You can connect to and access data from lots of external data sources, such as databases, data warehouses, and data lakes. In most cases, the best and easiest way to access your data is to use a data connection. In this article, you’ll learn how to connect to your data source with a data connection.
Before you start
Check that your data source is supported
First check the list of supported data sources to see that your data source is supported. Also visit the system requirements for details about supported versions.
Tip: If your data source is not in the list, it means that Spotfire does not have native support for it with a connector. Instead, you can try to connect to your data with Information Services.
Installing drivers and required software
To be able access data from most data sources, you need a driver on your computer.
Go to Drivers and data sources in TIBCO Spotfire® and browse to find the data source type that you want to connect to.
Find the driver for your data source and install it on your computer.
Restart Spotfire.
Tip: If you want to access data from your data source in a web client, a Spotfire administrator must install the driver on the computer that is running the Spotfire Web Player service.
Connecting to your data source
When you connect to a data source in Spotfire, you can view it as a 3-step process. First you connect to your data source. Then you select the data that you want to access. And finally you select how you want to load that data in your analysis.
Connecting
You can easily create a new connection to your data source under Connect to in the Files and data flyout.
Open the Files
and data
flyout, and click Connect to.
In the list, find and select your data source.
In the panel on the right, click New connection.
In the connection dialog, enter the information for connecting to your data source.
Tip: This step is different depending on the data source type. Usually you need to enter a server address, and your username and password, and select an authentication method. But depending on your data source type, there can be many more options. Your data source/database administrator can help you with gathering the information you need for your data source.
To connect to your data source and proceed to selecting your data, click OK or Connect.
Learn more
For help with connecting to different data sources, including information about capabilities and requirements, see the documentation for the corresponding data connector. You can find the full list of data sources with links to documentation for the corresponding connectors on this page:
Selecting data from your data source
When you have connected to your data source, the next step is to select the data that you want to use in Spotfire. You select data in the Views in connection dialog.
Browse the tables available in your data source.
Add the tables you want as views, which will be the data tables you analyze in Spotfire.
For each view, you can decide which columns you want to include.
You can also create a more specific or flexible data selection in this dialog. There is a range of powerful tools available, such as:
Custom queries — This is where you can put
your SQL skills to use. With custom queries, you can select the data
you want to analyze by typing a custom SQL query.
Prompting — Leave the data selection to
the user of your analysis file. You configure prompts based on columns
of your choice. Then, the end user who opens the analysis can select
to limit and view data for relevant values only. For example, she
can select data within a certain span of time or for a specific geographic
region.
When you are happy with your data selection, click OK. In the next and final step, you can choose how you Spotfire to retrieve the data in your analysis..
Selecting how to load your data
When you have selected your data, you can choose how Spotfire should retrieve that data from the data source. In the Add data to analysis summary you can see all the data tables you selected.
If you want to change how a data table is retrieved, click the data table. In the expanded card, you can change the load method and select if the table should be added as a new data table or as rows to a table you already have in your analysis.
When you are happy with your selection, click OK to finish and add the data to your analysis.
Learn more
To learn more about different ways to load your data, see the following pages:
What are load methods?
The load method determines how Spotfire retrieves a data table from the data source.
The default load method for most data sources is External. This means the data table is kept in-database and Spotfire pushes queries to the data source based on what you do in the analysis.
If you select Imported, Spotfire will extract the entire data table into the Spotfire client memory. One reason to use Imported for some tables is to use analytical functions of the embedded in-memory data engine of Spotfire. It also enables you to use the statistical capabilities of the embedded TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R or Python interpreter.
The third option is On-demand. This means that slices of data will be extracted based on your actions in the analysis. You can define the criteria, which could be actions like marking or filtering data, or changing document properties. You can combine on-demand data loading with External data tables.
Learn more
To learn more about load methods for data, see the following pages:
Troubleshooting
My data source does not show up in the list under Connect to
If you cannot see the name of your data source in the Connect to list, your Spotfire user might not have the license for the connector used to connect to that data source. Your Spotfire administrator can help you with this. The administrator needs to either move your username to a user group with access to the connector, or the user group you are currently a member of needs to be granted access to the connector.