Connecting to Data


Video: How to Use Instant Insights

Using Instant Insights, you can easily run advanced analyses on your data to generate visualizations and narratives. 
And you don’t have to be a data scientist to do it.  
You can access Instant Insights from the   start page in the following ways.  
Click the plus menu, and then click Get Data to  upload or connect to a data file, or click Create Visualizations and select an existing data file. 
Let’s visualize existing data.  
Click Create Visualizations.
Select a data source from the dialog box.

Classifying Metadata During Upload and Using it in a Data Flow

Metadata Classification examines your data and assigns classifications to the columns, which can then be used to match columns from separate data sources. In this release, you can classify data that you upload, and use it to match fields in a Union in a Data Flow.

When uploading a data file, you can now view the recommended metadata classification values for each character-valued column. You can choose to keep the recommended values, or to change them.

Changing Metadata Classification Values When Uploading Data Files

When uploading a data file, you can view the recommended metadata classification values for each character-valued column. You can choose to keep the recommended values, or to change them.

Including classification values in your data improves the accuracy of mapping column tables correctly to each other. This is useful if you are integrating data from multiple sources, or if integrating data into a system with a predefined hierarchy. When creating unions from different data sources, the metadata classification algorithm will match columns with similar data.

Joining Data in the Synonym Editor

You can use the Synonym Editor to create a cluster synonym by joining together multiple tables or synonyms from your data source that contain related data. You can create a cluster synonym when connecting to data stored in a remote database, or you can create a new cluster synonym from existing synonyms. In both of these processes, you use the Join Editor in the Synonym Editor to add and edit joins in the cluster. The Join Editor presents a modeling view of the cluster synonym that visually represents the structure of the cluster.

Introducing Joins

Your data may be arranged and structured in different ways depending on the size and amount of detail that it provides. Smaller data sources may be saved in a single spreadsheet or flat file, such as a CSV file, making them easy to access and distribute. Larger data sources, however, may contain too many records or fields to efficiently store in a single file.

Working with Metadata in WebFOCUS

Data is integral to building reports, charts, and visualizations in WebFOCUS Designer and other ibi tools. Metadata, or data about data, enables you to efficiently manage and manipulate your data in support of the business applications that you develop for yourself or for other members of your organization. WebFOCUS offers many advantages in metadata management that support and empower developers and business users with access to the information they need to solve problems or make business decisions.

Processing Format Conversion Errors when Uploading Data

When uploading data from a delimited or Excel file, a format conversion error can occur, such as when a numeric field contains a non-numeric value. You have load options to control how to process rows that contain format errors, and to control how many format errors are allowed before processing stops.

The following conversion error load options are available when uploading files:

Navigating Get Data With Keyboard Controls

You can use keyboard commands to navigate through the initial Get Data page, so that all options can be performed from the keyboard without requiring a mouse, using a combination of the Tab key, Shift+Tab key, and arrow key actions. Pressing the Enter key performs the primary action of the selected element. Pressing the Esc key closes a panel.

You can jump to areas of the page that are not near each other by pressing the key combination Shift+Ctrl+F10. This opens an accessible context menu, as shown in the following image.