Views and Drafts explained

This article explains what Views and Drafts are, and how they are used.

Reminder:  Datasets and Packs 

• Datasets contain your raw data in a series of rows and columns. 
• Packs are collections of slides used to visualize, analyze, and edit your data.

What is a View?

A View is a read-only, live extract of a Dataset. 

When a pack is being used with a View, users can analyze and visualise the organization, but the underlying data cannot be edited; no property values can be changed.  Views enable the integrity of the original Dataset to be maintained.

Views can only be created by Admins, Dataset Owners or Users with 'Manage' Dataset Permission. See Creating a View for a step-by-step guide.

Multiple views can be created from the same Dataset.  The illustration below shows the scope of different Views:

1. The full dataset:  every property (column) and every node (row) is included.
2. Defined subgroups:   only the nodes (rows) which are in a defined subgroup are included.  Every property is included. 
3. Specified properties:  only specified properties are included (e.g., sensitive personal data is excluded).  Every node (row) is included.
4. Defined subgroups and specified properties.  only the nodes (rows) which are in a defined subgroup, and only specified properties are included.

If property values in the underlying dataset are changed after the View has been created, the View automatically updates to reflect these changes.

Views are summarized below:

 

What is a Draft?

A Draft is a mechanism which provides a safe space for modelling org changes without changing the underlying data. 

A Draft is always used with a Dataset or a View.  When a draft is saved, only the changes which have been made during the modelling exercise are saved.  This means a Draft (a record of the organizational changes) can be applied to different datasets, and the same dataset after it has been refreshed. 

Drafts enable key benefits for org modelling: 

• Multiple Drafts can be created to develop and compare different scenarios
• Impact analysis is immediately available: the Changes Report slide type compares the Draft to the original data to see - for example - the impact of planned changes on the size, cost and structure of individual teams and across management reporting lines.
• A record of the individual-level changes is provided in the Changes List slide type, detailing how people or positions are impacted by the actions which have been modelled. This equips business leaders with the level of detail required to implement organizational changes.

Drafts are also particularly beneficial when cleaning data.  See step one of the Six-Step Data Cleaning Process. 

Admins, Dataset Owners, and users can create a Draft from the Datasets or Views they have access to.  See Creating a Draft for a step-by-step guide.  Access to Drafts can be granted to specific users or user groups.  

Drafts are summarized below:

See also: 

• Creating a View
• Creating a Draft
• Importing a Draft
• Accessing Datasets and Packs
• Saving your data: Datasets versus Drafts
• Reverting data changes (and appreciating Drafts)
• Key data concepts explained: Nodes, Properties, Values, Measures and Dimensions