This concept, borrowed from world-renowned and expanded and improved Qlik™ experts, allows the reuse of already created interface pages, with any calculation formulas already defined, but also the fast and systematic addition of new calculation formulas to the entire analysis set of that application.
In addition, this mechanism brings to the beneficiaries, from the first delivery, a huge number of options for reconfiguring the available views.
Thus, most of the requirements for small changes in views are a priori addressed and resolved, without additional interventions and costs.
The Qosmic.inteface™ engine allows the definition of reusable metadata in the interface in multiple contexts and includes definitions for: dimensions, measures and numerical values for histograms.
The number of combinations available at the user’s fingertips is unimaginable: on the order of the number of atoms on Earth. Hence the name Qosmic.interface™.
Later Edit (Aug2024): at the last evaluation done recently, we realized that the number of column options , offered to one of our recent customers , only in the Qosmic Straight table page), is 10 thousand times the number of atoms on Earth !!!
The calculation considered that it immediately gives the user the option to choose max 20 dimensions and max 20 measures, which will be presented in the table object, out of a total of 20 dimensions x 40 measures x 3 time perspectives (i.e. YTD vs LYTD , MTS vs LYMTD and MTD vs LMTD).
Qosmic.interface™ Architecture
Qosmic.interface™ Configurations
The Qosmic Interface processing package includes a set of tabular configurators that define which dimensions and measures are of interest, the desired formats for the measures, and the relevant time perspectives to be included in the comparative measures derived from the base measures.
For dimensions, multiple usages are defined, in timelines, in tops, in tables, or in pivots (top or left), and the defined base measures are derived via Qosmic Script in all measure variants, each associated with predefined time perspectives.
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">Script, Meta-data & Variables
The Qosmic script (meta-script) is a pre-built part of QQinfo and will be part of the overall Qlik™ application script. Reading the Qosmic dimensions is somewhat simpler, but in processing the Qosmic measures, the derivation of the base measures in all variants of thermoporal perspectives takes place.
The number of defined measures (40 in our exemplified case) automatically multiplies into at least several hundred variants, if we derive these measures and the time-filtered formulas. For example, just comparing YTD vs LYTD (current year to date with the same period of last year) will induce, for each base measure defined in the Qosmic.interface™ configurator, 4 other derived measures (the value for the recent activity, for the previous one, plus the difference and their percentage ratio). But, the YTD filters are not the only ones needed. Usually, MTD vs LMTD and MTD vs LYMTD comparisons are also required (at least!). Moreover , the reference date to which all these time filters relate is usually the current or previous day, but there are many situations where the user wants, at certain times, to move it to the end of the last month or quarter or year, or to any date they deem necessary.
Users do not have to interact directly with the script, variables, or Qosmic metadata, and the color convention is predefined, but editable in some aspects, especially related to Qosmic measures.
Qosmic.interface™ Pages
Navigating between the Qosmic pages is left to the user, then applying the Qosmic filters that determine which columns will be activated in the Qosmic Charts, as Qosmic dimensions and measures.
The Qosmic definitions can be inspected in the auxiliary pages at the end.
Given the astronomical number of options offered by each page, we recommend saving and extensively using Qlik™ Bookmarks to quickly find the relevant (Qosmic) meta-selection (Qosmic) package.
Note that the order in which the Qosmic dimensions and measures are presented in the interface is determined by the order predefined in the configurator. Under measures, first the basic measures are available, without embedded thermoporal filters, then the derivations specific to each time perspective, grouped by basic measures and time perspectives.
The Qosmic pages that we now offer as standard in Qlik™ applications analyzing business and/or operational data are the following:
- 2 pages Qosmic Dashboard;
- 4 pages of Qosmic tables;
- 1 page Qosmic Straight Table;
- 2 pages Qosmic Pivot Table (2nd with all measurements given on the left);
- 1 page Qosmic Table + Pivot;
- 3 pages with Qosmic analysis over time;
- 2 pages with top Qosmic analysis;
- 1 page of clustering;
- 1 page of Qosmic histograms (if relevant);
- 1 or more pages of Qosmic map visualizations (if relevant).
Qosmic Filters & Meta-filters
The dimensions of the Qosmic.inteface™ engine are used:
- to provide filter objects (generally located on the left and top of the page views);
- to be used as Analyze dimensions, in charts and tables (Qlik™ objects generally also allow filtering directly in these objects, on visible dimensions);
- as meta-choices between Analysis dimensions to be included/excluded in dynamic objects and/or alternative dimensions.
Regardless of how a filtering has been defined, in the Qlik™ interface, the current selections (filters) will be visible in the top right area of the Qlik™ interface (Current Selection Section), next to the Search and Browse Selection buttons. Optionally the Qosmic filters by metadata can all be hidden.
Active selections view area (standard Qlik Sense™)
Examples of temporal and non-temporal dimensions): UAT.Region, UAT.County, Locality|County, Subunit, UAT.Name|County, Locality.Rank, Subunit.Type, Function1, function_type, function_type, cariola, remiza, year, name
Example measures: Counter Employees, Counter Subunits, Counter UAT, Counter Localities, Population 2020, Average Subunit per Locality, Average Staff per thousand inhabitants, Average Subunit per thousand inhabitants, Average Average Average No. of Employees/ Subunit, Average Basic Wage Budget, Total Wage Budget without Taxes, Average Basic Wage per Employee, Average Total Wage per Employee, Average Total Wage per Employee, Maximum Basic Wage per Employee, Maximum Total Wage per Employee, Uniformization (Value 1), Average Total Wage Budget without Taxes per thousand inhabitants.
General application selection objects:
- Qosmic Filters (Filter pane objects, added according to space availability and frequency of use).
- Filters by time dimensions (e.g. Year, Moon, YearMoon, YearMoon, YearWeek, Date, etc.).
When new options are added to the Qosmic dimension definitions, they are automatically added to the interface (up to the maximum number already built, but can be immediately expanded to many more).
- Qosmic meta-filters of size selection and active measures in objects (Qosmic.interface™ choices) are signaled by more intense colors in interfaces.
- Usual filters that are not in any way connected with Qosmic functionalities can be defined (native Qlik™).
Filter-related additions:
The bar also provides options to cancel all selections and navigate to the previous selection history of the current session (native Qlik Sense™ functionality).
Below, we provide a few images of examples of analytics that are obtained using Qosmic.interface™, applied mainly in the area of business and operational analytics, as follows:
Qosmic Dashboard 16 KPI and 8 KPI+8 Mini-TimeLine
Provides the option to choose any 8 of the predefined Qosmic measures to present in 8 pairs of KPI + MINI TIMELINE objects (all timelines with the same, selectable time dimension).
They are implicitly assigned to the first 8 Qosmic measures.
Center-up: Qosmic filtering options of the Qosmic measures that will be shown in the 8 pairs of graphs and the dimensions in each graph..
(If more than enough are selected, the first 8 Qosmic measures selected are considered, and if nothing is selected, it is equivalent to everything selected and the first 8 Qosmic measures are considered).
On the top right, you can choose the Qosmic time dimension to be used in the 8 mini timelines.
On the top right, you can change the reference date to which the derived formulas are related with time perspectives.
On the left, one can apply filters on non-temporal Qosmic dimensions that will affect all the measures presented in the 8 mini-timelines.
The number of combinations, for the first page, considering 40 Qosmic measurements with 3 time perspectives (13 variations), presented only 16 at a time, exceeds … 10 to the power of 30 = 1 million times the number of atoms on Earth, as number of combinatorial variants!
= Combinations of 40*13 taken 16 at a time
The number of combinations, for the second page, considering 40 Qosmic measures with 3 time perspectives (13 variations), presented in only 8, multiplied by 6 continuous thermoporal variants, exceeds “only” 1.5 million combinatorial variants!
=(Combinations of 40*13 taken 8 by 8) * 6 continuous time dimensions
Qosmic Tables
Provides tabular and pivot analysis with details in a huge number of options.
(usually much greater than 10 to the power of 30, in our case reaching no less than 10 to the power of 40 combinations) for the straight Qosmic table !
The user can dynamically choose a subset of desired dimensions and measures. (The decision to stop at tables at max 20D x 20M was a rather arbitrary one, theoretically the possible number is unlimited).
Qosmic Maps
Qosmic maps leverage the existence of already configured and loaded Qosmic measures to provide near-instant access to an incredibly large number of map views.
The standard maps used by Qlik™ are provided online by OpenStreet (at no access cost).
Other associative software can be built on private maps or charts if needed, but some situations may incur additional licensing costs to Qlik™.
4 Qosmic maps with representations of measurements associated with areas/ polygons (example by counties & UAT)
The first 4 selected Qosmic measures are immediately associated with the coloring intensity of each geographic dimension, area/polygon (country/region/county/etc.), available in the data model and plotted on the map.
In this case, the association was made with another, finer dimension, the UATs.
The coverage of the whole territory may not be complete for several reasons:
- active selections that restricted the visible entities;
- datasets with incomplete associations;
- data quality problems.
Map with 2 measures by locality (size and color)
Tops
1 dimension & 6 measures
On the top right, choose the analysis size (recommended 1, if more than 1, the first one presented as active will be used).
In the bottom right, the analysis sizes are chosen (recommended 6, if fewer than 6, some visualization objects have nothing to display, if more than 6, the first 6 presented as active will be displayed).
If nothing is selected, the first displayed/first displayed is used.
6 dimensions & 1 measure
On the top right you choose the analysis dimensions (recommended 6, if less than 6, some visualization objects have nothing to display, if more than 6, the first 6 presented as active will be displayed).
In the bottom right, choose the analysis measure (recommended 1, if there are more than 1, the first one presented as active will be used).
If there is nothing selected, the first displayed/ first shown is used.
Evolution over time – 6 measures of your choice in 6 graphs with the same time dimension
Top and left: the Qosmic filters provide options to filter data on non-temporal and temporal dimensions.
Top-right, Qosmic meta-filters: Options to filter by the measures used in each of the 6 graphs and the continuous temporal dimension across all graphs.
If more than 6 measures are selected, the first 6 selections are considered.
If nothing is selected, it is equivalent to everything selected and the first 6 defined are considered.
The number of combinations, just for the first page alone, considering 40 Qosmic measures with 3 time perspectives (13 variations), presented only 6 at a time, combined with any of, say only 6 continuous time Qosmic dimensions, exceeds … 150 trillion trillion variations !
=(Combinations of 40*13 taken 1 by 1)* 6 continuous temporal dimensions
The second page is more limited, exceeding “only” 100 trillion options.
= (Combinations of 40*13 taken as 6)* 4 discontinuous time dimensions
The third page is the most limited, offering “only” 93 thousand thousand options.
= (Combinations of 40*13 taken 6 at a time) * 10 non-temporal dimensions * 3 container representation variants
It is true that there are many combinations of situations, in which, depending on the context of selections on data and metadata active, the graphs become null, but most of the above combinations provide on the full data space a graph with null representations (probably not even all relevant, usually).
Qosmic Scatter with automatic clustering
It is an extremely powerful analysis page, derived from the usual scater (bi-dimensional or tri-dimensional) analysis previously offered by QQinfo in most visual analytics built with Qlik™.
Leveraging the latest capabilities of Qlik™ in the area of Data Science formulas, in conjunction with the Qosmic approach, we now have on this page a family of analytics of unimaginable value, which can be derived in a multitude of analytics, among which it is worth listing at least:
- percentage sales-profitability analysis (which identifies “golden hens”& “losers”);
- BCG matrix analysis (Boston Consulting Group), which identifies “cows to milk”, “stars to invest in”, “mad dogs” & “question marks”;
- McKinsey-Generale Electric analysis;
- churn prediction analyses;
- etc.
Three-dimensional analysis
(older version of scatter, without clustering)
On the top right, choose the measures to analyze (recommended 3, if there are less than 3, the visualization has nothing to display, if there are more than 3, the first 3 shown as active will be displayed).
At the bottom right, the analysis size is chosen (recommended 1, if there are more than 1, the first one shown as active will be used).
The top right button toggles the placement of the 3 measures on the axes (X/Y/Z = size of the bullet).
If more than X are selected, the first X selections are taken into account.
If nothing is selected, it is equivalent to everything selected and the first X selections are taken into account.
The number of combinations, for 40 Qosmic measurements with 3 time perspectives (13 variations), presented only 3 at a time, in only 3 ordering options, and combined with any of the 20 Qosmic dimensions, approaches … 1.4 billion variants ! (Combinations of 40*13 taken 3 by 3)*3 rotations * 20 dimensions).
Qosmic Histograms
Allows to analyze the frequency distribution of occurrence of values in a numeric column over the analysis intervals.
The Qosmic option allows the choice of the 4 numerical columns on which the histograms will be made. The interval width is as defined in the settings of each Qosmic dimension.
Top: Options to filter data by non-temporal and temporal dimensions.
Top right: Qosmic numeric column filtering options used in the 4 graphs.
(If more are selected than necessary, the first 4 selections are taken into account.
If nothing is selected, it is equivalent to everything selected and the first 4 defined measures are considered.).
The number of combinations, for 40 Qosmic numeric columns, presented only 4 at a time, exceeds 3 billion choices !
=(Combinations of 40*13 taken by 4)
Qosmic configurations & derived measures inspector
It is an auxiliary page, specific to the Qosmic interface, which presents navigable details about the Qosmic configurations and the temporal derivations of the Qosmic measurements.
Final conclusions on the Qosmic Interface
Beyond temporal (versus historical) derivations, the system allows the option to choose (or add) other comparisons or extensions:
- expression of financial values in several currencies, by conversion at NBR rates (daily or average) or specific average rates;
- expressing operational and quantitative indicators in several units of measurement;
- toggle between realized, with, without or only adjustments, budgeted, planned (rolling), last estimated, (including multi-versioning, all but achieved, with default choice of the last version and option to choose other versions);
- comparisons between those on the previous row (any with any !);
- changing aggregation functions for non-additive operational indicators (such as number of unique users);
- etc.
All these additions in turn multiply the number of Qosmic options previously calculated.
Leveraging the multiplicative power of the combinations of dimensions plus measures and time perspectives definable in the configurator, the Qosmic interface offers from the start, using a significant set of pre-built pages, a huge number of analytical visualization options, immediately available and always expandable, by adding new options from a simple Qosmic reconfiguration or by extending the Qosmic model on the specifics of the Beneficiary.
Thus, the interface design often does not require any further requirements from the beneficiary, leaving the BI consulting team only to refine the ETL/ ELT processes needed to bring the data into the application data schema, followed only by the completion and testing of the Qosmic configurations.
This ultimately means significantly reduced implementation and modification efforts, times and budgets in favor of the Beneficiary! And the cancellation of some usual maintenance/refinement costs (internalized or not).
In all calculations of the number of options, NO account has been taken of additional option multipliers due:
- changing the reference date;
- applying temporal selections;
- or applying non-temporal selections.
(We can say that the final number of options tends, from this new perspective of evaluation, already towards infinity!)
Note 1: Explanations on how the numbers of combinations have been calculated
A small example first: automatic derivation of a standard formula, e.g. sum(ValVz), only in the minimally necessary time perspective, viz:
- Year To Date (YTD) vs Last Year To Date (YTD);
- Month To Date (MTD) vs Last Month To Date (LMTD);
- Month To Date (MTD) vs Last Year Month To Date (LYMTD).
From each perspective, we can imagine at least 4 distinct derived measures as absolutely necessary:
- the value of the current period;
- that of the previous (reference) period;
- the difference of the 2 values:
- and their percentage ratio.
This leads, in the simple case chosen by us, with only 3 time perspectives, to multiply the number of measures initially defined in the system by a factor equal to … 1 + 4 * 3 = 13 ! ==>>
If we have 40 measures defined in the system ==>> 520 derived measures immediately on hand !
Note: If we add at least the QTD vs LQTD and WTD vs LWTD outlooks, the multiplication factor becomes 1+4*5 = 21 ==>> we are already approaching a thousand measures in the options palette !
And if, to the above 2, we add their counterparts with the outlook of a year ago…. 1 + 4 * 7 = 29 and we already reach almost 1200 de derived measures.
And if we add to these options ….Rolling 10 days vs Last Month & Last Quarter & Last Year, Rolling 30 vs Last Month & Last Quarter & Last Year and Rolling 90 vs Last Month & Last Quarter & Last Year, we add 9 new perspectives, the multiplication factor becomes … ( 1 + 4 * 16 ) = 65 and the number of derived measures already reaches 2600.
And the impact in combinatorial calculus is major. Here is just one example:
Combin(520,16) = 1,081,935,102,719,380,000,000,000,000,000
Combin(2600,16) = 199,007,600,028,948,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Fun fact: we didn’t add the option of dynamic rolling over as many days to these calculations, because frankly, we don’t know if we were still able to calculate it ! 😉
We also considered, in all our calculations, that we have at least 20 Qosmic dimensions, of which 10 non-temporal, 6 continuous temporal and 4 discontinuous temporal.
The maximum number of combinations is given in the area of the Qosmic tables, requiring the addition of various partial combinations.
More details can be found in the explicit calculation below:
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