About the Factory Process

The Measure Factory process automates the processing of a number of business rules through a factory configuration file—cfg.factory. The factory configuration file defines the measures and the rules that are required to build the measures. The Measure Factory determines what needs to happen, in what order, to calculate the defined measures. Measures are then displayed on DivePort pages or used for ad hoc analysis in ProDiver.

Measure definitions in the factory configuration file consist of calculations using the defined rules of the data sets. Rules are always detail level and associated with a single data set. Measures are always summary level and can span multiple data sets.

The summary view is an abstraction layer over the rules that can include a filter expression and aliases. Aliases are often used to change the name of the source date to a more meaningful name.

Data sets for the factory start with standard cBases produced through the DI ETL processes. Each data set can contain multiple rules, including link rules, which allow one data set to bring in data from another data set. Each data set can be referenced by multiple views.

Rules are described within the appropriate data set and can range from simple calc rules to complex link and plugin rules. The order of the rules does not matter as the factory build process automatically handles any dependencies to ensure all rules are enforced.

Getting Started

The major steps in preparing and implementing a Measure Factory project are:

Gather materials
- Standardized data sets (cBases) from preparatory ETL (working with IT).
- Business rules to help define rules in the factory (working with SMEs).
- Measure definitions and detail descriptions (working with SMEs and users).
- Lookup tables. See Requirements for Measure Factory Lookup Tables.
- Flag tables. See Requirements for Measure Factory Flag Tables.
Create Workbench project
- Use the recommended structure. See Measure Factory Project Requirements.
- Populate folders with input cBases, lookup tables, and flag tables.
Configure the factory. See Factory Configuration File Overview.
- Set the current date tag. See Current Date Tags.
- Set the calendar block. See Calendars Tags.
- Define lookup tables. See Lookup Tables Tags.
- Define the data sets and associated rules
  - Define the path to the transactional cBase.
  - Translate the business rules into Measure Factory rules. See Measure Factory Rule Types.
  - Define flag tables, if used. See Rules Tags.
  - Define any plugins, if used. See Factory Plugin Configuration File Overview.
- Define the summary views. See Views Tags.
  
  NOTE: Each data set defined in the data-sets block must be used in at least one view defined within the views block for the factory to process properly.
  - Define a filter to subset what rows of the data set are accessed.
  - Define one or more aliases (often used for dates).
- Define the dimensions and dimension sets. See Dimensions Tags and Dimension Sets Tags.
- Define the measures in terms of factory rules. See Measures Tags.
Run the factory configuration file.
Validate the output data with ProDiver.
Place measures on DivePort pages.
Configure security. See Factory Security.

For practice with the core factory tasks, see the Measure Factory Tutorial.

For information about using Measure Factory-specific macros, see Built-In Macros in DivePort Administrator Help.