Accessing data from a database

You can connect to and access data from external data sources, such as databases, data warehouses, and data lakes. On this page, you learn how to connect to your data source with a data connection.

Checking that a 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 data connector. Instead, you can try to connect to your data with Information Services.

Note: When you use Spotfire in a web browser, you can only create and edit data connections to some data source types. To learn more, see Data connections in the Spotfire web client.

Installing the required drivers

To access data from many external data sources, a driver is required. If you use a Spotfire installed client, you must install the required driver on your computer.

Note: If you are using Spotfire in your web browser, a Spotfire administrator must install the driver on the computer that is running the Spotfire Web Player service.

Go to Drivers and data sources in 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.

Creating a data connection

About this task

You can think of accessing data from an external data source 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 decide how you want to load that data in your analysis.

Connecting to your data source

To create a new connection to your data source, select 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 form, enter the information for connecting to your data source.
Note: This step is different depending on the data source type. Usually you must enter a server address, select an authentication method, and log in with your user credentials. Depending on your data source type, there can be many more options. See the documentation for the corresponding data connector for details.
To connect to your data source and proceed to selecting your data, click OK or Connect.

Learn more

To learn more about how to configure a connection to a data source, see the following pages:

Properties in connection data sources

Selecting data from your data source

About this task

When you have connected to your data source, the next step is to select the data that you want to use in Spotfire.

Note: The user interface for selecting data is different depending on the type of data source, and if you are using Spotfire as an installed or web client. There are limitations to what you can do when using the web client, which you can read about more here: Limitations when you author data connections in the web client.

In the panel on the left, browse the database tables available in your data source.
Click to select the database tables you want to use, and make available as data tables to analyze in Spotfire.
For each table, you can decide which columns you want to include.
When you are happy with your data selection, click Continue or OK. In the next and final step, you can choose how you want Spotfire to retrieve the data in your analysis.

Learn more

You can also create a more specific or flexible data selection in this dialog. There is a range of 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. You can add and configure custom queries in an installed Spotfire client.
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. You can add prompts to data connections in an installed Spotfire client.

Selecting how to load the data

When you have selected your data, the final step is to select how Spotfire should retrieve that data, and how to add it to the analysis. In the Add data to analysis summary, you can see all the data tables you selected.

To see all the options for a data table, click the data table's card. 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.
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: