Patent ID: 7792847
Filing Date: 2010-09-07
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for converting a structured report having cells into formulas, comprising: automatically converting each of the cells of the structured report into formulas for a spreadsheet including formulaic cells, comprising: converting dimension members included in the structured report into formulas of a first type; wherein dimension members act as indices for identifying a particular cell or range of cells within a multi-dimensional array; wherein the structured report is a multi-dimensional presentation of data that is included within a multi-dimensional database; wherein the structured report has layout restrictions that restrict inserting rows and columns into the structured report; wherein the structure report is created before the data is added to the structured report; wherein each formula is selected from a set of cube functions based on a type of cell of the structured report; wherein when the type of cell in the structured report is a report filter type, a selection user interface that is displayed within the structured report for filtering at least one value that is displayed within the structured report is not displayed within the spreadsheet after the cell is converted; automatically converting each of the measures included in the structured report into formulas of a second type, wherein formulas of the second type depend on calculation of the formulas of the first type; placing the formulas of the first type and the formulas of the second type in the formulaic cells of the spreadsheet; wherein all of the formulas within the cells are movable within the spreadsheet without the layout restrictions of the structured report; wherein the formulas placed within the formulaic cells comprise at least one cube function selected from: a cube value function that returns an aggregated value from the multi-dimensional database; a cube member function that returns a user-friendly caption for a member and at least one of a fully qualified unique MultiDimensional eXpressions (“MDX”) member name and an MDX tuple; a cube set function that defines a set that is to be built for the spreadsheet; and a cube member property that returns a value of a member property in the multi-dimensional database; and executing the formulas including the at least one cube function in the formulaic cells of the spreadsheet to directly retrieve data from the multidimensional database.