Form is used to show the data in a Model. Forms can be used as read-only reports, or as input forms to capture data. A Form in Kepion is composed of four sections: Rows, Columns, Filters, and Data. The rows, columns, and filters are driven directly by the Dimensions, while the data exists as the intersections between them.

Add a New Form

To add a new Form, you will need to go to the Modeler. Once you are there, go to the All Models section and select a Model.

Within the Forms section, you will find the following options:

Add: Add a new Form.
Remove: Delete a Form.
Import: Import a Form.
Export: Export a Form.

To import a Form, select the Import option. This will open up a pop-up window that will allow you to navigate to the file path that contains the Form .xml file.

To export a Form, select the Form of choice, and then select the Export option. This will open a pop-up window that will allow you to save the export as an .xml file, anywhere on your machine.

You can create a Form by clicking on the Add button within the Forms section. Once you create a new Form, navigate to it from the navigation pane or double-click on it in the Form tab.

Main

For a new Form, you will start with a blank canvas. We’ll need to select the Edit button to begin making changes.

In the MAIN tab, users will be able to view the Form.

Once you are in the Editor mode, you will have the following options on all the tabs:

Save: Save the changes that have been made.
Revert: Delete all changes since the editing session started.

On the Main tab, there are two additional options:

Refresh: Refreshes the page.
Post: Posts the data to the database.

General

On the GENERAL tab, there are several unique options for styling forms:

Paste: Paste values into cells.
Cut: Remove and get ready to paste value into cells.
Copy: Copy values to cells.

Text Styling Options: Includes text size, color, alignment, and text type.

Undo: Undo most recent action.
Redo: Redo most recent action.
Clear: Clear the selected cell(s) formatting.

Sort: Sorts selected values alphabetically or numerically.
Filter: Filter row or columns by selected values when the Filter icon is selected for that row or column.
Find All: Find all items that are equal to the value you are looking for.
Settings: Displays the Advanced Settings menu which controls the rendering and behavior of the Form.
: Displays additional options.

The additional setting drop-down has the following options:

Hide Empty Rows: Hides all rows without data.
Hide Empty Columns: Hide all columns without data.
Allow All Input: Overrides default input settings to allow input on all Dimension Members.
Show MDX: Displays a pop-up window of the Form's MDX.
Manage Formula: This is an advanced option that will translate formulas from spreadsheet coordinate space into MDX tuples.
Manage Data Filter: Allows users to filter data by columns. For more information, check out Configure Data Filter.
Advanced Settings: Displays the Advanced Settings menu which controls the rendering and behavior of the Form.

Layout

The LAYOUT tab does not have specific buttons, but lets the user select which Dimensions will be on which axes.

Structure Mode: There is a mode for spreadsheet if you would like to view the Form in an excel-like format. To select this mode, change the drop-down selection for Structure mode from Form to Spreadsheet.
Row: Add this item to the rows of the Form.
Column: Add this item to the columns of the Form.
Filter: Add this item to the filters of the Form.
Hide: You can choose to hide the members of a Dimension by checking the Hide option. This will cause those members to not show up on the Form, but will still be used to define the Form’s structure.
Reverse: This option moves the parent members from the top of their child members to the bottom. This is particularly useful for financial Forms where aggregations are shown on the bottom.
Filter Variable: The filter variable option is enabled when a hierarchy is used on a row or column axis, and provides a method of injecting members onto the axis based on filter selection.

Row and Column

After mapping the hierarchies to the axis, you can then select the ROW and COLUMN tabs to define the specific members to include. In order for the Form to appear in the Main/General tabs, you will need to select at least one item for the Row and at least one item for the Column. You cannot select the same items for the Row and Column.

In the Row and Column tabs, the following options are available. These options determine which Dimension Members will define the rows and columns, and can bring in whole sections of the hierarchy together.

Tip: For a detailed explanation on what the Single/ All (A) / Children (C) / Leaves (L) refers to, please go to the Part 4 - Forms I tutorial.

To organize the members along the axis, check each member’s checkbox and use the following actions:

Range: Add a range of members for the current model dimension selection. Range is useful for defining a time span by specifying start period and an end period.
Variable: Add a variable for the current Model Dimension selection. For more information, check out Configure Application Variables.
Set: Add a set to the current Model Dimension selection. The set can contain one or more members in the order of selection. For more information, check out Configure a Defined Set.
Headers: Add custom headers for display.
Axis: Add members from existing Form's axis definition. Useful when you already have a definition defined on another Form and you want to quickly bring that definition into the current Form.

Cross Join: When selecting member across multiple dimensions on the axis, it is important to observe the members that sit along the same row as this will determine how the axis will render when cross join is turned on.
Move Up: Move the checked items up.
Move Down: Move the checked items down.
Copy: Copy the checked items and add to the bottom of the axis definition.
Remove: Remove the checked items from the axis definition.
Check/Uncheck: When there are no items checked this action will check all items. When there are items checked this action will uncheck all items.

Filter

After mapping the hierarchies to the axes, you can then select the FILTER tab to configure the default filter behavior.

The Filter tab has two buttons:

Move Up: Select the item that needs to be moved.
Move Down: Select the item that needs to be moved.

You can specify which Dimension Member is selected by default in the Default Member drop-down. The Filter tab has many additional menu options. For more information on these, please read the Advanced Form Filter Settings.

Properties

The PROPERTIES tab allows you to configure the display properties of the Form's rows, columns, and filters. The tab has the same Add, Remove, and Move options as previous tabs, however, it also contains three sub-tabs:

ROW: Add, remove, or sort display properties for Dimension Members listed on rows.
COLUMN: Add, remove, or sort display properties for Dimension Members listed on columns.
FILTER: Add, remove, or sort display properties for Dimension Members listed in the filters.

Tip: To learn how to configure properties, please refer to Row and Column Display Properties, and Filter Display Properties

Advanced

The ADVANCED tab is used to configure more advanced components:

Dropdown: Configures a drop-down menu with members or calendar values. For more information, check out Add Drop-Down to Form.
Relationship: Configures relationship on a Form by using the measure from a linked model of the parent model. For more information, check out Configure Valid Relationships.

Native MDX

The NATIVE MDX tab shows the MDX code driving the Form. You can use additional MDX to define your Form once you have the layout and display properties specified. It is important to ensure the layout and display properties match with any custom MDX that is used to define an axis.

The MDX tab has a few sub-tabs:

To define your own custom MDX, enter in the MDX to the appropriate section such as on With, Column, or Row and choose to enable that MDX by checking one of the following:

Inject custom With syntax on query.
Inject custom Column syntax on query.
Inject custom Row syntax on query.

Tip: For more information on how to use the advanced MDX section, read the Customize Form Axis using Native MDX article, as well as MDX Training - Basics I.