SAP Lumira Cloud is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that helps business users visualize, make sense of, research, and better present their data. With SAP Lumira Cloud, users can rapidly import data from a data file and accurately convert the data into various graphical visualizations so that the data can be analyzed from many perspectives and views. The benefit of SAP Lumira Cloud is that allows business users to quickly acquire access, view, and examine data in a secure cloud environment with minimal involvement from IT personnel. In this article, I provide step-by-step instructions for how to acquire a dataset by importing from a data file, and how to construct a basic graphical visualization based on the dataset. In the example, I use a comma separated value (CSV) file as the data file, and I demonstrate three different ways to construct a column chart visualization from the fields in the dataset.

How to Acquire and Import a Dataset

The first step in acquiring data is to log on to SAP Lumira Cloud and click the Create Dataset button (Figure 1). (SAP Lumira can be found on the Internet at: https://cloud.saplumira.com.)

In the window that opens (Figure 2), click the Browse… button next to the Select File field to select a data file. The Open pop-up window opens (Figure 3), where you select the data file from which to acquire data. In this case, select the data file efashion-Demo v1.0.csv and then click the Open button. This opens the Create Dataset window (Figure 4). Click the OK button at the top of the screen to load the data into the window. When creating the dataset from the data file, additional data acquisition options are available. To see these options, click the right-arrow icon  next to Data Acquisition Options (Figure 5). This expands the available options to be viewed and modified, as shown in the middle of Figure 6. The data acquisition options include:

• Delimited by (Tab, Semicolon, Comma, Space, Other)
• Set first row as column headers
• Trim values
• Default Prefix for Column Name
• Number Format
• Date Format

Once you’ve viewed (or modified) the data acquisition options, click the down-arrow icon  next to the data acquisition options to contract them, as shown in Figure 7. (In this article, I am only showing how to view the data acquisition options. However, users can update the options from this screen. These options need to be updated to reflect the characteristics of the fields, values, and delimiters within the source data file.) When creating a dataset directly online, it is possible to view and make minor changes to properties of individual fields. Click the tool-wrench icon  (boxed in Figure 6) to open the Enrich Panel shown in Figure 7.   To open the default aggregation for the respective measure field, double-click any box next to any Measures field that has the word Sum in it (as shown in Figure 7). The Measures’ default aggregations that can be selected include: Sum, Min, Max, and Count (Figure 8). In addition, a measure field can be changed to a dimension field by clicking the Change to Dimension option on the context menu. Likewise, a Dimensions field can be changed to a Measures field, by clicking the Convert to Measure option from the context menu (as shown in Figure 9). One you’ve finished checking or making any changes to the properties of the individual fields, click the tool-wrench icon to close the Enrich panel. Then, back in the Create Dataset window, click the Acquire button (Figure 10) to complete the creation of the dataset. However, it is important to note that datasets created in SAP Lumira Cloud cannot be edited after being acquired, so click Acquire only when you are certain the dataset has all the correct properties. This opens a progress window that tracks the creation of the dataset (Figure 11). This can take some time depending on the size and data complexity of the source data file. Once the dataset acquisition is completed, the dataset appears on the My Items page as shown in Figure 12.

How to Create a Basic Visualization

Using the dataset efashion-Demo v1.0 that was just created, I next show how to create a basic visualization. Included in this demonstration is a visualization of sales revenue by category. In addition, the creation of the visualization is demonstrated in three different ways:

• Using the add (plus-sign) icon in the chart feeder to add measures and dimensions
• Double-clicking fields
• Using the drag-and-drop interface

To start creating the visualization, click the dataset efashion-Demo (Figure 13). The dataset appears in a blank Visualize page as shown in Figure 14. Click the add icon  next to the X-Axis measure and select a measure to add to the visualization (Figure 15). In this case, Sales revenue is the measure selected. Then click the add icon next to Y-Axis dimension and select a dimension to add to the visualization (Figure 16). In this case, Category is the dimension selected. Now the chart X and Y axes have been populated with the Sales revenue measure on the X-Axis and the Category dimension on the Y-Axis. The default chart type (a bar chart) is shown in Figure 17. At the bottom of the visualization workspace are thumbnails that reflect visualizations that have already been created, as shown in Figure 18. In this case, only one thumbnail exists and it’s for the bar chart that was previously created To create a new visualization, click the add (plus-sign) icon to the left to the thumbnail at the button of the screen (Figure 18). This creates a new blank visualization based on the same dataset. Another way to create a chart that is similar to the one created above is to double-click the relevant MEASURES and DIMENSIONS from the list of fields on the left side of the visualization as shown in Figure 19. In this case, double-click the Quantity sold measure and Store name dimension. When you double-click these fields, the selected measure fills in the X-Axis, the selected dimension fills in the Y-Axis, and a new chart is created with a new thumbnail at the bottom of the screen (Figure 20). The third, and final, way to create a chart is to drag-and-drop the relevant measures and dimensions from the list of fields on the left side of the visualization to the appropriate spot in the visualization canvas on the middle of the screen. Measures can be dragged either to the area labeled Add more measures and dimensions or to the X-Axis area, as shown in Figure 21. In this case the field Margin is being dragged and dropped. Dimensions can be dragged and dropped either to the area labeled Add more measures and dimensions or the Y-Axis area, as shown in Figure 22. In this case the field Year is being drag-and-dropped. By dragging and dropping fields, the X-Axis is filled with a new measure (in this example, Margin), the Y-Axis is filled with a new dimension (in this case, Year), and a new chart is created. You can see the chart (with the new thumbnail at the bottom) in Figure 23. Now that a new bar chart is created, it is possible to change the visualization and display another type of chart. This is done by selecting a chart type in the top right of the Visualize screen as shown in Figure 24. In this case, Pie Chart is selected. Once you click the new chart type option, the chart in the visualization changes to the chosen chart type (Figure 25). Now the bar chart has changed to a pie chart and the thumbnail is updated as well. Finally, save the new visualization so that it can be easily retrieved in the future. This is done by selecting the save icon  as shown in Figure 26.