## Using business/report cubes

A business/report cube provides report users with a business-oriented view, and calculations on a data source. It contains database connections and relationships between cube elements that are required for creating the specific business area reports for static and analysis reporting. The business/report cube shields report end users from having to understand physical structure, and enables the easy building of reports.

Business/report cubes enable end users to build reports and analyze data based on a set of cube elements that they can understand. For example, they do not need to worry about where the data source is from (local or remote), or what the data source is (Oracle, Sybase, etc.). It also enables IT professionals to maintain control of business data and to ensure its integrity, while presenting end users with an intuitive view of the underlying data structures.

However, for a report designer, there is a little difference between a business cube and a report cube, that is, a business cube is based on tables and views, while a report cube is based on a query, stored procedure, imported SQL file, or user defined data source.

In addition, ad hoc reporting and data analysis in JReport Web requires that report components are created based on a business cube or report cube, or if created on a query, the applied query fields can be converted to corresponding cube elements in an existing report cube which is based on the query. You can specify whether to make the conversion automatically or allow JReport to prompt you when the conversion is required.

For information about how to use business/report cubes in JReport Web as a report end user, see Analytic reporting in the JReport Enterprise Server User's Guide.

Pick a task from the following:

- Business/report cube elements
- Adding a business/report cube
- Editing a business/report cube
- Converting query-based components to report cube-based