You can load data into TIBCO Spotfire from a number of different sources: by pasting from the clipboard, by opening simple text files, Microsoft Excel files, SAS files, a database or an information link (a predefined connection to a shared data source). You may also have access to additional file sources if such have been set up by your company.
You reach the different ways to load data either directly via the File menu or using Add Data Tables. In the Add Data Tables dialog you can add more than one data table to your analysis. TIBCO Spotfire also supports connections to external data sources*, such as Microsoft® SQL Server®, Microsoft® SQL Server® Analysis Services, Oracle® and Oracle® MySQL databases, Teradata® , PostgreSQL®, SAP® Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) and IBM® Netezza®. These connections allow you to analyze data in-database, see below.
Note: You may not have access to all of the external data sources listed above. See Connectors Overview for more information.
When you are working with in-memory data tables (text files, Excel files, information links, etc.) you have access to all the functionality of Spotfire. You have the opportunity to use all columns as filters and perform any number of calculations. You can also use any of the tools within Spotfire to cluster data, calculate new columns, bin columns, make predictions etc. See Working With Large Data Volumes for some tips on how to improve the performance of an analysis with lots of data.
When a connection to an external source is set up, all calculations are done using the external system and not with the Spotfire data engine. This will allow you to work with data volumes too large to fit into primary memory and take advantage of the power of the external system. When working with external data connections, you access only the current selection of data and all aggregations and calculations are made in-database (in-db).
When a visualization is configured to use in-db data, the visualization will query the external data source directly. Every time a change is done to the setup of the visualization, e.g., a fact column is set on the Y-axis or a Color by dimension column is added, a new query will be sent to the external data source resulting in a new table of aggregated data. This means that you cannot make any changes to a visualization using an in-db data table when you are not connected to the external data source.
In some cases, the data in a database is modeled as a star schema or snowflake, also known as a multidimensional model. If this is the case, you can reuse this model, the relations and constraints defined in the database, to setup your analysis. If no relations have been set up, it is possible to define those when selecting the data tables to retrieve for a certain connection. By using constraints and relations that have either been predefined in the database or created explicitly by a configurator multiple database tables can appear as a single de-normalized table, i.e., a virtual table. A virtual table can be used in a visualization providing the illusion of a single table. Virtual tables differ from regular Spotfire tables containing imported data in the sense that virtual tables only contain metadata which is used during configuration of a visualization—a virtual table does not actually contain any data.
This has the implication that some of the functionality within TIBCO Spotfire that is available for in-memory data is not applicable when working with in-db data. See Working With In-Database Data for more information.
* Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
* Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
* Teradata is a trademark or registered trademark of Teradata Corporation in the United States and other countries.
* SAP® Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) is the trademark or registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.
* IBM and Netezza are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.
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