Architectural Concepts and Implications
A fundamental concept for all ADVIZOR products is the in-memory data model, which enables high-performance Visual DiscoveryTM insights and analysis. An ADVIZOR application's data pool is initially loaded from any combination of database tables and queries, spreadsheets, and text files, and then may be augmented with calculated fields and roll-ups, but in typical practice it is loaded from a highly-condensed project file in a proprietary, encrypted format.
An ADVIZOR Analyst project, or dashboard, consists of a set of data sources, a set of data transformation specifications, and a set of chart specifications, including grouping on pages. The data sources are specified by path and file name or database server connection and authentication details, as well as by lists of fields to load into the data pool along with table and field name mappings and field type-conversion and formatting specifications. The data transformations that can be performed within the data pool include numeric and string calculations, logical expressions, keyed field copying and linkage, and table roll-ups. A project's specifications can be saved as an "ADV" file so that when re-opened, the data that currently matches the data source specifications is loaded and transformed in the same ways, and charts are re-created, laid out, and configured with the same dimensions of the data.
Once an ADVIZOR ADV project file is opened, with the data loaded into memory and the specified transformations calculated, the project can be saved in "ADVM" form, which includes a compressed and encrypted copy of the data pool. This ADVM project file is self-contained, so it can be moved and re-opened on another PC without access to the original data sources.
Another important characteristic of ADVM project files is that they can be opened much more quickly and efficiently than the corresponding ADV project files, so it is generally recommended that larger projects be opened from ADVM files. If the original data sources for a project are database tables that grow continuously, you would need to open the ADV version of the project to retrieve the latest database contents, since an ADVM project file contains a fixed data snapshot. New snapshots of a database can be created automatically by using the "Adv2Advm" utility in a scheduled task.
Adv2Advm simply opens an ADV project file, loading the data sources into memory and calculating any transformations specified, and then immediately saves the project with the data in ADVM format. Optionally, the ADVM can be created without any data source definitions, to prevent end users from re-saving the project as an ADV and directly accessing the data sources.