Selecting and Setting Up Visualizer Data Source

To select and set up a visualizer data source, there is the Data Sources tab on the side panel.

Cubes, child cubes of modeling container and time series database are available as a source. External data sources can be added by means of the data import wizard.

Make sure that the side panel is displayed.
Select a visualizer in the working area.
Set the Data radio button on the side panel.
Go to the Data Sources tab.

The tab displays all data sources in the repository available for the visualizer. For example:

Select the required data source in the object tree. The following is available for the selected data source:

If the selected data source is already used by the other visualizer, visualizer dimensions can be synchronized. This will enable the user to manage selection in several visualizers at a time. Use the Dimension Synchronization tab to determine dimension synchronization parameters.

Sources can contain two types of data: source data and data of saved view. Saved view contains custom settings of the view. For example: displaying dimension elements, chart settings, labels parameters, and so on.

To select the type of loaded data, use radio buttons in the source context menu in the side panel:

Use Source Data Only. Only source data is loaded to visualizer.
Use Source Data and Saved Selection. Source data and user-defined parameters of source dimension selection are loaded to visualizer. If selection parameters are missing, only source data is loaded.
Use Data and Saved View of the Source. The saved view is loaded to the visualizer. If the saved view is missing, only source data is loaded.

NOTE. Data of a number of sources can be displayed in a single visualizer if all sources have at least one shared dimension.

To select multiple data sources:

Select the Multiple Sources checkbox on the Data Sources tab and select the required sources.
Select several sources (cubes or time series databases) in the object navigator and select the Open With > Dashboard Designer item in the context menu.

Special features to work with a number of sources are described in the Control Data of Several Sources section.

Click the Data Import button. The data import wizard dialog box opens.

Using the import wizard, the following data sources are available:

Microsoft Excel files (*.xls, *.xlsx).
Microsoft Access databases (*.mdb).
XML files (*.xml).
Text files (*.txt).
Repository objects:
- Tables.
- ETL logs.

NOTE. The option is available only in the desktop application.

To edit an object that is a data source, select the Edit item in the context menu of the data source.

NOTE. Data source editing can be disabled by means of the built-in Fore language.

The following search modes are available in the Dashboards tool:

Standard search of data sources by their name.
BI search of data sources by their contents.

For details see the Data Source Search section.

If a cube created during import is set as a data source, reloading of data is available for the source. To reload data, select the Execute ETL Task item in the context menu of the selected source.

As a result, data is reloaded to the source using ETL task.

To edit the ETL task, select the Edit ETL Task item in the context menu of the selected source.

As a result, the ETL task edit dialog box opens.

If the cube, to which data was imported, is specified as a data source, several ETL tasks are available for it:

A task created after building a cube.
Tasks created after data import to the cube.

NOTE. The web application enables the user only to execute ETL task.

For detailed description of working with data source dimensions see the Working with Dimensions section.