dhis2-devs team mailing list archive

[Ola Hodne Titlestad <olatitle@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I agree that the data browser results can be misleading to an untrained eye.
A first thing to do is to actually provide a heading above the data (count)
table that says something like "Number of values reported for:". I agree
that we can call it something else, and "Data summary" is not a bad name. (
I am also not sure the browse by orgunit actually works, at least it doesn't
seem to aggregate up the counts as most districts have '0' values in that
view. )

I must say that I actually find the data entry screen quite useful for
looking up raw data a given orgunit-period-dataset combination, and find it
a very fast tool to switch between periods, orgunits and datasets for such a
view. When it comes to other views into the raw data, like a few data
elements over many periods or other pivoted views I agree we need something
more like a web pivot tool.

I actually think we should build on and possibly rename the pivot table tool
in Reports to "Data browser". After all we are not interested in  developing
a fully fledged pivot tool, and data browser reflects more of what that tool
is. Let's try to brainstorm what kind of functionality we would have to add
in order to come up with a proper data browser. Here is a few things I can
think of right now:

- support for data elements, not just indicators
- filter by dataset, not only groups
- automatic datamart export triggered in the background (like with report
tables)
- filter (parameter selection window like datamart export etc.) to select
any data element, period, orgunit  (at the same level) and then get an
ad-hoc pivot table from that

What else?

Ola
-----------

2010/1/19 Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx>

> Perhaps "Data summary" but this also seems a bit misleading. "Data
> counter", "Data tally" are two other suggestions.
> I agree that having a link to the "raw" data would be a great
> funcation. It is quite close actually, I think. I think from the link
> I gave earlier, showing a table of raw data by clicking on a data
> element would be a good start. The period dimension could be one
> confined axis (columns) while the rows could be the unconfined axis
> (orgunits). Of course, we strart down a slippery slope of what this
> data table should look like, and having the ability to pivot it. But
> since several parameters have already been defined as part of the
> "Data browser" it would seem like a relatively simple matter to feed
> these parameters into the web pivot.  This is obviously going to take
> development hours, but renaming the whole thing to something else, is
> a very easy fix, and would help, I think, to correct any
> misconceptions about what this is. Obviously, if the functionality is
> extended to being able to actually browse the data, this module should
> be moved out the "Maintenance" section and into the "Analysis"
> section, and then its name would probably be appropriate, IMHO.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 6:40 PM, Knut Staring <knutst@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I fully agree, Jason - not having an easy way to browse through the
> actual
> > data other than the data entry screen is a problem.
> > The reason for the idea behind the "data browser" in the first place was
> > frustration with how hard it was to find out where there actually is data
> > when approaching e.g. the demo database (or indeed any unknown database)
> -
> > the only way to find out (short of querying the db directly) was to click
> > through a lot of periods for each dataset in the data entry screen, which
> is
> > both inefficient and unintuitive. So what we have now  is a pretty useful
> > tool to locate the data, but what it lacks is an easy way to see the
> actual
> > data - for that you have to make a note of where the data is, and then
> > return to the data entry screen - talk about cumbersome....
> > I think the current data browser should therefore be extended with links
> to
> > the actual data, presented in neat tables (perhaps something like the
> > current "web pivot", and with an easy way of "flipping through" screens
> > (i.e. move backwards or forwards in time by clicking on some Ajax arrows
> or
> > similar). But it should also be possible to go directly to this screen
> from
> > a menu selection, populated with the latest data. This new functionality
> > should be the "Data browser".
> > The current "Data browser" could perhaps be renamed "Data locator" - or
> does
> > someone have a better name?
> > Knut
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 5:20 PM, Jason Pickering
> > <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dear Devs,
> >> I have been working to document the Maintenance section of DHIS2, and
> >> have a few observations and would like to have some feedback before I
> >> file, what I think should be a blueprint.
> >>
> >> One of my big complaints about DHIS2 is that it is exceedingly
> >> difficult to simply browse data that has been entered. One can create
> >> a report (rather painful) or use the data entry screens to browse
> >> data, but this too seems a bit of a kludge, when I might just want to
> >> simply quickly view data for a given orgunit/period/dataset
> >> combination. This is a very common operation on the part of users. I
> >> was expecting to find this in the "Data browser", however, this is not
> >> exactly what the data browser does, as far as I can tell. The data
> >> browser provides a summary of the data contained in the database,
> >> providing the number of data element values that are present, and they
> >> can be grouped a couple of different ways. I have reviewed the
> >>
> >>
> /dhis2/dhis-2/dhis-api/src/main/java/org/hisp/dhis/databrowser/DataBrowserTable.java
> >> and also crosschecked this against the screen found at
> >>
> >> (
> http://dhis.uio.no/demo/dhis-web-maintenance-dataadmin/searchResult.action?periodTypeId=Monthly&fromDate=2009-04-01&toDate=2009-08-31&searchOption=DataSet
> ).
> >> This appears to be  a summary of the number of elements contained in a
> >> given dataset for a given period interval. This is fine and quite
> >> handy I guess.
> >>
> >> Now, this is where things get tricky..
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://dhis.uio.no/demo/dhis-web-maintenance-dataadmin/searchResult.action?searchOption=DataSet&parent=233&periodType=Monthly&toDate=2009-08-31&fromDate=2009-04-01
> >>
> >> provides a summary ( I think) of the number of data element values for
> >> a given data element and period interval, which is also handy.
> >>
> >> However, I feel this may be very misleading, because of the name "Data
> >> browser". We are looking here at the "COUNT" of data element values,
> >> not the "SUM" and not browsing the actual data values themselves. If
> >> an untrained eye were to see the results of the URL above, it might be
> >> very misleading.  I therefore would like to suggest that we come up
> >> with a new name for the "Data browser", but I do not really know what
> >> it should be called. I just think that it should be clear that we are
> >> not actually browsing data, but rather looking at a summary (namely
> >> the number of data element values) for a particular set of parameters.
> >>
> >> Regardless of this, I think having the functionality to simply browse
> >> raw data itself, without having to go either through a report, or data
> >> entry form, would be very useful. I was planning to write this up as a
> >> blueprint, but would appreciate some comments on what I have written
> >> here first.
> >>
> >> Best regards,
> >> Jason
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Cheers,
> > Knut Staring
> >
>
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