When to Use Portal Queries

You may consider using queries if your users require reports in real time for analysis and they need the ability to filter, sort, regroup their results, or to export them into Excel. Consider these questions before you begin setting up queries:

• Can all users use the same set of queries? 

• Can all users in the firm use the same query menu structure? 

The answers determine if you assign queries and menus to everyone, business groups, or users. If queries or menu need to be different for different users, best practice is to assign at the business group, not at user level, in Portal Administration’s Portal Query Explorer.

Another consideration is if you want to create just a few queries but configure them with as many fields as possible. After configuring the query with numerous fields, you can create multiple query views, with each query view containing a unique set of data element, and publish them to multiple business groups. Once again, best practice is to publish the query views at business group, and not at a user level. Creating various query views instead of one query containing a large number of fields for your users to run is more efficient and results in better performance.

You also need to consider the content you want to use in the queries. If the content is performance data that involves a lot of calculation, then best practice is to build out an ACCESS DATAMART type query that uses Data Mart. If you do not use the Data Mart but rather the ACCESS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS type, the run time for the query may be longer than is acceptable to users.