Diagrammatic access and arrangement of data

A system for displaying customizable data diagrams based on a multidimensional data set, the system comprising:

• a data store configured for storing one or more multidimensional data sets;
• a user interface layer configured for receiving references to the one or more multidimensional data sets and for receiving requests to modify a data diagram generated based on the one or more multidimensional data sets;
• a data diagram engine component configured for
• generating an initial data diagram that provides a graphical representation of nodes, wherein the nodes correspond to data from the one or more multidimensional data sets, each node having a reference to information of a multidimensional data set to which the node corresponds;
• modifying the data diagram based on a received request, wherein the modification includes modifying the graphical representation of nodes, the modifying including updating a data structure to indicate merging and splitting of nodes;
• refreshing the data diagram, wherein the refreshing includes using the references associated with the nodes to query the multidimensional data set for breakdowns of the nodes, determining if changes have been made to the referenced information of the multidimensional data set since the initial data diagram was generated, and if changes have been made to the referenced information of the multidimensional set, reconciling breakdowns by creating a shape for each row in a record set that results from a query and updating the data diagram based on the changes of the reconciled breakdowns, wherein the updating retains the modified graphical representation of nodes;
• a display component configured for displaying the initial data diagram and for displaying the modified data diagram;
• a component that generates a pivot table from data of the data store, the pivot table formatted in accordance with the modified data diagram to reflect merged and split nodes as indicated by the data structure:
• and
• a component that displays the generated pivot table.

A computer-readable storage or tangible medium containing a data structure used in generating a data diagram based on a set of raw data, the data structure comprising:

• one or more instances of shape information, wherein each instance of the shape information is associated with a node displayed in the data diagram, wherein the displayed node corresponds to a dimension in the set of raw data, wherein each instance includes a reference to the dimension in the set of raw data to which the displayed node corresponds, and wherein the dimension includes at least one level of detail, the shape information being represented by a shape object for each node of the data diagram indicating shape of the node, a shape object indicating whether the node is a root node, whether the node has child nodes, whether the node represents an aggregate of nodes at the same level, and whether the node is part of a merged node;
• and
• one or more instances of breakdown shape information, wherein each instance of the breakdown shape information defines a breakdown scheme for a selected dimension in the set of raw data, wherein the breakdown scheme is used to drill down on data displayed in the data diagram, and wherein the drill down includes displaying one or more nodes showing a next level of detail for the selected dimension;
• and wherein the data diagram is configured to be refreshed including using the reference of each instance of shape information to query the raw data to determine if changes have been made to the raw data since the data diagram was generated, and if changes have been made to the raw data, reconciling breakdowns by creating a shape for each row in a record set that results from a query and updating the data diagram based on the changes, wherein the updating retains the breakdown scheme;
• and
• wherein the data structure is used to generate a pivot table from the raw set of data, the pivot table formatted in accordance with the aggregate and merged information of the data structure.