There are two kinds of Quick BI users: those who "can use" it, and those who "use it well."
The former can drag and drop a basic report together. The latter make reports come alive — dynamic parameter passing, cross-granularity calculations, intelligent exploration — all at their fingertips. The gap between them isn't talent. It's whether a few key capabilities have been systematically mastered.
You might have lived this: your manager wants a dynamic report where "each regional manager only sees their own data." You dig through documentation for half an hour and discover you need placeholders, but the tutorials only cover basic cases. You end up writing custom SQL anyway. Or you watch a colleague use a single LOD expression to compare "store monthly average vs. national monthly average" — something that would have taken you an entire auxiliary dataset to build.
Those operations that feel impossibly hard are, in a master's hands, just fundamentals.
Now, the Quick BI official team is opening a free, five-day, check-in-based Master Training Camp designed to close that gap. Quick BI — Alibaba Cloud's intelligent business analytics platform recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and trusted by over 300,000 enterprise customers — covers the entire data lifecycle from source connection and data modeling to dashboard building and ad hoc analysis. This training camp takes users from "basic proficiency" to "advanced mastery" across four core modules: Explore Analysis, Workbook Forms, Function System, and Placeholder Parameters. No fees. No hidden charges. Five days of guided practice that will noticeably elevate your analytics capabilities.
The Master's Curriculum: Five Days, Five Advanced Challenges
The training camp doesn't overwhelm. One topic, thoroughly covered, each day. Five days connect into a complete progression — from "seeing data" to "mastering data."
Day 1 | Explore Analysis: Seeing Beyond the Report
The master's first lesson: learn not to be limited by reports.
Most users experience Quick BI through fixed dashboards — you view what was built, and if you need a different angle, you go back to the editor and rebuild. Explore Analysis changes that equation entirely.
Available in the Professional edition, Explore Analysis is a lightweight, instant data exploration tool that lets business users — not just data analysts — freely drag and drop dimensions and measures without touching the underlying dataset. You switch between table, chart, and calendar views on the fly. Smart chart recommendations analyze your data patterns and suggest the optimal visualization: bar, line, pie, funnel, or combo charts, among others.
But the real power lies in what happens when you start asking questions. Imagine a regional sales dashboard. A standard report shows you the numbers — revenue by product, by region, by month. With Explore Analysis, you can:
- Drill down from "East China" to "Shanghai" to "Pudong District" in a single click, watching the visualization reshape itself around your question without any configuration changes.
- Apply linkage across multiple charts on the dashboard — select a data point in one visualization, and every related chart filters and highlights accordingly, revealing connections that static reports would never surface.
- Perform quick calculations inline — year-over-year growth, month-over-month change, ratio of subtotal to grand total, cumulative sums — all available as one-click options, no formula writing required.
- Leverage the AI assistant integrated directly into the interface (identified by a blue water droplet icon). Ask "which product category grew the fastest last quarter?" in natural language, and the assistant returns the answer with a visualization — no SQL, no formula syntax, no multi-step configuration.
Consider a real scenario: a marketing manager needs to understand why campaign engagement dropped in Q3. In a traditional BI workflow, this means filing a request with the data team, waiting for a new dashboard, and hoping the analysis answers the right question. With Explore Analysis, the manager opens the existing dashboard, drills from "overall engagement" to "by channel" to "by campaign" in seconds, applies a month-over-month comparison with one click, and asks the AI assistant to identify anomalies. The entire investigation — from question to insight — happens in minutes, not days.
The group comparison feature deserves special mention. It lets you split dimensions into custom groups and compare them side by side — for instance, comparing "new customers" versus "returning customers" across the same metrics, all within the same view, without creating separate charts for each segment. Combined with the calendar view, which surfaces time-based patterns at a glance, Explore Analysis becomes not just a reporting tool but a genuine discovery surface — one where the next question is always one click away.
That's the shift Explore Analysis enables: from "the report shows what it shows" to "ask any question, get an instant answer." It turns dashboards from static presentations into living, responsive exploration surfaces where every click opens a new line of inquiry. In the hands of a trained user, a single dashboard can answer dozens of questions in a single session — questions that would otherwise each require a separate report request and hours of waiting.
Day 2 | Workbooks: Complex Forms and AI Functions
A master doesn't just read data — they capture it too.
Quick BI Workbooks function like a familiar spreadsheet but with analytical depth that goes far beyond grid calculations. Supporting over 400 Excel functions, workbooks enable both cell-level and block-level configuration, rich embedded visualization charts, quick online analysis, and template-based replication for complex report styles.
This session covers two advanced capabilities. First, complex form configuration for data collection workflows — the kind of multi-level, conditionally-formatted, validation-enabled forms that real enterprises need for budget planning, performance tracking, and operational reporting. Second, AI function generation: describe what you need in plain language, and Quick BI's AI writes the function for you. No more manually stitching together formulas through trial and error.
From "manually crafting formulas through trial and error" to "describe your intent, let AI generate the function" — this is where spreadsheet analytics meets generative AI.
Day 3 | Function System: The Foundation of Calculation
A master's inner strength is calculation.
This session doesn't pile on concepts. Instead, it uses real business scenarios to break down Quick BI's function library — how to process and transform data, build calculated fields with correct syntax, chain functions for multi-step transformations, and avoid the silent errors that plague improperly constructed formulas. This day builds the foundation for Day 4's advanced LOD exploration.
Day 4 | Advanced LOD Functions: The Master's Divide
This is where masters and ordinary users diverge.
LOD (Level of Detail) expressions solve one of the most persistent challenges in analytics: performing calculations across different granularity levels within the same view. Quick BI supports three LOD keywords:
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LOD_FIXED: Aggregates at the specified dimensions regardless of what's in the current view. Example:
LOD_FIXED{[Region]: SUM([Order Amount])}returns total order amount per region, independent of other displayed dimensions. - LOD_INCLUDE: Adds specified dimensions to the view's existing granularity before computing — ideal for contribution ratios at different levels.
- LOD_EXCLUDE: Removes specified dimensions from the view before computing — perfect for comparing against a broader context.
Without LOD, showing "each store's monthly average alongside the national monthly average" in one report means building an auxiliary dataset, writing custom SQL, and maintaining two data sources. With LOD, one formula handles it — the calculation sits right beside your store-level measure in the same cross-tab.
From "building auxiliary datasets to work around granularity differences" to "one formula, multiple detail levels in a single view" — LOD is the function that separates those who adapt data to their tools from those who make tools adapt to data.
Day 5 | Placeholder Parameters: Making Reports Obey
The master's final technique: making reports responsive.
Placeholder parameters let you pass values dynamically from dashboard query controls directly into custom SQL. Quick BI supports several types:
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Value placeholders (
$val{placeholder_name}): Pass a single value or set of values from dashboard controls into SQL. When the placeholder is a date, you specify the format. -
Expression placeholders (
$expr{field_name:placeholder_name}): Pass an entire filter condition — operator and value — into SQL, letting users modify filter methods freely on the dashboard. -
Condition placeholders (
$condition{field1, field2:placeholder_name}): Pass structured values through tree-shaped dropdown controls for hierarchical filtering. -
Acceleration placeholders (
$accel{field_name:placeholder_name}): Enable the Quick Engine to dynamically replace time windows during extraction for incremental data pulling.
The practical impact is immediate. Report linking becomes configuration, not development. Dimension switching, role-based data filtering (where each regional manager sees only their own data), and dynamic threshold adjustments all become placeholder-driven workflows. Dashboard query controls pass parameters to underlying SQL in real time — no code changes, no redeployment.
From "hardcoded conditions requiring code changes every time" to "flexible parameter passing with one-click switching" — placeholder parameters transform static reports into living, responsive analytics.
Three Conditions for Mastery
True mastery isn't innate — it's earned through practice. The training camp provides three conditions to make that practice count:
Progressive difficulty, practiced in order. Each day builds on the last, with only one module to digest per day. Explore Analysis → Workbook Forms → Function Basics → LOD → Placeholders, decomposed like a martial arts routine — one move at a time, each building on the last.
Full guidance, no detours. A dedicated learning community with the Quick BI official team answering questions. Not "here's a manual, figure it out" — but mentors watching your practice and guiding you through the difficult parts.
Check-in incentives, practice with reward. Daily check-ins enter you into a prize draw. Five-day perfect attendance qualifies you for the grand prize and a Quick BI official completion certificate — proof of your advancement, and a mark of your commitment.
Exclusive Quick BI Merchandise
Brand-customized umbrellas, limited-edition canvas bags, Quick BI IP figurines — all official limited items, not sold separately. Only training camp graduates have the chance to earn them.
Who Should Begin This Journey?
You don't need to start from zero. The Master Training Camp is designed for Quick BI users who have crossed the threshold of basic proficiency and want to advance further. If any of these sound familiar, this is your moment:
- You can build basic reports, but complex forms and LOD functions still stump you
- You want to create dynamic reports but don't know how to configure placeholders
- You know AI functions and Explore Analysis exist, but haven't put them to real use
- Your first instinct for complex requirements is to "write SQL to work around it"
Five Days from Now
To be specific: you'll master the correct way to use Explore Analysis, learn complex form configuration and AI functions, understand the function system and write LOD calculations independently, and implement dynamic parameter passing with placeholders. These challenges that once made you take the long way around will become your fundamental toolkit.
The gap between "using" and "mastering" Quick BI isn't about talent — it's about five days of the right practice. Free enrollment, limited spots, first come first served.
Quick BI — Data analytics, reimagined. From insight to impact, we build the bridge.
Top comments (1)
Great breakdown of the advanced Quick BI features! The LOD functions section really resonates — cross-granularity calculations are one of those things that seem impossible until you see the right syntax, then it clicks instantly. Looking forward to seeing more content around placeholder parameters and dynamic reporting use cases.