Parameterized information links

With parameterized information links, you can set up a data source to return only information applicable for a certain user or group. Depending on which user is logged in and accesses the information link, or, for example, from where the user accesses the information link, different subsets of the data are available.

The concept is similar to the personalized information links, but more general, and needs API configurations to work properly. Although parameters are created in Information Designer, their properties and definitions are defined in the API.

A parameterized information link is an information link that contains a number of parameters. In Information Designer, you define these parameters with a name and a type, and you can use the parameters when creating various elements in the information link. To be able to open a parameterized information link in Spotfire, you must be able to provide the values for these parameters. How you do this is determined in the API.

Why use parameters?

For example, you can use parameters to set up a web client analysis with data loaded from a database. If the web client analysis is integrated into a portal or similar, you can define the contents of the analysis with parameters. The values of these parameters can then be defined by another application in the portal, or by settings the users have applied in other parts of the portal.

Another example is if you wanted to create an analysis file, but then you want to be able to easily create different versions of it for different users. You can then set up a template file using parameterized information links, and from that file, and using the API, create different files with different parameter values.

Where can parameters be included?


Element type	Parameterized property
Column	Column calculation Aggregate column key expression Filter condition
Filter	Filter condition
Procedure	Input parameter default value
Information Link	Static filter Edited SQL (Pre-updates, Query, Post-updates)
Data Source	Open session commands Close session commands

Examples

For filter condition expressions, parameters can be used as the condition for the selected columns.

Dialog box image showing a filter condition expression

In the SQL editor, you can set parameters directly.

FROM
   "Sales"."dbo"."SalesandCost" S1
WHERE
   (S1."Sales" > ?MinSales)

Note: If you alter parameters in the SQL code, the changes will override the parameter settings made elsewhere, such as the filter part of the information link tab.

Note: When using parameters in an information link to a data source which has temporary data tables enabled, custom SQL is not supported. Such custom SQL might cause Spotfire to generate incorrect SQL queries to the data source.

Syntax

The syntax of the naming of the parameterized information links is

?param_name

Where "?" indicates that it is a parameter and param_name is the name the parameter is identified by.

Note: The parameter name should start with a letter from A-Z or a-z and can contain the following characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _ and '.'.