PerformancePoint Services give a user the
ability to create KPIs, scorecards, and dashboards from data typically
not contained within SharePoint. However, SharePoint list data can be
used as a data source.
PerformancePoint exceeds expectations when
it uses a SQL Server Analysis cube as its datasource. The reason for
this is that now information can be leveraged in the dashboard and can
be viewed multiple ways. Another common term for this is slicing and
dicing the data. This ability comes from data set up in a cube.
PerformancePoint does not set up a cube, but rather consumes the data
and provides a mechanism to display and drill down into that data.
The second place PerformancePoint shines is in its
ability to use several different technologies and provide a single
viewing source for them. For example, a dashboard can be set up with
several web part zones. One zone could be showing the scorecards of a
process, the second zone could be showing a SQL Reporting Services
report of that process. The third zone could show the Excel spreadsheets
that are related to that process.
PerformancePoint Services is a single farm service.
This means it cannot be shared across farms. In this recipe, we will
show how to set up and configure a PerformancePoint Service.
Getting ready
You must have Farm Administrator privileges to Central Administration.
Ensure that there is a web application already set up. In most cases it will be called SharePoint - 80.
How to do it...
Open Central Administration and click Application Management.
The third section is Service Applications. Under it, click Manage Service applications.
On the ribbon, select New | PerformancePoint Service Application.
You will get the following screenshot. Fill in the required details.
Name: This is the name for the service application. Name the Service Application as PPS Finance.
Check the Add this service application's proxy... option.
Application Pool: Create a new application pool here or use an existing one.
Configurable: This is a domain security account for the application pool.
Click on the Create button.
Ensure that there is a running Secure Store Service by checking that the service is started on the Manage Service Applications page. If it is not, follow the Creating the Secure Store recipe.
On the Manage Service Applications page, click to the right of the PerformancePoint service application called PPS Finance.
The ribbon on the top will light up. Note that the Service Application
is the left-aligned object, whereas the Service Application Proxy is the
indented object with the same name.
Click the Manage option on the ribbon. The following screenshot will appear for configuration:
Click the PerformancePoint Service Application Settings option.
Fill in the data for the Secure Store Service Application and Unattended Service Account option. Click OK.
Open
up your SharePoint website. This will be the site that is associated to
the web application where PerformancePoint has been set up.
Under Site Collection Administration, click the Site Collection Features option.
Click on the Activate button on SharePoint Publishing Infrastructure:
Navigate back to Site Settings (Step 11). Click Manage site features under Site Actions.
Click on the Activate button on PerformancePoint Services Site Features.
How it works...
This was a coordinated series of steps that activated
many moving parts in our SharePoint installation. It is important to
understand what was done under the covers.
The first important milestone in our recipe happens after Step 4. When we fill out this form and click Create,
the PPS Application and associated service proxy are created and
started. In SQL, a database is created and now the web front-end and the
application server can communicate using web services (WCF) to the
database. Refer to Managing a Service recipe for the explanation of the web service.
In Step 9, we needed an unattended service account
for PPS Finance. This account gives us the ability to access our
back-end data that will be shown in our dashboards and utilized in our
KPIs and scorecards.
Finally in Steps 13 and 15, we activated the features
necessary on our site to utilize PerformancePoint Services. The first
feature was the publishing infrastructure. This is necessary as it
provides publishing components that are necessary for the Business
Intelligence Center.
The second feature was the PerformancePoint
components that are utilized. These are the PerformancePoint content
types, web parts, and a Business Intelligence Center site template found
under Enterprise. Here is an example of the content types that are created:
There's more...
Creation of the PerformancePoint Application can be
achieved with the help of scripts, through the use of PowerShell. Here
are the associated PowerShell commands:
PowerShell: PerformancePoint Cmdlets
New-SPPerformancePointServiceApplication
Remove-SPPerformancePointServiceApplication
Get-SPPerformancePointServiceApplication
New-SPPerformancePointServiceApplicationProxy
Remove-SPPerformancePointServiceApplicationProxy
