GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Birst Express
Exercise 1:
Getting Started in Admin
Write your new Birst Username and Password here.
Username:
Password:
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Birst Express
Exercise 1:
Getting Started in Admin
Business Scenario:
SupremEats currently has eight data sources that are all contained in an Excel
filethe file is called SupremEats 2011. Your first role is to create a space in
Birst and upload your data file. You will then set your data sources Primary
Keys and connect related data sources together. You will also have to ensure
that identical columns have the same field names across sources.
Primary Keys: In each source, you will need to find a column that most
uniquely identifies that source (known as the sources primary key). Looking
at SupremEats data, you have found that each source has a column of
identification numbers that are best for uniquely identifying each source. The
only source that does not have a single column that uniquely describes it is
the Order Details source. You find, however, that the combination of two ID
columns will uniquely define that source.
Identical columns with different field names: To relate sources, they must share
a column in common. You know that one column is shared between two of
your sources but it is named differently in each source. You will need to keep
this in mind so that you can join your data sources correctly.
Birst Best PracticeWhen creating your space, add the suffix of DEV to your
space name to indicate that it is a development space. Once your space is
fully configured, it can be copied for QA and UAT testing and later renamed to
PRD for the production (live) environment.
Assignment:
Download sample data source (SupremEats 2011)
Open the SupremEats data source to study the content
Upload data
Arrange sources
Check your Primary Keys
Connect your data sources to related sources
Correctly map data fields
Process your data
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Exercise 1: Getting Started in Admin
Instructions:
1. Download the SupremEats [Link] data source from the following
website: [Link]/BirstExpress/Getting-Started/DownloadData
a. Select File>Download and save the data source on your computer
2. Review your data
a. See what data sources (i.e. spreadsheets) are present in SupremEats
2011 (e.g. Customers, Employees, Suppliers, etc.)
b. See what columns are in each source. Are any the same or similar? Are
they mostly different?
3. Log into your Birst Express account at: [Link]
a. Enter the Username and Password you created
4. Click New Space
5. Name it -SupremEats DEV-
a. Add descriptive Comments (include Source, Date, Name) and click Done
6. Upload SupremEats [Link]
a. You will now be on the Define Sources Browser Upload area
b. Click Browse and navigate to the location to which you downloaded the
SupremEats data file
c. Click Open
7. Click Upload (under file name and browse)
a. You will see the green status bar and the Success dialog box once
successfully uploaded
b. You are presented with two choices. You can proceed to prepare the
uploaded data for analyses or you can review and modify the data
model first. For this exercise, lets review the data model. Choose the
second option and then click OK
8. You will now be in Define SourcesData Flow
a. You should see eight boxed sourcesone box for each data source
b. Birst Express has automatically identified join relationships between
sources based on key relationships (i.e. shared columns within related
sources). The joins between sources are shown by the crows feet,
which represent one-to-many relationships
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Exercise 1: Getting Started in Admin
9. Adjust the visual arrangement of your sources by clicking-and-dragging
them
a. Customers place Order and Orders have Order Details. It may make more
sense to arrange your sources as shown below
NOTE: Rearranging your sources will not affect your data model. It is solely for
visualization purposes.
10. Set the primary key for each source
a. Right-click on each source and select Set Primary Key
b. Check the box(es) of the column(s) that make each data source unique
c. Click OK once you have set the Primary Key
Note: Birst has already picked your primary key but make sure the key Birst
selected is the proper primary key
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Exercise 1: Getting Started in Admin
Next, note that Shippers does not have a Related Source. This is because in the
Order source, the columns that the Orders source and the Shippers source have in
common have different field names: ShipperID and ShipVia.
11. Change the column name ShipVia to ShipperID in the Orders source
a. Right-click the Orders source and select Manage Sources
b. Under the column names, find ShipVia
c. Select ShipVia and then click the name again to change ShipVia to
ShipperID
12. Click Save and then Close
13. Connect the Shippers source to the Orders source
a. Right-click on the Shipper source
b. Select Join to a Related Source
c. Then select the Orders source
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Exercise 1: Getting Started in Admin
14. Now that your schema is complete, click Process and Analyze (shown below)
to update your data model
15. Your data will begin processing. If you stay on the processing page after your
data is processed, youll be automatically directed to the Designer Module. If you are
not, click Designer in the menu bar at the top of the page.
Fantastic! You have just created a Logical Data Model from your data based on logical
relationships.
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
Exercise 1: Getting Started in Admin
Review Getting Started in Admin
In the Admin Module, you created a new space, uploaded your data and
created a logical data model. To create a data model, you assigned Primary
Keys to columns that uniquely identified each data source. Next, you made
sure that all data fields were mapped correctly and you connected related
data sources. Finally, you processed your data in order to update your data
warehouse to reflect changes and relationships made when defining your
data model.
In exercise 2, Building Reports in Designer, you will create four reports and
used the pivot control to help you organize your information. You will also add
two types of charts to your reports.
Visit [Link] for more resources to help you get the most out of you
Birst Express Edition.
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names mentioned herein may be trademarks
of their respective owners. Product
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subject to change without notice.
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About Birst
Birst is the leader in agile business analytics. It offers a single place to manage all of a business analytics and agility
to answer questions that span departments, data sources, and deploymentsacross both public or private Clouds.
Birst gives users the fastest way to answer their most pressing business questionsand then all the ones they didnt
know to ask. At one-third the cost, time, and staff of traditional big BI, Birst brings the benefits of analytics and factbased decision-making to a much broader audience. For more information, visit [Link].
