Collecting Data for Analysis

In order to analyze data in a project, first you have to create an independent spreadsheet from your data set. Aggregating data in such a spreadsheet can then be used for plotting charts, determining statistical parameters, pivoting the table etc.

You can create such a spreadsheet in one of the following ways:

Populate the spreadsheet with data from your corporate database through Plexus Connect:

  1. In Plexus Connect, open one or more database views which belong to the "datatree" (project) in which you want to work;

  2. Optionally, filter down your database views so they will contain only those records which you want to include in the analysis;

  3. Open the Analysis spreadsheet panel by clicking on its button on the action bar;

  4. Collect fields to the spreadsheet by selecting them on any of the open database views. In a grid view, select fields by clicking on their column header, while on a form view simply click on a widget. You can select multiple fields by using CTRL+click or SHIFT+click.

  5. Selected fields can be removed from the collection by clicking on the "X" button next to them.

  6. When you have finished, press the Create button on the panel to start the Plexus Analysis application. It will open in a new browser tab with a new Analysis "workspace" which will contain a spreadsheet created from the data collected from Plexus Connect.

Important notes:

  • The fields for the spreadsheet can be selected from as many related database views as necessary, but every field can be added only once.

  • Relational data can be added to the spreadsheet as well. If you select fields from tables with one-to-many or many-to-many relationships, the resulting spreadsheet will be "flattened out", i.e., each item of the detail table will have its row in the spreadsheet.

If you have a grid view without any relational data, you can create a simple scatter plot from it and load the whole data table into Analysis in one step:

  • Open the grid view and select the two columns you want to assign to the X- and Y-axis of the scatter plot, respectively. You can select multiple columns with CTRL+clicks. The first selected column will be assigned to the X-axis, while the second will be assigned to the Y-axis.

  • Right-click on one of the selected column headers and select the "Create scatter plot" item.

Import a file

The spreadsheet for analysis can be created by importing a single file (SDfile, MRV, tab-separated text file...) into Plexus Analysis as well.
File import can be initiated by pressing the Import button on Analysis action bar on the left side of the application. Once you have selected a file, the progress indication will start running. You can cancel an import any time by pressing the X button in the progress bar.
Importing a file will create a new Analysis workspace and the data will be visualized in a spreadsheet-like format in this workspace. Since each browser tab can contain only one such workspace, the content of a second imported file will appear in a spreadsheet in a second browser tab.

Please note that...

  • You can start Plexus Analysis with different data as many times as you want. Each time you upload a new file or collect a new data set from Connect, Analysis will open it on a new browser tab and create a new Analysis workspace for it.

  • A workspace and the data in it remains available while its browser tab is open. When you have finished working in a certain workspace, you can close it by closing its browser tab. Other workspaces and their data will be unaffected even after that.

See also