Overview

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

The OCF connector for TIBCO Spotfire is available as a Zip file from Alation Customer Portal (requires a login via the Alation Customer Portal). The connector file can be uploaded and installed in the Alation application. Only Alation users with access to the Customer Portal can access the Alation Connector Hub. If you can’t access the Customer Portal, contact Alation Support.

This connector should be used to catalog TIBCO Spotfire as a BI source on Alation on-premise and Cloud Service instances. It extracts and catalogs such BI objects as:

  • Library folder and sub-folders that include DXP & SBDF Reports,

  • Report preview and connection details are extracted for DXP Reports.

  • Connection Details include the names of the data sources and tables involved.

  • Lineage depicts the relationship between the data source and reports,

  • The report information link is added at the report level as a source comment.

After the metadata is extracted, it is represented in the data catalog as a hierarchy of catalog pages under the parent data source. Alation users can leverage the full catalog functionality to search for and find the extracted metadata, curate the corresponding catalog pages, create documentation about the data source, and exchange information.

Team

The following administrators are required to install this connector:

  • Alation Server Admin:

    • Ensures that Alation Connector Manager is installed and running or installs it.

    • Installs the connector.

    • Creates and configures a TIBCO Spotfire BI source in the catalog.

    • Performs initial extraction and prepares the data source for Alation users.

  • TIBCO Spotfire administrator:

    • Creates service account

    • Registers API client

Scope

The table below describes which metadata objects this connector extracts and which operations are supported.

Feature

Scope

Availability

Folders

Catalog folders as BI folders.

Yes

Subfolders

Catalog subfolders as BI folders.

Yes

Filter folders

Users can apply filters on folders.

Yes

Reports

Extract DXP reports based on multisource (SBDF, IL, CSV, XLS,Text, and Database) and SPDF reports as BI reports.

Yes

Report preview

Extract preview/thumbnail of reports as report preview.

Yes

Report fields

Extract report fields as fields and expressions when available.

Yes

Datasource

Extract datasources.

Yes

Filter datasource

Filter based on datasource.

No

Source comments

Extract source comments.

Yes

Source lineage

Lineage between table and BI report.

No

Popularity

No

TIBCO Spotfire Object Hierarchy

The following diagram shows the hierarchy of TIBCO Spotfire objects and how they are cataloged in Alation:

../../../_images/TibcoSpotfire_01.png

TIBCO Spotfire APIs

SOAP API Methods

The table below lists the TIBCO Spotfire SOAP API V 12.0 < methods used by this connector to extract metadata from the TIBCO Spotfire server:

Type

Category

Endpoint

Description

Folders and Dashboard (Reports & Sub reports)

Admin

/api/soap/LibraryService

LibraryService Interface includes the methods to list all the LibraryItems, Extract all the Library folder child items and LibraryProperties as well. Below is the list of methods that are called:

  • getRootItem

  • getChildItems

  • getItems

Data Source,Report Columns, Connection, and Information Link

Admin

/api/soap/LibraryService

LibraryService Interface calls the searchItems method based on serachExpresession it returns all items, up to the given limit, in the given location that matches the given search expression. Only items that the calling user has access to will be returned.

Authorization

Authorization

/spotfire/oauth2/auth

Authorization using Auth.

Authorization

Authorization

/spotfire/oauth2/token

Authorization using Token.

Permission Enforcement

Admin

/api/soap/UserDirectoryService

UserDirectoryService Interface contains methods to handle different user and group-related operations of TIBCO. This may include searching for groups or users, listing them, finding members of a group, etc.

References:

REST API Methods

The table below lists the TIBCO Spotfire REST API V14.0 methods used by this connector to extract metadata from the TIBCO Spotfire server:

Type

Category

Endpoint

Description

Authorization

Authorization

/spotfire/oauth2/token

Authorization using Token.

Download API

Admin

(GET) /rest/library/v2/items/{itemId}/contents

Downloads the content of a library item by ItemID.

Search API / Query library Items

Admin

(GET) /rest/library/v2/items

Returns all items, up to the provided limit, in the given location that matches the given search expression. Only items that the calling user has access to will be returned.