FAQ for FineBI Beginners

If you are a FineBI beginner, you can refer to the FAQs that this document arranges to make progress. The content is continuously being updated.

Q: Fields of a table in Component have been filtered, copied, and renamed, but why are these changes not synchronized with the fields in the table in Data?

A: The content of a table in an analysis subject can be changed only when you edit the table in Data.

When you analyze a table in Component:

Operations (Copy, Filter Detail, and Delete), which you can repeatedly perform while creating a component, in the left panel of the pending-analysis area are synchronized with the table in an analysis subject, not the source table of that component. (These operations are not visible in Data.)

Operations you perform in the right-hand analysis area are saved only in the current component, not synchronized with the source table of that component.

Q: Where is the entry point for adding a calculation indicator?

A: In FineBI 6.0.8, due to the iteration, the entry point for adding a calculation indicator has been changed. You can click the  icon and select Add Calculation Indicator.

Adding Data

Q: Where is the entry point for uploading Excel files?

A: You can choose My Analysis, select an analysis subject, click the Edit button to go to the editing page, click the Data tab at the bottom, click the addition button, click the Local Excel tab, and click the Upload Data button. For details, see Adding Excel Data.

Q: The field types in the uploaded Excel to FineBI have changed/become garbled.

A: You can click the  icon in a table field, and select field types from the drop-down list. For details, see Adding Excel Data.

Q: Excel Uploading fails.

A: This problem may be caused by the following reasons. For details, see Adding Excel Data.

1. You can upload table files with the csv, xls, and xlsx suffixes to FineBI.

Note: You can upload Excel files of which versions are Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 with the xls and xlsx suffixes. However, you cannot upload Excel files saved as Excel 5.0/95 with the xls suffix. Besides, encrypted Excel files cannot be uploaded.

2. You need to choose System Management > Security Management > Security and disable File Upload Verification before uploading a file with csv suffix.

3. Before uploading the file, you need to confirm that the first row of the Excel table has no merged cells, otherwise, the upload will fail.

4. You need to confirm that no content calculated through functions such as VLOOKUP and SUMIFS exists in the uploaded Excel files.

Q: How to update Excel?

A: You can choose My Analysis, select an analysis subject, and click the Edit button to go to the editing page. Then click the  icon next to Data Source on the right-hand panel.

Q: Can I add data across analysis subjects?

A: Of course. For details, see: Adding Data of the Current Project.

Q: I cannot view the newly uploaded data table in My Analysis.

A: You need to refresh the page.

Q: Will uploading massive amounts of data from Public Data to an analysis subject affect performance due to data inflation?

A: If you upload massive amounts of data from Public Data to an analysis subject without editing, the added data will be logically in the form of the simplest tables, whose data inflation does not affect overall editing performance but, at most, requires a bit more storage configuration.

Editing Data

Q: After I click Save, the component data does not update.

A: You need to click Save and Update to update the data.

Q: Will editing the data (uploaded from Public Data) in an analysis subject affect the corresponding data in Public Data?

A: No, the data uploaded to an analysis subject is in the form of a sub-table belonging to the table in Public Data.

Q: Will re-editing the published data affect the dataset published in Public Data?

A: Of course.

Q: How to reuse a component?

A: You can go to the editing page of an analysis subject, click the  icon on the Component tab at the bottom of the page, and select Copy. 

Q: How to generate a legend?

A: By dragging fields to Color, Size, Shape, Thermal Color, and Radius in Graphic Property, the corresponding legend can be generated.

Q: How to center the text in a table?

A: You can set the table font in Component Style. For details, see Table Font.

Q: Filter Component has been added to a component in Dashboard, but why is the change not synchronized with the component on the Component editing page?

A: The component in Dashboard gets affected by the Filter Component operation, while the component in Component does not.

Q: How to share an analysis?

A: You can click the icon on the Dashboard tab and select the sharing method. For details, see Sharing Analysis.

Q: What are the differences among the sharing methods?

A: For details, see Sharing Analysis.

Collaborate: The entire analysis subject can be shared with other users to indicate how the results are obtained step by step. Besides, the operation supports collaborative editing among multiple users.

Apply for Publication: You can publish a dashboard to a directory or publish personal data to Public Data for other enterprise users to view. This sharing method is relatively fixed and suitable for enterprise leaders and teams to view in the long term.

Public Link: You can view the dashboard without logging in to FineBI. This sharing method is more flexible and suitable for small groups to view.

Q: Can multiple users collaborate at the same time?

A: Of course.

For details, see Collaboration.

Q: Can the sharing method of collaboration only support viewing?

A: Of course.

For details, see Collaboration.

Q: Does the publishing operation always require the approval of the admin?

A: If you have enabled Directory Edit, owned the Edit permission of the corresponding path in the directory, and owned the Use permission of Directory Management, you can publish the corresponding path in the directory without the approval of the admin.

For details, see Publishing a Dashboard.

Q: How to cancel the publication?

A: You can go to the editing page of an analysis subject, click the Dashboard tab at the bottom of the page, and click the Unpublish button. For details, see Publishing a Dashboard.

Q: The desired collaborator cannot be found in the Add Collaborator section box.

A: The admin needs to configure that the resource can be collaborated with whom. You can log in to the FineBI system, and choose System Management > Permission Management > Common Permission Configuration > Permission Quick Configuration > Dept./Role > Sharing Permission > Resource Collaboration. (You need to confirm that you have enabled Resource Collaboration Control on the Global Setting page.)

For details, see Collaboration.

Q: I cannot open the public link.

A: For details, see section "Notes" in Sharing Dashboards Through Public Links.

In case of the local area network, the recipient needs to be in the same local area network as the sharer to access the dashboard.

If you install the BI project locally instead of deploying it on a server accessible from the external network, for example, the access address is http://localhost:37799/webroot/decision, the generated dashboard public link will start with localhost. The dashboard shared through this link cannot be accessed by users who are non-native users. You need to change the IP of localhost to that of the current server.

If your FineBI port is not 37799, you need to change the specific local port to the port number you use in Inbound Rules.

Q: I cannot see a certain dashboard published to a directory/Can't see data within the dashboard.

A: The admin has not assigned Data Permission to you to modify dashboards.

For details, see Overview of Data Permission.

Q: Will the recycle bin be automatically emptied on schedule?

A: No, you need to manually clean the recycle bin. For details, see Recycle Bin.